The 2025 Season in Review

I'm sorry to say that 2025 wasn't a great year for the garden, or for me keeping up on posts here. The weather was too wet then too dry the too wet again. The garden didn't enjoy it and neither did I. While it was generally a poor year for the veg, it wasn't a total failure. I'll start with the successes.

Garlic

This was actually an unexpected surprise. I had planted the garlic just for the scapes. I planted two types, only one of which grew (and I don't know which type that was since the labels faded away). I harvested the scapes too late and they were woody. So, that was a fail on my part. I just left the rest of the plants in the ground. Well, lo and behold, when I pulled up the dried out stalks at the beginning of August, there were beautiful little bulbs of garlic on them! I put half of the cloves back into the garden this fall and we've been enjoying the other half. They are lovely and hot.

Surprise! Garlic!

Tomatoes

The experimental Burpee direct-sew tomato seeds were a success. They grew well and set a lot of fruit. The Groundswell beefsteak produced one truly massive tomato (1.7 pounds!) along with a fair number of smaller fruits and the Rain Drops cherries produced by the cascading fist-full. Too bad that when the rains came again, the tomatoes burst on the vine and started rotting before they could be picked. I suppose that saved us from being overwhelmed by fruit, but I still wasn't happy about it.

One massive tomato.

One massive tomato sliced.

Many lovely little tomatoes.

Corn

The Glass Gem ornamental corn came in fairly well despite the uneven weather. It produced about a dozen pretty little ears with beautifully colored kernels. They made a nice addition to my autumn decor.

Stalks all dried out.

Pretty glass gems.

Pumpkins

I'm a big fan of blue pumpkins so this year we planted Jarrahdale seeds. Even though we only got two pumpkins, one per vine, I'm calling it a success. They too became part of the fall decor before being eaten. I think I still have a few seeds in the packet to plant next year.

Jarrahdale on the vine.

Jarrahdale on the porch with purchased pumpkins and glass gem corn stalks.

Morning Glories 

The biggest success in the garden was, unfortunately, not anything we could eat. It was the morning glories. Back in 2022, we planted the entire garden with flower seeds. Along with the bulk mixes, I put in a packet of morning glory seeds. I had never had much luck with them growing in the past and, on that occasion, maybe two or three of the seeds actually grew. But those that did grow dropped seeds at the end of the season. From those seeds came more plants that dropped more seeds that made even more plants. Now, three years later, they are edging on invasive, popping up in most of the garden beds. Rather than just weed them all out, I moved a bunch of the seedlings to the garlic bed (since half of the garlic didn't grow). They ended up making a beautiful screen on the garden fence. I'm sure I'll be enjoying them next year as well.

Glorious.

The rest of the garden was a mixed bag this season. The rattlesnake beans were fairly productive - enough for one batch of baked beans at least. The turtle beans made lots of pods but when I went to shell the dried beans they were tiny and dull. The tricolor bush beans were a bust. One plant of purple ones finally grew and only produced a handful of beans. The chard was very productive, as always, but it got spotty and unappetizing. Only one of the two zucchini plants actually produced fruit - which I'm grateful for as I love zucchini - and the two yellow squash plants just withered away. The peppers set some wonderful large fruits but most of them were consumed by blossom end rot before they ripened. We did get a couple peppers, which were nice, but it was still disappointing.

Zucchini!

Beautiful until they rotted.

There was only one major garden disaster. It happened late afternoon on August 24. We were enjoying a summer thunderstorm while sitting on our screened back porch when we heard a crashing sound. From where I was sitting, I could just see the southwest corner post of the garden. It was waving furiously. My initial thought was that the storm had sent one of the dead trees on the property line crashing down onto the garden fence, but that wasn't the case. Once the rain slowed a bit, I dashed out to try to figure out what had happened. And I saw this:

Oh no!

Earlier in the year, we had extended the garden fence upwards to around 8 feet to keep the deer from getting in as they had the last couple of years. Well, apparently, it wasn't enough. A young buck (perhaps the one we call Bonehead, though there are a couple of them who frequent the neighborhood) had leapt into the garden then panicked and smashed his way out right through the garden fence. He and a doe stared at me from the back of our yard as I surveyed the damage. We pinned everything back together as well as we could and plan to make better repairs next spring.

After the frost hit, I cleared out the garden beds, as I like to do, and that's it for this year. The seed catalogues have started arriving now and I've started plotting next year. I think it'll be an experimental year. I already purchased some Oaxacan green corn and skunk beans to try. I'm envisioning variations on the Three Sisters theme with a few more different types of squash, pumpkins, and beans. I'm also hoping to keep up better with my updates here. I don't know if anyone else out there in the universe reads these posts, but I enjoy looking back on them. 

There were so many angry chipmunks this year!

The Garden Today

For weeks I've been meaning to write an update of the garden's progress, but I don't feel like I have much to report. The garden has been doing its thing with little interference from me. I've pulled some weeds, supported some vines, harvested some veggies, the usual. So, finally, for the sake of keeping a record, here is a general overview of how it grows.

