With all the action going on about our move, I realize that I forgot to post the final tally from our 2023 growing season harvests! See below – this is the last harvest at our old house. I’m writing this from our new home that doesn’t have yet have a garden. I’m unsure what this growing season will bring but as we build the new garden out, things will be evolving over the next few years. 🙂 Stay tuned!
Radishes: 73
Spinach: 12 cups
Arugula: 8 cups
Napa Cabbage: 7
Snap Peas: 1,484
Buttercrunch lettuce: 3
Con salad: 9
Buckley lettuce: 13
Garlic scapes: 17
Romaine lettuce: 24
Garlic: 22
Turnips: 49
Carrots: 122
Beans: 676
Chard: 65 leaves
Cherry tomatoes: 1,608
Slicer tomatoes: 6
Green onions: 30
Chamomile: 1 tea tin, dried
Basil, mint and lemon balm: Lots, eaten fresh
Impressions from this growing season: I planted enough cherry tomatoes (14 plants is the sweet spot), I need more slicer tomato plants (or just find a variety that produces more) – I only planted 2 but only got 6 tomatoes – that seems low. I also need to plant more lettuce. In 2022 I planted too much so reduced the number of plants for 2023 but it turns out, I need something in the middle to keep us in lettuce all spring and early summer.
Another gardening season wrapped – see the final harvest tally at the bottom of this post! It wasn’t as successful a year as 2021 (that was the best year ever so a hard one to follow) but decent nonetheless! I discovered a soil issue (nutrient depletion) and learned from it, and got some pretty good harvests and have a plan for the next growing season.
The big stars this year were garlic, tomatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas and herbs.
I’ve been learning about growing melons and squash and although better than las year, the soil issue impeded any significant harvests there. I usually grow green beans like a champ but again, between the soil issues and the delayed planting, beans were lackluster. Root crops – and my fall crops in general – didn’t do well.
But not to worry – there was still lots to cheer about! 🙂
Tomatoes remain a mainstay in my garden and I usually do a mix of different colored cherry tomatoes (14 plants in all this year), plus 2 plants of slicers – this year I grew Celebrity tomatoes and they did great. That many plants keep us in tomatoes from mid July until end of October, when I pull up the plants and let the green ones ripen inside for another 2 weeks.
Herbs typically do well in my garden too and I grow them in my raised beds (parsley), in containers scattered throughout the garden (dill, basil, chamomile, mint, lemon balm) and planted in the ground around the pergola (lavender, oregano). I use them in cooking, dehydrate them for tea, and dry the lavender to make sachets to tuck in drawers and closets.
Here’s the 2022 tally:
Cherry tomatoes: 2164
Sugar snap peas: 757
Radishes: 124
Garlic: 84 bulbs and scapes
Carrots: 65
Beans: 53
Slicer tomatoes: 29
Bok Choy: 12
Green onions: 12
Crookneck squash: 11
Turnips: 4
Napa Cabbage: 4
Melon: 2
Romaine lettuce: 24 heads
Buttercrunch lettuce: 16 heads
Buckley lettuce: 12 heads
Spinach: 12 cups
Parsley: 12 cups (chopped and frozen)
Arugula: 8 cups
Kale: 1 cup
Chamomile: Enough to fill an entire tea tin (dried)
Mint: One tea tin (dried) and lots harvested fresh
Lemon balm: 1 tea tin (dried)
Basil: So much basil – harvested fresh
Things planted but got no successful harvests: Beets, rutabaga, butternut squash, cabbage
It’s been a strange growing season so far – cool temps stuck around and it was quite wet, but we managed to harvest quite a bit nonetheless! Here’s a recap of what we harvested in the spring time; I started a lot of seeds indoors, direct seeded some things, and the garlic (hardneck) was plated last fall.
