More Winter Cleanup & Prep

I continued my general winter garden cleanup and preparation today (oddly, in shorts and a t-shirt as it was sunny with a high of 73).

The earlier freezes had started taking a toll on the asparagus so I decided to go ahead and cut the tops then pull the few weeds that we under the thick mass of the fronds (?). I’ll add a couple inches of compost and then maybe mulch with some chopped up leaves for the winter.

Here are a couple of pictures after I had cleared part of the bed; next year I may put up stakes in the corners and run a rope “rail” around the beds to keep the plants for falling over and spilling out of the beds.

I also vacuumed the leaves and clippings off of the back lawn with the mower, then borrowed a whole truckload of leaves that my neighbor had blown to the curb and turned a few of my tomato cages into compost bids. Or silos or tubes or something,.. I have found the loose wire compost bins to work very well; the air circulation seems to help accelerate the composting process.
I did get busted for “stealing” my neighbors leaves. Their two young girls were most concerned and to why I was talking their leaves. I talked my way out of it; the 5 year old was pretty trusting but the 3 year old needed some convincing before she concluded that it was OK for me to do that.

The bin in the corner is 4 ft tall welded wire fencing; the others are the concrete wire tomato cages with asparagus tops, bean or squash vines. I add to these as the finished compost will be maybe 1/10th the volume of the initial leaves and I’ll need a lot in the spring. (A curved section of heavier hog panel wire is in front of the cages).

Why go to all the trouble of composting, why steal neighbors leaves?

Because next year I want this again: