Friday, a very long day

My Friday started around 9:00, when I decided to make a piece of artwork, then checked the weather and learned that snow was forecast for Sunday. I decided the art had to wait because it was probably time to get the garden ready for winter. This is what it looked like when I started. Can you tell there are still tomatoes on the vines?

There are also lots of peppers, along with many leaves that had fallen over the past week or so.

It occurred to me as I was taking the last of the peppers, onions, and tomatoes in, that I should show what took nearly two hours to do. I stripped all the veggies from their vines, pulled onions, and took the first six buckets in the house. I remembered as I was getting ready to bring in the final three buckets, that it might be a good idea to take a photo of my labors so far.

By about 1:30 pm, I had gotten rid of all the vines and plants, and had started laying down newspapers, then leaves, then shredded paper, then compost. I needed to empty one of the compost barrels in order to fill it with the vines and such I pulled from the garden. At this point, I have also removed the two large herb planters from behind this fence, along with the tomato cages.

After I had placed leaves everywhere except the new area, I added more newspapers, and soaked well. In fact, I soaked so well, I also watered the privacy fence, probably a bit too much. I also placed more compost over the top of the newspapers. You can see, I still have tons of leaves in the plastic bags. At this point, I had only used five bags of leaves.

At 5, it was starting to get dark, but I still had to sweep the driveway (not started in this photo). Unfortunately, I didn't do anything with the pots, but the new area, although it looks like it's only bags of leaves, has been finished. I did the same thing as in the other area, starting with newspapers, leaves, compost, more newspapers, and a final layer of compost. I placed the black plastic over the entire area and held it down with wooden stakes. The plastic will come off after about a week to 10 days. The newspaper and leaves are super wet, as you can see by the fence. This will give them a fighting chance for the compost to work itself in well, heat a bit from the sun hitting the black plastic, and stay super moist.

If you click on the photo above, you'll better see all the future compost I'm making from yesterday's vines and plants, along with veggies that weren't fit to bring in. The compost can is so full it's overflowing. I need to move some of the overflow to the other container, the green one at the back of the photo.

Today I will get rid of all the leaves and deal with those annoying pots. Some days are so long, you just can't finish, not even art!