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 2017 Garden

I have to start by admitting that I didn’t really do as much as I should have with the garden this summer. Perhaps since this is the third year, the novelty has worn off some for me. Or perhaps I’m just more generally lazy this year. I did put in the full garden but I neglected it some and my husband ended up doing a lot of the work that I usually do. With all that being said, it was a fairly successful season, even if my enthusiasm was lacking.

My last post here was in May, so there is a lot of catching up to do. Here’s how things went this summer.

May

The perennial plants in the garden came back quite well after the winter. I was picking thyme, marjoram, and chives in April. The horseradish came back strong and the rhubarb grew well enough to put some in the freezer. The asparagus was pretty good this year as well. The strawberries came back better than ever. I plan on doing a whole post just on them.

Thyme, marjoram, and chives

I planted the cool-weather seeds – carrots, beets, chard, pak choi, turnip greens, and peas on May 13^th. They all sprouted within a week. The beets were a bit spotty, however. That could have been because I got a mix of different types of seeds to try this year or maybe because of the steady rains we had this spring and early summer. The beets we did get were very good, though.

The garden on May 13th after planting cool-weather seeds

Peas two weeks after planting

I planted the rest of the garden on May 29^th. Much of the garden space was given to old standards – green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, and peppers. We didn’t bother with corn and potatoes this year but added soy into the mix. We also tried out some different vegetables including parsnips, silver line melons, and okra. I also decided to try growing European cucumbers rather than the pickling ones I usually grew. I ended up being disappointed by that decision. The cucumbers had large seeds and didn’t produce that well. I’ll be going back to the smaller ones next year.

The garden on May 29th after everything was planted

All the plants that I transplanted into the garden at the end of May were ones that I had started earlier in the season. I started eggplant, Poblano pepper, Juliet tomato, and beefsteak tomato seeds. I transplanted the seedlings into peat pots at the end of March and then transplanted them again into larger pots in late April. I probably started them a little earlier than I need to but I was anxious to get things going in the depths of winter. The tomatoes, in particular, were a bit spindly when I finally got them into the garden but they adjusted well once in their permanent homes.

Thinned seedlings in early March

Lovely, strong tomato seedling at end of March

Tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings transplanted into peat pots

Hardening off plants on the back porch in mid-May

June

It was a fairly wet start to the season but the garden didn’t seem to mind. By June, everything was coming along. At least a little bit of everything planted was growing. There was only one buttercup squash plant and that was attacked by stem borers before it got a chance to do much but otherwise things were going well. The pak choi was harvested and the few remaining plants were going to seed. The peppers and eggplants were setting fruit and I was taking fresh snap peas with me to work for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnip greens. They were a new addition to the garden. They grew fast and despite being quite prickly when picked, made for a very nice cooked green.

The garden on June 25th

July

In July, the garden really filled out. The peas were finishing up their run but everything else was going strong. The green beans were starting to produce as were the yellow squash and zucchini. Both the beefsteak and Juliets were covered in green tomatoes just waiting for some hot, sunny days to turn them red. 

Bright lights chard

Yellow Squash

Juliet tomato

Zucchini

As a special bonus, several plants sprouted from the composter. An abundance of Roma tomatoes and a strong acorn squash vine filled in around the base of the barrel.

 

"Wild" compost vegetables

The garden on July 29th

August

Harvest season was full upon us by August. The tomatoes had turned red and we almost had more than I knew what to do with. A week of rain made a lot of them split, however, and some of the large beefsteaks started to rot on the vine but another round of drier weather helped put a stop to that. The silver line melons ripened as did the cantaloupes. Both seemed watery and not as flavorful as we would have liked. Perhaps the soil wasn’t that good for melons.

Basket of produce

Beefsteak tomatoes

Silver line melon

Okra blossom

September

That finally brings us up to now, mid-September. The soy has grown well, despite the fact that a couple of young woodchucks managed to get into the garden and eat a good portion of the leaves. My husband just picked and processed it the other day and got almost two quart-size zip-lock bags of shelled beans.

Soybeans

There are still a lot of veggies in the garden that are ready and waiting to be picked – beets, carrots, chard, and turnip greens – and more still ripening – tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, onions, parsnips, cucumbers, and green beans. There is still plenty to do in the garden and lots of produce to harvested and put away for the winter.

The garden on September 10th

Overdue Updates

It’s only the middle of August but it feels like things are starting to wind down in the garden. Powdery mildew has settled on the pumpkin leaves but the pumpkin itself has already turned orange so I’m not worrying about it too much. I’ve started pulling out plants that have finished up for the season. The kale is gone as are the snap pea plants, the green onions (they never amounted to much), and the remaining arugula. I salvaged what I could of the chard and pulled the rest of the plants out. The garden peas are finished but the rattlesnake beans are woven into the vines so I’ll leave the plants for now. I still need to pull out the kohlrabi. Most of the plants decided not to bulb so there’s no reason to keep watering and feeding them. I’m also thinking about pulling out the green beans though they are starting to put on a second, spotty batch of blossoms.

Some things in the garden seem to just be starting up. The basil is finally about six inches tall with enough leaves to spare a few at a time. The egg plants are just putting on blossoms. I don’t think I’ll see any of their fruit this season. The peppers are also quite slow growers. There are only three or four peppers total on the half-dozen plants. The cantaloupes are taking their time, too, and the few, tiny melons that have set are oddly oblong in shape. I’ll just have to give all those late bloomers some time and hope for the best. 

Eggplant blossom...no fruit yet

This green pepper should be turning red soon

Tiny cantaloupe

 The zucchini plants have almost given up. The two or three small squash still in the garden are probably the last I will see this summer. I did get a half-dozen or so zucchini, though, so I’m content. The tomatoes are still going like gang-busters and look like they will be for some time. The Early Girls are a good all-around tomato; Juliets are great for salads, mixed with pasta or sliced on pizza; the beef steaks are fantastic sliced on sandwiches or atop fried eggs; and the pear tomatoes are tasty snacks by the handful. I’m glad we’re getting a good amount of each variety.

Beef steak tomatoes on the vine...

...and Juliet and pear tomatoes on the windowsill.

Since foiling the rabbits’ attempts at grazing the garden this spring, we haven’t had any mammalian problems in the garden (knock on wood). Bunny sightings have dropped of late but I still see one every once in a while. The deer are still enjoying the back yard, especially the apples that have started to fall from the tree. A couple of hummingbirds have re-discovered the feeder and butterflies have been enjoying our blossoming butterfly bush. I was raised in the county (mountain country, not farm country) and it’s so nice to have such a plethora of wildlife right out in my suburban backyard.

Oh deer!

Hummingbird

Butterfly on the butterfly bush. Makes sense.

What the?!? It's a baby cardinal!