All you have left are a few cucumbers and squash, your once beautiful green garden is starting to look pretty brown and dead.  Your thinking it's just about time to hang up your gardening gloves the winter.  NOT SO FAST... what you do in the fall can have a huge impact on well your garden does next spring. 

 

Start by pulling out those dead plants; if they were diseased bag them up or burn them if they were healthy chop them up for mulch.  Take all your stakes and tomato cages and sanitize them as a lot of plant diseases can survive over the winter. 

 

If you want a really productive garden next spring let's not neglect to take care of the soil in the fall and winter. Taking the time to give your soil a good jump start now will mean you have that much less to do when spring rolls around.

 

Here's what I do in my garden... once I have all the dead plants out and the garden is all cleaned up I combine compost and manure and spread it real thick over the soil.  Then I like to till it into the soil and then cover it with the mulch I made from grass clippings, leaves and my chopped up vegetable plants.  This not only adds rich nutrients to my garden but protects soil from run off during heavy rains.   I repeat this process again in the spring right before I set out all my seedlings. 

 

I sure am going to miss those juicy mater sandwiches ...there's nothing like a home grown tomatoJ  

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups cubed red potatoes (1/4-inch pieces)
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
• 1/2 cup medium pearl barley
• 8 cups water
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes

Directions

• In a nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
• Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker. Layer with the potatoes, celery, carrots, lentils and barley. Combine the water, bouillon, salt and lemon-pepper; pour over vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until vegetables and barley are tender.
• Add the tomatoes; cook 2 hours longer. Yield: 10 servings.

There is nothing like a bowl of hot soup in the winter and this recipe is not only good it's nutritious!

Thanks for the great recipe  Judy Metzentine