Garden 2026 Update #1 - Planning, Winter Sowing & Some BIG Changes!

My garden planning updates are mostly for me to keep a journal of what works, what didn't, and what I can do to improve my efforts.  I've decided to make them public to help anyone who might be along the same gardening  journey as me. I sure hope you find them helpful!

GARDEN PLANNING

Now that Christmas and New Year's celebrations are over, it's time to get back into the garden mindset and get to planning!  While I always look forward to the last few months of the year when the garden is put to bed and things are a little slower, I also look forward to gearing back up and getting ready for another amazing year of growing. 

This year planning it's a little more enjoyable since my sister-in-law gifted me a really cute little, spiral, lay-flat garden journal. She had no idea but over the winter I've been busy creating some custom, personalized garden journals and coordinating garden supplies myself!  For the last few years I've been using a simple, plain 3 ring binder and notebook paper but I've opted to create some custom binders as well as lay-flat spiral journals that can easily be taken out into the garden for quick note taking. Just a little prettier, and personalized so they make a wonderfully endearing garden-lover gift as well.  You can see the newest lay-flat spiral journals and 3 ring binders here at my zazzle shop. 

WINTER SOWING

The first update this year is the winter sown seeds. Last year I discovered winter sowing for the first time and sowed many seed types. It was tremendously successful for my Sunflowers, Yarrow and Chamomile. Much better germination rates and stronger, taller plants than I've ever grown. Checking in with my notes & updates from last year reminded me I needed to add more rain water intake holes in the tops of my containers, and more drainage holes in the bottom. So I've done that with a little help of my hot glue gun by simply melting the holes in my dollar store lidded totes. This year the winter sown seeds are Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea) and Lavender. 

GARDEN CHANGES

My garden plans this year are to make some pretty big changes, that make growing & tending to the garden even easier. Since I built my first garden beds many years ago I've made some pretty ambitious choices but now I'm dialing it back quite a bit. I gave up the "experiment" garden last year and dedicated that space to what I know grows really well here in growing zone 6a. To make that even more useful, my plan is to rebuild that bed and reduce the size slightly to make room for another comfortable seating area right in the middle of the garden. While I will lose a small amount of growing space, I still have more than enough to grow what we eat and what grows well, so adding the seating area is just an added bonus that benefits anyone spending time in the garden.  You can never really have too much comfortable seating tucked here and there in your garden. 😊

This year I'll be growing less than what I've grown before (no potatoes, onions or beans) but will be growing some sweet potatoes in a new bed I built last year & using the main trellis for Sugar Baby pumpkins. I just prepared the organic sweet potatoes today, so they'll rest here on the heat mat & grow their slips, and hopefull they'll all be ready for garden planting come spring. Next to the sweet potatoes are a few pots of cinnamon basil I picked up recently. I love basil but I've never tried the cinnamon variety so I'm really looking forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you in some way as you begin to plan your own garden.  Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question & have an awesome day! 💖

Garden 2024 Update #10

Other than a sad loss of cucumbers this year from constant rain and flooding, the garden is pretty much right on track.  I'm also including some fun pics of my walk at the river, because there's always something cool to get pics of.

This is my volunteer tomato plant looks to be a slicer!  Growing in the same pot is a strawberry plant, and some purslane that I posted a pic of last update.

Doubled in size since last week. Each time I've googled this plant, from any angle, it tells me it's a Black Mulberry. If you're a mulberry grower, I'd love to hear from you to confirm!

Sometimes, harvests look like this. My wee basket of cherry tomatoes and spearmint for the tea jar.

Spotted this dude on the blackberries.  Google tells me he's a Snipe Fly, or a Rhagio. 

I'm going with Rhagio, as it sounds like a cool name you might find in a Tolkien story. 

On the way to the walking path at the river, I spotted this lovely creature.  It didn't appear afraid of me at all, and let me get about 4 feet away, taking pics.  I'm more or less a Disney Princess now. 😂

Cool structure spotted in the woods, that wasn't there last week.  Lots of kids play in these woods so I suspect one of them or a group of them decided to build this. Very impressive!

