Leftovers

Gardening season Alberta is short; the first killer frost of one winter is never far enough behind the last killer frost of the previous winter.  That said, gardening season does sometimes go on longer than some of us would like.  Past the time when squash and tomato leaves have turned black and even the Swiss chard has had a few good scares, I am still at work, cleaning up my carefully cultivated out-of-control mess.  Pulling up roots, pushing stalks through the shredder, and watching the compost bin fill with next year's fodder can be satisfying, if not exactly fun, on a grey and windy November weekend.  More importantly, it is a kindness to my future self, the one who will have ready garden beds the following April, when the weather is finally conducive to sowing.

The fall of 2013 didn't unfold as well as it could have in this respect.  We were distracted by interior issues, namely the deconstruction and reconstruction of our kitchen.  A family health crisis took me out of town on the all-important Thanksgiving weekend in October and held my attention for the ensuing weeks.  Winter came early.  By the time my interest in garden work returned, the ground was frozen.  Whatever was in it - parsnips, sun chokes, vine supports, tomato roots, leeks - was going to stay until spring thaw.  It was a bit of a relief; I didn't feel like digging in the dirt in November.  At some point I did make the modest effort to poke garlic cloves into the soil, though I see now that I failed to secure a good layer of mulch to cover them.

Through the winter I've been well aware of the general mayhem of the the garden beds.  Even a thick layer of snow couldn't hide much of it.  Tomato cages, cutworm collars, pea fences, random stalks, and plants that kept trying until the bitter end are all eyesores.  Now that the snow has retreated, if temporarily, much of the landscape looks sadly neglected.  I hope it doesn't depress the neighbours........














.........This post was begun and abandoned two or three weeks ago.  Since then, a dramatic thaw has allowed me to unearth a few parsnips (now baking in the oven) and Barry has shredded a huge pile of woody matter.  In the course of a perfunctory clean-up, I found living leaves - Swiss chard, sage, thyme, onion - and suggested they not get too excited about spring just yet.  Sure enough, we now have a blanket of pure white snow and -17C on the weather station.  The pendulum will swing yet again.  Our seed order arrived two days ago; the activation process begins this weekend.  So much to look forward to.