End of season wrap-up

 Successes: 

• Planting potatoes in a tub. I didn't get much (drought, using left-over market potatoes), but I can see how it would work well if I did it right! 
• Grape tomatoes -- got a zillion of them from outside the garden for easy access
• Transplanting banana peppers indoors at end of season, so I'll have two (maybe three) really solid plants to go outdoors in the spring
• Thyme is thriving in the bucket in the garden and is at easy picking height
• Black-seeded simpson lettuce grown in a planter on the deck, which never bolted

Not so good: 

• Critters ate all the yellow squash plants
• Drought prevented the banana peppers from producing more than 3 or 4 small peppers
• Drought also killed the dill
• Swiss chard just doesn't like container growing and did terribly

And now it's officially the end of the season. I've brought in all the non-hardy perennials (rosemary, geraniums, peppers) and the sage (just because it was growing in a pot, which might make it non-hardy). 

As the final project, I planted a bunch (twenty? forgot to count, some larger than others) of garlic seedlings that I'm hoping will go straight to full heads next year. They sprouted from bulbils near my deck, and I didn't want to lose them when I was clearing that area over the summer, so I put them in a pot, and they grew exuberantly. It's a little late in the year to plant garlic, but they had such amazing roots that I think they'll be fine and should be off to an early start in the spring. If not, I haven't spent any money on it (and barely any time), so it's no big deal. But if it works, I may do it more intentionally in the future, because those roots were really amazing. More than they can grow in a few weeks from an October-planted clove.  Probably too labor-intensive for commercial growing, but may be just right for home growing.

Over the winter, I plan to cut down a bunch of weedy saplings (in the garden, as well as too close to the house), and then next spring, I'm getting a flame thrower (okay, just a flame weeder), in part to deal with the weedy saplings to stop them regrowing, but also for the garden, so I can reclaim it a bit. I'm also toying with putting a couple raised beds in the side/front yard where there isn't morning sun, but lots of afternoon sun, probably more total than in the back yard. One for growing tomatoes/peppers/basil, and one for squash, onions, and swiss chard. Oh, and green beans. I miss home-grown green beans. The latter bed will need a critter-proof top.