I really enjoy the time of year when we start cleaning up the garden, pulling up plants and clearing the space for the next planting season. Last week Jeff harvested the teeny tiny Mexican Sour Gherkins that he grew this year. They were really cute. I think my mom said they looked like barbie doll watermelons. They totally did. We saved a lot of runner bean seeds, they are so beautiful and colorful. We let a zucchini from our favorite plant this year get really huge for the purpose of saving the seeds. On Friday we did a bit of work in the garden in the rain. It felt wonderful. (We had an area that needed to be cleared for a project, more on that soon.) We harvested the last of our summer squash, then we harvested the rest of our pumpkins and winter squash. Some of them were pretty small, but they’ll still be enjoyed. Between trades with a neighbor and growing some ourselves, we’ve been eating winter squash nearly every day. (I used to prepare it like this, but lately we’ve been baking them whole with some water in the pan and it works great.) Today we enjoyed the very last cucumbers from the garden. The garden is winding up. We haven’t planted our garlic yet. (Have you?) A neighbor assured me they’ve planted theirs much later than this. Last year we planted it around Bracken’s birthday so now when his birthday comes it reminds me that our garlic needs to go in the ground.