Winter has arrived in New York, and I find that this quiet season is a good time to reflect on the previous gardening year. Snow is blanketing the ground, and all the perennials are hibernating during the cold. A few of the fig trees have started to wake up in the basement, but most of the plants are resting. It’s too early to start seeds but it is a good time to plan for the year ahead.

The first fig tree has awakened from hibernation. A second tree joined it a week later and they are now with some houseplants beneath a grow light by the back door.

Last year was a gardening challenge. The spring weather was very difficult, and we had a slow start to the year. Early spring was cold and cloudy with tons of rain followed by near drought conditions. Glad we use sprinklers to water, otherwise a lot of the plants would not have made it. I did have a very good lettuce crop in the greenhouse during the wet, cool spring. We were self-sufficient for salads for the first time which was nice. I did enjoy growing a leafy green mix, all the different leaves made for pretty combinations in the salads. I managed to grow spinach that was large enough to harvest too.

2 rows of baby salad leaves and 1 row of spinach. I direct sowed these in one corner of the greenhouse, and left them until late May when I transplanted out the cucumbers.

Nice late May harvest, from both inside and outside of the greenhouse.

The summer plants did pretty well overall, but we had a major pest problem when the woodchuck moved in under our deck. It took a full month to catch it, and it destroyed my squash, lettuce, and most of the kale plants. The voles also continued to be a nuisance. They didn’t eat whole plants like the woodchuck but did do damage to flower and leafy greens. I had a particularly hard time trying to get pole beans started off at the base of the deck.

Biggest harvests: compost pumpkins, total weight was 68 pounds! Tomatoes also grew like crazy, tons of “weed” plants from last year’s compost that I allowed to grow. I also successfully grew the heirloom variety Cherokee purple for the first time, so that was cool. In total I grew 73 pounds of tomatoes. I made tons of pasta sauce and also gave away a bunch of tomatoes to family and friends.

First Cherokee purple, harvested in late July

Typical single day harvest, late in summer

We successfully grew about a dozen small ears of corn this year, and I definitely want to try again this season. They tasted really good, and we were able to use the stalks for fall decorating.

I bought seed potatoes and had my best harvest ever from 5 grow bags, 8.5 pounds and several were regular sized. My first attempt a couple years ago was underwhelming, so I was happy it worked out this time around. The two types of potatoes provided enough for multiple meals for my family.

I grew onion from sets and was not impressed with the final size when I harvested them. They may have needed more fertilizer throughout the season. Will try again next year.

I grew a bunch of pepper plants from seed as is my usual. This year they really struggled to produce and it took until late August to get a decent harvest. Most of the bell peppers remained pretty small. I think in terms of individual production one of the jalapenos won.

Oddball produce: a short and fat cucumber next to a tiny but ripe purple bell pepper. Sometimes homegrown produce can surprise you with it’s unusual shape or size.

The blueberries were mostly a miss this year, but we just transplanted the small bushes last year. The strawberry tower did quite well all year long, I was harvesting them from late April-October. I grew over 9 pounds of garlic, the bulbs weren’t huge, but I still had a good harvest from the bed.

I added more flowers this year, both purchased starter plants and from seed. First time growing snapdragons; they were surprisingly pretty hanging over the edges of the beds. The dedicated dahlia bed performed far better than I imagined, and I loved cutting all the flowers for vases on the kitchen table. I also harvested my first couple of small apples off of the trees we planted last year.

In total I grew 215 pounds of produce last year from my backyard garden.

Goals for 2026:

1. replacing a decaying wood raised bed with a metal Birdie’s bed
2. better corn harvest, larger and more ears
3. more variety of winter squash
4. sunflowers, got a couple dinner plate sized Arikara two years ago, and will try again
5. better productivity from pepper plants
6. more reliably fertilize the potted fig trees for increased harvest
7. try other types of “cloning” plants, air layering, cuttings, and collecting seeds for the next season
8. staying on top of current houseplants, potting up when needed, maybe move a few out into the greenhouse in late spring
9. better utilize frost cover/row covers to protect early plantings
10. succession sowing, to keep roots in the ground as long as possible
11. productivity is good but so is taking time to enjoy the garden and the combination of colors and plants