What we are harvesting in the mid-October edible

Tomatoes and peppers with zinnias in the background

Sunday, October 18, 2026

The garden continues to produce well; more than we can eat fresh.  We are harvesting tomatoes, onions, sweet and hot peppers, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, eggplant, chard, sorrel, mustard greens, yard long beans and many herbs.  I am freezing about a pint of peppers, and 1-2 quarts of tomatoes a week as well as drying the herbs we need for the winter.  I have more okra, zucchini and eggplant than we can eat.

Our tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, okra and yard long beans are still yielding decent.  The 6 week drought and late heat wave we had were hard on the tomato vines this year.  For tomatoes, be sure to take all the tomatoes off the vine before it frosts.  You can either wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper and store in a cool place to ripen, make them into relish, or eat them as fried.  For fried green tomatoes, we like a Cajun batter.  Gives them a nice, spicy flavor.  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!

The year, my cucumbers produced until the end of September; I am still getting a few small fruits.  My Trombetta zucchini is only giving an occasional fruit now.  In years past, it would produce well until the first hard freeze.   

As you straighten up your garden beds as the summer crops wind down, be sure to compost!  Any plant that has a disease, do not add to your compost pile.  Throw away!  Composting may not kill all spores and you could be spreading the disease next season wherever you use the compost.  For more tips on composting (even indoors),  Composting basics and troubleshooting tips

Peppers love this time of year.  They are native to the mountains so October is perfect for them.  They will continue to produce even after frost.  My peppers did well this year.  I had a couple of California bell pepper plants in the ground and they did very well.  The sweet chocolate pepper that I saved from seed did okay this year.  The sweet Jalpapeno hybrids did well.  The Doe mini bells did great.  The hot Jigsaw pepper plants just kept producing their pretty purple peppers all season long. My Tunisian Baklouti hot pepper plant that I had had a couple of years died for some reason.  I harvest my peppers when they start to get some color in them and let them finish ripening on the counter.  Removing the fruits encourages the plant to replace them, giving you more peppers.  Peppers get sweeter when they ripen, but are good to eat even when green.  

I will bring in the Jigsaw pepper plant and the two Chipetlin pepper plants for the winter.  It seems like the hot peppers overwinter well inside.

Basil is doing pretty decent right now.  Basil are very tender annuals and will turn black with the first frost.  Make sure to harvest all the leaves prior to the first frost.  You can dry basil, make it into pesto or freeze it in water.  My favorite is to make pesto.  I have plenty of pesto in the freezer so I probably won't make any this fall.

Stevia in bloom, covered in butterflies

You can also dig them up and bring them in for the winter.  Place them in a full sun spot.  You can put them back outside again in the spring after all danger of frost has passed.  I typically have volunteers that pop up in my tropicals so I don't need to start any others.

Bay, chives, thyme, marjoram, oregano, papalo and tarragon are all robust.  Tarragon smells wonderful.  Even if you can't eat all that you can harvest fresh and dried, it makes a wonderful potpourri.  I just use dried, whole stems in a vase to freshen an entire room.  I bring the bay tree in for the winter every year.

The greens are doing just okay that I seeded in early September.  They love this time of year, cool with plenty of rain so I hope they start popping. As soon as they are a bit bigger, I will put in the permanent spot for the winter.

Fall is a bountiful time for gardening.  I have planted many winter hardy varieties of lettuce, broccoli, mustards, and cabbage to keep the garden producing into December and hopefully beyond.  With the portable greenhouse, we should have greens all winter. 

Easiest ways to "peel" garlic

 

Saturday, October 17, 2026

If you have ever tried to “peel” fresh garlic, it can be maddening.  The thin, light paper covering each garlic clove is almost impossible to pick off and as you try to peel off the paper, you get sticky garlic juice on your fingers which the papers stick to like glue!

When I started growing garlic, I tried to find the types that had long storage life.  I never found any that consistently stored even to spring no matter where or how I stored it.  When I went into an old fashioned general store in Albany, Georgia, I saw and bought pickled garlic.  I've been using that method for preserving ever since.

Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

Now, the tricky part is peeling the cloves.  I quickly figured out that I wanted garlic that had only large cloves with thick skins because they were the easiest and fastest to get the skins off an entire harvest.  Hardneck garlic fits that bill so that is all I grow now.

