It’s safe to say this is the final harvest of the season.
After doing nothing all summer (probably due to the lack of rain), I finally have some shiitake mushrooms from the mushroom log.
I also cleaned out the kale and Swiss chard so I could bring in those pots.
And after looking terrible all year, the holly did berry out. (Granted, it’s the male plant that’s in worse shape.)
So today was the day I put the garden to bed for the most part.
I trimmed out the rose quite a bit. Some of those longer limbs heading out in front of the windows were new wood, but they were so long at this point, I really couldn’t corral them, so off they came. I need to try and remember to train the new growth when it’s younger, next year.
The kale, Swiss chard and mint pots are in. The sage, oregano, thyme and lemon thyme are still looking pretty good, so they’re out at least until we’re supposed to get a substantial snowfall (they’ll get buried at that point anyway, as I don’t have a good place to leave them outside that has a chance of getting sun all winter, but also not get buried).
The phlox (as well as all the iris just to the right of the shrub) are also down for the season. They had powdery mildew bad this year. Which is kind of funny, considering how little rain we had. Guess it goes to show how susceptible phlox is to powdery mildew.
And finally, I got the fern and hosta detritus out of the shady side of the front porch. Those ferns definitely keep spreading each year. It’s a shame that section is so shady. There’s really no point in putting much else there, but it does feel like wasted space.