I have raised beds, but since your garden is small, you can do the same thing: Pull your plants up, or cut them off at the ground. Throw them in the compost pile if you have one. Then, get your hands on some organic matter, like leaves, livestock manure, kitchen scraps, fresh compost, etc. and spread it over your garden. Put a layer of mulch over that. In the spring, you can dig the organic matter into the soil if needed, but it will probably be incorporated enough that digging won't be necessary. If you are going to expand the garden, go ahead and do it now, so that you can start improving the soil in the new area to get it ready for spring planting. You can also do a search for "cover crops" if you want to plant something to overwinter, though it's getting a bit late for that, at least here.

Yep, a long JB season here too. They came a little later this year, sometime after the 4th of July, and I was foolish enough to hope for a good season. But here we are in October and I still found 2 more last night. Possibly due to the extremely mild weather were having. It's more like the beginning of Sept. here. I put down grub control twice this year. Once right after they first appeared, and once again in late August. From what I've read, It only takes about two weeks for the eggs to hatch. So you put down the grub control as soon as you see the adults. Hopefully the larva eat the grub control before they burrow underground in search of turf roots to eat, and make their home for the winter. I re-applied about 6 weeks later because there were still a lot of beetles breeding, and I doubt the initial application would still be effective, especially after all the flooding we had in late August. Spraying Cyfluthrin or Permethrin and the like will do nothing to prevent them from coming back, and kills everything else in sight as well. Last year I used to take a lot of satisfaction in squishing them one one by one as I found them in the flowers. Then I worried about releasing a scent that would attract others. So now instead of torturing them, I take them for a nice swim with some of their friends in a bucket of soapy water. Very effective. What I've discovered in doing this is, their main strategy of escape when disturbed is instead of flying off, they tend to drop to the ground. So all you have to do is hold your bucket under the bloom, and say BOO!. They are so stupid! And it's fun to watch them swim. Mike

I have experience but can't answer your variety questions. One thing I do know is that you MUST harvest the asparagus before the shoots get too tall and seed. This is a very aggressive plant once it gets established. So once you've planted...stand by with your paring knife and bucket! *8) Yum!!!

I grew strawberries for years until it got too much for me to handle. You really need 2 beds one for the stringers and one for the ones you planted the year before. If you leave them to go wild you will have some big plants that produce nothing and weeds growing all through the patch and it will be a tangled mess. It will be hard to pick and the plants won't thrive so you'll have small berries. I would plant them now if you can find some and give them some shade during the heat of the day by putting something on the south side of them. The first year you plant them you won't get berries or very few. In fact they say you should pick off the blossoms the first year. I never did. The plants that were the stringers the year before will give you the most berries. By the time they are in their third year berry production falls off and eventually those plants will not have berries. Unless you want a big crop of berries all at once and then nothing I suggest you try one of the everbearing varities. You will get a good crop but not as much as the June bearing ones. The benefit is that they will continue to produce small crops of berries all summer. This is how I grew mine-- In the fall I cut off the stringers from the mother plants of the second year plants. Then I dug out the roots leaving the stringers in place for the winter and mulched around them. I also mulched the other bed. In the spring I removed the mulch and dug out the stringers with a bit of soil which I placed in a cardboard box until I dug the plot Then I dug holes for the stringers and filled them with water. By the time you go back to the first hole it will have sunk into the ground. I planted the stringers in the prepared holes and mulched the plants Mulching the strawberries keeps the berries off the ground so they won't rot and the moisture around the plants But it has to be removed when the plant starts to send out stringers. The stringers won't be able to root with the mulch there. You can use anything to mulch but I found the long red or white pine needles made the best strawberry mulch. At pick your own farms they use straw. I hope this helps