How to choose garlic to grow

 Over the years, I have tried several different ways of "peeling" my garlic clove harvest.  The three best ways I found were using a garlic peel remover, smashing the clove to make it easier to remove the skin and putting the cloves in a bowl with a lid and shaking vigorously.   Now, I use the bowl technique and the crush technique or peeler for any that the skin doesn't come off.  Much quicker than trying to remove the skin of every single clove with your fingers!

Pickle your garlic harvest for year round use

Homemade pickled garlic

Sunday, October 11, 2026

If you had a bumper crop of garlic or just want to have garlic cloves on hand all the time, it is super easy and inexpensive to simply pickle garlic cloves.  All you need to buy is apple cider or white vinegar.  Or you can make your own.......

I first learned about pickled garlic when I went to a general store in Albany, Georgia.  They had many local canned items in Mason jars for sale.  I saw the jarred garlic and bought it.  They had added some spicy peppers in the jar which gave it a kick.  I loved it!  It has become my favorite way of preserving my garlic harvest.

How to pickle garlic

  1.  Get quart canning jars.  I use Tattler or glass lids.  The vinegar eats at metal lids.  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty
2.  Either make or purchase raw apple cider vinegar.  Any neutral tasting vinegar will work.  I just like the nutritional benefit of raw vinegar.  Make your own apple cider vinegar

3.  If using your own garlic or purchasing whole cloves, separate the cloves and remove the "skin".  You can also buy separated cloves, sans skins in many grocery stores that you can use.

4.  Slice 2 or 3 hot peppers and place in the jar, if you like garlic with a kick.

5.  Fill the rest of the jar with garlic cloves to an inch or so below the mouth of the jar.

6.  Fill the jar with vinegar.

7.  Put the jar in the frig.

8.  Use cloves any time a recipe calls for it!

When picking garlic to plant, I look for types that have large cloves and say "easy to peel" in the description.  Of the garlic I have tried, hardback garlic has the biggest cloves and a thick skin, making them the fastest and easiest to peel. 

How to choose garlic to grow  

I save the biggest and easiest to peel cloves from each harvest to save for planting my next crop.  I plant in October or early November for our Zone 7.  
Time to plant garlic, shallots and perennial onions!

What to plant in the October garden

Fall edible garden

 Saturday, October 10, 2026 

October's favorite to plant is garlic.  But it's not the only edible or ornamental that you can plant.  There are many cool season loving crops that can transplanted as well as perennials, fruit trees and bushes.  Cover can be used to extend the edible harvest all the way through to spring.  

What is a four season garden?
You can garden year round in small space
Planning for a four season garden

This month you can transplant more greens, any perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.   Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden   Greens can still be sown by seed if you have a cold frame or a portable greenhouse cover.  Sow the seeds, then after sprouting and developing a couple of sets of leaves, you can put a cover over them at night to keep them warm and growing faster.  You want your plants to be as close to full size by mid November as you can get!  That's when the daylight hours get less than 10 hours and growth outdoors pretty much slows to a crawl.

Here are the crops you can start in the October Midwest edible garden:

October seeds outdoors
Austrian winter peas

Fava beans

Garlic

Lettuce-winter hardy varieties

Snow peas

Spring bulbs

October transplants
Arugula

Broccoli
Brussel sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Celery
Corn salad

Endive
Escarole

Frisee
Italian dandelion

Kale

Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mache
Mustard and Mustard Greens

Winter and Perennial Onions

Parsley

Scallions

Shallots

Sorrel
Spinach

Sprouting broccoli

Trees, bushes, and perennials

Transplants for winter and overwintering

Look for cold hardy edible varieties when planting for fall and winter harvests.  You may be surprised that you can harvest all through the winter months things like greens, onions, Austrian peas, carrots, and cabbage.  You can also extend the harvest by looking for the same crop with different days to harvest timing so that they mature at different times.  

Covering plants when there is a cold snap in the fall will keep them warmer and growing quicker.  You can use cover to possibly extend the harvest all the way to next spring.  I use a portable greenhouse for my lettuces that works great.  Extend the season with protection for plants  Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

When planting when temperatures can get hot, be sure to keep the soil moist until the plants are well established.  Lettuce won't sprout when the ground temperatures are above 75F.  If it is too hot in your garden, you can start them indoors.  My lettuce seedlings are starting to get their first set of true leaves.  I'll likely transplant them in another week or two in their winter pot.  

