Heather’s Gardening Service

Written by Heather Morren

Summer 2025 turned out to be a bit of a strange one. 

Weather wise, we had quite a mix. Hot days in July, wet days in August, and back to warm sunny days in September. Thankfully it mostly rained at night so it didn’t affect business too much but I certainly did not spend nearly as many “cool” evenings watering the garden this year as I would have liked to. 

This season was also quite different. I worked teaching full time in May and June. Then I was travelling for most of July (highly recommend Northern Ireland), home with my daughter for a looooong bout of illness in August and then back to work in September. I thought I would have so much more time to tend to my garden this year since I would be mostly working in the back end of the business but, honestly, I felt like I barely spent time in the garden at all. 

Nevertheless, it was still exciting to see how my garden grew and changed this year. I’m going to share with you some of the highlights and lessons learned after the 2025 gardening season.

Setting the Scene

When we moved into our home in July 2023, the garden and backyard was a huge selling feature. It had great bones, with several designated garden beds and plenty of perennials to enjoy for years to come. There was a ton of potential. But the one thing I was most excited about was planting a veggie garden. I grew up eating vegetables straight out of my mum’s garden and it was a personal dream to plant my own and have my daughter experience the same joy as I had. 

That first year was a bust. We moved in in late July. We had a 3 month old baby and PPD was in full swing. The last thing I needed was the physical and mental load of caring for a garden. 

Summer 2024 I jumped in with both feet. I planted onions and garlic in the fall. Peas, beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers were all planted indoors in March. Carrots, lettuce, spinach, and arugula were sowed right into the soil in late May. 

But, the garden was only moderately successful. Something ate my peas from above. Then I covered them… and something else ate them from below. I only got one in the end. 

My tomatoes didn’t grow indoors so I had to start a second round much later than I wanted to. Most of them ripened in my dining room over the winter. 

We didn’t end up using any of our leafy greens because they went to seed too fast. Our onions and garlic were picked, hung to dry, and promptly forgotten about. I think they’re still sitting in a bowl under our cabinet. Oops.

I had more cucumbers than I knew what to do with. We ate 1-2 a day and gave them away like Halloween candy. Good thing my daughter absolutely loved them. I wish you could have seen her little “happy cucumber” dance!

What Worked

This year, I had more energy …. and a vision! It started with a drawing. 

We kept the classics: beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots. Then we added peppers for my partner. We scrapped the onions, garlic, and greens. I added some hanging containers for herbs. 

I ended up planting my seeds way later than I had anticipated (thanks spring report card season) but this time I bought a little greenhouse. First, it lived in my shed while the weather was still cool and then was quickly moved to a south facing spot on our deck where I could see and care for it more easily. My brother taught me a great little trick to water my plants from the bottom and they grew like weeds. 

Planting happened later than expected too (thanks final report cards). While I stressed about it, my partner prepped the soil by turning in some compost and, eventually, I got an afternoon to put it all in. My partner also helped me put up some posts and string some bird netting over everything to keep the birds out. I even strung up a watering system to make it easier for me to water on those hot summer days. 

The tomatoes and cucumbers were abundant (a little too abundant). The carrots grew longer and were easier to pull this year thanks to the soil being turned. My daughter and I spent many afternoons wandering through the vegetable jungle looking for fresh garden treats.

What Didn’t Work

Of course, not everything came up all roses. 

Something ate my peas…again. I planted them in a different spot. I put bird netting over the entire bed. But something still ate them and I didn’t get a single one. I also had to replant my beans but they took the second time and we got a fair number of them that we are directly from the garden.

Our herbs did very poorly. As soon as I transplanted them to their window boxes, I knew they were doomed. Water flowed out of them after being watered. I put them in a very sunny location too so they dried up fast. I also put them in a spot that was kind of out of sight, out of mind and, well, forgot about them. I think I only used cilantro once. Devastating.  

The real disappointment, though, was my watering system. It did not have the pressure to water very effectively and the placement of the spigots was not ideal. I could not have predicted how large my tomatoes would have gotten and they ended up just blocking the water flow. Sometimes it worked best to flood the area when I didn’t have time to do a thorough watering. It will certainly need revamping for next year. 

Partial Wins

The tomatoes ran rampant! I planted 5 tiny seedlings and they took over EVERYTHING. It didn’t help that I forgot to string them up or support them before leaving on vacation so they were wild when I returned. Eventually I tied them to the top of my new pergola and they ended up being nearly 6 feet tall. 

On the upside, they were delicious, my daughter loved picking them, and I’m sure we will have lots of fun making salsa and pasta sauce in about a month when they finish ripening….in my dining room again.

Once again, we had a lifetime supply of cucumbers. We ate them at every opportunity. Cucumbers on toast. Cucumber salad with some sesame oil and balsamic vinegar. Fresh cucumber. Pickles. You name it, we ate it. At one point I had 20 cucumbers in the fridge. Thankfully everyone was happy to take them off our hands. 

Looking Ahead

I’m already looking forward to our garden for next year. My partner and I sat down and made a plan for a more permanent structure that we can affix bird netting directly to. We have already put the framework in place and will finish it in the spring. 

We’re sticking with the same produce as last year but a new layout. Notice how the beans and peas have been moved to the inner wall to hopefully avoid being eaten by birds or cats or whatever was eating them the last two years. 

We’re also planning to hang tomatoes and cucumbers to save some room on the ground for other things to grow without being totally engulfed by other flora. I hope it also makes it easier to harvest them, as the tomatoes in particular were a nightmare to pick this year. 

Maybe my partner will finally get around to making that deck planter he started talking about last year and we can grow herbs in a semi shaded area that we can see from the kitchen so I don’t forget about them. But…we’ll see.  

The fun thing about starting a new gardening season is that every year can, and will, look different from the last. Maybe take a minute to think about your own garden and feel free to share some things that did and did not work for you in the comments. 

Happy Fall!

Photos in this article were taken by Heather Morren. Information was sourced from a wide variety of online resources. Please ask, should you wish to see a full list.