Reflections on the 2023 Garden Season and my Old Raised Bed

A lot happened in 2023.

I launched Victory Gardens, built my raised bed garden in my front yard, and pretty much got rid of all lawn in my sunny front yard to make way for vegetables and wildflowers. I can’t wait to see my garden in the spring 2024 blooming like a prairie homestead.

Winter is a great time to pause and think about your gardening season. What went well, what went not so well, and celebrate Nature’s fundamental benevolence for giving us a bountiful garden.

This fall, I had to say farewell to the first raised bed I built, made out of bamboo. I managed to grow a lot of things in this leaky raised bed and was sad to tear it down. But that’s life, and next year, the same spot will be full of life with wildflowers and buzzing with hummingbirds, bumble bees, butterflies all over.

On its way out, my good old raised bed gave me the gift of the biggest things I had ever grown, with several 35 pounds Musquée de Provence Squash, the tastiest winter squash you could find looking like a Cinderella pumpkin.

70 pounds combined. That’s a lot of delicious soup.

So farewell my old raised bed. You gave me a lot of pleasure and a lot of culinary delights.

Speaking of which, if you would like to enjoy the same pleasure and delights, the cold days are the perfect moment to plan ahead the next year’s garden. So get on my schedule right now to plan your kitchen garden in 2024 by booking a consultation. Don’t wait until the first months of April to rush to the garden centers. A successful kitchen garden in the spring and summer starts now.

I will also be leading a workshop on January 13th on Planning a Successful 2024 Kitchen Garden in the idyllic settings of P.A. Bowen Farmstead in Southern Maryland. I hope many of you will be able to make it.