Nice! You are so far ahead of me.

I usually don't even clean out my beds until November because I like to leave everything producing for as long as possible. Also, there's that whole venomous snake issue that makes me afraid to poke around too much in the garden jungle.
When I was outside this morning feeding the chickens and the wild birds, I didn't see a single snake lying on the concrete or gravel warming itself up, and that's a good sign. In fact, I think it has been 6 days since I've seen a venomous snake. Of course, this week we've been painting the house so I haven't been in prime snake territory.

I need to take a morning off from the tedious job of painting all the porch railings, spindles and trim and spend some time harvesting from the plants that still are producing. I am not watering the garden and rain is not falling, so the plants are looking pretty sad. I figured that by not watering, I'd be letting the garden slowly wind down on its own....and if no rain falls, it may wind down pretty quickly.

Dawn, I am sorry for your short rain supply, I wish I could have shared some of my rain with you. I am afraid I will have all vines and very few sweet potatoes. Although I would have gladly shares my rain, no way do I want to share your snakes.

Clean up the garden? Whaaa ?? I'll get right on it.. maybe. Your garden always looks so neat and clean. I should take notes!

Larry, You are so kind to want to share your rain with me. I know that having too much rain can be as big of a problem as too little.

You know, I knew we'd have snakes here, but I just underestimated how many we've have. Sometimes it is mind-boggling, and I guess it is the price we'll always pay for living so close to the Red River. As long as the feral hogs stay down in the river bottom land and don't come here to our place (we've had them here only in 2 years out of 16), I guess I can tolerate the snakes because at least they are only snakes and not feral hogs.

Bon, My garden never will be as neat and tidy as Larry's is. Never. It takes all the energy I have just to cut back plants that are spilling over the bed edgings and into the pathways. I do like to keep the pathways clear so I can see the snakes before they see me.

I also do like to leave anything in bloom alone until a freeze gets it because the beneficial insects need those blooms for as long as possible in fall. My garden is ridiculously full of butterflies, moths and bees right now, and it will continue to have lots of them until we get really cold. Some years, the flowering plants in my garden are all they have blooming in autumn, but since we had good rainfall in June and July (though significantly less in August and September), there's still quite a few wildflowers blooming in the fields, including liatris, goldenrod, helenium and asters. I imagine all the flowers are keeping the insects pretty happy.

I am with you Dawn. My winter squash are just flowering like mad. Each morning, I walk out and see hundreds of bees zipping from flower to flower. I would hate to cut anything back. Even my okra flowers seem to get visitors beyond the ants.