Peach
Apricot
Plumxpeach with figs on the side
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Current garden plan for 2026.
Expanding in either direction (East to West) by about three feet. Doing this each year will allow expansion and also a buffer where I can isolate the perennial grasses and keep them from getting into the main garden from the edges.
Main garden has 5 sections, section 5 will be fallow. All garden waste, leaves, weeds, chicken refuse, will be dumped there to compost down for 2027.
I fall planted tomatoes in the plum row, and watermelons in the almond row. So the main crop watermelons will be in one of the expansion areas, and sweet potatoes in the other. Melons along the back.
Parsnips or turnips in the apricot row.
Section 1 from the East, grains testing. Sorghum, amaranth, quinoa, sesame. Only the amaranth and chia survived in the dry area last year, and the chia didn’t set seed.
Section 2, popcorn in spring with bush beans. Late crop squash, planted mid July directly into the beans.
Section 3, tomatoes, two rows 8 feet apart, interplanted with onions and peppers. Hot peppers this year. I hope to get enough this year to last me several years so I can segregate the sweet pepoers in the following years.
Section 4, spring green beans, with sweet corn in the fall. Sprawling squash planted after the sweet corn is up.
I suspect in the long term sweet corn will end up being a want rather than a major crop plant, but we’ll see.
Expand the orchard outside the main garden. The garden is too wet in the spring for the orchard trees.
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Root system on the apricot seedling after a week. I always get excited to plant, and plant too early.
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My tomatoes weren’t coming up. A whole week and a half before any of them showed their heads!
My seeds always sprout within a day or two. And then it dawned on me. These were all seeds I hadn’t grown. They don’t know that I’m impatient and tend to discard and replant after a week.
They don’t realize yet that I expect them to leap fully grown from the soil and spit “not good enough” back at me.
So this morning I have one of a friend’s seeds up, and two of the Kellogs Breakfast. None of the G1 dryland tomatoes, and none of the Jogodka.
Not sure the Dryland will come up–only one came up last year and it didn’t survive the bugs. Jogodka should be fine.
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Both sets of tomatoes are well up, and I up-potted the first set.
Time to start the peppers. I don’t use bottom heat so they’re slow. This year mostly hot peppers. A few sweets, but I won’t keep seeds from them.
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Tomatoes are getting to the point that they’re struggling in their little cups. I planted out (under milk jug covers) those that seem to require more water and they’ll have to survive or die. Next section will be the biggest of the main garden tomatoes, planted directly into the existing onions.
It’s still early for tomatoes, so I’ll only plant out those I can cover.
Peppers are growing very slowly and will be up-potted this week. Two sweet peppers and maybe a dozen hot peppers are thriving without bottom heat, fertilizer, or copious watering. The goal is to get enough hot peppers to last me a few years so I can use the next few years to segregate the sweet pepper seeds and eliminate any hot genes.
Planted the beans this week. We’ll see if they survive the rabbits that have found my garden.
The first of my fall planted melons is up. I was not expecting that this early. No watermelons yet, but one more thing nailed that can be planted in the fall for spring emergence.
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google suggests red mulberry! aren’t plum leaves longer? Peach leaves are certainly longer and thinner. Leaves of cherry makes me think it could have cherry in there somewhere. the plantid app I like suggests cherry. Which I’m more likely to believe.
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I have a hard time telling the difference between plum and cherry in any case. I marked it as plum x cherry, primarily because it had the same coloring as the other plum x cherry. Definitely not mulberry. Google obviously has issues. 
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I saw the first beans today. 8 tomatoes are in the ground.
Apple trees and quince are growing well. These are an apple that grew in this area, so I hope they work. I have never tasted quince.
One of the seedlings that I planted in the fall survived deer, rabbits, and a dry winter. It looks like it might be a plum. I have another plum to join it.
Almonds haven’t sprouted yet. They usually sprout and grow pretty quickly, so I just put them in the refrigerator a few weeks ago.
Still waiting on fall planted pecans, walnuts, and oak. Those will go in the shelterbelt to eventually block the wind.
