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| Sunday, November 16, 2025 |
Late fall is an ideal time to reflect on the spring and summer gardening season and capture what went well, what didn't and what you want to do for your garden next year while the garden season is fresh in the mind. I like to capture what varieties did well, what I planted too much or too little of, including the specific names before I forget. I am forever trying to make the garden more productive and enjoyable. I also like to make notes of what I want to learn more about over the winter.
Here are my reflections on this year's garden............
Overall
In general, the garden did well in the spring, seed starting for spring and summer went well, was typical timing for producing summer veggies, and my fall seed starting struggled. We actually had a real spring for the fifth year in a row. This year, we had a crazy warm up at the end of winter, then back to chilly temperatures and a slow increase back to normal temperatures in June. Late summer and fall had record heat that affected tomato production and my fall seed starting.
I went on the vole offensive this year and planted daffodils, marigolds and creeping thyme around all of my beds. This did seem to help. I just transplanted creeping thyme from our back garage bed to the berry bed in the spots the spring planted thyme did not make it. Fall is a good time to plant perennials, including herbs.
I started a couple hundred creeping thyme and lavender plants from seed as well as several perennial flowers for the new front landscaping flower bed. Of course, I always put edibles in my flower beds. I think they are beautiful mixed in with flowers and also give you lots of nutritious tasty food to eat.
I was also able to use the creeping thyme plants and daffodil bulbs to put around the 2 new back beds and any empty spots in the existing beds in early spring.
I planted marigolds around all the beds as a vole and deer deterrent. They're pretty and cold hardy to boot. They really shine from a distance.
In the new back berry bed around the telephone pole, I planted Yard Long beans, Christmas Speckles lima beans, 1500 Year Old pole bean and winged beans to go up the guide wires and a Trombetta squash to meander under the berry bushes. I didn't have enough compost to cover this bed until middle of the summer. The berry bushes produced very little, had no winged beans, Christmas Speckles or 1500 Year Old pole beans and the Yard Long beans took off in late summer. The Yard Long beans were super productive so even with a short production window, I got all we need for the rest of the year. Next season, I expect that everything will do much better in this bed with another round of compost and fertilizer. Plus it takes a couple of winters for perennials to develop their root systems to support upward growth.
I planted tomatoes, basil, cucumber, okra, sweet peppers, winter squash, marjoram in the basement bed along with cockscomb and marigolds. I put peppers and eggplant in pots with snow peas around the bed behind the garage, as far into the sun as possible. I always put petunias in each pot to add color.
I had many volunteer Blue Feather lettuce, Malabar spinach, Heavenly Blue morning glory, Red Hummingbird vine, basil, celosias, cock's comb, carrots, and Egyptian walking onions come up. I grew all my lettuce, celery, spinach, cultivated dandelions, dill, parsley, chard, and sorrel in my larger self-watering pots.
There were high points and not so great turn outs for the season. Just your typical edible garden season!
The good
The lettuce, cultivated dandelions, bay laurel, sorrel, Egyptian walking onions, basil, celery, eggplant (Rosa and Turkish Orange), garlic chives, Japanese Mountain Spinach chard, Anaheim peppers, all but the banana sweet peppers and a Better Boy container tomato did very well. Greens were the standouts in the spring. The tomatoes planted upside down in 5 gallon buckets in the summer garden did fantastic from July into mid August but the extreme heat thereafter really throttled back production. For some reason, the bucket planted and garden Cherokee Purple tomatoes died out early in the season.
In the volunteer department, Red Malabar spinach, Heavenly Blue morning glory, Husk Cherry, Giant Blue Feather lettuce, Blue Spice basil, celosia, Hummingbird vine and zinnias were prolific. The volunteer Cock's Comb flowers had enormous flower heads.
For flowers I planted, almost all of the lavender plants survived and bloomed, the marigolds grew huge and their color was a vibrant addition to the beds, Snow on the Mountain really stood out. It is a prolific self seeder so I picked up as many seeds as I could find and scattered them on a bank that is hard to mow along with celosia and zinnia seeds. Come spring, I'll transplant natives onto the bank as well.