Garlic – I planted some in 2 beds, 84 bulbs total:
It was a good year for lettuce – I grew arugula, romaine, buttercunch and buckley (red). I harvested over several weeks (cut and come again) but once in a while, I harvested entire heads to make salads for lunches for the week:
It was my first time growing sugar snap peas and we loved them! We ate them raw as a snack, in stir fries, and just sauteed in some butter. Popped a few bags in the freezer too. I’ll definitely add these to the garden plan going forward. Like pole beans, these were fun to harvest, like looking for treasure in the vines! 🙂
Garlic scapes were harvested mid-June (about a month prior to harvesting the garlic bulbs). For the first time, I made garlic scape pesto and it was really good. Warning: It’s got quite the zing – A little goes a long way!!
I also grew bok choy, spinach, napa cabbage and chamomile (which I dry for tea).
I’m excited to announce that my garden plan for next year’s growing season is DONE! Over the summer and fall, I usually jot down ideas, goals and crops for the next season as I think of things or come across things that worked (or didn’t) but I hold off on any major plans until the winter break. Mainly because it gives me something to look forward to during the “off season” but because I also have the time to spend on all the details. I’m a planner (understatement?) and I put a lot of thought into my gardening goals and what I hope to accomplish, then prepare a plan that will hopefully help me get there. There are many hand-drawn garden plans, lists and seed catalogs involved in the preliminary process until I get serious and organize everything in Excel (my third favorite happy place after the garden itself and the notebooks I scribble in). 🙂
Without further ado, see below for all the gory details including pics of my plans for my spring, summer and fall gardens, my planting schedule for every raised bed (by row), my seed list including the number of plants I need and when they need to be started (indoors or direct sow).
I already listed my goals for 2022 in a previous post but one thing I focused on this year was to have more variety; to grow less of each crop than I have in the past so I could grow more different crops overall.
This is my seed list – I’ll be growing 42 different things! I make this list first, then note down how long each takes to reach maturity, and when I can plan them (started indoors or direct sown outside).
Click on image to open in a new tab (and you can zoom in).
Next I fit everything into a weekly schedule based on the growing space I have (5 raised beds with 16 squares each and some containers for herbs), keeping in mind that certain things need to be planted in certain spots in the garden (e.g. tomatoes on the north side so they don’t share other plants). Also taking into account how long certain things take to grow. I then go back to the plant list and calculate how many plants/seeds I’ll need of each type, take inventory of what I have on hand and order anything I need to, whether it’s seeds, seed starting materials or plant supports/trellises if I don’t have what I need. Doing all of this ahead of time (before the end of the year) ensures I won’t run into any surprises or shortages next spring when everyone else is just starting their plans.
It looks scarier than it is, I promise. For example, if you look at the first 2 rows in the schedule below, I’ll be direct sowing radishes at the end of March in the first row of Bed #1 (it’s a 4×4 bed, so that’ll be in squares 1 to 4, following the square foot gardening method). Meanwhile, I’ll start cherry tomato seeds indoors on April 2nd. I’ll harvest the radishes around May 14-21, harden off the tomato plants the week of May 21 and plant them out on May 28th. These are estimates and depend on the weather but I build in enough buffer to be able to move things up or out by 1-2 weeks if need be. I focus on one bed at a time and look at succession planting from spring through to fall.
Click on image to open in a new tab (and you can zoom in).
I print out the above plan and keep it inside my gardening journal and mark it up throughout the season. It’s how I know what I need to do every week. It’s filthy by the end of the season but it keeps me sane and basically runs itself. Once the schedule is done, I prepare the season garden plans (spring, summer and fall). These plans are what I bring outside when it’s time to direct sow or transplant things so I know what goes where. These get filthy as well but a little soil never hurt anyone. 🙂
Blank squares on the summer and fall plans indicate that a previous crop will still occupy that space (e.g. I plant green onions in the spring – this year that will be in the second row in Bed #3 – and leave them in the same spot the whole season so I can ignore that row in the summer and fall).
Click on images to open in a new tab (and you can zoom in).
