The last of the tomatoes and peppers finally succumbed to a hard freeze earlier this week, so today I pulled plants and piled them to go into our city compost system. (The city has a compost process that operates at a much higher temperature than my compost pile, so it's best to leave composting garden waste to them, in case there were any plant pathogens).
After clearing a couple beds, I started preparing beds for planting. There are some things that can still be planted in December here. Only seeds I got in the ground were turnips before the rain came in. I'll try more planting tomorrow.
One of my more amazing discoveries today: last spring I was clearing a lot of Nandina out of my plot.(the stuff is planted as an ornamental but becomes an invasive weed, and is toxic to birds as well). It makes woody canes, so I set some canes aside to use as plant stakes, after leaving them in a pile, leafless and rootless. They were put to use during our very hot, and sometimes dry, summer weather. As I was pulling those old stakes out today... SOME WERE SPROUTING!!! I admire the tenacity, but I'm getting rid of the stakes just the same.