It's 2026 now and I'm imagining my garden goals for the year.
Here's a brief recap of 2025.
The Garden of the Lents Farmer is now in it's 20th year. It's hard for me to believe I've been tending the garden for so long.
In spring of 2025, the lawn got a bit of a reboot. It had been a long time since the grass was professionally thatched, aerated, composted, and reseeded. It seemed like forever that I was out there twice a day trying to keep grass seed moist so it would germinate before the heat of summer arrived. The refresh didn't really work with the lawn only coming back in a few places. It was a lot of work for a limited result.
The Trillium populations continue to grow now that I have stopped pulling the seedlings from the past few years are now old enough to be blooming.
In June, the house got a new roof. A few plants got trampled by the roofers, but all in all they kept the damage to a minimum. I'm still finding metal, nails, plastic and such here and there. My spring clean up will hopefully get the last of that out. I don't want to be stepping on nails.
Sadly, I think my Rose Era has ended. I'm finding that roses just don't look very good most of the year. I have several I still love, but a few of them are going to be taken out. 'Marilyn Monroe' is still by far my absolute favorite rose, with 'Hot Cocoa' in second place. A recently planted miniature climber named 'Jeanne LaJolie' has been fun to see blooming it's perfect little pink flowers.
I've had mixed success with the David Austin roses. The winning DA's have been 'Jude the Obscure, 'The Lady of Shalott' and 'Wollerton Old Hall'.
The last of the big 300 gallon ponds left, last summer the raccoons were merciless. They ate all the fish and ripped up the waterlilies for the last time. I posted the ponds on FB Marketplace and they were gone within a few hours. The lilies and remaining fish found a good home in Hillsboro. I've actually enjoyed having the room on the patio and the driveway back and I don't have to worry about extreme heat and trying to keep the fish alive.
I had mixed luck with some of the terrestrial orchids, but still keep experimenting with what will grow.
In 2026:
I don't have any particular plants I have my eye on this year. I think the focus is just keeping what I have successfully grown in place and taking out the few plants that aren't pulling their weight. Of course there will be some plant purchases along the way.
I do hope to actually have open gardens through HPSO this year. I haven't done it for a few years because I thought the lawn looked awful. My plan is that the garden will be open for peony time again this year! It's good to have the goal (and the pressure) to get things ready for open garden time.
This year is the year of compost. I feel like the garden needs a pick me up. I haven't really composted the garden before.
One plan is more lawn is coming out to make the shaded area under the Black Walnut in the front bigger. This will be more area for the expanding Trillium populations and for other shade perennials.
There are a couple other areas I think the lawn will come out and the flower beds will shift and patio pavers will go in to be stepping stones. Some grass areas may become stone. It will really depend on how much I can dig and haul without hurting myself!
I'd also like to craft a better way to vacation the cactus outside for the summer. I've been keeping them on the driveway but the squirrels always knock them over or I hit them with the hose.
So here's to 2026! Let's see what happens!
