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.

Enjoying the Vegetables of Our Labor

 Every evening after dinner, my husband and I go out to the garden. Nearly every single day since the end of June, we have picked something while there. Sometimes it was just a handful of snap peas. Other times, it filled that nice old square gathering basket we've had for years. It's been a lovely, steady stream of fresh produce filling our refrigerator. So, what have we done with our harvest?

The daily haul on July 27, 2024

Pak Choi

Our first bulk harvest in June was the pak choi. We cooked up most of the little greens with some butter beans (from a can), garlic, herbs, and a touch of vinegar to make a fairly hearty dish. A sprinkle of bacon bits really made it.

Beets

People either love or hate beets. I happen to love them. This year, I planted some beet seeds that have been sitting in my seed collection for several years. I wasn't sure if any would actually grow, but they did. The vast majority of the small crop were chioggia beets, which have lovely interior rings like a target. There were also two or three Detroit dark red beets in the mix. I picked them in two rounds. The first batch I cooked whole in our Instant Pot, skinned them, then sliced them up. I toasted a couple rounds of naan, spread a mix of mayonnaise and feta cheese on them, layered on the beet slices and sprinkled it all with fresh thyme. Sooooo good!

A couple weeks later, I picked the rest of the beets, Instant Pot-ed and peeled them again, then used them to make pickled beet eggs. The recipe is simple. I put 1cup of cider vinegar, 1 cup of water, half a cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt together in a pan and heated it until everything dissolved. I also sliced up the one and only Detroit beet and added it to the pan. The chioggia are a light pink color when cooked and I worried they wouldn't dye the eggs that beautiful fuchsia. I put six hard boiled eggs and the whole chioggia beets into a glass canning jar and poured the vinegar mixture on top. After a few days in the fridge, we pulled them out and had very tasty pickled beet eggs.

Eggs and beets ready to soak up that pickle-y goodness.

That color just three days later!

Green Beans

Actually, they're Royal Burgundy garden beans, but they cook up green. I really love these purple beans because of how well they grow and because they have a built-in cooking indicator - as soon as they turn from deep purple to a beautiful bright green, they are cooked just the right amount. No squishy, overcooked beans! 

My husband is not a huge fan of green beans, so I just had four plants this year. It was still enough for several lunches for me (and the plants are still making beans). One nice way to use them is in ramen. I put a pack of instant soy sauce flavored ramen noodle in a pan with the seasoning pack and enough water to cover the noodles. I then put whole trimmed purple beans around the edges of the noodles before turning on the stove. As the water starts to heat up, I crack a whole egg on top, then put on the lid and let it all come to a boil. As soon as it does, I stir up the egg to make sure it cooks all the way. Within another minute or two the noodles, egg, and beans are all cooked just right.

Green bean and egg ramen with a side of cucumbers and dill.

Cucumbers

For the last month, nearly every meal has had a side of cucumbers - and I love that! This year, I planted a mix of old Chicago Pickling cucumber and Garden Bush Pickle Hybrid cucumber seeds. I'm not sure which ones actually grew, but they are all lovely. I eat them dipped in hummus, swimming in a light vinegar brine as quick-pickles, and mixed with sour cream.

Cucumber slices with sour cream and dill looks a bit slimy but is very tasty.

I also diced them up in salads. For one salad, I used a bag of riced cauliflower as a base. I added diced cucumber, tomato, pepperoncini pepper, and avocado (not from our garden) and dressed it with a little oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and fresh flat leaf parsley. 

So cool and fresh on a hot summer day.

Honestly, most of the cucumbers were consumed straight from the fridge all on their own.

Mmmm. Crunchy.

Tomatoes

I didn't start my own tomato seed this year. Instead, I got a grape tomato and a Supersteak tomato plant from a small local garden center. Both have produced a prodigious amount of fruit, though they have been slow to ripen. This is a good thing, however, so we're not overwhelmed by tomatoes. Even so, the grape tomatoes have become a breakfast staple for me, slice up with cottage cheese and fresh chives. 

A breakfast of champions.

 The beefsteaks are perfect for slicing on sandwiches, and that is exactly what we've been doing with them. Toasted white bread, spread with a layer of mayonnaise, topped with thick slices of tomato, and sprinkled with chiffonaded basil. There is no better seasonal treat.

Summer on toast.

Herbs

I've tried to add fresh herbs to as much as I can this summer, which has become much easier since moving some of them from the garden to our new patio container garden. But what we can't use fresh needs to be preserved for the long dark winter. I've dried two rounds of herbs so far, with at least on more batch to be done later in the fall. I have also made pesto to put in the freezer. I went online and found a good basic recipe - 2 cups fresh basil leaves, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 small garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon salt, black pepper to taste, 1/4 cup of oil, and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (I don't bother with the pine nuts) - whipped up a batch and then carefully scooped it into a silicone ice cube tray. Each cube is about 1 1/2 tablespoons of pesto. Into the freezer it went. Once they set up, I popped the cubes out of the tray and put them into a sealed container back in the freezer.

