It is November. How can the years continue to go by so quickly? Some days seem to crawl. But as fall gets chillier and the frost comes in, the time has come for this gardener to put her garden to bed. Some people garden for several seasons, but this hasn’t worked for me… yet. So currently, I cover up my garden, tuck it in, and put it to bed til early spring.

Our last crop to harvest was the Glass Gem popcorn. And, though we have grown it before, this years’ harvest held smaller ears. I am assuming this was due to a drier summer. But, either way, it is lovely stuff! I hope it pops for us this time around.

The boys and I enjoyed shucking the corn while my daughter played with our new kitten. He is still getting used to the farm and can’t be let loose. Look at these gorgeous ears!

Several weeks ago, we harvested the last of the mammoth heads of the sunflowers for the chickens this coming winter. They aren’t very pretty now, but they should provide some protein and a treat for Baker and the girls as it gets colder.

I don’t have a final count yet on our 3 types of dry beans as we haven’t fanned the chaff away, but we gathered and shelled Black Turtle, Cherokee Trail of Tears, and October beans to eat in the coming months. I will update you on our harvest once it is finalized.

Here are the bean shells. They are hard and brittle, but work well as a ground covering (more below).

Here was out final day of shelling- October beans in the back and Black Turtle on the right.

And finally, we used the corn shucks and bean pod shells for ground cover under our trellis arch. We have Buckwheat and Groundbreaker Mix cover crops growing on the main areas of the garden. We left our row of zinnias standing, though they are dead. And we also cut down the popcorn stalks and laid them in place, covering the ground. Why? Why this obsession with covering the ground? Several reasons. We can lose nutrients if the ground is left uncovered- we are in the Midwest and it can get very windy here on the prairie. Another reason- if I don’t cover the ground, it will cover itself. As they say, the ground is modest and doesn’t like to be left bare. So, we cover it and hope to keep the weed pressure down come spring. And lastly- the cover crops we are growing will act as a green manure and feed the soil plus can dig down into the compacted soil and loosen things up for the coming growing season. (Note our garlic popping up in two rows!).

So, that closes the chapter on Garden 2025. I am already thinking toward the next year and the questions to answer before Garden Season 2026 begins. We also had a soil test done through Berlin Seed- something new for me! I am looking forward to seeing how it works.

Happy Rest Season! I am off to cook a homegrown supper of pork chops (not homegrown), mashed red potatoes (homegrown!), and roasted broccoli (homegrown)! Thanks be to our God and provider for His provision!