For the herbs I planted, sage including the multi colored varieties really did well, Cardinal and Genovese basil did extremely well this year. Rosemary did pretty well. Marjoram looked healthy but stayed small. Butterfly papalo grew huge. It is a super, heat loving substitute for cilantro. It grew to about 7' tall. I will definitely grow again but only need one plant and will put it in a different location since it is so tall. The Red Roselle Hibiscus plants grew to over 6' tall and 6' wide. They produced hundreds of calyxes in late fall.
The other plants that did well were Prescott Fond Blanc melon (prolific and tastes like cantelope), spring greens, Egyptian walking onions, Dragon's Tail radish, newly planted and existing creeping thyme, Tricked You jalapeño plant was prolific as was the Habanado sweet pepper plants and Poblano chili powder peppers, and the Jerusalem artichoke plants grew to over 7' tall in their first year.
I got enough sweet and chili peppers frozen that I won't need to plant them for preserving next year.
Overall, I think I did a pretty good job of not overplanting. I did have more sweet peppers than I needed but that was because I had leftover plants from a class I gave. There are so many cool things you can grow it is hard to not want to try lots of new things! The 2 new things I tried this year that will now be part of my yearly plan was Prescott Fond Blanc melon and Butterfly papalo as a substitute for cilantro.
We found a chemical that does kill Bermuda grass so we sprayed around most of the beds. Will do the rest next summer. You have to spray during the summer when Bermuda grass is active.
The okay
My Bush Champion cucumber, Red Burgundy okra, volunteer New Zealand spinach, rosemary, sweet Banana pepper, Trombetta zucchini, garlic, shallots, Giant Leaf mustard, Tamarillo, carrots, Sweet William flowers, Alpine strawberries and artichokes all did okay this year.
The cucumber plant gave all I needed for salads and canning pickles up into August. Okra started producing in August and gave all I needed for freezing. It took a long time for the Trombetta to start producing but gave fruits until frost.
I planted 2 artichoke plants and 4 Alpine strawberry plants. Both the artichoke plants survived and one gave a flower. I should have cut it because it really stressed the plant. It did survive, though, so next year I should get flowers/fruits off both plants. Only 2 of the Alpine Strawberry plants survived and they produced berries from late summer all the way through fall.
The shallots and garlic did well enough that I can separate the cloves and replant the largest. I will have enough garlic cloves to pickle some.
The goji berry and Aronia bushes did decent this year. I expect they will really go to town next year as it will be their second year in the garden. The dwarf Tamarillo tree did not produce an abundance of fruits and the flavor was interesting. I will bring the plant in this winter as it is a tropical but I won't be planting more of them.
I planted Sweet William flowers around the borders of the beds with marigolds. The marigolds grew so large they grew over the Sweet William. The Sweet William plants did well and flowered all season but just weren't as visible as the marigolds. Sweet William is a tender perennial so I will not replace any that don't make it through the winter. I will replant marigolds since they are very heat tolerant, do very well in my garden, deter deer and voles, and are real show stoppers covered in their yellow and orange flowers. Since they grow so large, I will plant half as many and spaced twice as far apart as this year.
The bad
The butternut and Ayote Green winter squash and Lemon Drop watermelon didn't produce any fruits. Only got a handful of berries from the blackberry bushes, raspberry bushes, new strawberry bed and blueberry bushes.
The snow peas, winged beans only gave a few pods. The potatoes were tiny and full of holes. I was using potato boxes and should have removed the sides when I planted them but did not take the time.
My sweet potato vines were doing fantastic until a fawn discovered that it loved the leaves and ate it to the ground several times.
My 1500 Year Old pole bean and Christmas Speckles lima bean vines barely grew and gave no pods. They were planted in the new bed that I didn't have compost for until late summer. Will try again next year.
The perennial potato onions and bulbing onions did not grow much. I'll leave them to see if they get bigger over the winter.
