Anyone thinking about quitting vegetable gardening or cutting back for 2026?
…or fruit trees for that matter.
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I’m in the opposite camp; I have a ton of pumpkin seeds saved I plan to put a ‘fall festival patch’ dry run together.
This past fall I finished filling and installing 3 8’ x 4’ raised beds in the backyard and am very excited to plant a huge garden this year. Starting peppers soon is on the list so I can see how many times I mess up before they actually survive!
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Well, I do plan to cut back this year, but only so I can make sure I have time to complete my greenhouse construction. I don’t have as many trees as I want yet, so I plan to add more, though. 
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Every year for the past five or six years that was the plan….never followed the plan. Ten years ago we went from 30+ tomatoes down to 20-24 plants. We also stopped growing cucumbers and green beans in the regular garden and went to all raised beds. I think this year instead of growing peppers in both the in-ground and raised bed it will be all raised bed.
All that is to accommodate our age and physical abilities. However, we shall see what actually happens. One year before we quit altogether it would be nice to have a successful year of melons.
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Nope. Will plant out a handful of tomatoes, beans and grains in the yard. Pumpkins and squash later.
Turnips, beets and greens in containers.
The wife will be doing more flowers this year. Some for market fresh cuttings and Resinous forms of art and furniture.
I agreed as she will include some of the gorgeous poppy flowers I wanted.
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I’m doubling my garden this year… think im adding some low tunnels
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I love my vegetable gardens; I could never give them up. Tending to them brings me peace and my little humans a lot of wonder and joy. I’m adding another raised bed as soon as the snow melts.
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ive thought about it but i went the other way and created some ways to do it within my limits. I am not older but I do have an issue which makes me unable to kneel or reach to the floor by bending. So i put together a lot of raised beds with a bar across the middle for me to brace against and pull myself up
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Eh I’m planting fewer trees/vines (only slightly fewer though and largely due to space).
As for vegetable gardening, I’m considering cutting down on some things compared to last year (either skip or only do a fall planting of most crocifurous veggies, carrots, and the like) and putting more focus on tomatoes, Watermelons and sweetpotatoes as we try different varieties of each.
I had thought I might skip growing irish potatoes this year since thus far I haven’t found any I like enough better than supermarket potatoes to really justify it, but… thanks to “bad influences” I caved and will be planting a row of them as well for at least one more year.
So kinda …but… not really. I do see a day where I may actually cut back on the vegetable garden and focus entirely on fruit, with just a couple of tomatoes in the summer, but if I am being honest with myself that day hasn’t arrived this year.
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I was not planning to do any vegetable gardening as I will be very busy with building and other projects this year. But I couldn’t resist buying some heirloom drought-tolerant melon seeds and a nice collection of hot peppers.
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Nope, I’m just getting started. All fruit is not a good diet.
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Not downgrading, but shifting focus. I will grow a few common crops but this year I will mostly be growing uncommons or things you can’t buy in the store. Also a lot more herbs/medicinals.
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No, I put 8 4x8 beds in last year. I will be cutting the variety of what I’m growing down from a bunch of different things to mostly potatoes, tomatoes, sunchokes, garlic, peppers, corn, and beans, but I am going to add a planter our front for squash and am plotting out what I’m going to grow on the deck.
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I gave up on vegetable Gardens a few years ago. For me it was too much work very little reward. I grow Romaine lettuce in a raised bed from November to April. That’s it
My wife likes to eat salads for lunch. That’s the only reason I do that.
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I grow plants for my chickens now…mostly kale. If there’s no aphids or cabbage worms, I’ll eat some. If there are, the girls get some protein with their greens.
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i do the same on the south side of thier run. just cut and fling it over the side.i also grew quinoa and amaranth. they get the leaves then the seeds when they ripen.
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I’m having three surgeries this year so flowing down but I do have about sixty years of gardening under my belt.
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Asking us if we will cut back is like asking a drug addict if they plan to use less drugs tomorrow. If we plan to cut back we have health issues or similar problems and are forced to cut back. I plan on doing as much as I can until someone forcefully prys my pruners out of my hand.
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When we first tried Keto.. around 2018.. a year or two later.. my veggie garden was changed.. out with the high carb stuff… focus on low carb stuff.
Some moderately high carb was still grown but eaten in much lower quantity.
Okra (which I dearly love) is very low carb and high in fiber… Excellent keto garden choice.
I normally only grow 3 tomato plants now.. Big Beef, Brandwine, Sungold.
I do grow yellow crookneck squash and onions.
Keto fried Okra, Squash, Onions… Mmmmm Good.
That is about all that gets grown in my veggie garden now… I do grow leaf lettuce all fall, winter, spring in a protected hot bed.
Eat a lot of salads during that time… eat a lot of Okra summer-fall.
I grew some (3 short rows) of sweet corn last year.. because my daughter asked me to. Gave it all to her.
TNHunter
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Veggie gardening got a lot easier for me when I parked the fancy tiller and went to using a Broadfork. Soil health has improved over the years as well and I am not constantly weeding like I was with keeping a tilled garden.
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