December: Final Harvests and Clean Up BURNs

First... the beautiful things growing in the garden right now.

Parsnips

Turnips? Not sure (dang it!)

Spinach


A final harvest of tomatoes! Amazing year! I'm making tomato paste as I type.

My son and mother-in-law harvesting the dried-on-the-vine Kentucky Wonder beans last weekend

I collected the open seed pods of garlic chives (should be seeing quite a few of those popping up everywhere... oops again)

I'm amazed how much our garden produced for us this year. A year I assumed would be a slow flop just kept going and going and going. Yesterday I decided to make a fun push to finish the garden clean up and burn any bulky stuff that remained around (such as corn stalks and massive rotting tomato vines). In the midst of the day my 3.5 year old helper and co-gardener took a nap so I stopped for a few minutes and looked around with my baby on my back and found so many beautiful little spots in our yard and garden. I spent the most time with these three views:

Honeybush

Texas Tarragon

Our native lawn

Then I thought with excitement about my garden next summer. I'll have a crawler and a wild boy by my side planting and watching and watering and playing. This area below is the children's garden spot. I may make a few changes to it, we'll see how it evolves in my brain. I enjoy looking at it as an empty canvas!

My youngest son and I had to wait for big brother to wake up before starting the burn pile on fire. In the mean time we sampled some of the greens around the garden. Z's favorite? The bitter mustard greens! He chewed on this baby leaf for a long time. Isn't he the perfect picture of a future gardener?

At the end of the day: The burn. I'm a sucker for a bonfire, as are both of my boys! There is something so primal and pure about gathering around flames.