So Long, and Thanks for All the Beans
Earlier this week I joked that I was tired of gardening and wouldn’t much mind if everything froze. I was mostly kidding, but I got my sorta-wish last night when we had our first frost ten full days earlier than average (according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac ). I went out today and picked three pale orange tomatoes, six small zucchini, and another bagful of green beans off of droopy, withered plants. Just like that, the garden’s done. Every year provides different successes and failures, and every year I learn something new. At this rate I’ll be a master gardener by age 128. 😬This year’s hard lessons had mostly to do with tomatoes (hornworms, blossom-end rot, cloudy spots). The garden was fairly successful, though. One winner was green beans, which overcame early crop damage from bunnies that chewed right through the UTTERLY WORTHLESS plastic netting we bought as a chicken wire alternative. (Expensive mistake.) The beans rebounded; I froze several gallo...