Droopy pumpkin vines on the back fence. (left side)

The weather this season has been less than ideal but the plants are still soldiering on. Those in the squash family seem to be having a particularly tough time. They didn't like the soaking rains early on and now that it's turned hot and dry, they have a tendency to droop during the day. The leaves on the pumpkin vines were particularly limp this afternoon (see above), but they have set fruit (see below).
 

One of a few small pumpkins starting.

The zucchini have had a rough time of it. I put out two plants this spring and both died. When the first one died, I planted a few seeds in its place. When the second one died, I replaced it with a plant from the local grocery store. As of right now (knock on wood) both are doing okay. The plant from the directly sown seeds is actually starting to produce tiny zucchini. It feels like it's late, but I'll take it.

The first tiny zucchini.

The yellow squash are also struggling. One plant seems to be doing okay and has a teeny tiny little bitty squash started. The other is a wilted flattened sad specimen at the moment.

Poor sad little yellow squash.

While the cucumber plants also look overwhelmed by the heat, that has not kept them from making fruit like it's going out of style. We are deep into cucumber season - one of my favorite seasons of the year - with bags of them in the fridge and plans to start giving them away, maybe, if my 2-3 cucumber-a-day habit gets tiresome. 

So many cucumbers.

My husband and I joke that the only thing that loves the heat and humidity here in our river valley is the corn. Ours is no exception. I've never grown decorative corn before so I'm not sure what metrics I should be judging for its success. It was over knee high on the 4th of July, so that's something. It looks happy and we'll see how it goes.

A pretty little insect of some kind on the corn.

Corn and beans make fine neighbors.

Last year we planted the shell beans in the same bed as the corn and pumpkins. This year, with the smaller beds, the corn and beans became next-door neighbors with the pumpkins more down-the-street neighbors. As always, the rattlesnake and turtle beans are happily growing along with little-to-no trouble. The turtles are sending up more climbing vines than they have in the past. I just encouraged them to join the rattlesnakes on the trellis and all seem happy.  

Oh how I love happy beans.

Our other beans have not had such an easy time of it. I got a sack of tricolor beans this year - yellow, green, and purple - and planted the seeds so that I would have two plants of each type. Well, early in the season, something decided to come along and pull up all but one of the plants. I think it was a crow, or other bird. They weren't dug up or eaten, just plucked from the ground and laid on the dirt to wither and die. (sad, no?) I planted more seeds, unsure of which color had survived. The next round of seeds did grow, but not very well. The one plant from the original batch is now producing beans - green ones - and I've decided to be content with that. I'll still hope the others catch up too.

Our bed of Bright Lights chard.

As usual, the chard is one of the stars of the garden. I've only done one picking so far and made lovely chard, mushroom, and goat cheese tarts. I really have to get in there and harvest more. The more I pick, the more it'll produce and it freezes very well.

Experimental tomatoes.

When I was back in the planning phase of the garden last winter, I came across some Burpee direct sow tomato seeds. The promise was that, when planted directly in the garden just before the last frost date, the tomatoes would grow and produce at the same rate as tomatoes that had been started early inside. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I planted enough seeds directly in the garden to have two each of the cherry tomatoes and the beefsteak ones. One of the cherry tomato plants died about a month in but we were able to replace it in the garden bed with a mystery tomato plant growing out of the compost bin. The other tomato plants are doing very well and have started setting fruit. I haven't checked to see how that compares to tomatoes we have grown in years past but, so far, the experiment seems to be a success.

The first of the direct-sow beefsteaks.

I also planted some slightly experimental pepper plants. The experiment, or more properly, mystery, is that I don't know what color the peppers will be. The pack had four different types - red, orange, yellow, and purple. I'm hoping for a variety of colors but we're still in the waiting phase. At least I know that they are not ready to pick until they are no longer green.

One pepper waiting to reveal its final color.

I think that's all that's going on in the garden now. We harvested all the pak choi, arugula, and radishes. We got three garlic scapes that had turned woody before I picked them. Oh yeah! And our peas are currently making peas. 

As for my herb garden just outside my back door, it's exactly what I had hoped for. I can pop out the door, grab some herbs and barely miss a beat while I'm cooking. The deer sampled some of them early on but they bounced back. The dill had some sort of caterpillar infestation, so it's been stripped of nearly all its fronds and flowers. I did let a few rogue dill plants stay in the main garden, though, so I still have them for my recipes. Overall, I'm very pleased with my patio herbs.

My lovely herbs.

And all around the yard, the other plants and flowers are doing their thing. I'm happy to see that the mondarda and orange butterfly plants are still drawing in the bees. I'll have to do a separate update post about the wild seeds I planted over the winter. It's been a mixed bag with them. And then there's the Subaru tree to write about too. And an update on the luffa plants. I guess I do have some stories to tell still even as the garden plods along.

Bee being busy.

Strawberry Popcorn

We grew strawberry popcorn this year. It was the corn in our Three Sisters bed. This area is good for corn, but, as a home garden, I wasn't expecting to get much from our little 4-foot by 11-foot bed. I was actually delightfully surprised!

We planted the shiny little red kernels on May 25 with the rest of the garden.

