While the veg gardens are 99% done, there’s always a couple surprises to be had…
From Left to Right
- I had planned on planting some more peas in August. You may not know, but peas are often considered a coolweather crop. They love those nice but not sweltering days, and can handle the cold nights. And they grow pretty quick, so if you plant again in late summer, you can usually get a fall harvest. I did not actually get around to planting any… but it looks like the garden took care of it for me. I’m not sure if it’s a pea that fell from a pod I missed, or a seed that just took a long time to germinate – but I got one plant growing. I left it, and now I have a few peas! It’s not a meal – but it’s a nice little snack.
- This carrot was hiding under the marigolds! I thought I’d harvested them all – but the marigolds covered a good third of the bed and I missed this one! It was a nice, crunchy surprise (That I put in some coleslaw the next day)
- I thought I picked all the peppers a couple weeks ago – when we had that frost warning. But I missed this one! It’s not big but I’ll take it.
Now…. here’s a run down on the garden season
Wins:
- Lettuce and Spinach! I finally cracked the code and was literally overrun with lettuce and spinach at the start of this garden season. And the code is – plant early! I threw some seeds in the beds mid-April and they were off to the races in no time. We got nice fresh leaves until about July when they started to bolt. Like I planned with the peas, I wanted to do a second sowing for a fall crop, but I never got around to it. I will try again next year
- Swiss Chard: The Chard didn’t really take off until about a month ago. Now I’ve got tonnes of it and will be eating until we get a hard frost!
- Radishes. I’d never grown radishes before. But when I put the lettuce/spinach seeds down, I threw some radish seeds in another container. And before I knew it – I had radishes everywhere! I should have thinned them better as they didn’t get very big – but they were enough to throw in some salads and make Dave happy.
- Beans. 2025 was a terrible bean year. But 2026 has totally made up for it. I gave a pile away, have a pile in the freezer and we ate them constantly all summer. I could still be picking them (the plants are still producing) but I have had enough beans for a bit!
- Peas. I love snacking on peas in the garden so this year I planted up two beds. They both did beautifully and I had fresh peas to snack on for over a month. Next year I will definitely do that second sowing.
- Sweet Peppers: My peppers were somewhat small, but we got quite a few of them! They probably needed more fertilizer for bigger fruit, but I’m happy they even grew. I’ve always struggled with peppers in the past.
- Garlic: My garlic had another great year – 14 heads yeilded – more than enough to get us to next garlic season!
- Bird House Gourds: I planted these on a whim when my squashes and pumpkins failed. I got four lovely gourds which are now drying on the porch. You’ll have to wait until spring to find out if I was successful in that part of the process.
- Raspberries: I have never NOT had a good raspberry year. And this year was no exception. I have enough golden raspberries for a batch of jam. And I’m pretty sure I have enough red raspberries to do a batch of jelly (something I’ve never tried yet) and a batch of jam. And they are still coming – the raspberries go right to the frost.
- Blackberries: This is the third year I’ve had the blackberry bushes here, and it has been amazing. I got about six full-to-bursting medium freezer bags of blackberries set aside to make jam. It was way more than I needed so I send Mom home with a couple bags to make a batch of jam for herself. (All this jam I’m making is being put into Christmas gift bags for this year)
- Watermelons: While I only had five Mini Mike seeds, I got three plants, which gave me four melons total! That was just the perfect harvest as I don’t actually eat watermelon – so Dave has to eat it all. My neighbour gave me a yellow-fleshed melon plant and I managed to get one melon from it. I was a little disappointed as the flesh was more pale peach than yellow. Dave said it tasted like watermelon but – I’ll stick with the Mini Mike’s next year.
Draws:
- Carrots: I put the carrots in the draw category, because even though I planted two beds up, I did not get a whole pile of carrots. I got enough for several meals – which was wonderful – but in theory, I should have had enough to keep us going all winter. This was a couple reasons: First I planted older seed so I didn’t’ get a good germination rate. The second sowing did decent, but then we got hit with a bit of a summer drought – and I didn’t water deeply enough. This resulted in short, fat carrots mostly. More lessons learned for next year.
- Potatoes: Like the carrots, the potatoes suffered from not enough water (especially the potato tower experiment), but also I probably should have fertilized more. I’ve never done a lot of fertilizing, but I’m beginning to realize how important it is for certain crops. My flowers mostly don’t mind – but the veg are a little more needy. All tolled I got enough potatoes for three or four meals. Not a total failure, but not as good as the previous year. No more potato towers for me. I’m sticking with the bed – and I’m going to feed those taters!
- Shallots: A lot of my shallots rotted before harvest this year – not sure what happened there. I still got a decent haul, but definitely not as much as 2025. I’ve almost used up this year’s harvest, where 2025’s harvest went well into deep winter.
- Cucumbers: I didn’t get a tonne of cucumbers this year for several reasons: The first is, I planted all that lettuce and spinach at the base of my squash tunnel (where I also grow the cucumbers). The seedlings I planted didn’t get enough light to really thrive. When I pulled the lettuce, they finally got the needed light and shot up. But then the cucumber beetles hit. They aren’t usually too bad – but with so few plants, they really did damage this year.And like everything else, the cucumbers could have done with more feeding.
- Zucchini and Yellow Squash: I got a few fruit – but not as many as I’d expected. Again – these needed more feeding I think.
- Cabbage: As you’ll remember – but cabbages were lovely! But small. Definitely more feeding needed here, but I will totally grow more next year because they are just so darn pretty!
- Tomatoes: Not overrun with tomatoes, but enough to keep Dave snacking on them pretty regularly. My neighbour got hit bad by Tomato Hornworm, but they seemed to pass mine by. They plants didn’t do as well as they normally do though… so I think they too, needed more feeding.
Losses:
- Pumpkin and Squash: I could not keep a pumpkin or squash plant alive this year. Not sure what the heck happended. But I will keep trying. One day I will eat squash from my own garden!
- Canteloupe and Honey Dew Melons: These were both grown on a whim when I picked up the plants at the garden centre mid-season. I got lots of leaves, but no fruits. Again – probably something to do with feeding. I’m not worried about trying these ones again though.
- Strawberries: I got virtually no strawberries this year. What ones did grow were small, and they usually go eaten by the birds/mice first. My plants were pretty old so that’s probably the reason. I got some new plants mid-year so I’ll hopefully have a better harvest next june!
Overall – Edible Gardening 2026 had more wins than anything. If you count the losses with the draws, the wins still outweigh them slightly. But I’d count the draws with the wins, as there was still success there – so overall all – a pretty decent year.
So what’s for 2027?
Well – you saw that massive seed haul I got from the ReStore – so… lots, including things I’ve never grown before, as well as new varieties of old favourites! We’ve still got a grey winter to get through, but I can’t wait to get growing again…
