A certain peace settles over the garden in autumn; summer vegetables are harvested and put away for winter eating. Fall vegetables can stay in the ground ‘til frost or even later, as many keep well in place even after Jack Frost has made his first few visits and can go into the root cellar at the last possible moment before a hard freeze.

Harvest onions gently with a garden fork, lifting them from the soil and shaking the earth from the firm globes and setting them to dry before they come indoors. Flip them over later to dry the other side. Stretch out on the grass for a few moments to enjoy the autumn colors and rest your spine before moving on to bring in the potato harvest. Don’t let down your guard for slugs and big insects as they are still active and looking for somewhere to winter over.

Pumpkins and winter squash will need a few more weeks to reach full ripeness, unless you had the foresight to plant early harvest varieties. If you have planted the popular ghost pumpkins, you will wait in vain for them to turn orange. They stay a ghostly white when fully ripe. Acorn squash, spaghetti squash, Hubbard squash and other tough-skinned winter squash are happy to stay on the vine even under frosty conditions. Leave their harvesting for the last task before you take away the vines and put them to compost. These squash make delightful winter eating, when you are looking for excuses to turn on the oven to warm the kitchen. Bake them with brown sugar, butter and pineapple juice, to add that little extra zing that will be second helpings.

The root cellar full of the fruits of your summer’s labor, enjoy the satisfaction and peace that fills the gardener’s heart. Soon the seed catalogs will be arriving and you can spend many a happy winter evening planning what you’ll plant next spring.