Once the May long weekend rolls around, there’s lots to do in the garden including pulling up the spent spring crops, transplanting the warm weather seedlings that have been started indoors, direct sowing the quick growers into the soil and the watering and pest control really hits its peak.
I had a good year, both on the harvest front and dealing with pests. Other than the usual onslaught of Japanese beetles for a few weeks in mid-summer, pests seemed lower than last year. Or maybe since I’m writing this in December, my memory mightbe failing me and my recollection ismore rosy than reality. Ha!
Regardless, based on my harvest tally, this year was my best ever in terms of food production. Yay me!
For my summer crops, I started cherry tomatoes indoors and ended up planting 15 outside. I bought one Early Girl transplant from the garden centre and 6 oregano plants to add to the area around our pergola for ornamental purposes as well as culinary. I also started turnips, basil, marigolds, chard and jalapenos indoors and transplanted them out on or around the May long weekend. I direct-seeded carrots, green onions, chamomile, dill, green beans, rutabaga, crookneck squash and cantaloupe at around the same time. My mint and lemon balm came back from last year.
Once I had room inside, I started my fall seedlings to be moved out when the summer crops were done including cabbage, beets, more turnips, more chard. For fall, I direct-seeded carrots, arugula, lettuce, radishes and garlic.
After all was said and done, the final tally for the 2021 growing season is below, spread across 80 square feet of raised garden beds and containers for herbs:
Arugula: 46 cups
Buttercrunch: 11 cups + 25 heads (I follow the cut-and-come-again method through the season, then harvest the full heads at the end)
Romaine: 11 cups + 23 heads
Cabbage: 2 heads
Bok Choy: 28 heads
Peas (shelling): 110 pods
Radishes: 72
Carrots: 197
Green onions: 26
Cherry tomatoes: 4,051 (not a typo!)
Early bird tomatoes: 22
Turnips: 50
Jalapenos: 16
Swiss chard: Approx. 160 leaves
Rutabaga: 1
Green beans: 1,181
Garlic (planted in fall 2020): 78 scapes and 78 bulbs
Crookneck squash: 2
Cantaloupe: 1
Beets: 25
Chamomile: 2 tea tins full (dried)
Mint: 1 tea tin full (dried leaves) and so many mojitos I lost count. 🙂 Good problem to have.
Lemon balm: 1 tea tin full (dried leaves)
Dill: I used 12 blooms for pickling but had loads more. I only seeded 3 in a container and had plenty
Oregano: 2 jars full (dried leaves)
Basil: We eat basil mostly fresh in pasta, but I made a couple of jars of pesto
I grew some things for the first time and learned some goodinfo:
Beets: I applied boron at the time of transplanting and they seemed to like that. Most successful beet harvest ever; no more teeny weeny beet roots.
Crookneck squash: I tried to use a cage to let them grow upwards and kept the leaves trimmed. Not great. Had vine borers and some powdery mildew. I’ll try a different method next year.
Melon: Had a false start when I seeded in my raised bed and they didn’t germinate, not sure why. I had also tossed a couple of seeds in a container as a backup and those thrived. Might have been a soil issue. I also waited too long to pick.
Mesh crop covers are amazing to keep pests away from brassicas (flea beetles I’m looking at you).
I had a mix of older cherry tomato seeds and some I bought new for this season. The new ones produced much more than the older seeds. Could be the variety but I’ll keep an eye on that..
Pics of the bounty below as well as pics of my garden throughout the season.
Here’s an update on how the spring garden did this year.
I start my spring / cool weather crops indoors in February/March and move them outside when it’s appropriate to do so. This year, I started romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, arugula, peas and bok choy indoors. I’ve been using one of those small greenhouses (with the plastic cover removed) with grow lights but think I’ll eventually need to upgrade my setup because it’s not without its challenges…
When it’s time, I harden off the seedlings for about a week, increasing the time they spent outside each day, then transplant them out into the beds.
