Kitchen & Garden Notes, 2025

It’s early October. The warmth has been slipping away as the rain arrives in fits and starts, and by tomorrow, the chill will settle in fully. According to my notes from last year, we lit our first fire in the wood stove on October 18^th; judging by the chill in the air now, it’ll be a few days earlier this year.

It’s nearly time to retire the garden—a relief. This week we harvested pumpkins, potatoes, and tomatillos, which means I’ll be pushing through one final preserving marathon in the name of salsa verde—and then that’s that. I’m done. No fall or winter garden, and no experimental or new-to-me recipes. Not this year.

I’ve been wondering at my uncharacteristic lack of motivation. Preserving the harvest is always a big job, but it’s something I typically enjoy once I get started. But this year it’s been a drag from start to finish, which probably stems from our lack of viable pantry space. Our kitchen has lots of potential, but we’ll need some minor renovations to make it more functional. If we can finish even this first step in our kitchen renovation plan by next summer, we’ll be in a much better position to handle next year’s yield.

That said, the garden was productive despite the mild summer weather, and we made a few key changes to our layout. Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and what we’re planning next:

Wins

• Our mostly-goat-but-also-rabbit compost pile finally decomposed enough to amend the soil.

• The squash arches. We built 9 new 4’x4’ raised beds, lined them up in 3 by 3 rows, and connected them with cattle panel arches for trellising. This is where we grew most of our pumpkins, acorns, and butternut squash.

• We used cattle panels to support our tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, and eggplants which was more sturdy and less fussy than tomato cages.

• Cover crop (annual ryegrass and white clover) between the rows to help keep weeds down.

• Spaced rows wider for better maneuverability and to keep our cover crop mowed.

• Turned our comfrey-taking-over-the-garden problem into a solution by using it to fertilize.

Fails

• Zucchini overproduction, per usual.

• Some of our corn didn’t germinate.

• Forgot entirely to plant basil or cilantro. Unforgivable.

• Got lazy about harvesting and dehydrating herbs.

• Made comfrey tea and forgot to use it. Should probably go find and dump the barrel before it explodes.

• The arch trellising requires some upkeep: vines need to be trained regularly, and growing squash needs to be situated so it hangs rather than sitting on top of the wire to prevent from piercing the skin.

• Squirrels and chipmunks stole all our strawberries and most of our prunes and plums this year, the jerks.

Future Plans

• More raised garden beds. Will add or repair a few more each year.

• Privacy fence so I can go out and harvest in my pajamas.

• More fruit trees and a deer fence around the orchard.

• Transplant the grapes near the house up to the orchard.

• Keep collecting stones for the orchard terrace walls.

• Eventually, build a small greenhouse.

• I tell myself this every year: collect seeds!

Here’s hoping next year’s me is better rested and less forgetful about planting the basil.