Fall in the Garden

Its pretty much fall, and has been cold and rainy for days. Check out this gorgeous leaf I just spotted in my yard!

It is time to clean up the garden. Get it all flipped and emptied Except for the broccoli and lettuces of course. And also my several puny foot and a half high pea plants that just didn't get a move on crawling up the place where the beans that came before them crawled. Why so slow peas? They have a couple blossoms. Will they keep growing as the chill sets in? Whatever peas. We'll see what happens. I am also leaving the gorgeous and delicious peppers on the vine for awhile (ditto baby eggplants). Is that ok, should I harvest them all now and freeze them? They have been so good this year! I just went out and picked off pretty much all the tomatoes. They are not going to ripen out there. Maybe it will warm up, but I decided to just bring them in. I am going to try some oven baked green tomatoes, and maybe a tomato spice cake. Meanwhile, check out this crazy volunteer tomato plant climbing up the fence! I have a small forest of tomato plants (and weeds) around the composter that I have let flourish and pulled a few fruits from. It makes me curious though - why all this babying of tomato seeds indoors and then gently transplanting and then staking so careful like? Next spring can I just bury a few tomatoes next to my fence? I want to try. Problem is, I suppose, they get a late start that way. But still, I am really fond of the idea of a no-work garden. These volunteer tomatoes like it too.