As another growing season draws to an end, much needs to be done both in and around the garden.

For me, this wasn’t one of my better harvests. Too little rain figured into this situation, for sure.

The tomatoes that did grow were small, and many had blossom rot. I’ve since learned that adding calcium to the soil should reduce such problems. Soon I will spread the beds, along with some of the traditional rows, with this mineral.

I am thankful for a neighbor who did have a good garden, at least as far as tomatoes are concerned. He brought over a large bag of these delicious fruits/vegetables and I canned them for sauces in the autumn and winter months.

In return, he picked as many of the Baldwin and Wealthy apples from our trees as he needed. These old apple trees keep on producing, year after year, despite receiving no attention.

Surrounding a large part of the garden are wild sumac bushes that are now displaying their very colorful bright red leaves. So, too, are the burning bushes. Autumn is a wonderful time for getting outside, not only to clean up the garden, but to just enjoy the fabulous weather and spectacular colors of autumn. We tend to take all this for granted, but not everyone throughout the country is as fortunate.

In our front stone-rimmed flower garden, the dahlias have blossomed, displaying gorgeous bright orange blooms. And as always, the pansies I planted in the spring, along with some that just keep coming up every year, are showing their lovely purple and white colors. I’m sure they will keep blossoming right up until snow falls, and perhaps even longer. One year, I found a clump of purple pansies poking through the snow at Christmastime.

The old maple trees lining much of the road in front of our house are turning their lovely shades of yellow, orange and red, and every so often a few leaves rain down on the lawn.

The Brussels sprouts did exceptionally well this year, yielding many meals to eat fresh from the stalks, or to freeze for later use.

The corn crop has been quite good, giving us fresh corn-on-the-cob as well as enough to freeze for making corn chowder when the temperature turns colder.

The cucumbers, however, did very poorly, so no one in my family will receive jars of pickles for Christmas. As I say, there’s always next year. Maybe 2017 will be the year of the cucumber.

Every year is different, with some crops doing particularly well and others not.

I’ve already sorted through my leftover packets of seeds, and know pretty much what I must order come January or February, and what not to. Seems that I always buy way too many seeds, but most will last for a couple of years, particularly if they are stored in a cool, dark place.

As the season draws to an end, here are a few ideas for the garden and the yard:

* If parsnips were among the vegetables you planted, leave them in the ground, cover them with several layers of hay, then dig them up in the spring. Wintering over often results in a sweeter parsnip.

* With a frost sure to happen soon, pull up the tomato plants with green fruit still on them and hang them upside down in a cellar or basement that does not freeze. It’s great to have your own tomatoes in a holiday tossed salad.

* Cut the cornstalks, tie in a bundle and display in the yard or on the porch with bright, orange pumpkins or uniquely shaped gourds. If a neighbor has traditionally sized hay bales, arrange some of the gourds and pumpkins on them.

* Once the garden is cleaned up and the debris placed in a compost pile, till the garden for next year; doing that now makes it so much easier to begin planting again in the spring. Also, don’t placed any diseased plants in the compost pile.

* Create a homegrown harvest supper. Lots of organizations serve such meals in October, so why not prepare your own.

And always be thankful for the fresh food produced by our magical earth.