2026 Garden Experiment Finished

This has been a very different gardening year for us. We started with a wet spring where we had to replant many seeds that rotted. There didn't seem to be as much sunshine as in previous years. And, today it seems that everything is shutting down for winter 3 weeks earlier than last year. Records don't lie.

Our garden experiment started 4 years ago. We've been learning ever since.

Ted was able to pick our randomly planted late-season zucchinis. He picked them all because there will probably be frost tomorrow night.

I was still able to pick 8 bunches of flowers.

We usually deliver our produce on Wednesdays. Delivering on Thursdays means we get to interact with a whole different group of volunteers at the food bank. Thursday's portioning room volunteers are exuberant flower lovers. They were thrilled to see the flowers this morning.

There were still a few beets and 5 bunches of parsley today. Stragglers.

Our total for the year is 1853 lbs.

And, nature celebrated our final picking.

Surprise! Surprise! A choir. A beautiful choir.

• White-throated sparrow

• Northern Cardinal

• Winter Wren

• Hermit Thrush

• Dark-eyed Junco

• Song Sparrow

• American Crow

• Yellow-rumped Warbler

• Ruby-crowned Kinglet

• Common Yellowthroat

• Golden-crowned Kinglet

• Northern Flicker

• Purple Finch

• Blue Jay