A couple of very mild days have driven Farmer Jones outside to continue the late-fall cleanup. As predicted, the dahlias benefited from their careful propagation and wider spacing in the garden, so they’re airing out on every available horizontal surface before winter packaging. I took a final trek out back to deliver my 2006 farewell to the cutting and vegetable garden and found something wonderful: the cut-flower kale that we started from seed last April and found pretty ordinary during the summer had huge ruffled rose-like “flowers” at the end of long ridged stems. These specialty florist items are supposed to have a long vase life, but I have a feeling that we will be reminded before long that they are really cabbages. Usually at this time of year I have the nagging feeling that I should be writing down my evaluations of all my garden experiments, and I know I’ll forget a lot of my conclusions—which of the Talinum varieties was small and inconsequential and which produced graceful sprays of little jewels? which sage is hanging on and may actually come back next year? which of the celosias was multi-branching? But I won’t forget how the Brassica oleracea Sunrise and Sunset brightened the weekend after Thanksgiving. The only question will be whether or not to also buy the seeds of the varieties White Crane and Red Crane. What’s another tray of seedlings to garden lovers like the Joneses?