We are on that autumnal roller coaster, but despite the relatively balmy temperatures—it reached at least 49°F today and will be in the mid 40s all week, except Tuesday, when it will reach into the upper 50s—I have to put the garden to bed for the winter.
Enough leaves have fallen to finish wrapping up the fig tree, for example. This tree is still shrub sized, so I am still wrapping it the same way: one bunny-chewed acrylic blanket, three tomato cages, four yards of floating row cover, and some big piles of leaves.
I wrap the tree itself, before piling on leaves. My ancient cheapo-acrylic bunny blanket got the job again; that sturdy-looking burlap you see around delicate shrubs runs $2 a foot. The blanket-wrapped tree looks like a Halloween prop, especially as night fell.
It turned out that I had to remove the cage to continue, as I needed all three of my tomato cages to make an enclosure with sufficient space for a thick, leafy fig blanket. I stopped here because it was too dark to see exactly what I was raking up.
The mostly too-warm weather, especially at night, has wrecked our fall colors, and has definitely thrown our normal leaf fall off schedule, but I have been raking leaves every couple of days and adding them to the fig blanket.
The silver maple is releasing its leaves reluctantly, but it has finally, along with the pawpaws, released enough leaves to complete the fig blanket.
This is the same wrapping technique I have used every winter since I planted the fig, but as you can see, the fig is nearly as tall as the tomato cages now. Next winter may be a challenge.
The alien marshmallow has landed for the winter, and only about three days after the slate-colored juncos appeared. The fig pen is funny looking, but the fig is the only plant I really molly-coddle through winter.