And then we waited. A week later, we had rows of perfect blade-like seedlings.

Two weeks later, the whole bed was really starting to look like something. 

One more week and everything had more than doubled in size.

July came...

...and we just kept waiting. There really wasn't anything else to do. By then, the weeds had slowed considerably so daily maintenance wasn't necessary. When there was heavy rain and/or high winds, we sort of pushed the flattened corn stalks up again, but they more-or-less straightened themselves on their own.

By mid August there was definite progress in ear-development.

Some of the ears seemed odd to me (three in one spot?), but what do I know? This was my first time growing popcorn. A green stink bug seemed okay with it.

As did the bees.

And so there was more waiting as the stalk and ears began to dry.

By early October, I was tired of waiting. Though my patience has greatly improved as I've gotten older, I hit my limit. The majority of the ears were nice and dry so I went for it.

I am now putting shucking popcorn right up there with - well just slightly lower than - shelling beans. It was a beautiful day as I sat on our concrete patio, pulling back the dried husks, and revealing shiny, gorgeous, tiny, red ears of popcorn.

And after shucking ear after ear, I had a lovely surprise: an entirely white ear!

I got 21 shiny ears of strawberry popcorn in all (just the one white one). I strung them up with twine and hung them on our porch so they could dry further. 

I read that it would take about two weeks to fully dry. Of course, that varies by location and weather conditions. So, eight days after hanging the ears, I pulled one down to give it a try.

It was a bit of a struggle to pull the kernels off the cob, so I only did half of the tiny ear.

I put the loose kernels into a paper bag and microwaved them for about two minutes. I could hear tiny explosion but was disappointed by what I found when I opened the bag. The kernels had split open but that was it. My impatience was not rewarded.

So the half-ear of popcorn sat on our kitchen counter next to the last of the season's tomatoes until last night when I decided to try again. This time the kernels practically fell off the cob and made wonderful popping sounds in the microwave. And, lo and behold, we had popcorn!

I plan to leave the other 20 ears hanging on the porch for the next couple of days since we are experiencing 80 degree weather (yuck! The time of summer has past; it's fall now!). If the kernels come off easily, I know they're ready. If not, we'll hang them inside as temperatures will be falling back into the 50s by the end of the week (yay!).

In case anyone is wondering, the corn stalks became fall decor along with some pumpkins and a giant mum I got at my favorite pumpkin-and-mum-buying spot.

The popcorn harvest was just the start of putting the garden to bed for the winter. It's always a bit sad to see the end of fresh veggies, but I'm ready to be done for now. Some locals are not as pleased by the end of our growing season. But that's a story for next time....

Oh Deer!

The Garden's Last Hoorah

This last week of chilly weather has made it clear that autumn is upon us. The garden, however, seems to think it is springtime. Or at least some of the plants are giving things another go. The acorn squash plants have put on three new squash, each the size of a walnut. One year, when we were living on the mountain, we actually got two full rounds of acorn squash. The ones in the second batch were smaller and didn’t have a very long storage life but they were still tasty. I don’t think we’ll have time to see these new squash come to full maturity.

Acorn squash, round two.

The squash are not the only plants trying again. The tomatoes have put out a bunch of new blossoms as have the purple and fillet beans. A single new kohlrabi seedling has even appeared. The yellow squash has set fruit for the first time this season. Too bad they probably won’t get big enough to eat. It’s unusual for a single type of plant to fail me several times in one season. The cucumbers are giving it another go too. The peppers are still trying hard as are the eggplants. This isn’t really a second attempt for either of them as they have been very slow to produce the whole time.

More blossoms on the tomatoes.

Cucumbers making one final, pitiful push.

A new spiky eggplant flower

The rattlesnake beans have put on a fresh batch of blossoms as well. I’m really enjoying those beans. I grew them primarily for shell beans but as I picked the dried pods today, I also was able to pick a generous handful of fresh beans. With the new blossoms and tiny beans just starting, I may get more fresh beans before frost comes. As for the dried beans, we got 3 ½ cups from about a dozen plants. I’m not sure if that’s good or not but I’m pleased.

New bean blossom.

Rattlesnake beans to shell.

Beans!

Rattlesnake beans ready to become baked beans or soup.

The garden is apparently not ready to be put to bed yet. That’s okay. It’ll be nice to get those last few beans and tomatoes. We did do some final harvesting, though. We pulled all the carrots and dug the rest of the potatoes. The potato harvest was not overwhelming by any means but the carrots made up for it. 

Our meager harvest of potatoes.

Carrots enjoying some afternoon sun.

The corn and pumpkins are definitely finished. There is no way that either will be attempting a second round. The plants are completely dead. The corn was rather disappointing. I think it was the variety. It made small, irregular ears that grew up through the leaves. Weird. I plan on looking for a different type next year. But I collected the stalks and bound them together to decorate the front of our house. We got two pumpkins but one was chewed on while still on the vine. It still makes a decent decoration with the other pumpkin and a ceramic chicken.  

This corn is finished.

One perfect little pumpkin.

All decorated for autumn.