Oh right, a deadline. I'm silly. [Adopt a crop]

This pumpkin has a butt.

It's funny how I get all excited about something like lettuce choosing and then forget to put a deadline on the choosing so that you all just run amok voting for ever and ever.

Or so it would seem.

But not to worry, I just realized that even though I didn't get the garden work done that I'd planned to do over the weekend (pruning lavender and ornamental grasses shouldn't take so long and be quite so hard on my hamstrings, for reals though), I will be in the garden soon and when I am - the lettuce will go in.

But which kind?

Ah, right - and now we've come full circle. So, please accept this as your reminder to go vote for the lettuce you'd like to adopt during this winter edition of Adopt a Crop.

Do your voting by this Friday, 11/14/08, so that I can plant your lettuces this weekend when I hopefully don't have a full-scale hamstring failure and end up face down in the back yard where the dog does her doots.

Ew.

Anyway, go vote. It'll be fun - promise. At the very least you'll get to watch me melt down trying to get the garden running smoothly during the winter months. Truth be told, I don't go out there once the rain starts. Even though that's where the firewood lives. And even though I love a rip roaring fire in the fireplace so that I may warm my buns while watching my 49ers play the worst season of football in recent memory.

Good times!

Also, let me take this opportunity to show you the close of the summer garden. Because this weekend I'm going to tear it down and prep it for your lettuce. That's right - YOUR lettuce. Which, at this point sorta looks like it'll be Arugula Rocket. Yay! - if you like that kinda thing. If not, go vote for something else. "Or keep your mouth shut and just take what you get." - Finny's mom.

I'm pretty happy with the turnout in the garden this year. We had a good crop of tomatoes, a few delicious little melons, loads of basil, pounds of green beans, enough cucumbers for pickles and whatnot, 1.5 beets (LOSERS!), a few radishes (vague losers), a single bell pepper (LOSERx2), a decent batch of snap peas, some strawberries, squash, a billion marigolds (UGLY), the best little volunteer pumpkin plant ever and OH MY GOD THE CHARD.

You know.

But now I'm going to tear it down and start almost all the way over. And I'm, like, so ready for this. So, bid your farewells to the garden as you've known it since March. From the way it looks right now, I think it's bidding its own farewell to us.

Mental note: You must not ever buy or plant nasturtium again. It re-grows with alarming ferocity.

I planted Thai basil just for this photo.

My compost heap plants the best pumpkins.

I still think marigolds are ugly which explains why they grew so well for me.

Repeat after me: Only grow Genovese basil. It is the best and can grow even under the most vicious tomato plants.

"PEACE OUT, PEOPLE. I need a nap" -Finny's garden