Found a nice article on fall clean-up

Putting Your Garden to Bed By: Nathan Harman of Dome-Grown Farm

Putting your garden to bed for the winter can be compared to putting a child to bed: finish dinner, put away toys, go potty, brush teeth, put on pajamas, and read a story.

Finish dinner - This means tending your food plants. Gather the last tender crops before frosts come, save seeds from the best specimens, protect your winter crops with blankets and cold frames, and plant your bulbs and perennials.

Put away toys - Take care of your garden toys (tools). Locate, clean, oil, sharpen, touch-up, and generally care for all the tools, pots, hoses, buckets, and other implements you've been using all summer. Store carefully indoors out of the elements.

Go potty - Put garden waste on the compost pile. Plant tops and debris, unseeded weeds, leaves, old mulch, etc. should be used to build up a goodly compost pile, or amend and turn a current one. Work your compost well now to have finished compost ready for you in the spring.

Brush teeth - Freshen up the garden. Burn any plant material that carries a known virus or pathogen that is only destroyed by fire. Tidy your pathways, mow, mulch. Make things look nice to your eye, cause it's going to look that way all winter.

Put on pajamas - Don't let that poor garden bed shiver naked all through the winter! Keep the ground covered with mulch (shredded leaves, grass clippings, straw, etc.) and/or cover crops (wheat, rye, oats, clover, etc.).

Bedtime story - Tell your garden story from this season and write down whatever you can still remember. What worked well, what didn't? Any new plants or techniques to comment on? Any good ideas for next year? The act of writing, and telling yourself the story of the garden, seems to give finality to the season while also inspiring the future.
Much of the winter we will spend away from the garden, so we should be sure to leave it in the best possible shape as we step out this fall and enjoy a few months of winter calm. Like a child, once the garden's awake, there's no stopping. Happy Gardening!
To view the complete article, please click here to visit our blog.

Nathan Harman is an active member of the Bloomington Permaculture Guild and participant in Transition Bloomington. He and his wife (with their two young daughters) operate Dome-Grown, a small permaculture farm in Bloomington.

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Taking Down the Garden

Well the time is getting closer to taking down the garden at LaSalle Square . Although right not it is still putting out lots of good veggies . I was at the garden this morning and 5 different people stopped by to harvest , and none went home empty handed . ,

What I am doing now is seeking out areas that are done ( completely done !! ) producing , and pulling all the plants , and weeds . I will put them in my compost pile . A better option if you live in the city is to let the city pick up all your plants , and compost them . Its important to take most plants out of your garden . It will help remove disease, and weed seeds . If you are wanting to be more sustainable , and compost your own make sure you learn about composting .

There will be a "Composting 101" workshop Monday September 27 at 6:30pm at the Main Library in South Bend. If you want to learn about composting you may want to check it out. Sponsored by the Soil and Water Conservation District, it will earn you an "instant rebate" coupon that can be used towards the purchase of a 5...5-gallon compost tumbler and/or a rain barrel. For more information or to register: 574-291-7444 ex3

After I pull out the plants I hoe up as best I can then put down grass clippings , or shredded leaves . This will breakdown , and enhance the soil . I will put the clippings on thick , and hopefully next year I will pull the top layer off and with a little hoeing be ready to plant without tilling . What I pull off the top I will put back in between the rows as mulch to keep on feeding the plants .

More fall projects include a walking path , covered shelter , small greenhouse , fruit trees and benches . Also we a doing community plots that we will give to neighbors to grow their own garden in

2012 plans include a fitness trail . So I think I will be busy right through winter .

The Garden Keeps on Giving

I was out at the LaSalle Square Unity Garden Sunday morning doing a little work . It was nice to see a woman out weeding for a long time . Later a man stopped by to harvest a a watermelon , and some okra . He said he was heading over to the Memorial Hospital garden . Another family stopped to pick some green beans . Hear it is September , and fall is fast approaching , but the gardens keep on giving . The garden has Zucchini , Okra , Green beans , radish , Mustard greens , Collards , Lettuce . Arugula , Kale , Turnip greens , Peppers , Tomato's , Tomatillos , and even a few raspberries . So while my thoughts keep heading toward fall , winter , and even next spring the garden is still trying to stay in summer mode . Its a good thing .