The silver maple by our house is tinged with red. And this last week of summer is sunny, but cool. There was a slight touch of frost in some of the winter squash on Monday night, but otherwise I think we came away unscathed. We did cover the peppers last night, some with two layers of row cover, because they still have lots of fruit so we wanted to be sure to keep them going for a few weeks yet. But the tomato season is waning -- shorter days and a weaker sun are slowing down the ripening. Fortunately, there are lots of lovely crops still to come for autumn. One of my favourites for autumn is carrots and we have 6 beds of carrots coming along nicely.
Today we started preparing beds for next year. We are putting compost on those part of the garden that have already been cleared. And then we are covering them with landscape fabric. This will protect the soil from erosion over the winter and suppress perennials like quack grass and bindweed. Both of these plants are a challenge in the garden. Fortunately, we are finding that the no-till system we have been working with since last year is gradually changing the soil such that these plants are less of a problem. It is deeply satisfying to witness the changes in the garden -- over the course of a season and over the course of years.