Scarlet Runner Beans showing off in the middle of the garden 💖

First batch of garlic dills this year.  Half were mine, the other half I had to pick up at the farmer's market.  Cucumber Lane will be getting an overhaul this fall after the season is over, and I'll be building two new raised beds there instead of planting directly in the ground. 

Just being a Disney Princess again as these two doves let me walk right up to them. 💖

Thanks for stopping by and taking the garden stroll with me 😊

Garden 2024 Update #9

The garden is in full swing this first week of July, and with that also comes loads and loads of mosquitoes, and a spot or two of powdery mildew on my cucumbers and bee balm.  I use the baking soda, dish soap & water recipe to keep it at bay, and it seems to work rather well.  Here's some pics I've snapped over the last couple of weeks in and around the garden.

I transplanted my raspberries this year and they're not producing nearly as well as I'd hoped, so this lovely batch of raspberry jam comes from berries I picked up at the local farmer's market.

This delightful jar of magic potion is a Wild Young Country Cherry wine. This is a new adventure for me, and if you'd like to try it as well, the recipe is here:  Wild Fermented Young Country Wine

A wee harvest of Yukon Gold potatoes, garlic, chocolate mint, holy basil & pickling cucumbers. All of my garlic gets dehydrated then turned into garlic powder for my own seasoning blends (eliminating the need to ever buy it at the store, for the last several years).

Some lovely Sugarbaby Cherry tomatoes

I picked up a couple of Elderberry bushes from the local greenhouse.  This one is called a York Elderberry, and the other one is called a Scotia Elderberry. I've never grown elderberry before so I'm doing a lot of homework on these beautiful berry bushes, and very much looking forward to some homemade elderberry syrup and maybe even an elderberry pie.

Last year I had 9 berry clusters on my one year old Chester Thornless blackberry bushes. This year I have more than 50 clusters!  I'm really looking forward to them ripening next month and a big, beautiful blackberry harvest.

Beefsteak tomatoes doing well

Small batch of Heal All for drying.  If you have this growing in your back yard (and odds are, you do) don't waste it, use it up! Here's a great article on how to ID it, process it and use it: Foraging and Using Self Heal 

While this is not my back garden, it is just a 5 minute walk away, and where I try to get at least several walks in a week, in my ongoing effort to stay as active as I can.  It's a beautiful path along the Thames River here in southern Ontario, lined with lush foliage that includes numerous cherry trees and wild raspberries. 

Whoever said plants can't talk, never met these 3 amigos. 😁 

My raspberry bush on the left, peony in the center, and hibiscus on the right are all desperately leaning into the eastern side of the yard where the sun is unobstructed by the giant maple tree canopy.  What these plants are saying is basically, transplant me, or get that Maple tree trimmed back.  Both will be happening at the end of the season. The peonies will be moved and the maple tree is getting a long overdue trimming to pull the shade canopy back & allow more sun into the garden.

The Scarlet Runner beans all the way to the top of the 7.5 foot trellis

I've had several volunteers show up this year, and this Purslane in the spring onion pot is just the latest.  It joins the volunteer tomato also in the same pot 😊 Most people consider this a weed but did you know it's actually a food?  Here's a good article on the health benefits of Purslane, or what Chinese folklore calls "the vegetable for long life". 

In my ongoing attempt this season to beautify my space, I've addeed these window boxes and these pretty solar lanterns on both the north and south sides of the cottage.  The cut out pattern on the metal lanterns casts a most lovely light along the wall of the cottage at night.  The window boxes contain Mojito Mint I picked up for half price since they were mostly dead.  I've been able to thankfully bring them back to life! (The next beautifying my space project will be to build a wee front porch deck for the cottage, and get rid of those paver stones.)

My volunteer tomato plant. It's always a fun surprise to see volunteers show up.  Last year, I had so many volunteer beets growing in the compost, I harvest them all & canned a batch of pickled beets.  Free food! 😁

Another volunteer this year.  Google lens tells me this is a Black Mulberry.  Funny thing is, I almost bought a Black Mulberry bush earlier this season, then changed my mind and thought I'd pick one up later.  When I went back, they were sold out.  A week later, this showed up in the raised bed where my butternut squash are planted. 

