At the beginning of the year, we spent a lot of time planning for our 2026 garden. Now that Spring is here and much of the basics are in place, we have space to add some more. To help decide what you should grow each season, it’s helpful to reflect on past years and look at your cooking and eating habits. Here are some of the questions that we asked to help determine what else we could grow.

What went well and what didn’t?

Looking back at last season, most of what we grew was successful. We had bountiful Shishito peppers and squash. Tomatoes did okay, as did cucumbers. Bush beans were fantastic. We really struggled with corn, sunflowers, and edamame. Radishes were not great, nor were our leafy greens such as kale and lettuce. These were in an older raised bed which was not getting sufficient sun. We had planted sage and tarragon in this bed and they survived the winter and are looking amazing for this year. We tried growing snap peas up the back fence but they were so delicate, and planted too late into the spring, that they didn’t survive the summer sun. Onions were also a bust.

What my family ate?

Honestly, we ate everything we grew last season, there wasn’t anything that we grew that we didn’t like. We even made use of the leaves of things like radish and broccoli (see my recipe for pesto). Not much got wasted. Even the tiny marble sized potatoes and onions got cooked up.

What we enjoyed cooking?

The biggest hit in terms of cooking were the Shishito’s. We fried them in a little oil and salt. They make the best appetizer. We grilled a lot of the zucchini squash, which is our favorite way to eat it.

What we are craving now?

There is nothing better than a fresh tomato or cucumber, so probably the summer vegetables.

What produce offered the most versatility?

Tomatoes offered the most versatility – we ate them fresh, or processed them into sauce. Nearly every type of cuisine includes tomatoes from Indian, to Greek, and of course Italian.

What stored well?

The bush beans we great for storing. I froze bags of them and we continued to eat green beans throughout the winter. Pickled jalapenos also lasted. We were able to can some tomatoes but didn’t have enough of an excess to store much. We also pickled a lot of cucumbers, but we are them so quickly they barely lasted a week. One goal for this year is to harvest and store more, so that we can enjoy the fruits of the garden for longer. This is also something we are considering in terms of what to grow more of. For example summer squash grows really well and we love it, but it doesn’t store well. I may explore freezing it. I’d also like to either freeze or dry some herbs.

What brought beauty to the garden?

Although the garden itself was beautiful, we lacked flowers – especially ones that could be cut for arrangements. This is something we plan to focus on this year by growing zinnias and hopefully sunflowers.

What we enjoyed growing?

The bush beans were probably the most enjoyable thing to grow as you are able to harvest them almost every day. It’s gives you a great sense of accomplishment and reward.

What we will never grow again?

Edamame was disappointing. Admittedly we only had one very small plant, but it didn’t provide much for us. To make it work we would need many plants and we just don’t have the space to include them. Because of this, we would prioritize the produce we do enjoy and skip the edamame. We may skip on growing melons and pumpkins this year, purely because we want to learn how our new garden space will shape out. These take up a lot of real estate and our yields haven’t been great. We will eventually try these again but maybe not this year.

What didn’t we grow that we want to try?

We didn’t grow carrots, and this was something that we really wanted to try this year, especially with the raised beds. We also want to try garlic, but that won’t be until later in the fall.

What did you grow that you want to try again?

There were some things that we tried, more as experiments as we hadn’t ever grown them such as radishes and potatoes. This year, after learning more about how to grow these, we’d like to try again. This time really focusing on planting at the right time, with the right soil conditions, and proper feeding. Broccoli was fun to grow but you only get one head from each plant (although they will continue to produce small florets), so planting more than one broccoli plant will be a goal. We would also like to try the corn again. Our issue was that we under watered the corn, and also didn’t plant enough of it together.

For a full list of everything we are growing in 2026, click here!