One batch down, several more to go. We have A LOT of basil.

Squash

And finally, the squash and zucchini. I love them in so many ways - diced up and sauteed with garlic and herbs, sliced and coated in cornstarch then fried, layered in long slabs instead of noodles in lasagna (we haven't done that one yet because it's been so hot this summer!). A perennial favorite in our house this year has been to spiralize them into zoodles (or squoodles, I guess, depending on variety).  

Zoodles and squoodles together.

These thin-cut curling veggies can then be cooked and topped like spaghetti. I made a nice dish of the mixed yellow squash and zucchini noodles with sliced faux chicken cutlets and several blocks of our homemade pesto.

So creamy and fresh.

I'm going to be so sad when our harvest finally ends and we have to go back to flavorless off-season grocery store produce.

Harvest Time Has Begun

The weather has heated up considerably and the garden loves it! Harvest season has begun in earnest now. After a steady stream of asparagus early on and enough rhubarb to make a pie and a cake, there is now a wonderful variety of things to pick and enjoy.

My Garden! Glad I didn't neglect it this year.

The first big harvest of the season was Swiss chard. Suddenly, we had so much of it that I thought I might have to start freezing some right away. We were able to use it all fresh, though, in the form of chard and mushroom galette with goat cheese; pasta with vegan sausage, chard, and beans; a lovely chard and tahini dip that went well with tortilla chips and was equally nice mixed into spaghetti; and a Swiss chard frittata. It’s ready to pick again but I think I’ll let it stand another day or two as there are so many other tasty vegetables that need more immediate attention.

A few pounds of rainbow chard

The zucchini is now coming in fast and furious. At first, I didn’t know if I would get any. It was quite a saga, really. I planted the seeds in one of the beds where we had spread last season’s compost. Well, the compost had various squash seeds that decided to sprout on their own while the ones that I had planted were taking their sweet time. So, as insurance, I purchased a zucchini plant off a rolling rack outside the grocery store. As soon as I planted it, my seeds decided to grow like crazy. By that time, I didn’t have the heart to thin them as heavily as I should have so I ended up with six plants in the 4’ x 11’ bed. The plants seem to being doing well despite the close quarters and I’ve picked eight zucchinis so far.

So, that's a full bed of zucchini!

The cucumbers are coming on strong as well. There’s nothing like a fresh cucumber straight out of the garden with just a little sprinkle of salt. The purple green beans are starting to bean, though it is far from overwhelming. I’ve almost picked enough for a serving.  

Yesterday evening's harvest

I spent this morning harvesting and processing herbs. Three years ago, I went to the Mother Earth News Fair in Burlington, Vermont. This year, with covid-19 going on, they decided to have a virtual fair. I bought a ticket and have been enjoying dozens of videos on a whole range of topics from fermenting to beekeeping to breadmaking. So, this weekend, I decided to try out a couple of the things I learned.

Herbs!

I started by setting up our solar dehydrator. (Here’s a post from four years agoabout the fun, useful tool.) I put sprigs of wild bee balm on the bottom screen to dry for tea. On the top screen went dill, thyme, and just a little bit of lavender.

Loaded dehydrator

Within just about four hours on this lovely, sunny, hot day, the dill and thyme were completely dry and ready to be bottled. The bee balm and lavender needed just a smidge more time. I’ll probably do more batches of herbs as the summer goes on.

Jars of freshly-dried thyme and dill

The fresh basil that I picked got chopped up and went into a bowl with a pound of rhubarb that I had frozen last year and ¾ cups of sugar. This is the base for a rhubarb-basil shrub. I’ll mix in some vinegar after it has set for 24 hours, let it sit again for three more hours, and then combine it with some gin and lemon juice for cocktails tomorrow evening.

Rhubarb-basil shrub in the making

Finally, I made my first ever tincture. I found out that California Poppy could help with sleep and I just happened to have some growing in my un-Shaker garden. My husband and I tried it fresh as tea. There were all sorts of warning online about how bitter the tea was, but I thought it was quite nice. He said he slept really well after a cuppa and it gave me vivid dreams. Fun. One of the Fair workshops was on tincture making so I thought, why not try it with the California Poppy. I put 3.5 ounces of chopped up plant plus 7 ounces of 100 proof vodka into a jar. After about a month, I’ll see what we got.

A tincture to-be

I’m very glad that I pulled myself together this year and am actively working with my garden. I’m not sure if the rabbits who found a home in last year’s garden would agree, but that’s their problem.