Our 2026 garden is progressing.

A few weeks ago I planted peas, spinach, lettuce, kale and radishes. The soil in these beds needs some work and I wasn’t sure if anything would grown successfully. Although not everything is doing well, we are getting some radishes, peas, spinach and kale.

One of my goals this year was to grow at least double the number of onions I grew last year. I fought hard getting them started in our little greenhouse, but had little success. I didn’t change anything from last year so I’m assuming it had something to do with the seeds. After trying three times, I transplanted what I had then broke down and bought onion sets which are now enjoying their new garden home. At least I hope they are because I need onions.

After watching the weather closely – maybe stalking is more appropriate – I decided it was time to put the tomatoes in the ground. Because we wanted to grow vertically this year, we put cattle panels in the beds. I stalked the weather a little more then headed outside with my tray of tomato plants and transplanted them into their new home. 15 plants – Korean Long, Peron, Bread n Salt, Pink Fang and Beefsteak. The first three have become favorites in our house and will go in every year.

Baker Creek is my go to for seeds and they included a free packet of Pink Fang seeds with one of my orders. Obviously, I had to try them out because . . . they were free. I’ll give you my thoughts in a couple months.

Years and years ago I grew Beefsteak tomatoes. Because my BFF loves big tomatoes for sandwiches and I share some of our harvest with her, I decided to grow a couple plants this year. Fingers crossed that I get a good crop.

With the tomatoes I planted basil and marigolds. Both are great companion plants to help with tomato pests and for pollination.

The weather is not perfect yet for my hot weather vegetables, but my propensity for starting seedlings too early meant my plants were starting to get stressed from being cooped up. They needed space, so after much consideration, I put my peppers in the ground. I will need to cover them for a couple days this week (as well as the tomatoes) but with most days being nice and warm and then warm again after a couple cooler days, I decided they would be happier outside than in.

Next weekend it will be time to get our cucumber and squash seeds in the ground. They are also getting some cattle panel supports this year and by next weekend that garden project will be done.

My strawberries did not survive the winter. However, I learned that the space I had given them was much too small for our family. Not to worry though, I have plans.

My other project this year was to get my pollinator garden started. That project is underway and next weekend I will be adding more, including putting milkweed seeds in the ground. I need more bees and butterflies in my life. Although not as much as my fruits and vegetables do.

Now onto my future garden plans.

This is our third year of gardening at this house. Hubby and our son spent a lot of time building raised beds. They were carefully placed in our garden space and have worked well the past few years. It was a lot of work, but I have discovered that I’m not a fan. As I look at my garden I see unused space and ways to better utilize the space we have. Making changes is much more difficult with raised beds, so at the end of this gardening season, we will begin dismantling the raised beds. Since the strawberry bed is no longer producing, Hubby has started taking it apart. This will give me room to grow a lot more strawberries. Next year we will dismantle most of the the beds and create a better space for growing more food. Not to worry though, Hubby is working on some ideas for repurposing the wood so it won’t go to waste.

The other change this year is our addition of apple trees. It’s something we have discussed off and on over the past couple of years and we decided to go for it. They should arrive this week and by then I will have decided exactly where to plant them. In few years we will hopefully have apples.

Gardening isn’t a money saving venture, at least not initially, but it is still one of my favorite hobbies. There is great satisfaction knowing that we are eating food that I’ve grown and that it’s grown organically.