It’s hard to believe we’re already into August.

This year’s garden has been unlike anything we’ve ever done before.

After spending so much time building our Garden of Innovation this spring, this became our first season putting it to the test. It also happens to be the biggest garden I’ve ever grown. What started as an exciting project quickly became a huge learning experience, introducing challenges that simply don’t exist when you’re working with a few small raised beds.

And honestly… I wouldn’t change it for anything.

The Biggest Successes

Without question, one of the biggest surprises has been the beans.

The bush beans, yellow wax beans, purple beans, dragon tongue beans, and pole beans have all done incredibly well. It feels like every few days there’s another basket ready to harvest. We’ve eaten plenty fresh, frozen a lot for winter, and there’s still more coming.

The potatoes were another pleasant surprise. Digging them up really does feel like finding buried treasure, and we still have more in the ground waiting to be harvested.

The herb garden absolutely exploded with growth. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary… everything seemed to thrive. Maybe a little too well. I underestimated how large everything would get, and some of the herbs ended up crowding out my kale and spinach. A success, but also a lesson for next year.

Also, the corn! It’s doing incredibly well, and watching those little seedlings turn into towering stalks has been pretty amazing. The ears are developing now, and I’m really looking forward to fresh corn straight from the garden.

And then there are the apples!

Just this past weekend, we harvested an incredible 110 pounds of apples from ONE tree, and we still have three more trees to go! We’ll be turning them into applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, and probably a few other things along the way.

The fruit harvest isn’t finished either. Our plums should be ready within the next week or two, so there will be plenty more preserving ahead of us.

It’s a lot of work, but this is exactly the kind of problem I was hoping to have.

More than anything, the garden has become somewhere I genuinely look forward to visiting every day.

The Challenges

Of course, no garden is perfect and not every crop was a success.

The tomatoes have been one of this year’s biggest mysteries.

The plants are absolutely loaded with tomatoes, and our first big harvest should be happening any time now. But nearly every plant has curled leaves. I’ve spent weeks trying to figure out exactly why. I don’t believe it’s underwatering since they have drip irrigation and receive deep watering every few days. My suspicion is that it’s simply been the intense summer heat and UV we’ve had this year.

Next season I’d like to experiment with shade cloth during the hottest part of the summer to see if it helps reduce the stress on the plants.

Our peach tree wasn’t one of this year’s victories. It was stricken with TWO separate diseases that affected both the foliage and the fruit itself to the point we will need to cut most of the branches away to try and save the tree itself. That said, we are not super sad about it. Peaches have a rough time on Vancouver Island to begin with and with the Okanagan so close, we can pick up much better quality fruit from not too far away and support a local farm at the same time.

Which is exactly what we did, while visiting my parents in the Okanagan, we picked up a flat of beautiful local peaches and then preserved them once home for canned peaches in the winter and delicious peach cobbler! I also got peach syrup as an extra during this canning process which is SO delicious.

Powdery mildew showed up on the cucumbers, and aphids made themselves at home on several plants. Neither problem was catastrophic, but both reminded me that gardening isn’t about avoiding problems. It’s about learning how to manage them.

I’ve also learned that harvesting regularly really matters. Picking beans and zucchini at just the right time keeps the plants producing and gives you a much better harvest overall.

Learning to Preserve the Harvest

One thing I definitely didn’t expect was just how much preserving we’d end up doing.

This summer we’ve frozen beans, zucchini, and rhubarb, canned peaches, made peach syrup from the leftover juice and peels, pickled beets, made zucchini relish (TWICE), and started filling both the pantry and freezer with food we grew ourselves.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about looking at shelves filled with jars and knowing exactly where every one of them came from.

Every jar tells the story of a season’s work. Once our tomatoes finally start to ripen, there will also be pasta sauce to make, salsa, BBQ sauce and more.

Already Planning for Next Year

One of the biggest lessons this season has been learning about our soil.

Everything I guess performed well overall, but it’s clear the soil will need some attention before next spring. Adding compost and other organic matter is already high on my to-do list.

The biggest challenge, though, was our secondary garden, better known as the Berry Oasis. The soil there is extremely nutrient deficient, and it showed. Most plants struggled all season, and growth was disappointing compared to the main garden.

Rather than giving up on it, the plan is actually to expand that garden while dramatically improving the soil over the coming months. It may take some work, but I think it has a lot of potential.

And of course, this season has already sparked dozens of ideas for next year. Better spacing. Improved crop placement. More thoughtful herb planning. Shade cloth for the tomatoes. Healthier soil.

Gardening has a funny way of making you think one season ahead.

The Season Is Far From Over

One thing I’ve really come to appreciate this year is that August doesn’t mean the gardening season is ending. In many ways, it feels like we’re starting a whole new chapter.

We’ve already harvested our first beets and one of our potato beds, with another potato harvest still to come (harvesting likely today!). Those empty spaces aren’t staying empty for long. They’ll be replanted with another crop of yellow wax beans, a second sowing of beets, Chinese cabbage, and a few other cool-season vegetables.

We’ve also just planted our third crop of carrots, which I’m looking forward to harvesting later this fall.

It’s amazing how quickly one harvest turns into another planting. Instead of the garden slowing down, it simply changes. Every empty bed becomes another opportunity to grow something new.

That’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this year. Gardening isn’t just about planting in the spring and harvesting in the summer. It’s a continuous cycle of planning, growing, harvesting, and planting again.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing this season has reminded me, it’s that gardens don’t have to be perfect to be successful.

Some crops exceed every expectation. Others teach you valuable lessons. Pests show up. Diseases happen. Weather refuses to cooperate.

But every challenge teaches you something that makes next year’s garden a little bit better.

This has been our biggest garden ever, our most ambitious project, and easily the most I’ve ever learned in a single growing season.

And somehow, instead of feeling overwhelmed…

I’m even more excited for next year.

Remember, you only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Keep growing, keep learning, don’t be afraid to get your hands a little dirty, and I’ll catch you next time.

Much love,
Rob ❤️