What to Learn in 2026?

 As a Master Gardener Volunteer, we're required to do 5 hours of continuing education - but when I started we needed to do the 50 hour course plus another 12 hours of continuing education (which I have to say, I had re-learned HOW to learn so it wasn't that difficult!). This past year, I was able to contribute to my gardening community and be the educator at a Schoolyard Garden Conference and I truly have to say, that was an absolute blast. I had so much fun! I would love to do that again next year but switch up the topics and do a presentation on something else, maybe how to collaborate on curriculum through the different grades while keeping to the K-5 science standards. I'm not sure yet, I don't have a confirmation if there will be a conference yet (but if you're a fellow schoolyard gardener - I've got you covered for ideas for curriculum and lessons!). 

But then that means that I need to find classes and courses for MYSELF. I don't necessarily need anymore "how to grow" classes because I do know how - and I have a whole host of Master Gardeners at my fingertips to ask questions! 

I was thinking of becoming a tree care specialist because I have limited knowledge on trees and would love to know more. 

Or possibly taking classes on how to grow roses. I've never grown them before.

I don't think I can possibly sit through anymore pollinator lectures, I've done that now for 15+ hours and my brain has received all of that information. LOL. 

We shall see what pops up in the next few months from the Horticulture Society and the Arboretum. 

Planted Gladiolus for Next Year

I truly love the look of Foxglove, Gladiolus, and other tall stalks with multi-flowers. They just make me so happy when they're blooming. I've never planted Gladiolus before and I actually found these at Costco in the Spring but they're supposed to be planted in the Fall. So... here I am!

I choose these to replace the Echinacea that I had to pull out due to Asters Yellow and will see what these bulbs do. I'm too cautious that the Asters Yellow disease is hanging out in the soil, so I'm very reluctant to plant any perennials until I can do more research as to how its spread and what types of flowers and perennials it affects. We'll see how that goes.

I planted the first 30, and still have 20 bulbs left, I'm going to put those bulbs in a different spot, possibly in my front yard where I know there's full sun next to my front door (where I have a lot of milkweed!). I'm really excited for these flowers to peek out with bright blooms above a bright green elephant ear hosta. This season isn't even done yet and I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

Homemade Hot Sauce with Arriba Peppers

This is the first time I've grown peppers hotter than jalepenos for the sole purpose of making hot sauce. I've tried habaneros but they've truly never done well at my house and I needed to try a new variety. I thought these might do well - they're the Arriba variety and I purchased these from Johnny's Seeds. The actual plants never grew taller than 18 inches and I was ultra worried that they might not produce anything but in total, from 6 plants, I was able to make 2 pints of hot sauce so I'm pleasantly surprised!

Also, I know that I've said I don't like preserving large quantities and truly - this is enough for us for one season for hot sauce and it's really all we need because we like a variety of hot sauces so I don't want too much anyway!

I don't pay for a recipe organizer so you get what you get: not a life story but an explanation of what variety to grow + a recipe. LOL.

Hot Sauce with Arriba Peppers

About 18-22 peppers

1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped, can be large pieces

3-4 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp dried oregano (can use fresh, just a small handful)

2 tsp cumin

Garlic - optional, I add 4-5 cloves or leave it out

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup water

a good handful of fresh cilantro, you can use dried but doesn't taste the same

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. I do not de-seed the peppers. I just chop off the stem to make it as easy as possible. If you don't want it eye-watering spicy, then cut the peppers in half and de-seed. Wear gloves. Put onto a very large sheet pan along with olive oil, onion, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic. Put try in the oven. 

Roast for 15 minutes. Pull out of the oven, stir around and see if parts have a brown, roasted side. If so, continue on with recipe. If not, put back in the oven for 5 minutes. It usually is about 20 minutes total for me. 

Let cool for 5ish minutes while you pull together your blender or food processor. Add everything from the sheet pan into your food processor or blender. Add in vinegar, water, and cilantro. Puree the shit out of it until its super smooth and not chunky. Add in water or vinegar if necessary to make it smooth. Put it in a jar and keep it in the fridge. 

