Putting the Beds to Bed: Farm Edition, Part Two

Good field sanitation isn’t my favorite farm chore of the season.  It’s just not that much fun to take down, clear, out, compost and burn everything it took all season to build up.

Cleared-out West Garden

But it’s far from a thankless task.  In fact, it’s probably the number one way to make the gardens seem like a promise rather than an insurmountable chore the following spring.

I went out on Monday to start the process of clearing out, and yesterday I did a little more.  I don’t even know if there’ll be enough time before the snow flies (and stays) to finish all of the gardens, but I’m biting off little two or three hour chunks of work when the weather is decent.

Cleared-out Northeast Garden

I started (and finished) the northeast garden yesterday, which wasn’t a huge task because almost half of it is in perennial strawberries that I previously weeded.  The tomatoes and okra stalks were pulled for the burn pile, and the chard stumps went in the compost pile before the three open rows (about 2 x 25′ each) were raked and smoothed.

Then there is the east garden–the biggest garden that needs clearing of this season’s debris.  The central garden is slightly bigger, but that was fallowed this season, so it only needs a final mowing.

East Garden Project

There are six rows total–the second of which (sweet peppers and eggplant) I cleared before taking this image.  After I took the image, I started on the top row–snipping off tomato and pole bean vines and raking up fallen fruit and leaf debris–transporting it all to the burn pile.

At the rate I’m working, this garden will take at least two more sessions to finish.  Then there’s the north central garden and the hilltop, which may only take a half-session apiece.  Hilltop is half perennial berries and almost completely mulched; north central is already mostly cleared of vegetation, but needs final weeding and raking.

Today is rainy and chilly–not an ideal day for this sort of work.  Since it looks like I’m getting manure early next week, I’m working against somewhat of a deadline, but I can always dress the cleared beds and pile the rest to spread as I go.

I’m actually enjoying it much more than I thought I would–taking my time and making the process of field sanitation a deliberate meditation on the year.  Except for the sounds of combines in the nearby fields, it’s quiet out there, and the summer greens have given way to a palette of reds and golds and browns.

Today I’ll work inside though–there’s still produce (even tomatoes!) left to process, and something delicious from the oven (maybe involving some of those thirty pounds of apples in the basement) will make a dreary day into a cozy one.

Fall Cleaning

It’s another chilly, wet fall day, and I’ve been working on household projects put off for months in the frenzy of the growing season.  I have finally gained sight of the top of my coffee table, after tossing or filing several pounds of paper–receipts and statements and art projects and report cards and pictures.

Coffee Table & Horse Chestnuts

The desk is next–I can’t put any of the papers removed from the coffee table in there until I clean that out, too.  Correspondence is a big storage issue for me–I keep most all letters received, and though letters are few and far between these days, I do keep up a couple regular correspondences that I loathe to lose even one stamp from–my dear friend Matt in Seattle, whose letters are artful and full of wonderful tidbits of our shared and separate histories, and more recently, letters from Swaziland written by my close friend Jen, who is working in the Peace Corps there.

Another fall project I’ve turned my attention to in the past few days: it’s time to pull out the winter clothes and store some warmer-season apparel.  This will entail a few bags being donated to the Civic Council from both my and my son’s wardrobes and probably another bag of scraps or rags to save for other household projects and against the day I start learning how to sew and quilt.

The general idea behind these fall projects is to clear out the clutter, but there are so many things I can’t seem to part with–the bowl of horse chestnuts for which I have no immediate use (and don’t plan to grind, leach several times, and then try to eat), the letters, cards, and how-to information I could likely find any day on the internet, the detritus of all the projects and plans of the past several years.

But I’ll do a little–get some of those boxes cleared out of the basement, a couple bags of clothes to the Civ, a crate of newspapers and magazines for the recycling center–get all that raw and processed material out of my own space and back into the universe where it will get another go-round in the world of matter of energy.