I'm with you Frank.......the other day my neighbor asked wouldn't it be nice if we had growing weather all year? We're in Salt Lake City.......I looked at him like he was nuts. My garden is my refuge. I start everyday during the growing season (and the prep time before)in the garden, checking for problems, looking at what plants added new leaves overnight, imagining what everything will look like in the months to come. My wife knows that if she can't find me in the house, I'm either in the garden or in the yard. We love the veggies we produce and we love sharing with our family and friends. But when the first frosts and low temps start coming, I get excited. I need the down time when there's a foot of snow outside to unwind and recharge. I also take the opportunity to catch up on some of my gardening books reading. After about a month though, I do start looking forward to seed catalogs and wandering in the garden (under snow) and mapping out what I will do in the spring. This weekend we will have snow flurries and near freezing temps........and I am glad.

I spend most of my weekend time and quite a bit of my evening time on my yard and garden. It's quite a project. Pulling weeds, tilling, setting up beds, hauling dirt and compost, watering, planting, and just checking on the status of my plants. It has really pretty much occupied this year!

But I'm not quite ready to call it quits. I have some tomatoes and zucchini forming. My brassica haven't begun forming heads yet. I don't know why. It should. My Brussels sprouts are still only pea-sized, and my carrots aren't ready to be pulled yet. I need just a little more time. I keep close watch on the 10-day forecast, and except for a dip into the 30s on Sunday night, the lows should still be in the 40s.

But fall is here. Leaves are falling from my trees. (More compost). Apples are falling. The peaches are gone. The potato plants have begun dying back, and I've begun planting garlic for next summer.

I'm hoping for a Thanksgiving with my own homegrown potatoes, carrots, and broccoli, with some homegrown peach pie for dessert.

It's amazing how attuned I am now to the cycles of the day and the seasons. When I get up on the weekends, I look at the clock and figure out how many days of sunlight I have to work outside. The sun set half an hour ago or so. Now I'll process more peaches for the freezer and dehydrate some herbs.

This fall and winter I'll look back on my planting calendar to see what worked and what didn't, do some research, look at seed catalogs, and figure out how I want to arrange my garden for next year.

I got my break in July and August when it was too hot to work in the garden, so now I'm ready to plant brassicas and lettuce.

I'm with you Frank, I pulled my tomato plants this week, and they are all cut up and added to the compost. I still have a few bean vines going, but those are going to be used for next years seed. A few peppers still going strong, and a small bed of parsnips that will be used during the winter. I've also got a bed of artichokes, that some how I am determined to over winter, I'm waiting for it to be cool enough to cut the leaves from them and then mulch them heavily and hope they survive til next spring. This has really been some strange weather, I'm wondering if the kids will be trick or treating in shorts.
Alberta

Most years, Mother Nature sets the timetable... comes the frost, and it's Game Over. Then I can relax a bit from the canning & seed collecting, clear the garden for next year, and get my garlic in.

Not this year, though. A record-setting light frost in mid-September only singed off some of the leaf cover; most plants continued to produce. For my bean seed, this was a blessing - the cold snap triggered the plants into ripening their pods, and this looks like one of my best harvests ever. I've got so many tomatoes that I'm almost tired of picking them... and more ripe peppers than I have had in years.

Nothing but 70's & 80's since. There is a chance of frost a week from now, but it is likely that the killing freeze will be more than 2 weeks late. So now it's time to plant my garlic, and the garden is still green. It's forcing me to contemplate an action that I never would have thought necessary...

(Sepulchral organ music plays)

I have to kill my garden.

This has been a weird year weatherwise in Sacramento as far as I know. Was a mild summer and an early fall. Last year I had tomatoes until Thanksgiving. My Tom plants are now putting on major new growth so I'm very reluctant to pull them, but need to put in my cool weather plants so I'll actually have something before it gets too cold here. So...sacrifice tomatoes in order to get some lettuce & carrots...decisions decisions...
The yellow zuc plant also has lots of lovely 3" baby zucs right now.

I should be sick to death of tomatoes and zuchinni right now...but I'm not. I'm guessin' the lettuce can wait. :)

zeedman,
I know what you mean.I hated to do it, but the garden had to go. If I was going to get the cover crop in, everything had to be cleaned. I did keep a mall bit of basil and some romaine.

lilacs-of-may,
As far as I'm concerned, it IS fall, and that means planning for next year starts NOW! I do it in steps, but basically, it lasts till the seeds are started in late winter.
So, gardening in essence, lasts year round. It's just different aspects of it are enjoyed at different times.

Flip and I are not that far apart where we live and in our gardening...my fall garden is going full blast and I am already picking second crop peas and beans. Yesterday I harvested all of the Jacobs Cattle beans....and I had a bucket full of pink eyed purple hulls....I had a long lull as Flip said during the hot hot months when all I did was pick my stuff and prepare it for the table or the freezer...This is a beautiful time...My fall and wintering over tomatoes are doing great so far...It will be interesting to see if my plan works or not....It sure would be nice to have tomatoes through the winter..

Been a strange year in Ohio, too. I'm tired of heat, but on the other hand, my pepper plants are FINALLY just now starting to put out good, big peppers. If this had been a normal year, they'd have died from frost before we got anything off of them. (Note to self: Gotta start peppers earlier next year!) We had fresh green beans with dinner yesterday, around here that is a true treat in October! However, the tomatoes are starting to finally get to where we are getting just enough ripe ones to eat but not be overwhelmed. Good thing; the freezer is packed full. But even so, I am already looking at next year's garden in my mind. Am I weird or what?!

Over here I never really stop gardening, although it slows down considerably between December and February. At the moment the vegetables are still coming eg zucchini, runner beans, lettuce etc. Once we have a frost (totally unpredictable - could be tonight, could be next month, could be Christmas!) I will still have all the brassicas growing plus chard, leeks, beets and chicory. The vegetable patch is never totally cleared. There's a constant rolling programme of preparation, planting and harvesting going on. Next into the ground will be broad bean seed and garlic in November.

Why does everyone give up fresh food so fast? Frost doesn't put an end to my garden. Turnips, beets and carrots winter over under hay, and the salad greens and savoy cabbage go on for many weeks under a double layer of row covers. I just go out when it warms up and harvest.

I'm with you laceyvail, though I do need my rest too and could never live in the deep south to do this year round. Dec-Feb are my break months that save me from a heart attack ;o). Fall crops just take up about 1/3 of the usual summer crop space so it's more manageable and (sometimes) cooler to work with. For me there are 3 seasons of crops, starting in March and ending in Dec except for some later carrots and other surviving greens depending upon the timing of the first really hard freezes.

Personally, I'm happy for the frost, and for the Winter. How else would I find time to plan next year's garden???

But by February, I'll be chomping at the bit, waiting for the thaw.