Garden 2025

In some ways, the garden this year is scaled back from what I've tried the past few years.  Other than the lima beans (which are doing... not much), I didn't try anything particularly new.  Sure, I've got 36 tomato plants, but that's getting to be normal for me.

Half the garden is in wildflowers this year again, and I'm still getting new things appearing as we get through the summer, since I just threw down a bunch of mixed wildflower seeds in the fall. I was delighted to see that the blanket flowers had come up, because I love the colors.  I also got larkspur (amazing color) and candytuft from the seed mix.  The California poppies came back strong, and I've got vetch that I'm debating leaving or pulling up.  The borage came back but is not drought tolerant, so if I don't water, it gets very sad.  I've been letting the milkweed go (hoping to get more pupating monarchs), and in early summer while it's blooming, it smells just like lilacs.  The cosmos have just started coming in, so we'll see if I get more of those, or just a few.  The flowers I'd love to have that I've had no luck getting to come in are goldenrod and New England asters, which would give me some great purple and gold in the late summer and fall.

 

The vegetable patch is doing much better than last year; I'm not struggling with the crab grass, probably due to the heavy mulch.  Besides 36 tomatoes, I've got zucchini and yellow squash (super productive), cantaloupe (refusing to trellis itself, but with four melons on the vine), broccoli, cabbage, jalapeno (have already made a batch of jelly), bell peppers (in progress), cucumbers (have made 3 different kinds of pickles/relish), butternut squash, watermelon, and sweet corn (lagging, probably needs another hit of nitrogen). 

 

 

The blackberries have been productive, but I've been neglecting them.  Maybe this weekend I can get out there and pick some.  The grape vine looks less full than last year, but that's fine, since it makes way more than I can use for jelly in a year.  The honeycrisp is setting fruit this year (unlike last year, where it hardly bloomed), but we'll see how it turns out since I haven't sprayed it (with kaolin clay, to dissuade the bugs).