Mulching for Fall

The week at North Topsail is one of my excuses for not much gardening, but the truth is winding down for Fall has been a bit of work. We bought a chipper/shredder and cleaned out some branches, plus ground up the 7 foot tall tomato plants.

We carved pumpkins with the kids two weekends ago, but they weren't cleaned out real well, and after a week away they were pretty gross. I chopped up two for the compost when we got back. Dan tried to run the last pumpkin through the chipper/shredder, unfortunately it was the soggiest, moldiest one. It made a mess, and Dan had to clean the innards of the shredder manually.

We've fertilized and mulched, and things are ready for cool weather. My neighbor Ann gave me a ton of lillies that she split up. They're planted in every garden, all scattered about.

I'm bummed that we didn't get more gardens built. The fall would have been the perfect time to plant the shrubs.