My goal this week is to put my garden to bed. I'm a bit behind because the weeks half gone! Also stopped picking the tomatos. Don't think I have any room in the freezer for anymore. I'll try to compost what I can and till in the rest.
aggieinid

Good to hear someone else quit picking their tomato's as well. I had 7 plants here in Boise and picked hundreds of tomatos. My co-workers were getting sick of all the tomatos and summer squash as well. I finally picked everything 4 weeks ago and put up a table in our front yard with all the produce and put up a FREE, Help yourself sign.
I did leave one tomato plant for the birds. Last year the birds seemed to eat some of the fruit, but I didn't get the garden cleaned up before rainy weather hit. So this year I wanted to get everything done so I will be ready early next spring. I amended the soil with my compost and some soil conditioner as my garden is only 3 years old and still have some hard clay areas. It is tilled in and ready to go. We haven't had a frost here in Boise yet, but this was the best year for veggies from our garden and we sure had our fill.
Dan-O

I had WAY over-planted tomatoes. I canned more tomato products than I think we can eat in two years, and was supplying the entire neighborhood, my coworkers and my husband's coworkers. I'm already planning to plant far fewer, and eliminate some varieties altogether, next year. The absolute stars are Sungold and Early Cascade.

I changed my mind about shutting down the greenhouse. The basil and cukes in there aren't producing any more, nor are most of the tomatoes, but the Sungolds are still partying right along. It's NICE to still have Sungold tomatoes to eat! So the heater is still on, for now. Once it gets seriously cold, it'll be too expensive to heat and I'll HAVE to give up.

Jeanne

When you have a lot of extra produce from your garden, don't forget your local food bank. They love fresh vegetables. One of our local Master Gardeners started a Plant-A-Row for the Hungry and, because of her efforts, more than 3400 pounds of produce was donated to the food bank in Sandpoint this year.

Yep, I took over 800 pounds of vegetables to the Idaho Foodbank in Boise this year. You get a reciept and supposedly can get a tax write off... if you can figure a good way to 'value' the produce. Makes you feel good as well, helping others in your community.

Once you get going it is surprising how much you can take there versus letting it get 'old' and having to compost it. I would stop by on either Monday or Friday on my way to work and drop off what I had picked that morning. They are not open on weekends. I originally thought I might make 100-200 pounds but it shot right up when the cukes came on ;)

Charles