2025 Garden Wrap-up

Yesterday, November 8, brought the first snow of the upcoming winter season, putting a bow on the 2025 garden. There is still work to be done, but the garden will largely stay untouched until next year.

The snow brings an opportunity to reflect on the hits and misses in the garden this year.

Hits

Landscape Fabric. We have tried several approaches to controlling weeds over the years, including no-till, mulch, and nonwoven landscape fabric. This season, we spent the extra money and purchased several rolls of 4-foot and 6-foot wide woven fabric. While some stubborn grasses did work their was through the weave, it did a great job in combination with deep mulching around the edges. We were also a little more consistent in weeding in June and mowing the grass between the beds, which together with the fabric and mulch set the stage for a less weedy garden. The winter squash were unable to set extra roots along their stems so that may need to be revisited, but we will be using woven fabric again in 2026. As a bonus, we were able to save the fabric, roll it up, and store for next year.

Shallots from seed: We have been growing onions from sets we purchase at the local hardware store or nursery. While we have gotten onions, they are not as large as we would like and they have not been storing well. As an experiment, we started shallots from seed and planted a couple of dozen in our garlic bed. They did really well, producing nice shallots that so far have stored well. Next season we plan to try onions from seed. This will allow us to try day-long onions, which are more suited to our region.

Cucumbers: The past two years have produced poor crops of cucumbers. This year, we started our English cucumbers in peat pots and then transplanted. We also tried a new spot and different trellises. The result was a huge crop of pickling and fresh-easting cucumbers. We also used peat pots to start Delicata squash, which also did well.

Corn: While we still debate whether the corn suffered from either raccoon or storm damage, we were able to salvage some of the crop with some rope supports and electric fencing. We harvested more corn for fresh-eating than we ever have, so I count that as a success.

Misses

Brassicas: While we did get cauliflower, some broccoli, and some cabbage, I feel like the brassicas struggled this year. We started them from seed as usual, but because of the bathroom remodel project, I did not have time to up-pot them, so the transplants were a little small when they went into the garden. Hopefully we will have time to up-pot next year.

Winter Squash: These did not seem to produce well this year. We ended up with a lot of pumpkins and Delicata squash, but only a few Butternut and Acorn squash. Maybe a mix of landscape fabric and bare soil would be better for this part of the garden.

Peas: We grew plenty of pea plants, but we did not get a lot of actual peas. It was a cool spring resulting in late germination of early plants like peas, radishes and lettuce, which may have played a role.

Flowers: This year we planted sunflowers in a strip along the outside of the garden fence. Although we installed a short fence to keep chickens out, deer were able to reach over and nip off the tops of the plants when they were about 3 feet tall. The plants grew back and we got sunflower, but they arrived later in the season. We planted zinnias and cosmos in an area with no weed control and near the pumpkins. With all the competition, these did not do well, and they were inaccessible for picking. We also had some flowers in containers, but these suffered from the same up-potting issue as the brassicas. We did get Baby's Breathe, Marigolds, Pinks, and Feverfew to harvest, but I felt like these could have done better. More frequent watering would also have helped. Next year we plan to try some flowers planted in weed barrier.

In all, we harvested plenty to eat. We had salsa every day for a month, made fermented hot sauce, and cooked pizza on the grill with fresh toppings. The biggest factor in our garden's success was the weather. Rainfall was more on average than in past years. With the snow comes a shift in cooking. Today we made candy and dinner rolls, and cooked red beans and rice with canned salsa and dried vegetables. The garden may be put to bed, but its bounty is still with us.