Over the years, we got better at gardening. Casey started trying new things when we had a tiny yard in California. But it was very dry, prone to ant infestations, and our cat treated the small raised bed as a battleground. He would fight with neighborhood cats and they would take turns using the raised bed as a litter box. So not much grew in it.
Then we moved to Vermont and had abundant land. We moved in the summer and Casey grew radish and zucchini in a small plot.
2022
The next year, we ordered many seeds in a catalog but there was a low germination rate. We did not use any plant starts nor utilized any grow lights in the spring.
We also raised chicken from chicks, which was the most fun I have ever had outside. They free ranged on our lawn and went to our neighbor’s homes for fun. They were silly and sweet.
Summer finally came and we got realistic about what could actually grow in our garden. We had a hügelkultur and was able to grow all kinds of squash on it. We found what we were good at: tomatoes, potatoes, squash, raspberries, and strawberries
2023
The next year Casey started his orchard. There were chestnut, mulberry, currant, and elderberry trees. He had spent the last three years clearing the land of trees to make room for these food trees.
We also went out and purchased some fruit trees for fun. The apple yielded the best fruit.
This year we had grown many squash, potatoes, black raspberries, strawberries – all the things we had mastered and felt good about the minimal effort we put in.
I also had a “vanity garden” which was two beautiful rows on a hill in the front of our house. I had always been jealous of the Instagrammable gardens and tried my hand at one. It was too much work and it was too far from our main garden where the soil was already primed from the years prior of growing.
I was also pregnant so I never watered, weeded, mulched, or fertilized. We got some tiny vegetables out of it but I lost interest as the season went on.
2024
We didn’t make any maps in 2024 because we had a bigger project: growing a baby. But that year still our garden yielded so much. Now we had our perennials down and could just pick at our leisure. We had a lot of squash hybrids because we had let them do their thing in the garden.
2025
This year we removed the hügelkultur, and bought starts from a local guy who would sell them out of his home greenhouse every year. We purchased mostly peppers and tomatoes and they have all been growing so well. Now we are so much better at gardening. Picking the vegetables is way more fun with a toddler.
Our trees are also yielding. We had tons of things to share with others. With a toddler I was able to stay on top of the elderberries and make syrup and tincture on time.
I also decided to tackle a new challenge: improving the perennial garden our house came with. Over the last give years I did very little work on the garden the previous owner put in. There were many beautiful things but it was very overgrown. The peonies, phlox, conflowers, and and hollyhock were the pride of this garden, but had grown unruly. Goldenrod and vetch routinely take over.
This year I reinforced the rock wall. The irises had stopped blooming, so I separated them. The tiger lillies had taken over so I trimmed them all down. I purchased many new flowers from a friend who started a job at a seed company.
So that was the main project this year. I’m going to try tulips and poppies next spring and see what happens.