It’s that time in the year when kids reflect on what’s happened in the spring and summer garden and what will be coming soon enough after fall. They really enjoy cleaning up and putting things away. The youngest love to hack down corn stalks and haul  debris to the compost pile. As they work, they muse over empty sunflower heads and wonder which creatures ate all of the seeds. They collect marigold flower heads and squirrel the seeds away in their pockets to see if maybe when planted they’ll grow more marigolds. They beg to bring home stray potatoes or ears of popcorn. It’s a privilege to partake in their boundless curiosity about the living world around them.

Here are some photos of children ‘putting the garden to bed for the winter.’