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Walnuts are a loss. They should have started sprouting by now but it looks like they all rotted. More pecans, walnuts and oaks are in bags in the refrigerator. The seeds are old, so no idea how many are viable. If I get one of each, that’s progress.
Last year 12 of my tomatoes survived to fruit. I’m hoping for more this year because all the seeds have been grown in this area at least one year. 30 in the ground so far, 10 to go.
Peppers and the pseudo grains test will go in the ground in the next week. Corn may not get planted this year, since it’s in an area I’m trying to clear of perennial grasses.
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Peanuts are planted, 4 parsnips up from the first planting. I thought it was a total loss.
Chickens got one of my fall planted watermelons but the rest look fine.
Something–chickens, other birds, rollie pollies? Probably rabbits–got 5 tomatoes but I have replacements in the house. I really need to accelerate their adaptation to fall planting, but I’m not sure how to do that. None of the fall planted seeds have come up.
For the most part, if I’m not fussing around in the dirt and digging holes, the chickens ignore my plants.
I am currently watching the broody teaching her babies to forage, kicking dirt all over the baby tomatoes. She pays no attention to the tomatoes themselves.
I still need to plant corn, green beans, and the pseudo grains test area.
Grains test is planted. Not as much space as I would have liked, but enough. We’ll see how they do with no inputs and lots of wind in clay soil.
Sesame, amaranth, and quinoa. I forgot about chia, so I’ll probably do that set this week. Last year I got a few early bloomers from the day length sensitive population.
Still haven’t planted corn and green beans.
The next set of deliberate crosses from my chicken project are in the incubator and hatching. These should be JG/RIR/Dorking-Sussex, except for those I set from my broodies.
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I need to plant 3 times as many peppers as I want. EVERYTHING kills them. Cold, heat, wet, dry…hail.
The tomatoes shrugged off the hail with maybe a few broken leaves. I think I have 1 pepper left.
It’s too late to replant peppers, so I went and bought 3 types of hot peppers. If they cross, great. If any of the old peppers unexpectedly survive, more great. I still want to do the sweet pepper segregation next year, so I need enough spicy peppers to use for at least two years.
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We have wild onions that have filled a meadowish area of our land. They can be agressive!
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I think I might start some seeds for tomatoes and peppers in May or June, for planting out in Sept. Things sometimes don’t survive our July and Aug, but I’m working to save seeds from things that do survive our heat to produce in the fall again. I’m finding I need to level up my ability to keep track of which plants I want to save seed from!
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That’s actually garlic. The wild onions are in another area!
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Two peanuts up yesterday. We’ll see if they survived the night (rabbits).
Peanuts are looking good but the chickens have found them. I have barriers up so they can’t be dug up, but the chickens apparently appreciate the taste. The senior chickens are locked out of the garden, mostly. Some have discovered an alternative use for the weights on their shoulders so I get a few invaders early morning.
I reseeded the lost tomatoes, in ground under cover. One of the “lost” tomatoes is returning from the root. I need to do peppers later today. I’m beginning to see roselle seedlings, volunteers from last year. We’ll see if they survive.
I found a tomato volunteer, probably from the Q10 I grew last year. One of the Jogodka survived in ground, surprisingly. If it dies I’ll replace it with some kind of paste tomato.
Probably a dozen watermelons have come up as volunteers, but something gets them within a day or two. I suspect rabbits, as there’s no sign of digging and the plants are gone rather than just thrown aside. I have a few covers, so I may use those for the watermelon. The rabbits don’t seem to care about the other melons. Too fuzzy? The chickens keep covering them with woodchips, though.
Almost time to plant the sweet potatoes. I need to do more weeding and try for a late season crop of beans and corn.
Chia is up, but sesame, quinoa and amaranth are still waiting.
I have one single, lonely pear that has survived the wind. Not pear tree–one pear. There was a cluster of 5 that got pollinated. Four surviving trees. Apple seedlings start going in the ground this week.
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