 

Asters Yellow on my Echinacea

 I am so annoyed. Last year I spotted Asters Yellow on Echinacea on my walk and I was like... oh, shit. That's what it looks like in person. I had one weird flower head on my Echinacea every year since I planted it and I'm one hundred percent positive that the plugs I bought were infested from the start three years ago. In the pictures I'm sharing below, you can see the odd green growth coming out of the seed head. That's not normal.

So on my list of things to do this week is dig out every single echinacea from my yard and get those out so the Asters Yellow doesn't infect anything else. Even Master Gardeners can have pest problems and disease infestation! 

Asters Yellow can be devastating - this isn't something were you just pull off the seedheads or cut to the ground or use chemicals. The whole entire plant needs to be removed to remediate the situation. So for me, I have 4 echinacea plants that will need to come out. It can be extremely frustrating. For me though, as much as I've always wanted to grow echinacea, the rabbits have always chewed every single one of my plants to ground. Every year I have had to battle rabbits to keep this and quite honestly, I'm ok giving up this battle. It's frustrating every year to lose plants to the bunnies and so this will take a garden chore off my list in the spring. 

Fun August Harvests

Potato harvest - these are Yukon Golds, my favorite potato ever. They're so soft and the mashed potatoes that come from these are amazing (especially with roasted garlic!). I only did one potato bag so I harvested enough for about 3 meals total. Last year I had 5 bags and it was too many potatoes all at once, I made a note that I think 3 potato bags will be enough for us to eat fresh and I won't have to worry about saving potatoes or eating too many and getting tired of them. I'll stick with Yukon Golds and possibly add in a baking potato or a red potato for some variety.

I have decided that I'm actually really terrible at preserving or saving fresh food - I just really like eating produce freshly harvested from the garden. I truly have zero interest in canning and freezing anymore besides the occasional tomato sauce or tomato basil soup. 

Tomatoes this year were a little weird. I had a ground wasp queen decide she wanted to make a nest in my brand new raised bed that I did JUST FOR TOMATOES. So I need to pull out the soil because I did use a ground wasp spray several times to keep the numbers of wasps down until it freezes overnight, the hollow log I used to fill in the bed hugelkulture-style. It's going to be a really cold chore the day I do that and I can't wait until all the stupid wasps are dead.

But I digress. My tomatoes this year were just kinda ok. The sungolds were delicious as usual but everything else just seemed to wait too long to get ripe. I ended up with maybe 12 large tomatoes for BLTs or salads, half as many small snacking tomatoes as I wanted, and only enough for 2 medium size leftover containers for tomato sauce. I didn't even get to make homemade tomato basil soup.

I think maybe because my mom died my head isn't exactly in the right place for gardening this year. I really just didn't feel like doing what I love - and to make up for that I just planted the bare basics to get through the year. That's fine because both of my kids had sports that took over the whole summer and I didn't have time to cook anyway. My husband seems to love not being home whereas I would like to enjoy our mortgage a little bit more. LOL. Next year I don't want to be so busy, I am fully exhausted from summer and sports. It's really a lot and too much - if we can't eat at home for the majority of the week, then I'm at the point where I don't want to do activities. It's too much work and we all need to rest. I think by the end of the summer both of my kids truly question whether or not they want to continue anyway.

Green beans were absolutely prolific and I will be doing green beans again next year. I don't think I want to do multiple varieties though - we can only eat so many fresh beans! I'll stick with bush beans so I don't need to build or find any trellising. My family prefers them roasted with garlic!

Because I knew in May after my mom died I probably wouldn't be too interested in gardening this year, I replaced a lot of my veggie areas with annual flowers. Zinnias are the easiest to grow so that's what's sprinkled around my yard in very colorful bursts of fucshia, orange, pinks, and reds.

This was an ok garden year for me. I have more hopes and dreams for next year and I'm hoping I have more time to do what I want and to grow more. Pumpkins are on the list as well as loofa, and tomatoes. My Arriba peppers grew so well that they're on my list for next year along with sweet peppers. And the perfect amount of zucchini is one plant so that's what I'll be growing next year too!