2026 Garden Journal
We've all know that we had a terrible snowpack year. After hemming and hawing about how much of my garden to plant, I've decided to plant it all. I don't have any lawn - just food producing gardens on drip irrigation.
However, if I am using water outdoors, I want to make the most of that water investment, but using every trick in my tool box to grow the plants quickly to harvest and conserve water where I can. Once I harvest, I will try to make the most of each edible part of the plant by getting creative in the kitchen!
I've been a bit haphazard with my garden for the past few years
having a loose plan, but not really following it, instead tucking in plants willy nilly and hoping for the best
knowing what I "should" do to maximize growth, but instead just doing enough to get harvests
letting some veggies get overripe or bug infested
And I want to help other gardeners to do the same! I'll be growing at least one of all the veggie we grow at the nursery and, I'll document it all here in a Great 2026 Grow Along.
Perhaps you share similar goals or are simply interested to see how each of our varieties performs in an Eagle garden. So without further ado, the 2026 Garden Journal
Here's the whole garden and vague master plans for what will go where.
(picture coming)
April: I spent much of April slowly removing last year's plants.
May: I picked up my cool season veggie plants and hardened them off for a few days - letting them stay out for temps in the 30s, but bringing some of them in for the night of May 6 which was in the 20s. I got some cool season seeds planted by May 5 to make use of the rain and show to water them in.
And now the bed by bed plan and logs.
Gravel Bed 1: Cabbages
Cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables. I'm growing mini heads for summer slaws and a large January King for late fall harvest. After packing in the cabbages, there's still room for a Gigante kohlrabi and some Mini Purple daikon radishes.
May 4
Prepped the bed by removing last year's growth and spreading some lawngevity which adds fluff, compost, and nutrients. I marked the position of each seedling with little placeholder tags. There are a few perennials/overwintered plants that I'll plant around
May 5
Planted radish seeds
May 7
Planted cabbage and kohlrabi seedlings. To plant each seedling, I fluffed the planting hole, adding a small scoop of organic, all purpose fertilizer, filled the hole with water, planted the seedling, watered it in (using collected rainwater.) Once the bed was planted, I add unsprayed hay as an organic mulch and covered with lightweight row cover.
Gravel Bed 2: Broccoli and Cauliflower
This bed has some overwintered parsley, a self sown patch of cornsalad, a volunteer nodding onion (our native onion species), a few plants of crimson clover which popped up from last year's cover crop planting plus a healthy infestation of a purple flowered vetch. I generally work around interesting plants that appear in my garden beds and these are no exception. For the vetch, I pull out much of the top growth when prepping the garden, but I don't aggressively eradicate this free perennial nitrogen fixing plant. The corn salad population is easy enough to re establish, so I harvested it early but then covered it during prep and planting. The native onion will eventually be moved, but it's pretty cool. It'll flower early and go dormant by the time the broccoli plants are large enough to shade it out.
May 4
Prepped bed with old potting mix (The Bomb), fertilizer (DTE All Purpose), and compost (Dynamic Dressing)
May 5
Planted mustard seeds
Gravel Bed 3: Greens
This bed will house kale, chard, and all the other smaller brassica (broccoli) family plants that I love - kohlrabi, bok choi, leafy Chinese cabbage, turnips, and watermelon radish. There was an existing clump of perennial onions that I divided up and planted out for bulbs along the edges.
May 4
Prepped with old potting mix.
May 5
Planted radish seeds
Gravel Bed 4: Garlic
I planted this bed last year in December (which is late) and discovered that I forgot to actually cover the garlic cloves in January (which is regrettable), so I was surprised when the garlic actually sprouted up in March during the heat wave. I had also found some suspect shallot bulbs in a different bed that I added to this bed in December. I fertilized with DTE all purpose and mulched with unsprayed hay in March. I helped a few shoots get through the hay mulch, but astonishingly, every planted clove is looking healthy.
Gravel Bed 5: Kids
My kids plan and plant this bed. We'll see what they pick. There are 3 arch trellises anchored in this bed, and they often still need a tomato cage or 2 to support the plants they put in there. A tiger lily lives in the middle of the bed and popped up in April.
May 14
I snuck some rattlesnake pole snap beans in along on of the arch trellis
Gravel Bed 6: Tomatillo and Artichoke
This bed also has 3 arch trellises coming out of it, so I'll plant vining plants along the edges. And, I'll grow one of each tomatillo, artichoke, and cardoon in this bed to compare them. We still have salsa verde in the freezer from the last time I grew 3 tomatillo plants, so we'll see if we get inundated again.
May 13
Planted artichoke and cardoon seedlings.
May 14
Planted scarlet runner bean seeds along the arch.
Gravel Bed 7: Summer Squash
I don't always grow a lot of summer squash, but I'm feeling like it this year. I'm going to space them farther apart this year since they'll be getting less water. There is asparagus in a cage at one end of the bed and 3 arch trellises coming out of this bed.
Gravel Bed 8: Onions
Onions are something we use a lot, so they are getting their own bed this year. There is asparagus in a cage at one end of the bed and an arch trellis at the other.
Apr
Prepped with old potting mix and possibly fertilizer
May 4
Planted onion and shallot plants
Gravel Bed 9: Carrots
Carrots are another favorite that will get their own bed this year. There is asparagus in a cage at one end of the bed and an arch trellis at the other.
Apr
Prepped with old potting mix and possibly fertilizer
May 1
Planted carrot and parsnip seeds in the center of the bed. Planted short vining beans along the asparagus cage and a nasturtium seed in the middle of where the asparagus comes up.
Carrot seeds take 2-3 weeks to sprout and require consistent moisture to do so. They are planted very close the surface and do not tolerate drying out. After planting the seeds, I sprinkled water all over the area and covered with plastic tote lids to keep the moisture in. If it rained or snowed, I removed the lids and replaced them before the post storm winds started blowing. Once the seeds sprout and break the soil surface, they need sunlight, so I checked for sprouts each day.
May 16
Carrot sprouts appear, so I had to remove the lids. Thankfully the weather was rainy and cloudy for the next few days while new sprouts appeared.
