Let the Seed Starting Begin – Again

Posted on February 2, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Once again it’s time to begin starting seeds for the garden. This time of year I start all of my seeds indoors using fluorescent lights setup in our basement. It’s way too cold out in the greenhouse, and this year I had to wade through the snow to even get in the greenhouse and bring some potting supplies indoors. Note to self – plan ahead next year! That said, it is unusual for us to have this much snow hang around. The cold is normal, but not the snow.

starting seeds

I start most of my seeds either in individual 3.5″ plastic pots or in plug flats. For a starting medium I use either a potting mix made for seed starting, or else an organic potting soil that is fine-textured without a lot of big, rough pieces in it. I prefer to use a seed starting mix without added fertilizer so I can add my own as needed. Once the seedlings are a couple of weeks old I will use a weak fish and seaweed fertilizer like Neptune’s Harvest to give them a little food. I like the seaweed fertilizers because they are unlikely to burn the tender seedlings, especially if they are mixed at half or less the recommended strength.

128, 72 and 50 cell plug flats

This week I am sowing seeds for parsley, the container eggplant varieties I grow, and a few of the hot peppers I plan to grow in containers. Next I will start seeds for greens like arugula and pac choi, tatsoi, mizuna and other mild mustard greens. Near the end of February I will start seeds for broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi. You can find my general timeline in my Seed Starting and Planting Schedule.

I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings!

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January 2026 Update

Posted on January 30, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

This month we have gone from one extreme to the other. We left behind the cold to visit Maui mid-month. We had a lovely time there, enjoying the warm weather and sampling foods we got from local farmer’s markets and restaurants. One of my favorite markets is held three times every week at the Queen Kaʻahumanu Center mall. There are usually eight to ten vendors there who have just about all the fresh produce you need, plus other items like baked good as well.

farmer’s market at mall

We typically eat our breakfast and evening meals at the condo where we stay, and those meals feature the local produce. One night we enjoyed a meal of roasted eggplant, okra, baby bananas and pineapple along with macadamia nut crusted mahi-mahi. Everything was local including the fish. We love eating local food whenever and wherever we go, and Maui is a great place to do it.

dinner with local goodies

We also ate salads on several occasions, and they featured local goodies including lettuce, carrots, cucumber, radish, jicama, macadamia nuts, sunflower shoots and goat cheese. We got the sourdough breads from a local bakery, and I made crostini or croutons to go with the salads.

salad for dinner

One highlight of our trip was a tour of a pineapple farm located on the slope of Mt. Haleakalā . It was an informative tour, and we came back with three Maui Gold pineapples to enjoy while we were there. The production of the pineapples is very labor intensive, with much done by hand. There were fields with pineapples in all stages of production, from newly set out, to flowering, and on to harvest stage. We also got to taste one right out in the field. You can’t get any more fresh than that!

pineapple field

pineapples sizing up

pineapple flower

When we returned it was bitterly cold and a few days later we got a big snowfall. I had harvested a few things before the trip, including lettuce from the greenhouse.

winter lettuce

And before the snow came, I made a large cutting of the heirloom collard greens I have growing in the vegetable garden. The leaves have been frosted on and frozen, and are tender and sweet tasting. We have enjoyed eating these for several meals and have a few more left.

assorted collard greens

The snow was a bit less than forecasted, about eight inches in our area though nearby places got over a foot. It was a dry, fluffy snow that blew about and drifted in places, and my wife and I stayed in for as few days until the roads improved and it was safe to venture out.

January snow

Next up on my agenda will be seed starting activities as well as garden planning. I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

 

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Looking Back On 2025 – By The Month

Posted on January 3, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I thought I would recap some of what I did in 2025, in a month by month format. It was a busy year, with a lot happening both in the garden and outside it. My wife and I spent some time in January someplace sunny and warm: on the island of Maui in Hawaii. We visited Iao Valley one morning to see the sights and do a little hiking. The weather was cool and fellow hikers were willing to snap our pic for us. We also visited several of the Maui farmer’s markets, including the Upcountry Market where we got lots of local goodies and saw a lovely double rainbow as we were leaving.

waterfall at Iao Valley

overlook at Iao Needle

double rainbow at farmer’s market

Back home in February, we had snow. It wasn’t enough to have to shovel, but enough to make the roads slippery. It didn’t bother the lettuce in the greenhouse though, and I was able to keep us supplied for our salads.

