Every month for the last few years, I have looked back at the pics I took of the garden the previous, and gone over them in this column. And this month, I don’t have any. I have no pics of our garden from dec 2020.

Crazy.

I could have simply skipped this series this month, but that just didn’t feel right. This year was such a great year in our garden in many ways and this has given me an opportunity to look back over 2020 and our garden.

In January, the photos look bright and sunny! There was chard and a radish still growing in the garden. There was also snow that month, so it wasn’t all off to a sunny start. It was sad to remember our jackfruit trees and see them as small babies, thriving. Jan felt full of potential, but too early for lots of growth.

The groundhog predicted an early spring and much of the family was out observing the garden in Feb. We worked on the compost, and saw out onion of two years still surviving the winter. Inside the jackfruit was growing and we were rearranging the house to keep them and other seedlings in the sunny spots.

In March, especially towards the end saw so much change and growth in the garden. Inside seedlings and sprouts were going strong and we were quickly running out of space! Luckily by the end of the month we moved a few things outside! We got lettuces and other leafy greens to plant outside as well. The blueberries were budding, the onion growing, and all over the garden, plants were starting to peak out of the earth. Around the neighborhood, we also started seeing other people prepping their own gardens!

In April, there were peppers, peas and other plants jumping up under the grow lights inside. Lettuces, kale, cauliflower, and more were started in the outside beds. Herbs we planted the month before were taking off in our front beds. We were also trying new experiments with beds. We took a shelving unit that came with the house when we bought it, and had been living in the basement for years, got new life as a 5th backyard bed.

In May, more herbs, more new beds, tomatoes, raspberry bushes, flowers and a pile of dirt!

In June our radishes had already gone to seed, brussels were brusseling, lettuces and kale were huge. Peppers were starting and we were branching out with new veggies, like edemame. Summer was here and the garden seemed small but was starting to feel quite lush. Blueberries were popping up and we were already fighting the birds to get a few for ourselves. And out onion was huge!

In July the lettuces had bolted, we had basil, mint lavender, the blueberries were getting ripe and eaten before we could taste them. We had shishitos, tomatoes, and greens to eat. But the garden was still in a blooming stage. By this time in 2019, we were over flowing with fruit and veg. This year this the garden seems a bit stunted.

In August flowers were blooming, raspberries were berrying, and we were harvesting zucchini, a new veg for our garden. We were eating from the garden a lot at this point. this was the height of the garden, but we were still surprised that the garden wasn’t as lush as the previous year.

By September, the garden was winding down and I was writing about the joy of using up our last veg and eating the end of our favorite summer meals. We had also finally put up our green house and were starting to populate it.

In October the morning glories we re still going strong and we were pursuing our new new favorite pastime of seed saving. This was the month we saved the most seeds. We saved out own seeds and we also went foraging for seeds. We hope to use a lot of the seeds we saved in the spring and summer of 2021.

In November we had packed the greenhouse almost full and we were cleaning out the beds. We still had our brussels which never fully matured and we never picked. We were still eating lettuce and kale from the greenhouse.

And now, in December, the beds are bare. All the plants that hibernate in the winter are doing so. We moved as many flowers as we could into the greenhouse but it’s getting harder to keep it warm on below freezing nights. We thrifted a space heater and has it helped add some warmth on the coldest nights. We are starting now, to think about the new growing season. Our grower friends are buying seeds and we are all making plans for 2021.

What was your garden like in 2020? Did it thrive or was it sparse? Was it what you expected or was it surprising? What are you plans for 2021?