It is said that a garden bench never rests its owner, but a nice fall day might be the ideal time to sit for a few minutes and consider your vegetable garden. Besides being relaxing, this will provide you with a chance to review the successes and failures of the growing year. You'll probably also notice some fall chores that need to be done, getting you up off the bench and fulfilling the prophecy. At the very least, evaluate, take note and plan for next year.

Take stock

Late fall is a good time to take a look at what varieties produced well, what didn't and why, and what you might do differently.

"Greens did wonderfully this year, I had a great crop of kale and chard," says Charmaine Slaven, a musician and Wallingford gardener. "Also this was the first year I successfully grew carrots." The desirable variety was Nantes, purchased from Oregon's Territorial Seeds.

Slaven, who earns her seed money with the acoustic musical groups Tallboys and Squirrel Butter, "got into it seriously this year," gardening in both the front- and backyards, keeping chickens and taking classes from Seattle Tilth. She learned much about light and water needs, she says, and the soil quality at her rental home.

"Some of my beets that got too much shade didn't do too well," she says, "so I'm going to try to clear some of the tree branches to let in more light. And I'm building the soil in the front yard."

This is the time of year for soil-building, as cover crops can be sown into beds now cleared of their summer produce.

Jot in your journal

Noting the cultural needs of your plants and this year's weather pattern will help you next season as well. Keep a garden journal, including planting dates, varieties and soil amendments used. Record growing conditions, such as weather and rainfall amounts. (This year's sad reality: too little sun to ripen all the tomatoes.)

Finally, keep track of harvests and yield. What was that wonderful bean that did so well? Save seed or mark the catalog for next year. Did a winter squash or pepper put out small or too-few fruit? Might want to shop for a different variety, one bred for more vigor in our climate.

It's also useful to record which vegetables were planted in each of your beds so that you can practice effective crop rotation. Because of nutrient needs and the possibility of soil-borne diseases or pests, it is advisable to not plant the same veggies in the same place year after year.

Rotate crops from a leafy plant to a root vegetable to a flowering plant to a fruit.

"I plan to move my crops one to two beds over from where they were last year," Slaven says, "which I hope will keep disease down to a minimum. I do everything organically here, so I'm really conscious of that."

Tuck in the beds

If you're growing root crops that will "overwinter," or stay in the ground until spring, consider blanketing their bed with a layer of leaves for protection against cold, windy conditions.

A leaf layer will protect bare beds from the compaction from winter rains too. If not growing cover crops, mulch the beds with 3 to 6 inches of leaves. Alternatively, or in addition, cover the beds with burlap coffee bags (available free from coffee roasters) to protect the soil.

Gather extra leaves and keep them in dry bags or compost bins to use next summer, when the quantity of green compost material is high but the carbonaceous part of the mixture is more scarce. Leaves also make a great winter bedding for the worm bin.

Finally, don't tidy the garden up too much. A pile of windblown leaves around the stems of woody plants or along a border will naturally provide the mulch and insect habitat your garden needs.

Consider the critters

Speaking of garden insects, mulch on the beds will increase earthworm activity and provide a safe haven for ground beetles and other beneficial bugs.

If you have mason bees — the small, native bee that nests in holes of wood blocks and emerges early in the spring to pollinate fruit trees — review their nesting boxes and store them for the winter.

To avoid spreading disease among the bee population, it's best to use paper sleeves in the nesting holes. Those sleeves, if full of bees resting in their mud-colored cocoons, can be removed from the blocks and stored in an unheated space, or a refrigerator, advises Washington State University's King County Extension Service.

Any partially filled tubes should be discarded, and the bee blocks can be washed and soaked in a chlorine bleach solution to remove parasites and pathogens. In February or March, the blocks can be set out again with the existing bees and empty fresh sleeves for nesting.

Still time for seeds

Does putting the garden to bed make sprouting season seem far away? If you still yearn to sow, some cover crop seeds, like hardy fava beans, can yet be planted. Early November is not too late to plant garlic either, and some lettuces and spinach will sprout in a good spell of weather. Calm the urge even further by tucking a few flower bulbs of crocus, daffodil or tulip around the edge of the garden for a bit of color to encourage those first vegetable seeds of spring.

Bill Thorness is a freelance garden writer in Seattle: bill@thorness.com.