February snow

snowy lettuce harvest

In March we saw the first of the daffodils blooming, they are always a welcome sight, signaling that spring is near.

early daffodils

In April we had our first brood of baby bluebirds in the PVC nest box. There were five in all, and they all fledged successfully. We also got our first asparagus spear – another welcome sight indeed! We wasted no time in making Asparagus Mimosa once we had enough spears harvested.

baby bluebirds

first asparagus of 2025

Asparagus Mimosa

The month of May saw me staying busy tending to all my seedlings in the greenhouse. I wound up using a lot of my spare plants for replanting, due to our wet weather in spring.

plants on greenhouse shelf

In June the perennial flowers were blooming nicely, including favorites like purple spiderwort. The container eggplants were blooming also and giving us our first taste of eggplant.

spiderwort

Fairy Tale and Gretel eggplant

July saw the last of the berry crop. The raspberries did surprisingly well, while the black berries and blueberries were less impressive. We had plenty of berries for fresh eating though and they were appreciated for sure.

blackberries and raspberries

In August it turned hot, and the warm-season veggies responded by giving us pepper, eggplant and the last of the greenhouse cucumbers.

August harvest

hot pepper mix

In September we went to Maine for a little vacation getaway. We ate a lot of lobster and other fish dishes while we were there, and visited a couple of iconic and often-viewed lighthouses.

Owls Head lighthouse

Portland Head Lighthouse

In October our fall planting of greens like kale and collards were beginning to size up. A little frost makes the leaves even sweeter, and we had plenty to eat for some time to come.

Yellow Cabbage collard plant

In November I got several big harvests of collard greens, and a big haul of persimmons.

heirloom collard greens

Nikita’s Gift persimmons

December saw a lot of activity at our bird feeders, including frequent visits from the bluebirds and a Pileated Woodpecker. We also enjoyed plenty of greens from the lettuce for our salads.

bluebirds at the feeder

Pileated Woodpecker

lettuce from the greenhouse

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on 2025. I want to thank all of the folks who come here and read my blog, and I want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

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Stars of the Garden 2025 – Part 2

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

I hope you enjoyed reading the first part of my annual garden review, and I’m back again today with the second part. I’d like to start with tomatoes, which are a favorite crop of mine and with many other gardeners too. The early rains this year seemed to favor the growth of the vines after planting, and a dry spell in summer helped prevent rotting when the tomatoes began ripening. I got just over 50 pounds of them in total, which was about half of what I got last year. We had plenty for fresh eating, though not a whole lot for processing into sauces and such.

tomato harvest

I always like to trial new varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables as well. This year I had great results with two new ones (Queen Bee and Honey Bee) bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds in collaboration with the late Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds) . Both are pink and yellow striped and late-blight resistant, and quite tasty. Queen Bee is the larger of the two, though only slightly bigger, and both were good for fresh eating on salads and as a side dish.  I got excellent yields of both of these, and I plan on growing them again in 2026.

Queen Bee(top) and Honey Bee(bottom) tomatoes

Black Angel is another one I trialed. It’s a medium sized slicing type with a dark reddish/black interior that grows on determinate vines. The ones I got this year were quite flavorful, though not as productive as other varieties were. I plan to give it another try next year when hopefully conditions are more favorable for all the tomatoes.

Black Angel tomato

I got modest amounts of the paste tomato varieties, but enough to make a few batches of sauce for the freezer. They were all tried and true varieties for me, including Granadero, Zenzei, Andiamo and my all-time favorite Juliet.

paste tomatoes

It was a better than usual year for the sweet peppers here. I harvested over 10 pounds of them, and had good luck with the Cornito varieties as well as the Sweet Pie mini-bell. The hot peppers generally do well for me, and that was true this year as well. Many of the hot ones wound up in fermented hot sauces, and I should be well-supplied for the coming year.

eggplant and sweet peppers

hot peppers and eggplant

fermented hot sauces

Eggplant did well also, and we enjoyed the large ones like Dancer, Nadia and Annina as well as the smaller fruited Fairy Tale, Gretel and Icicle.

container eggplant harvest

We enjoy eating the eggplant in a number of ways. I made baked eggplant ‘fries’ with one batch, dipping the eggplant in an egg wash and rolling in breadcrumbs before baking in the oven. We also roast eggplant quite often, tossing it with a little olive oil and salt before baking. We sometimes use the slices to make eggplant sandwiches, which makes for a light and tasty lunch.

