I have always loved Margaret and Helen and today's post, the first in a long time, is right on the money.

We have light rain right now. No big gardening jobs today. I will go out between the raindrops to harvest some cherry tomatoes for our chef salad.

I always start really evaluating the gardens this time of year. The heavy work of clearing up for winter is ahead and planning for that actually began about a month ago. Which plants will I try to overwinter in the gardens and what protection do they need. Which plants will I bring in to try to overwinter inside. And always I have to think about my limited space. The little blueberry bush comes inside but the three pots of stevia will go back outside till the frost kills them. I am very disappointed with stevia. The first year I grew it it was wonderful and promised to be a good sweetener in place of sugar. The second year no one carried any transplants so no stevia in the gardens. I tried to start some from seeds but none came up and none came up this year either. The transplants have done well except they aren't as sweet. In fact, we didn't detect any sweetness when I brewed the dried leaves with our tea. We'll stick with honey from now on. I was going to bring in one pot of the lavender but I think I will take some more cuttings to raise grow over the winter. The first set are doing well. I will do the same with all my herbs.