Garden Update 2025 #8: End of The Outdoor Season 2025

My garden updates are a fun little way for me to keep visual track of what's working for me (and what failed miserably! Because that's all a part of the gardening journey as well.) in the garden.  I share these publicly and just hope they bless you as much as they help me.

I haven't been very regular in my garden updates this year. This one is 8 weeks after the last one, and that was 8 weeks after the one before that. 😁 I've just been busy in the garden and haven't really set much time aside to update my garden journal minus a few scribbled notes here and there. 

One of the biggest learning curves this year was, cucumbers and heat. 

I've planted cucumber seeds indoors on heat mats & under grow lights, for years. They always work out.  Until they don't. That was this year. We had an unseasonably cold spring.  What I learned this year was, no matter what may have worked before, wait until June 1st at least, before planting out the cucumbers. I planted all of mine out in early May (with all of my tomatoes and peppers, like I always do) and all but one died. I then re-planted several more in mid-May from local nurseries and they all died as well. Between trips to local farmer's markets and local grower's farms I'd spoken to a good number of gardeners who were all having the same problem. Refusing to give up (because we're a HUGE pickle eating family!) I bought a third round of seedlings from a local grower at the end of May, and planted those out at the first of June.

The growing conditions were finally optimum and all of those plants thrived for the entirety of June, July and August. I was able to can multiple batches of pickles for our family's pantry for the winter. My plan for next year is to keep it the same as this year:  if you're in zone 6a (or colder), WAIT and plant out your cucumbers no earlier than June 1st. You'll save yourself a load of headaches and the cost of replacing all your plants. 

2025 is my  first year with Elderberries. I have two plants, and both produced about the same amount of berry clusters seen here on this one. They've all been harvested and are currently sitting in a brown paper bag in the freezer.  I have just enough to make 1 recipe of Elderberry syrup for a fully natural way of fighting off winter colds & viruses. 

A brand new challenge to me this year was... propagation. 

I've tried this many times before and never had much success with it minus one small Basil plant. This year, that finally changed with 2 small plants (Trumpet Vine & Strawberries) that I was able to facilitate into multiple brand new plants!

Both plants did really well over the summer and fall so we'll just wait & see how they do over winter, and into next spring. I'm hoping for great things for them both!

This winter sown sunflower grew to about 16 feet tall. 

Both my winter sown sunflowers and chamomile plants did remarklably well.  I may do this again over winter to see how more plants do. 

2025's batch of pasta sauce from (mostly) home grown tomatoes. I need about 30 pounds of tomatoes for my homemade ketchup, and another 30 pounds for my pasta sauce for an entire year of product of each. I'm currently only getting about half of that from my garden, so I supplement with the incredible produce from my local farmer's market, for both products for my family pantry. 

My goal for the 2026 garden is to double my tomato plants, and hope I can grow enough to cover all the ketchup and all the pasta sauce for an entire year. I've been working on this for several years now and each year the garden produces a wee bit more than the previous year so I'm happy it's increasing each year. 

DAMAGE CONTROL: This was the first raised bed I ever built of this size, and looking back it's easy to see everything I did wrong. In 2021 I built 2 of these 8'x4'x10" raised beds and just used deck screws to attach the end cap 4' (untreated) boards. 

What I didn't know then and what I know now is, I should have used outdoor treated wood (perfectly safe for edible plants) and maybe even these Oldcastle Planter Blocks I originally bought to construct a simple "tool free" sand box for all my little people.  I had 4 of these on hand from an old sandbox and when I saw the joints giving way to far too much soil/water pressure I did this simple repair. 

My plan going forward for spring 2026 is to replace all corners with these blocks (that I already have) and with 6 inch width pressure treated lumber for each side & end. I'll be losing 4" of overall height but that's okay since this is my pepper bed and they don't need that much depth anyway so it really all works out. I've since learned to raise the bed for those with mobility issues, you can easily double up the planter blocks to a 12 inch depth, drive a stake of rebar in to secure them in place and use 12" tall side & end cap lumber for 1 foot deep beds. I really love how easily this building style is so versatile depending on personal needs and mobility. 

Aside from what I've learned with each plant this year, I've also learned much more about fertilization & soil amendments. Both of which I've unintentionally neglected for a few years so another big improvement for spring 2026 will be the much needed soil amendments of some nutrient rich compost as well as some liquid fish fertilizer. I've used both randomly but never intentionally, so spring 2026 will be a much more intentional gardening plan with richer soil than ever before. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you're encouraged by what you've read here, and if you have any thoughts or suggestions or questions please feel welcome to leave a comment. 😊

Garden 2025 Update #7 - 2 Months of HEATWAVE Later

My garden updates are a fun little way for me to keep visual track of what's working for me (and what failed miserably! Because that's all a part of the gardening journey as well.) in the garden.  I share these publicly and just hope they bless you as much as they help me!

