Gardening in 2025
2025 was another good year for gardening. We had only a tiny bit of hail damage in May and June, and a lengthy period of warm fall temperatures. I had the usual great green bean harvest, plentiful cucumbers and melons, and exceptional crops of peppers and tomatoes.
The difference-maker for me, this year, was commercial fertilizer. I'm a zealous composter, and we funnel our kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, garden debris, fall leaves, and such into our vegetable beds. And yet the productivity of some of our crops has declined. Tomatoes, in particular. I'd almost given up on tomatoes. This summer I used a modest amount of Dr. Earth fertilizer in my tomato and pepper beds and was rewarded with a bumper crop from just six San Marzano plants that my neighbor gave me. In September I put 18 pint-size freezer bags of 6-7 peeled plum tomatoes in my chest freezer along with eight pint containers of tomato sauce. Paul Bertolli's recipe, with some tomato leaves and stems for an extra summery kick.
Plastic containers of peeled plum tomatoes.
A pot of chopped tomatoes ready to be turned into sauce.
Massive quantities of excess tomatoes is my big takeaway from this gardening season. So many curries and stews are going to be based on this surplus over the next six months.