Crispy Baked Eggplant Fries

roasted eggplant sandwich on naan bread

It was another below average year for the sweet potatoes here. I got 37 pounds of them in all, with the orange-fleshed Beauregard being the best performer. We will have plenty to eat though, and some to save for next year’s slips.

Beauregard sweet potato

It was an outstanding year for cucumbers, which I only grow in the summer greenhouse. I trialed three new ones from Johnny’s Selected Seeds with lime green skin: Gimlet, Mojito and Margarita. They had a mild flavor and tender skin and I got enough I was giving them away! All three did well, but the small Gimlet and medium sized Mojito did the best for me and are in my plans for 2026. All told I hauled in over 30 pounds of cucumbers this tear.

early July harvest

I hope you have enjoyed this review of some of the things we grew here in 2025. I’ll be back soon with more adventures from HA, including my plans for the garden in 2026.

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Stars of the Garden 2025 – Part1

Posted on December 18, 2025 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Once again it’s time for my annual review of what did well in the garden this year, and what didn’t. The yields of many crops were disappointing, and I’ll dig into the details here in a bit. I usually like to start with a recap on the weather first, since those conditions certainly have a big influence on home and community gardens everywhere including here at Happy Acres. According to my records, in 2024 we got 50 inches of rain, which is a bit more than normal for our area. In 2025 so far we have had a whopping 57.83 inches, which makes it one of the wettest years since I started tracking our rainfall back in 2011.

2025 rainfall

We had an extremely wet spring here, and above average rain throughout the summer months.  August was the only really dry month, as the rains came back for the fall and winter. The 11 inches of rain in April delayed planting of some spring crops, and when I did get them in the ground many of the young seedlings drowned. We have a fast-draining silty loam soil, but even it couldn’t handle the amount of rain that kept falling and falling. The cabbage and broccoli plants suffered the worst, and I got nothing from them. I did get a decent amount of kohlrabi, and was able to use a lot of it for fermenting and making kohlrabi kraut and ‘pickles’ as well as for fresh eating.

kohlrabi harvest

On the plus side, I had a great crop of early lettuce that was planted in the greenhouse and therefore spared from all the excess water. I got over 30 pounds of lettuce and other salad greens for the year, some of which came from summer and fall plantings outside in my cold frame beds.

greenhouse lettuce

Strawberry Oakheart lettuce

The summer plantings of heat tolerant lettuce varieties also did well for me. Tehama, Muir and Cherokee were all quite productive and kept us supplied with lettuce for much of the summer and fall.

Cherokee lettuce

Muir lettuce

Back out in the vegetable garden, I got only 13 pounds of the summer squashes, and only 2 pounds of the winter varieties. The vines rotted out shortly after starting to bear fruit. Contrast that with 79 pounds of the summer squashes and 56 pounds of the winter ones last year. I was pleased to at least get a taste of the 2025 AAS Winner Green Lightning squash, which is a small pattypan type with green stripes. What little bit we got was tasty, and I look forward to growing them again in 2026.

summer squashes

Thankfully, a few of the collards I planted in the fall of 2024 survived the winter and gave us a modest harvest in early spring when they are much welcome. I also got a bit of kale from a spring planting in one of the cold frame beds behind the greenhouse.

collard greens

harvest of Scarlet kale

The beans were truly a disaster this year. The seeds kept rotting in the wet soil after I sowed them, and eventually I ran out of seed after several replantings. I only wound up with a bit over four pounds of them, which is considerably less than the 11 pounds I got last year and in 2023.

heirloom pole beans

The blueberries and blackberries were a disappointment too, and we barely got enough for fresh eating. I actually got more raspberries than the blueberries and blackberries combined, which was a surprise since the raspberries seemed to thrive on my neglect.

blueberry harvest

raspberries and a few blackberries

As usual, I’m going to break up the report into two parts since I have a lot more veggies I want to mention, including tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes. They did reasonably well, so it wasn’t all bad news this year. So I’ll be back soon with Part 2 of the 2025 garden recap!

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