This year, the soil in my raised beds took longer to thaw than usual, so the hardening off process was prolonged. I checked every day and as soon as the frozen layer could be pierced with the end of a plastic stirring spoon (I’m pretty high tech), I planted them out.
The garlic I planted last fall was already coming up.
I also sowed some radishes and green onions directly into the beds.
Once the seedlings were moved outside, I started my warm weather crops indoors to be ready to plant out on the May long weekend. Things like tomatoes and basil.
I miss seeing green things growing over the winter so watching the veggies grow made me happy. 🙂 I used row covers for the first time which worked out really well to keep the flea beetles away.
Pics of spring harvests:
Arugula and radishesArugula, bok choy and lettuceLettuceBok ChoyGarlic scapes, chamomile and peasLettucePeasArugulaShelled peas
Here’s my gardening checklist for this year – I modified the last one I posted with some new tasks. I’m in Southwest Ontario in Zone 6A (Oakville); the seed starting and planting will differ for your zone. There’s a link at the bottom to download the list if you wanted to modify it to make your own. 🙂
January
Review gardening journal (to review what worked, what didn’t, etc.)
Plan spring garden (layout, what to grow, succession planting, companion planting, etc.)
Prepare schedule (indoor sowing, set out dates, direct sowing outdoors)
Take stock of supplies and what will need to be purchased/replenished
Enjoy preserved food from last year’s harvest
Maintain winter containers
February
Order seeds and supplies
Prepare indoor greenhouse and clean/prepare containers
Maintain winter containers
Start seeds indoors for cold weather crops (frost tolerant – bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, peas (end of feb), etc.)
Start seeds indoors for warm-weather crops that take more time to germinate/grow (e.g. peppers)
March
Start seeds indoors for warm-weather crops or those that take more time to germinate/grow (e.g. tomatoes, marigolds, etc.)
Prepare garden beds (add compost, soil, remove any debris, etc.)
Transplant seedlings for cool-weather frost tolerant crops (cabbage, lettuce, bok choy, peas, etc.)
April
Start seeds indoors for warm weather crops or those that take less time to germinate (e.g. parsley, chives, lemon balm, chamomile, etc.)
Direct sow cold hardy seeds outside (e.g. peas, lettuce, green onions, carrots, etc.)
I’ve said it before: The 2020 growing season was my best yet. I chalk it up to the increased level of planning I did mainly because I wanted to reduce our dependency on grocery store produce (which might be impacted by the pandemic, whether in supply or pricing) but also wanting to test myself to see how much food I could actually grow if I implemented some key practices. I should mention that I follow the square foot gardening method and have 80 square feet in raised beds (5 beds of 16 sq. feet each, three 4’x4′; and two 2’x8′). I wanted to share my process in case it helps anyone on their gardening journey.
My primary goal was to focus on succession planning. I wanted to ensure that every spot in my garden beds was growing something at any given time. That every time I harvested a plant/crop, I had something else ready to take its place. This meant I had to start things indoors so that by the time I harvested the outdoor crop, my indoor seedlings would be ready for transplanting. For example, I planted radishes at the end of March and expected them to be ready for harvest in about 25-30 days (around May long weekend), at which time my tomato seedlings I had started indoors in mid-March would be ready to be transplanted outside. Similar for the summer to fall transition. Yes, it took some foresight, but if you do all the planning beforehand, the “plan” runs itself. Sure, there were some adjustments made along the way due to weather or whatnot, but the overarching goal was achieved and my freezer is full of home grown produce. 🙂
This year, my primary goals are:
Continue to focus on succession planning from spring to fall.
Grow more vertically to maximize growing space.
Grow fruit – so far I’ve been focused on vegetables and herbs.
So with the above in mind, my next step was to make a list of everything I wanted to grow. This includes our tried and true favorites that we love eating, things that grow very well for us in our climate, and some new things to try this year (I always add a few new things to see how it goes). The list this year is:
Garlic (a mix of my own grown this past year and seed garlic – same variety (Russian Red) and I can’t wait to compare them – that will be a fun experiment!)