Summer and fall planted crops take longer to come to harvest than they do when planted in the spring.  Rule of thumb is to add 2 weeks to what the "Days to Harvest" on the seed packet.  It's because the days are getting shorter rather than longer and cooler rather than warmer.  

Once there are less than 10 hours of daylight, most plants growth will slow to a crawl.  This occurs at our latitude on November 24 this year.  We get back to more than 10 hours of daylight on January 17.  Once we get back to 10 hours of daylight, plants come to life and start growing quickly again.

What you want to do is to start your seeds and transplants early enough in late summer and fall so that the plant is at full size before daylight gets short and the cold really sets in.  Then you harvest what you want through the winter.

A great and easy way to start your fall garden is to sow the seeds in a pot on a covered deck or patio.  This makes it easy to keep an eye on the seedlings and protects them from the hot sun and frosts.  After they have a couple of sets of their true leaves, you can transplant into the garden bed or pot.  Harden them off first by moving the pot to full sun before transplanting.  "Hardening off" seedlings  After transplanting into the garden, keep them watered regularly during dry weather until well established.

For more seed starting tips Outdoor seed starting tips  Indoor seed starting tips  Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

You can also get fall transplants on-line and sometimes at local nurseries.  So if you haven't started seeds yet or don't have the time, this is another great option to have a fall and winter garden for fresh eating.  They are selling out quick!

I will be transplanting blackberry bushes again this fall.  Any perennial, including fruit bushes or trees, can be transplanted or planted in the fall.  It gives them all winter to establish a strong root system to thrive next year.  Out of the 12 I transplanted last fall, only 1 didn't make it to spring.

Time to plant garlic, shallots and perennial onions!

 

Perennial onions

Sunday, October 4, 2026

There are many perennial alliums.  Alliums include garlic, chives, leeks, and onions.  Fall is the time to plant perennial alliums like potato onions, walking onions, shallots and garlic.  

Garlic, leeks, shallots and onions will continue coming back year after year unless you pull them.  If they are not big enough the first year, leave them and they will come back bigger the following year.  For the biggest onions and cloves, fall is the best time to plant.  You can plant in the spring but your garlic cloves will be much smaller and your shallots and onions will have many fewer and smaller bulbs.

There are also Egyptian walking onions, potato onions, and shallots which are considered “multiplier” onions.  They continue spreading out from the single bulb you plant.  As long as you leave a few bulbs behind, they will come back the following year.  Egyptian walking onions are usually pulled and used fresh, but they can be conditioned for a couple of weeks and stored for months like potato onions.  Egyptian walking onions  

If you grow garlic, you will likely find that the following year you have garlic sprouting again even after harvesting the bulbs.  Many garlic bulbs will have little “bulbils” that become detached from the bigger bulb when you pull them.  These babies come back up the next spring.  I also had many bulbils from my hardneck garlic flower tops.  

These look like seeds but they are actually clones of the mother plant.   

I planted them last fall and they were just little guys this year.  I'll leave them in the ground to continue growing.  It'll likely take at least 2 years for them to get large enough to harvest.  From the bulbs I harvested this summer, I will take the biggest cloves and plant those for next year's harvest.

Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

I choose to grow hardback garlic because the cloves tend to be larger and the skins are stiffer, making them much easier to peel than soft neck.  Also with hardneck, you get the pretty purple flower and the bulbets after flowering.  There are probably 50 baby cloves in the top so you can really expand your garlic quickly and economically with hardneck garlic.  If you love scapes or braiding your cloves together, softneck is the way to go.

How to choose garlic to grow

In my Zone 7a, here is the recommendation on fall planting times:

September through October plant Egyptian walking onions

Mid-October until mid-December plant garlic, potato onions, overwintering onions and shallots

Plant about 1" deep in soil rich with organic matter and well-drained, 6" apart for individual cloves or bulbs.  I already added the phosphorous and potassium my soil test said to add this spring so I will put a handful of blood meal for nitrogen under each bulb at planting.  If you haven't done a soil test, you can add a balanced fertilizer in each hole as you plant.  In the spring, continue to side dress with nitrogen every 2-3 weeks when growing resumes.  If using blood meal, use 1 cup per 10 feet of planting.  Alliums prefer a soil pH of 6.5-7.  I usually just dig a trench, put blood meal in the bottom, fill in a bit of the soil and then plant the clove.

