Getting the garden ready for winter

So believe it or not, I actually think I'm done with the garden for the season! Besides getting the citrus trees planted, we've also finished cleaning all the plants out of the garden and planted the onions and garlic for next spring:

This is the first year we've planted things to over-winter, but after tiny onion crops and much research, I think it'll be the best way to get enough to last us through salsa making next year. Since it's not common enough for people to plant veggies in the fall, we ordered some bulbs online from Grow Organic (http://www.groworganic.com/) and planted two rows of onions (top of box) and one row of garlic (bottom of box.) This year we're trying Stuttgarter Yellow onion sets, and Purple Italian Garlic bulbs. Both are types that over-winter and start growing early in the spring, so with a little care we should be harvesting in early June!

Finished "One of those projects" :)

I finally finished the raised bed for the citrus trees! Seems it took forever, but it's finally full of dirt and all three trees are planted! All in all, it's basically done, now I just need to maintain the trees and eat the fruit :)

Part of that maintenance means deciding if I'm going to build a bed cover to help them make it through the winter, or continue to lay the cover over the trees and remove each day. Citrus trees can't handle temperatures under freezing for more than a few hours, so here in East Tennessee that means we'll have to cover them anytime there's a frost warning. But I have an Agribon AG-50 frost cover that I think would work great, I just need to sew it together to make it wide enough, and use some of the spare bamboo poles to frame it up at the ends. Then I could leave it up until the last frost, and not have to worry about removing it each day. Its on the project list ;) lucky for me the weather's supposed to be warmer this week, so I still have some time....