Next, I take inventory of all the seeds I have or need to buy (and buy them), noting down days to maturity, etc. I make a rough draft of my garden beds and “place” what will go where: Tall stuff on the north side, where will the garlic go (since it’s in there for the long haul). Then I work around that: What cool weather crop can I plant in the spot where my tomatoes will eventually go that will be ready to harvest before May long weekend (when I typically plant tomatoes)? Knowing I’ll be harvesting the garlic in July, what can I plant in that vacated spot that will have enough time to grow to maturity before the first hard frost? I’ve gotten to this point in my planning for 2021 and it looks like this:
Bed 1
March
May
July
Row 1
Radishes
Cherry tomatoes
n/a
Row 2
Buttercrunch
Jalapenos
n/a
Row 3
Romaine
Basil
Rutabaga
Row 4
Arugula
Basil
Rutabaga or Bok Choy
Bed 2
March
May
Row 1
Radishes
Cherry tomatoes
Row 2
Cabbage
Parsley
Row 3
Beets
Chard
Row 4
Beets
Chard
Bed 3
March
May
October
Row 1
Peas
Crookneck squash and Melon
Garlic
Row 2
Bok choy
Carrots
Garlic
Row 3
Bok choy
Carrots
Garlic
Row 4
Green onions
Green Onions
Garlic
Bed 4
March
May
Row 1
Lettuce
Green beans
Row 2
Lettuce
Green beans
Row 3
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Row 4
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Bed 5
July
Row 1
Garlic (planted in Oct 2020)
Cabbage
Row 2
Garlic (planted in Oct 2020)
Cabbage
Row 3
Garlic (planted in Oct 2020)
Turnips
Row 4
Garlic (planted in Oct 2020)
Turnips
Pots/Containers:
Mint x 1
Lemon Balm x 1
Dill x 1
Chamomile X 2
Basil x 2
Oregano x 6
My next step is to identify what will be direct seeded into the ground (and when), and when I have to start which seeds indoors to line up with the timing above. I use a spreadsheet separated by weeks from the beginning of March to the end of October, and organize it by Bed/Row/Square (like “B2 1-4” is Bed #2 squares 1 to 4), using color-coding for each task (orange=start seeds indoors, blue=direct seed, green=transplant and red=harvest). Each week (column), I do the tasks that are scheduled for that week.
Last year’s plan looked like this at the beginning of the season:
And at the end (don’t mind the mess – this plan comes with me in the garden throughout the growing season :)):
I know this level of planning isn’t for everyone; I’m a huge planner and thrive in the details so this method works for me. Well-executed plans bring me joy. 🙂 Honestly, you just need to find whatever works for you; the goal is to enjoy it and get what you want out of it. And if you can achieve that, you’ve already won! I’ll post my 2021 plan once it’s done!
Phew – the 2020 growing season is almost over! For the first time this year, I kept count of everything we harvested from the garden. We ate a lot of it fresh, I froze a lot, made things (pesto, pickles, salsa, etc.), and I dried the herbs to keep for tea. 2020 has been an odd year but I can honestly say it was my best growing season ever. I put a lot more planning into it than in the past including meticulous succession planting and starting seeds indoors throughout the season (as opposed to just in March like I did in the past). The addition of grow lights to my indoor setup helped as well.
