End of the Garden

 Happy Labor Day!  I never figured out why we celebrate the American Labor force with a day off?  Shouldn't we be at work, with like, free cake and ice-cream from our employers?  I don't know about you, but now I have 5 days of work to squeeze into four for the rest of the week.  Not fun.

 But, what I will be doing today, is putting away the garden.  The frost got the zucchini last week, and yes, it is still in the ground (give me a break, I was out of down for work 2 1/2 days last week).  The lilies are all bloomed out and need to be cut back and covered for the winter.

 Even the marigolds are tired and have begin to droop.  They can take a couple of freezes, but they are tired and ready to be pulled.

 We had a gorgeous, hot summer.  I just didn't water the hanging planters enough, so they look like crap!  Time to pull those puppies and put them away until next spring.

 I planted strawberries in pots this year.  They grew beautiful plants, but no strawberries.  I'm not sure why, but I won't do it again next year.  Even the strawberry plants are turning color.  The chickweed is also taking over the planters.  I didn't do a good job cleaning it our when I realized I wasn't going to get any strawberries...you don't take care of me, I don't take care of you...

 The frost got into the greenhouse this week.  I need to cut all the tomatoes and cukes, clean out the beds, and have it ready to store all the gardening crap treasures and pots for the winter.  I'll put the green tomatoes into a box with a banana and they will ripen.  They won't be as good as if they could ripen on the vine, but I don't heat my greenhouse anymore so this time of year, my season is done.

 The last of the cucumbers.  The vines are a tangled mess.  I'll cut the cukes, and then pull the vines.  It is kind of like a treasure hunt, I always find giant cucumbers at the back that I never saw because of all the giant leaves.

Dave is in moose camp, so the dogs are being really naughty.  This was the last cabbage I had growing in a whisky barrel by the green house.  Of course, I checked on it in the evening, it was fine, then went to cut it the next morning, and the dogs had eaten it.  Damn.

Even though it is cold, rainy, and overcast, I'll try to enjoy the day because this is what I'll be waking up to in just a few weeks.  We are down to a little over 14 hours of daylight and we are losing over 6 minutes of daylight a day.  Time to break out the full spectrum "happy" lights.

**Hmm, I must be in a really pleasant mood today, rereading my blog I've used crap twice, damn once, it was all I could do not to say we were moving "back into the frozen hell-hole of winter" and I wanted to call the dogs "shit heads" for eating the cabbage, but I try not to cuss on my blog.  Good thing Dave is out of town.

Happy Labor Day, I'll be laboring in my garden.

September 2, 2013  Daylight 14 hrs., 28 min. 21 secs.   Temp. H 59/ L 48°F