I did not get any Love Lies Bleeding amaranth volunteers this year and the Giant Golden amaranth I planted died out. So did the chervil, Hilton Chinese cabbage, orach and pink celery. Only had one Chinese Bicolor Spinach amaranth volunteer in a pot and it did well.
I did sow Hilton Chinese cabbage again for fall. They are super cold hardy and tasty in salads.
I got the worst tomato harvest ever. I didn't plant a huge number as I had all the sauce I needed from last year's crop. Between the frozen left from last year and what we froze from this year, there should be enough in the freezer to last until next summer. The extreme heat we had this summer just stopped all fruiting. When temperatures stay in the mid to upper 90's, tomato flowers become sterile and won't product any fruits. This is the last year we will be doing the upside down buckets. Next year, we will put all the plants into the ground. Since the ground stays cooler than the buckets, it should help production with the summers we are now having.
Winter learning
Will research how to maximize berry bush and strawberry bed production. Will scour the seed catalogs for other small fruits I can grow in the garden. I put berries on my morning yogurt so want to have enough that I grow to eat them year round.
Next year's garden
I just built a small stone retaining wall in the back garage bed. Today I will add chicken bedding and leaf mulch to add fertility. I hope this will provide the tilth and nutrition needed for onions and carrots that did not do the best back there this year. Plus, it will make the bed more level.
Here is my garden plan for next year:
Purple Yard Long pole beans, 1500 Year Old bean vine and Christmas speckles lima beans on separate guide wires. Plant with Hummingbird vine and Red Malabar spinach?
Urizun Japanese winged bean in a pot as it loves the heat
Red Burgundy okra (2 in the garden bed)
10 tomato plants-large paste (Italian Red Pear), slicers (Cherokee Purple and an orange/yellow), a small fruit (Chocolate Pear), a storage tomato (tbd), Brandywine and an early variety like Rubee Dawn
3 eggplant-AO Daimura, Antigua or Rotanda Bianca or Rosa, Shiromaru or Amadeo (in pot)
1 bush cucumber, 1 vining cucumber (in garden bed)
1 summer squash-Trombetta since it is resistant to vine borer, disease and squash bugs
2 winter squash-Butternut and fun other one like Ayote or warted
Perennial onions-potato onion type and Egyptian Walking onion sweet and cooking varieties
Hardneck garlic, Elephant garlic and shallots
Potatoes in the potato boxes (get seed potatoes from store and purple perennial potatoes from actual seed)
Snow peas in pots with peppers and eggplants
Dragon Tail radish in pot or garden by sprouting broccoli
Hilton Chinese cabbage (2 plants)
New Zealand in pot (1)
Lettuce (Royal Oakleaf, Grand Rapids, Butter King, Bronze Beauty, Celtic, Forellenschluss, Giant Blue Feather, Yedikule, Red Sails, Romaine) and spinach in pots
Greens that stay sweet in summer-Orach, Amaranth, Chard-Perpetual Spinach and Fordhook, Chinese Multicolor Spinach, Purple Stardust Iceplant, Komatsuna, Giant Leaf mustard
Herbs-Dill, Basil (Nunum, Genovese, Cardinal), Papalo (cilantro substitute), Lion's Ear, Rosemary (try a couple new "hardy" varieties), Chervil. Parsley, sage, pink celery and marjoram if they don't survive the winter.
Sweet pepper plants for fresh eating (1 bell and 1 snacker). Overwintering Chiltepin, Jigsaw and Baklouti hot pepper plants and Habanada sweet pepper plants are overwintering indoors.
Cantaloupe-Tigger melon or Prescott Fond Blanc
Small fruits-Tamarillo overwintering indoors, Husk Cherry volunteers, restart 2 Alpine Strawberry varieties, others?
Flowers-zinnias, alyssum, marigolds, Cock's Comb, peach hollyhocks, blue morning glory, Love Lies Bleeding, Moonflower?, Others?
