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!
Our harvest was poor this year but for different reasons. Too dry in spring and summer and then plants drowning from mid autumn.