It feels weird to write a synopsis of something I'm still knee deep in but here goes!

The 2025 Gardening Season was my most successful yet. We were able to build and fill the last of the raised beds, I fully reclaimed and more clearly defined the herb garden space, and I was able to grow, harvest, and preserve more food than I ever have. This year in the garden I friggin killed it and I'm proud of me.

What Went Right

A lot went right! Much of it comes down to planning. Using my journal and my notes app in my phone, everything was written down. What was planted where and when and when I should expect to see each stage of growth was carefully documented and never entrusted to my overconfident but underachieving brain. I will never again fall for the trap of "I'll remember that..." because, no. I won't. I did find that I remembered things more though, likely because I remembered writing it down, too!!

Family Emergencies and my own pain issues affected the time I was able to spend outside (more later...) but even still, I harvested and preserved more than ever before.

It is so easy to get over the garden thrill by the time harvesting comes around.

This year I made a point to find recipes I was excited about involving the things I was growing and with tariffs and the rising costs of everything I wanted to harvest and preserve as much as I could. I'd purchased a pressure canner at the end of the season last year that I couldn't wait to put to use too! With the help of friends I was able to get everything harvested before frost hit and I've been canning and dehydrating and fermenting and freezing and sauce-making like crazy!

Finally, this year - after many many trials and failures - I grew beets!!

Look at them! And look at me! Have you ever seen anyone prouder of a root vegetable in your life?

What Went Wrong?

As happens every year, some things just don't grow. This year it was watermelon. I'm not entirely sure what happened. The vines just withered and died. What I do know is that I moved them a bit to get them to go where I wanted them to shortly before they died. Also, the bed that they were in was one of the new ones and the soil settled weird leaving big gaps that may have affected root growth. I planted two hills and got zero edible watermelon. Next year I'll get a kiddie pool or something to raise them in.

Dampening off struck my seedlings and killed off about half of my tomatoes. I restarted them but they lagged a bit behind the others. Then Spring came with all the usual business and traveling and they didn't get in the ground until almost June! Those tomatoes lagged months behind the others and were really just getting started at the end of the season. If they'd gone in at the same time I would have had a tomato-avalanche! Which brings me to the tomato-avalanche I did have! My Roma tomatoes were out of this world productive during a time where I just couldn't get out there to harvest them. Many wasted tomatoes which I hate to see. I didn't end up canning any tomatoes or making tomato jam since I missed their peak.

Surprise Wins!

I tried Callaloo (Green Amaranth) again this year and it has earned a spot in every garden of mine forevermore. Callaloo is a heat tolerant, delicious, cut and come again green. The callaloo that I planted at the end of March I harvested from the end of April through to November and then I canned 4 Quart jars of greens and collected the seeds to replant and to eat as amaranth grain. The seeds are still processing though and I'll be sure to update with how delicious they are. It is such a low input HIGH OUTPUT crop that can be used in a variety of ways. Super excited about it.

I have given up on summer squash due to vine borer. So this year I tried Green Striped Cushaw winter squash. The vines are too tough for the borers to get through! I planted 3 plants and got the three biggest squash I've ever seen in my life. Cushaw tastes better than pumpkin and is less watery. I made a Cushaw Casserole with very little other ingredients and it was completely out of this world delicious. Cushaw is an Appalachian heirloom that I am so happy to have discovered. Wow.

(Plus, it's very fun to say.)

I planted milkweed in my herb garden in 2021. While beautiful (most of the time) I'd never ever seen Monarchs until this year! I have Butterfly Milkweed and Swamp Milkweed that they seemed to enjoy equally. I loved watching them fatten up and wiggle around until one day they were gone! I saw 2 chrysalis and one that eventually opened. They were so well camouflaged I'm going to assume that I just didn't see them, not that some jerk bird came and ate them!

...and what have we learned?

While the hunt for a good raised bed irrigation system continues, I actually really like hand watering. It gives me a chance to check in on everybody and notice what's going on in the garden and catch things possibly sooner. That's not to say that the benefits of an irrigation system (saving water mostly) aren't still worth it. Just something to note and to continue to make room for when I do get it in place.

Holy crap dried beans. Being a chronic pain baddie, I never know when I'm just not gonna be able to do the things I want to do. I grow beans that are good at the fresh, snapping phase for longer and can be used as shelly beans. This year I tried drying beans and went a step further to can them! I got so many beans!! I have green beans, long beans, and dried beans preserved now. If I miss a window for one, I just have to be patient and I can still harvest it. That's huge!

In 2017 I signed up for a service called Chip Drop. They connect arborists with gardeners so that they can get rid of wood chips or logs instead of paying to dump them somewhere. Winning situation for everyone. Early in the season, some folks were talking about it and I'd never gotten a delivery in all those years! I checked that I was signed up still and renewed my request. A few days later, I got my first delivery!!

umm.

there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding?

NOPE! This is what I should expect when I select logs. My thoughts were that I could use the logs in my hügelkultur beds but the logs that we were brought were too large for anything but commercial equipment. They're still there. I did not sign myself back up to get chips and will get free mulch from the landfill to make my paths!

2025 has been a huge year for my garden. I am so excited to take the lessons I've learned and build upon them in 2026. Putting my raised beds in has been a multi year project that's finally done and I'm ready to put that energy into the backyard and turning it into our little relaxing escape with native and perennial flowers and food producing trees.