I have issues with voles in my garden in the past.  They are supposed to be repelled by blood so I am going to use blood meal as my nitrogen source when planting to see if that helps.  I planted daffodils and creeping thyme all around my beds to deter them and it seems to be working.

To protect against a severe winter freeze, apply a few inches of mulch over the bed.

I ordered potato onions from Southern Exposure a couple of summers ago and planted that fall.  Since they did not grow much, I did not dig and divide them.  I did not see any sprouts from them this year.  I'll dig them up to see if they are still in the ground and move them since this spot is not working well for them.  The Dutch Red Shallots they substituted for half of the potato onions did pretty well so I dug them, divided  them and replanted last fall.  I think I'll just let them go another year before dividing again.  If I need shallots, I can dig them any time.  If shallots are happy in the bed, you should get 4-12 shallots from each bulb come spring.  Potato onions increase by 3-8 fold in weight from fall to spring, but mine were very small when I planted them last fall and did not do much.  

There is a risk if there is a really hard winter that you can lose many or all of your fall planted potato onions and shallots.  Using mulch can help protect against the loss.  Southern Exposure recommends planting the biggest bulbs in the fall and saving the smallest bulbs to plant in the spring as an insurance policy.

In our Zone 7a, I have not had an issue with an extreme winter killing my bulbs, but I do use mulch in all my gardening beds.

I wanted potato onions since they multiple underground and have a long storage life.  I'm guessing that it will take a couple of years to get the potato onions really going so that between them and the Egyptian walking onions, I should not have to buy cooking onions any longer.  

Sweet onions do not store for long so I will still buy one of those every month or two for burgers.  I did also order sweet Egyptian walking onions that I planted last year in a pot and this year they really got going.  They'll be an experiment to see if I can substitute them for sweet bulb onions for burgers.  It's fun to try new things in the garden!

I have many, many bulblets from my existing Egyptian walking onions that I have been giving away to other gardeners.  These walking onions have the taste of a white onion.  Each bulblet with produce a full size Egyptian walking onion bulb (about the size of a leek if planted in a pot) if planted individually so they have room to grow.  The ones I planted in our local Demonstration Garden raised bed got the size of a normal onion.  You can plant them 4-6" apart.  

For more on growing onions,  

Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em

Alliums are very nutritious, easy to grow, and tasty.  Try some in your garden this year!

October 2026 Edible Garden Planner

Early October edible garden is in full bloom

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Gardening in October is typically refreshing, like the weather.  Pests are fading fast as the weather cools.  The sun shines brightly to take the chill off the cool days.  The summer vegetables like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, basil and okra continue to produce at a reduced pace.  The cool season crops like lettuce, carrots, radishes, peas, cabbage, beets, broccoli and cauliflower are coming into maturity throughout October and into November.  Flowers, bees and butterflies are abundant in the fall garden.

Now is the last call to save seeds from your favorite fruits and veggie plants if you haven't done so already.  The plants still producing well this time of year are great ones to make sure you have some seeds to plant again next year.  The varieties that do well in your garden conditions are ones you want to invite back!  Just be sure to not save seed from any plants that are diseased as this can bring the disease back into your garden in the spring.  My top 10 seed saving tips

Basil will turn black when it gets close to 35 degrees.  I pull all the leaves when it is forecasted to get close to freezing or any chance of frost.  You can chop basil, put in an ice cube tray and cover with water to then use any time your recipe calls for fresh basil.  It stores best when frozen in water.  I also dry some to add to my "Herbes de Provence" seasoning mix.  Most of my harvest I make into pesto and place in freezer bags with just enough for a meal.  Gives a whole new meaning to “fast food.”  Pesto is great over pasta, fish, or as a condiment on sandwiches.  Basil will root from cuttings if you want to bring it in for the winter.  Everything you need to know to grow, and preserve, basil

The bees just love basil flowers!  Bees favorite flowers are those with small flowers like basil.  The purple holy basil flowers mixed with the white sweet basil flowers are quite pretty, too, as well as very fragrant.  If you want to keep the stems from getting woody on these types of basil, keep the flowers pinched back.  I always have Cardinal basil as well in my garden.  The leaves are great in pesto, the flowers are showy, and they don't get woody stems like traditional sweet basil does.  

