To Blog or To Garden

I wonder how many blogs start with, "It's been a long time since my last entry..."  Okay, well it has.  I've struggled all year with time.  But I still managed to garden and have a relatively good harvest, despite some weather issues.  And now, it's time to put it all to bed.

Since our freeze and the death of my summer's labors, the garden space is black with decay.  It is tempting, in this trend of busy schedules, to simply leave the garden remains to decay in the garden.  After all, it would simply make good compost, right?  Or would it?

By leaving old garden remains where they fall, we could also be leaving a host of issues that will continue for another season or longer.  First off, any plant matter that is left on the garden may be host to diseases that will winter over and return in the following growing season.  For many plants, whether vegetables or flowers, it's best to remove plant debris from the bed.  This is good practice during the growing season, as well as at the year-end clean-up.

Second, any fruit left on the garden may germinate the next year.  If you're like me, however, when a stray tomato plant comes up, it's fun to let it grow and see which heirloom variety it is or what the hybrid seed will come back as.  I hate killing plants!  But now, I have a large section of my garden that grew tomatoes this past season and may also have more volunteers in the spring.  This will reduce my options when it comes to rotating my garden crops (another good way to reduce garden diseases.) 

And lastly, the aesthetic reason for cleaning up the garden:  it simply looks better!  When I look at my clean garden area, I am pleased with the conclusion of the garden season.  If I were still looking at the carcasses of my beloved tomato plants, I might just become a little teary!

So, for these reasons, I advise all gardeners to clean up gardens by removing all plant and fruit debris.  This clean-up may seem like a lot of work, but I find that it's the considerations and thinking that end up taking more time!

Happy Fall!