cleanup

Did a bit of fall cleanup in the garden today. Cut out wilted and yellowed leaves from the heirloom plants, the rest look fine still. Cut down some of the large volunteer Tomato plants- they were all collapsed on the ground and getting bug-ridden. The unripe tomatoes that weren't blemished I brought inside to ripen in windowsill. Pulled up the wilted cantaloupe vines and the smallest Zucchini plant which I don't think will give me any more zucchinis. Those went in trash bag, as I don't want to spread any disease from the cucumber beetles. Weeded the now-bare cantaloupe plot, and found some of my Cilantro has sprouted! It just might grow enough to eat some fresh cilantro again before cold weather. In the other two bare plots at the end of the row, the Clover I seeded for green cover overwinter has come up sporadically. I might rake the bare spots over and seed again, especially before it rains this weekend. A small picking off the Green Beans again. On the plant I left alone for keeping seed the long, fat pods are starting to turn yellow. The one green bushy Marigold plant is still sporting flowers, and a few of the lesser Sunflowers put up small secondary flowers after I cut the first wilted heads off. I found among the blue bindweed growing on the fence a single tendril of Sweet Pea, grown tall and with folded buds, but it never made flowers. Makes me nostalgic and sad, my mom used to grow sweet peas in the garden, but here they didn't flourish for me (yet!) The Beets have all come up, and the young Lettuce is growing lush and healthy everywhere. Now I'm going to have to start slug patrol again.