Bee on basil flower

Other herbs that do just fine through frosts are parsley, rosemary, thyme, chives, tarragon, winter savory, and sage.  It takes good snow cover to stop these herbs.  Many winters you can harvest these herbs the entire season for cooking.  Cut back the extra now, dry and make into seasoning mixes which you can give to the whole family at Christmas.   Make your own "Herbes de Provence" 

I will wait until it gets below 32 degrees before I strip off the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.  You can freeze or dry these veggies.  Tomatoes are a high acid fruit so you can also easily can sauce from them without using a pressure canner; a stockpot is all that is needed.   Preserving the tomato harvest  Be sure to follow any canning recipes exactly so your canned goods don’t spoil.  

For more on preserving your extras for year round use, see

 Preservation garden

24 No Tech Storage Fruits and Vegetables

Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are tropical perennials that can be brought in to overwinter.  If you have a favorite plant you would love to have in your garden next season, bring it in to an attached garage or even your living room.  I have successfully overwintered different kinds of hot peppers, dwarf tomatoes and a few eggplants.  You get a serious jump start on the season in the spring if they over winter.  I am bringing in my tiny hot pepper plant Chipetlin to overwinter for the ninth year and my Jigsaw pepper fourth year.  I have some tomato transplants I bought at the end of July.  Since I didn't plant them all, I'll bring indoors the extras to get a jump on spring.  I'll also have indoor basil as they volunteer in the tropical plants I bring in every fall.

There are several herbs that can be brought indoors as well.  Basil and chives are great ones to grow indoors in a sunny window since they lose so much flavor when dried and they are easy to grow indoors.  Growing herbs indoors for winter

Make sure you pull the tomatoes from the vine before the vine dies.  Wondering what to do with the green tomatoes?  You have a couple of options.  You can make fried green tomatoes-yum!  Just use some fish fry seasoning; we like Andy’s Cajun Seasoning.  A late fall tradition-fried green tomatoes!  They recommend you can also wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and store in a cool, dark location and many will ripen.  Check about weekly to cull any that spoil.  They won’t taste as good as fresh off the vine, but are better than store bought.  I have had tomatoes this way into February.  I also have just kept them in a bowl on the counter instead of wrapping.  They don't last quite as long but they are easier to cull any going bad.

Potted tomatoes first of November

As the vines die back and the fruit loses its sheen, it is time to harvest winter squash. Winter squash include the well known pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash and spaghetti squash among many others.   Be sure to leave at least a couple of inches of the stem and place in a warm sunny spot for the skin to harden for a week or two.  Many winter squashes will keep until next year.  I have had butternut and Trombetta squash last until the next summer.  Harvesting winter squash

October and November is garlic and shallot planting month for the Zone 7 garden!  Plant in the waning cycle of the moon.  Garlic and shallots loves loose, well-fertilized soil.  Loosen the soil down to about 6 inches, mix in a couple of inches of compost, and plant your cloves about 2-3” deep.  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......  Garlic and shallot leaves are one of the first greens you will see in spring.  Don't be surprised to see them sprout this winter.

Now is also a great time to divide any perennials you have, whether they be herbs, edibles or ornamentals.  This will give them all fall and winter to put down strong roots.  Perennial greens (like chard, sorrel, cultivated dandelions, salad burnet) are always the first up in the spring.  This is the perfect time to plant any perennial plant.  The fall and winter allows the plants roots to grow deep, preparing it for a fast start in the spring.  Perennial veggies in the Midwest garden

It is still not too late in early October to transplant fall crops like cold hardy types of lettuce, cabbage, chard, pak choi, broccoli, kale, parsley or perennial herb plants.  You can check your neighborhood nurseries for bedding plants.  I use my Aerogarden or just a pot on the covered patio to start from seed cold hardy crops I want in my fall and winter garden.  Starting them indoors gets them going quicker.  With less sun and cooler temps outdoors, plants grow more slowly so getting bedding plants or starting indoors gets your fall veggies to full size quicker.  Add about 2 weeks to the "Days to Harvest" timing for fall planted edibles.