My last garden update was already 8 weeks ago in June, and 8 weeks into mid-summer things change rapidly!  Here are the way things are going for me after a really cold spring and cold early summer, then a crazy heat-wave that finally broke for a couple of days a month ago, and then sadly came raging right back!

 

Back in mid-June I built these window boxes on my garden cottage then planted English Daisies in them. I'm quite delighted with the way they turned out. 💖 

I think next year I'll plant some mint, or basil, or some other edible herb in them. 

Out watering the garden one day and heard a rather loud conversation across the fence.  I see my neighbors have some rather adorable pool party guests. 😁

Loads of garlic scapes right on time in late June just before the 4th of July garlic harvest date. 

These are all diced & dried and used in my pantry stock of dried garlic for a variety of seasoning blends. You can also freeze them, use them in soup, stew or even summer salads. 

My cucumbers struggled considerably this year. A colder than usual spring, and colder than usual early summer created a most unpleasant result. I spoke to several local growers and we were all having the same experience. I finally picked up some seedlings in mid June and they've taken off quite well for the last 8 weeks. So far I've processed 3 batches of garlic dill pickles and it looks like batch #4 is coming this week and then they might be done with.  What you're seeing here is pine shaving mulch (pet bedding) that helps to regulate water retention in the soil, as well as the soil temperature.  This is my first year trying this method on cucumber vines and I have to say after 8 weeks, it's worked quite incredibly well.  Weed suppression was nearly 100% and that allowed the plants to really thrive without any weed pressure at all. I will definitely give this another go next year and see if the results are the same. 👍 

(Sources I've researched do say to skim the shavings off the soil surface at the end of the season and dispose with any other composting methods you're using for green/brown compost layers.)

My tomatoes haven't done well the last few years so this year I tried a new variety for my slicing tomatoes. This year it was Bonnie Best. You can't tell from this very early image but recently I sliced a ripe one and put it on my hamburger.  I never do that, but wanted to see how it held up.  

It tasted as if I 100% added sweet ketchup to my burger.  

I was considerably impressed, to say the least! 

I'll be adding this variety to my preferred list for next spring. 

Speaking of tomatoes... this year's cherry tomato variety was Chocolate Cherry.  It's been a rapid producer and the fruit is nothing short of incredible. Everyone in my family that has tried them is really impressed at how delicious they are.  It truly does have notes of chocolate, cherry, and tomato in every sweet bite. These are a keeper for sure and I'll be growing these from now on 😋

The other cherry tomato variety I grew this year was Tiny Tim.  I've discovered I absolutely hate this plant,  😂 even though I love how well it produces.  The branches grow so close together it creates this really compact shrub that makes it nearly impossible to harvest fruit from. The fruit is sweet and lovely but you can get the same thing with a much less fussy plant.  I wont be growing this one again. 

I don't have an "official" drying/curing rack for my garlic or onions so, in this case, the metal cart is the go-to drying rack.  Once I layed all the garlic out I had to chuckle as it looked like something you might have seen on Gilligan's Island, in one of Mary Ann's huts. 😄

 This is just one of the many volunteer sunflowers came up in the garden this year.  

I staked them all up as needed, and the bees and butterflies loved them. 💖

Okay so... no, this isn't garden related. 

It's a beautiful sign my sister Lora sent me that **immediately** had to be hung in my foyer. 😂😂😂

  BEST. SIGN. EVER.

Same bed as the earlier shot with the pine shavings. My local nursery's seedlings were quite strong and did incredibly well here.

Sometimes you just sit on the lawn swing and take in the view, and thank the Lord for His incredible mercy and grace, that allows you to have this. 💖💖💖

My Chocolate Cherry tomatoes showing off with "you're not the boss of me!" stems falling off the side of the deck rail after a super windy day. Indeed I was not the boss of them, but I've let them be and have been harvesting off them for the last few weeks. 😀They are 100% the boss of me. 

It may not look like much, but this is my 2025 garlic harvest. 29 heads of garlic. Most will go into wee jars of raw honey infused garlic for cold and flu immune system aid & the rest will be dried and used for all sorts of homemade seasoning blends that include garlic powder. Since I started growing my own garlic in 2021 and learning how to dry it and process it , I haven't had to buy garlic powder from the store at all. It's he tiniest changes that make the biggest differences.  

All but one of the sunflowers in my garden this year, were 100% transplants.  The one that was intentionally planted was a winter sown plant as an experiment. 

It's now nearly 15 feet tall. (seen below).  

I will 100% attempt another round of winter sowing. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you're encouraged by what you've read here, and if you have any thoughts or suggestions or questions please feel welcome to leave a comment. 😊

Garden 2024 Update #12

Mid August is also mid season for harvesting & canning. I've been busy with a lot of both, from my own garden & the local farmer's market for the freshest possible goodness. 😍 Canned so far this season have been garlic dills, bread & butter pickles, peach sauce, blueberry sauce, fruit syrups, peaches & pickled carrots.

