The Gardening is over let the Weeding begin

Strawberry Blonde Marigolds.
Prettier now than they were all summer

We're starting to look forward to cooler weather and less work.  It was time to start pulling things out.  After all, we could be only two weeks away from a blizzard. 

It happens!

Everything was either dead or overgrown

The downside to pulling out tomato plants and cucumber vines is that you are left with a pile of crumbly, blighted leaves and a lot of weeds you have previously ignored.

A quick once over with the leaf blower gets rid of those nasty old leaves.

And a few minutes with a weeder and a rake and things are as good as new.

But this is weeding season.  It's tough to cultivate your soil when it's in use.  So for the next month I will keep a close eye on the weed situation.  This bed is developing a bit of a creeping oxalis problem.  So it will be the last one planted in the spring giving me time to manage the weed problem.

But not everything is gone.  Besides plenty of lettuce and a big pile of ripening tomatoes, there are still carrots.  These are in the oven now for honey roasted carrots and roasted carrot soup.