So, without further ado, here is the final tally along with pics of the various harvests from spring to fall, along with some garden highlights:
2020 Harvest:
Radishes: 34 (spring), 34 (late summer)
Bok Choy: 33 (spring), 5 (fall)
Carrots: 64 (spring), 112 (fall)
Green beans: 930
Roma tomatoes: 112
Turnips: 50
Garlic: 63 bulbs
Garlic scapes: 50
Cherry tomatoes: 1,277
Green onions: 73
Swiss chard: 115 leaves (cut and come again) + 25 whole plants (end of season)
Lettuce: Enough for 3-4 salads a week in the spring, plus some grown in the fall (about 3 cups worth)
Arugula: 2 cups
Rutabaga: 8 minis (didn’t grow well)
Parsley: 1 plant (volunteer)
Beet greens: 1 cup (didn’t grow well)
Thai basil: Enough for 3 batches of pesto
Genovese basil and purple basil: Enough for 7 batches of pesto plus fresh eating 1-2 times per week
Chamomile: Dehydrated enough to fill a tea tin
Mint: Dehydrated enough to fill a tea tin and for several mojitos 🙂
Lemon balm: Dehydrated enough to fill a tea tin
Dill: Used to make dill pickles and dilly beans
Cilantro: 5-6 handfuls in recipes
Greek mountain sage: Enough to fill a large ziploc bag
Lavender: I made plenty of sachets
Cabbage: I have 8 still in the ground and am hopeful they’ll do well
What did extremely well: Bok choy, cherry tomatoes, green beans, garlic, green onions, carrots, radishes.
What fizzled: Beets and rutabaga. I’ll try again next year. 🙂
I’ve already planned my 2021 garden and purchased all my seeds (in case of a shortage). I’m growing herbs indoors during the winter to tide me over til next year. 🙂
I’ve been getting questions about starting a garden, likely because more and more folks want to be able to grow their own food in these uncertain COVID-19 times. Since I’m in the process of starting my own seeds indoors to transplant into my raised beds in a few weeks, I figured I’d take pics of the process and provide some tips and tricks for anyone interested. 🙂 Here goes!
I typically use a seed starting tray with Jiffy pods to start seeds but there are other ways for those so inclined. I like the simplicity of the pods. I don’t use a heat mat – I have a south-facing window in my office/seed-starting room and it gets plenty warm in there. This year is the first time I’ve used a grow light (I have a south-facing window but thought I’d experiment with a light to see how it goes).
To start, I plan out how many plants I want to end up with, then start a couple more seeds in case they don’t all germinate. I follow the square foot gardening method (see the details of that method explained here by the amazing Mel Bartholomew). Today, I’m starting kale and lettuce.
I started cabbage last weekend so don’t mind the existing seedlings in the pics. They’re going to be roomies for now.
Step 1: The first step is to place the pods in the tray “circle side up”:
Step 2: Water them so get moistened and expand. After the first watering, wait about 5 minutes to see if they’ve puffed up enough. They may need a second watering. You know you’re good to go when they look like the empty ones in the top right – all poofed up – that’s what you want:
Step 3: I open up the “holes” (the mesh is really delicate – you can tear it very easily with your fingers or a toothpick) and fluff/loosen up the peat (which is what the pods are made out of), with a toothpick, chopstick, tweezer, whatever you have that has a small pointy end will work. This is so that when you add the seeds, it’s easier to cover them with some loose/fluffed up peat afterwards.
Step 4: Get your seeds ready. Let’s start with the kale seeds. I place 2-3 seeds per pod (2 if they’re new seeds and more likely to germinate, maybe 3-4 if I’ve had them a few years). Yes, they are small and sometimes tough to pick up with your fingers. I usually grab a pinchful and try to get about 2-3 in each pod. Don’t stress. Gardening is meant to be fun. 🙂
Now for the lettuce:
Step 5: I cover up the seeds with some of the loose peat (read your seed packets since some seeds need light to germinate and shouldn’t be covered).
Step 6: Add the plastic dome to cover the tray and keep moisture in. Make sure they stay moist and never dry out – that’s very important.
That’s it! These should sprout in a few days. I’ll keep you posted on how things go! 🙂
P.S. You can see my sage (greek mountain sage for tea) seedlings on the bottom tray – first time growing those.
I like to write. About everything. Lately my passions are houseplants, gardening, growing our own food, cooking and working on my Life List. Not necessarily in that order.
Val City Gal 