2025 marked our third full summer in this house and it was my third attempt to grow an epic garden. In some areas I improved greatly! In others, I fell short. I am excited to share a brief review of each flower and veggie I planted this year and based on how they did, decide what I will be doing different in 2026.

Some fun facts —

We live in grow zone 9b in the Sierra Foothills. We get rain October-May. Our summers are hot and dry. (We do our best to counteract the dry season by collecting rain water in huge barrels over the winter and then watering the vines and garden from the reserve as much as we can.) 2025 was a mild summer for us with just 11 days over 100*.

My garden is made up of six beds. Each are about 4 feet wide and 18 feet long. In the back of the beds I have a 2×18 foot long area where I plant sunflowers. In total I have 468 square feet of growing space. Everything I grew this year came from seed or bulb (This was my first year where I didn’t purchase a single seedling.) I make my own compost (we have this bin set-up) and irrigate with a soaker hose system. I mulch with straw.

Okay, now — let’s see how I did.

ANEMONES | A

This was my second year growing anemones and they did great. These are some of the first flowers to come up (I plant the corms in November) and they are always a joy. I will be devoting even more space to these next year.

Varieties grown: Galilee White with Black Centers, Italian Mistral, Italian Levante Rosa