Cloches and portable row cover

To extend the season, you can order a mini greenhouse to cover your pots or the part of the garden you have planted your cold hardy greens you want to harvest all winter.  You can also purchase row covers that cover plants and provide protection from frosts, but not hard freezes.  Adding mulch is a good winter blanket for cool season crops.  Preparing the garden for frost

Winter hardy kale, spinach, Austrian peas, carrots and winter onions don’t need to be covered and can be harvested all winter (as long as the ground isn’t too frozen) and into spring.  I grow Austrian peas over winter and they provide greens for salad all winter long.  They have very pretty flowers, too.  Come spring I have lots of early peas too.

I’ll put our portable, plastic mini greenhouse over the greens in my Earthbox self watering pots sometime this month or next.  One watchout with green houses-they get very, very hot in sunny weather so be sure to open them to allow circulation in fall and early winter anytime the temps get into the 50's.  They will need to be closed up when winter really sets in December or January sometime.

Portable greenhouse over pots

 

What's happening in the late September edible garden

Edible and decorative garden beds

Sunday, September 27, 2026

We are having a very dry September again this year and way above average temperatures.  In the past, we could depend on the rains starting by mid-September and supplemental watering being pretty well over until next summer.  Not this year.  I am still watering the beds weekly and the potted edibles every 2-3 days.  The highs finally broke out of the 90's this week but we're still waiting for rain.  

Peppers, beans, eggplant, cucumbers, okra and squash do well in this type of weather if you make sure they have enough to drink.  I have many peppers just waiting to ripen, my okra continues to flower and produce fruits, my Yard Long beans are producing very well, there are a few tomatoes on my tomato plants, and flowers and fruits on my eggplant.  When the heat gets in the 90's and stays there, tomatoes drop their flowers so you don't get as many fruits after heat waves.  It takes about 3 weeks for fertilized flowers to become small fruits and another 3 weeks to be full sized and ripe.  

Herbs are doing well.  The basil and oregano is in full bloom.  The bees are loving both of these plants along with the zinnias, celosias, marigolds and lavender.  Now is a great time to harvest all your herbs.  I do need to harvest sage, oregano and thyme as I am out of these dried herbs.

Time to harvest and preserve your herbs

Cardinal basil in the front, zinnias behind

Many of the winter lettuce seed I planted three weeks ago have sprouted.  They're not growing much yet.  When they get their second set of leaves, I will start transplanting them into their winter pots which I will cover with a portable greenhouse cover.  All will do great under cover all winter. 

I dug all my shallots and garlic last month.  I took the tops off to give away the "seeds" to friends, removed the stems and dirt.  I will divide and replant them next month.  They can be planted as late as November in our zone.

Time to plant perennial onions, garlic and shallots

If you are a garlic lover, October is prime time to plant your garlic for next summer's harvest.  I save the biggest cloves from my summer harvest to plant in the fall.  If you haven't ordered yours yet, some varieties may be sold out, but that is always a good reason to try something new.  What I don't plant, I peel and pickle to use throughout the year.  

How to choose garlic to grow

Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

My volunteer zinnias, cock's comb, and flame celosias did really well again this year.  I had a bonanza of different colors of zinnias and my cock's comb flower heads were huge.  I'm sure I will have many volunteers come up again next year.  The California Giant orange zinnias just glowed in my front yard pot.

Fuschia pin cushion zinnia

Hummingbird vine, Heavenly morning glory, and Red Malabar spinach volunteer vines went a little crazy this summer.  I did a better job this year of pulling most of them, but I'll need to pull more next season to keep them in check.  I had to spend an afternoon pulling them off the patio garden bed and from potted plants.  

I do like growing Egyptian Walking Onions, eggplant and peppers in pots so will continue to do so.  I grew potted huckleberry bushes this year in pots.  I don't think I'll grow them again next year; too messy and time consuming to pick.  I'll pick another small fruit to try in its place.  The dwarf tamarillo is still doing good in its pot.  Tomatoes, pole beans, squash, okra, cucumbers, corn, garlic and melons all are more productive in the ground.  You can still do well in pots using compact varieties, but smaller plants do mean smaller yields.

Pretty soon, it will time to reflect back on this year's garden, see how much I was able to can, pickle, dry and put away in the freezer to develop next year's garden plan.  It is best to do at the end of the season when all is still fresh in your mind.  It is also a great time to write up the list of things you'd like to learn more about over the winter to try in next year's edible garden.

Reflections on the 2025 garden and the 2026 garden plan

It's also a very good idea to keep a garden journal throughout the growing season so you can look back through it to make sure you're not missing any key info.

Keep a garden journal