I'm not sure why exactly, but I absolutely love walking among the autumn leaves, looking at their shapes and colors, and gathering a few to take home. Sometimes they simply dry and curl up on my table, or I'll press one into my sketchbook, as I did earlier this week with a gingko. Other times I will draw and paint them. They are such inspiration to me. Perhaps my childhood in the mountains plays a role in this.
Anyway, this afternoon while walking through the garden I gathered a few. The grape leaves are falling from the vines, the red crab apples too. Some of the nasturtiums have frozen yet others remain strong. The spinach, lettuces, arugula, and radishes are flourishing right now, and the turnips, carrots, beets, broccoli, kale are doing well too. Soon the temperatures will remain low enough that we will need to build the cold frames. This winter we hope we can extend the growing season of the fall garden with the cold frames.
Do you use cold frames in the fall/winter?
Do you use cold frames in the fall/winter?
I also collect leaves in the fall and press them in wax paper. AND we are trying a straw bale cold frame for the first time this year. I'm hoping for a salad in the middle of January!
ReplyDeleteI have plastic greenhouse covers, and I've successfully grown greens, herbs, and roots in winter in zone 7. I'd like to try glass though--I think it would be easier than what I have now, which requires unzipping in the morning and zipping in evening, can collapse under snow, and can blow off--just a pain.
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful collection!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes dry leaves among book pages and then tape them on paper when I write letters...