Well then, let's go on a walk through the garden:

I couldn't be more delighted with this year's blackberry yield so far. 

This is year 3 and so far it's produced 1.5 pounds of berries. 

By comparison, last year it produced a handful. Literally 😂 

Looking forward to enough for a lovely, late summer blackberry pie. 

Lemon Balm on the left, was growing in a pot. 

The one one the right, I planted from seed last year, indoor greenhouse overwintered, 

then planted in the raised bed in the spring. If plants could talk? 

The yellowing one on the left would say "I'll have what he's having!" 😀

My Scarlet Runner beans never fruited this year but they did provide this lovely, living decor 

over the arch trellis. Over the last few seasons this trellis has had pumpkins, squash & beans.  

Next year, I'm looking forward to trying something different.  

Some days the harvest looks like this. 

Tomatoes, sweet roasting peppers, jalapenos, pickling dills and some chamomile flowers. 

I counted and tried to be accurate and I *think* there are 46 jalapenos here on these 12 plants. 

I've already harvested a handful so that's a pretty good return. I'm seed saving this year so, 

next year, Lord willing, the entire bed of peppers will be 100% homegrown. 

I finally got my act together (mostly) and tidied up the dining room canning shelf. 

I'm going to add another shelf to divide the section 2nd from the top. 

(More space for jams, jellies and sauces!)

Home grown & home canned food is not only better for you, it's also really pretty sitting there on 

your pandemic era lockdown project #436 "canned food shelves" mostly with lumber you had on hand. 😁 

My new Hibiscus Mars Madness bloomed today. 

Flowers will be used for tea blends. 

Concord grapes and sweet potatoes are both doing really well this year. The grapes will be 

generously pruned this fall and the grow bags for the sweet potatoes were just a test. 

I may be replacing them with a permanent raised bed this fall or next spring. 

First time Elderberry grower. I have 2 plants, and they're both doing amazing.

Terracotta Yarrow early blooms. So adorable. 💗

Thanks for stopping by and going on a pictorial trip through the garden. I hope it encourages you to use whatever space you have to grow what you love! 

Garden 2024 Update #11

With the end of July this brings us into mid-season for my growing area here in 6a. All of August, September and roughly half of October are left until our last frost date. It almost seems hard to believe we're already at the mid-season point but so far the garden has been mostly successful.  

Here's how things are shaping mid-season:

A common sight first thing in the morning. 

As I always say, it was really nice of me to buy an inflatable hot tub for my cats. 😂

Some of this year's potato harvest went toward one of my favorite freeze dried items: instant potatoes. Such a great way to put up food for long term or even short term.  

I make my mashed potatoes (skins on) with just milk, then freeze dry.  

These three small trays were just over 6 pounds and it all fits into a quart jar. Wild, eh? 😄 

To make mashed potatoes, I add 1/2 cup boiling water to just 3 tablespoons of mashed potato powder, a little butter & salt and pepper.   Mix well and let sit for 2-3 minutes to fully redydrate.

Last week's Mutant Tomato (has been seriously upstaged)

My single surviving cucumber vine is still producing incredibly well.  

This is part 1 of a 2 part experiment.  The old wives tales tell us you cannot clip off strawberry runners and plant them, you have to leave them attached to the mother plant and allow them to root naturally where they are.  Well, that's part 2 down below.  I clipped all of these off about 2 weeks ago and they're doing just fine so far.

My landscaping staples were far too long for this, so I improvised and used the handle ends of clothes pins to pin the runners into place inside the little pots. 

My sweet potatoes had really been stuggling until about 2 weeks ago when they finally starting taking off. I can only guess that it has something to do with the heat & humidity, which we've had in abundance over the last few weeks.  So far they're doing better than sweet potatoes have ever done in my garden so I'm happy with these results so far. 

Last year this Honey Crisp had 2 apples.  This year it has 10! 

In this area of the garden there are elderberries, rhubarb, hazelnuts, blackberries, lilacs, dill, cilantro, basil, lemon balm, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, raspberries and hibiscus.  My goal in turning my wee piece of property into a thriving Food Forest means using every available space for growing something edible, medicinal, herbal, or all of the above.  

This Musk Mallow grows wile alongside the garage in full shade all day. 

It's not only beautiful, it attracts loads of bees and it's beneficial for a variety of medicinal uses.  

My first ripe Pink Ponderosa tomato this year.  

I thought last week's Mutant Tomato was wild, but it's got nuthin' on this week's specimen.

My raised bed runneth over. With carrots that surround the peppers. 💖

Ed says, he approves.  😁

Thanks for stopping by and taking a stroll through the garden with me. I hope this encourages you to get out there and grow your own as well!

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. 😊