Thanks for stopping by and going on this fun stroll through the garden with me. 😊

Garden 2024 Update #8

Well, we cashed in the rain & wind for the same heatwave most of north America is also currently having.  Temps have hovered right around 95 degrees for days on end, with off & on thunderstorms (helping to alleviate the need for watering, for sure!) We've had some wild weather for June so far, from a frost warning the first week, to a heat wave 2 weeks later, but things are growing, and I'm thankful for that.  

Come take a stroll with me through the back wee garden and see how things are coming along!

Mr. Hodus, aka HoHo, supervising from afar. 

Garlic scapes will be dried and turned into a garlic powder blend for cooking.

Blackberry blossoms are so pretty 💖

Last count, there are 10 Honey Crisp apples. It's anyone's guess how many make it to full maturity! 

Of the 2 cucumber plants that survived the flooding, both produced a single cucumber each, so we're off to a very weak & slow start, but hopefully things turn around. 

Jalapenos are doing wonderfully well.  Looking forward to that Cowboy Candy!

Yellow Alpine strawberries grown from seed.  So excited to try these!

Roma tomatoes off to a good start.

I lost count of how many berry clusters there are, but at least 50+  

Last year there were only 9, so this is a wild improvement. 

Russet Potato flowers are SO adorable & dainty. 

I've added this cute little water feature on the side of the clover path leading to the cottage.  

A simple solar pump, dollar store bowl, a flipped over cracked pot & some large river rocks from the yard.  There's truly something quite magical about a stroll through the garden while you can hear running water.  All of the wildlife, cats, birds and bees love the back pond, so in my effort to beautify my space this year, I chose to add even more of what's already a success. I also have another one sitting on the deck railing for the critters that come to the feeder cam station. 

The view from my chair after a long day of work in the garden.

Fairy lights, crackling fire, toes in the sand, amazing views and a lovely beverage. 😊

Garden 2024 Update #5

As usual this time of year, time gets away from me. There's so many things to get ready for another growing season and that keeps me plenty busy.  Here's some fun pics to update on what's been going on in the garden since the last update.

The View From the Deck. I take this same shot all year long in all different seasons to show how quickly things change out there!  You can't see them all yet, but there are multiple things growing here. Sweet potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, runner beans, Concord grapes, strawberries, plums, apples, blackberries and garlic.  In just a few short weeks this will all look completely different as I get my seedlings out there and what's already there begins to get bushy. The raised beds here will have a variety of peppers and tomatoes planted very soon. 

Honey Crisp Apple blossoms

Italian Prune blossoms - and the old farmer's tale (sort of like an old wives tale) says: 

when your plum trees blossom (not apple blossoms or peach blossoms, it must be the plum), winter is over and it's safe to plant out your garden.  I don't know how true it is, but the plum tree bloomed and there isn't a single frost in the 14 day forecast.  Looks like the rest of the garden will be going out real soon!

Forget Me Nots

Chives

Rhubarb

Concord Grape bud (first year growing these, I'm so excited to have my own grapes!)

I bought this fire pit for this exact reason. It did not disappoint! 😀

The view from my chair after a long day of work in the garden.  

When I say I have a "wee garden plot" I really do mean it.  It's roughly 1200 square feet of space to work with so I've creatively used every space I can to make it a productive piece of land. In small spaces like this, vertical growing comes in very handy! I use what's commonly called cattle panel trellising, even though they're not officially cattle panels, they're 3.5' x 7' galvanized steel mesh panels commonly used for concrete foundations, cable tied to standard t-posts. All my grapes, beans, blackberries and cucumbers are vertically trellised this way to make the best use of the space. 

Sweet Potatoes bordering the grape trellis

My executive garden assistant, Ed

The curved branch was demanding a lovely decoration

A work in progress!  It'll look a lot different when the Dutch clover is planted and the wildflowers begin to bloom.  All the local wildlife drink from the pond so the goal was to make it even more accessable to them, as well as finally making it a pretty place to sit and enjoy time in the garden.