Garlic for good health: Nature’s super food
1. Bye-bye colds and flu: Immune boost alert
Garlic is like that friend who shows up just in time. Rich in allicin, a sulfur compound activated when garlic is chopped or crushed, it can help keep sniffles at bay by supporting your immune system. Studies even show it can reduce the severity and length of cold symptoms if taken early!
2. Heart’s best friend
Eating garlic regularly has been linked to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It helps your heart by keeping your blood vessels flexible and reducing plaque buildup, which means better circulation and a healthier ticker. So, that garlic butter on toast? Not such a bad idea after all!
3. Antioxidant hero
Garlic packs a punch with its antioxidants, which fight off free radicals and can reduce inflammation in the body. Bonus: Antioxidants may also help protect your brain from cognitive decline as you age.
4. Vampires beware—but bacteria too ��❌
Garlic has natural antimicrobial properties, making it a powerful defender against unwanted bacteria and infections. Before antibiotics were invented, garlic was used to treat wounds and prevent infections. Pretty cool, right?
5. The perfect gut buddy
Garlic is a prebiotic, meaning it feeds the good bacteria in your gut. A healthy gut microbiome supports digestion, mood and even immunity. So next time you’re cooking, throw an extra clove or two into that stir-fry—your belly will thank you.
Hardneck varieties
I couldn’t be happier with last year’s garlic purchases from Bulbs of Fire.
Chesnok Red offers a sweet, buttery flavour when roasted and stores for 4-6 months; Polish Garlic brings bold, spicy heat with large, easy-to-peel bulbs lasting 6-7 months; and Music Garlic delivers smooth, rich flavour, storing beautifully for up to 8 months.
One of my favourite things about hardneck garlic is that it gives you two harvests—the bulbs and the scapes. Mid-season, the garlic sends out these beautiful, curly flower stalks, which you can harvest and use in everything from pestos to stir-fries.
Reflections from the veggie patch: A year of growth, surprises and new discoveries
As the season winds down, it’s time to look back at the highs, the challenges and the new experiments that made this gardening year unforgettable.
Tomatoes, zucchini, patty pan squash, banana peppers and garlic galore.
This year, the veggie patch truly delivered! My disease-resistant tomatoes (Mountain Magic, Mountain Merit and Legend) kept producing juicy fruits well into autumn, showing off their resilience.
And the zucchini? Unstoppable. By mid-summer, I had baskets overflowing, and they didn’t care one bit about pests or mildew. Patty pan squash made an appearance too, adding some playful shapes to the harvest, and my yellow banana peppers thrived, bringing vibrant colour and a mild, tangy kick to salads, pickles and grilled dishes.
But let’s talk about garlic.
I had high hopes for my carefully curated garlic rows this year, marking out the different species with stakes to keep things organized.
Well, let’s just say those plans didn’t quite survive Joplin, our troublesome pup, who absolutely LOVES playing with sticks—including the stakes marking my garlic varieties. One minute everything was neatly labeled, and the next? Complete chaos. Now my garlic species are anyone’s guess, but Joplin had the time of her life causing the mess, and honestly, it’s hard to stay mad when she had that much fun being bad.
Regardless, the crop still came through beautifully. The bulbs were plump and perfect, and I’ve already divided and replanted about 200 cloves to set myself up for an even bigger harvest next year.
New addition: Ground cherries
Now, let’s talk about ground cherries—the coolest little eyeballs you’ve ever seen, and they taste like a mix between pineapple and cherry tomatoes. I introduced these guys to the garden this year, and WOW were they prolific. Like, borderline invasive prolific.
I thought they’d be a cute addition to the veggie garden, but they totally took over! Lesson learned: these super-productive plants should’ve had a space all their own. Next year, they’re moving to the food forest, where they’ll have plenty of room to sprawl without crowding out the rest of the veggies.
Birdhouse gourds and beans up the tepee
One of the most fun and rewarding projects this year was my experiment with creating a tepee structure for birdhouse gourds and beans to climb.
Talk about adding a playful vibe to the garden. The birdhouse gourds wasted no time sprawling up the tepee, covering it in lush green vines that became the centrepiece of the garden. By the end of the season, the gourds matured into these lovely, hard-shelled vessels; perfect for all sorts of crafty projects. I’m already dreaming of painting and turning them into cute birdhouses or even using them as decorative containers.
The beans did their thing too, weaving in and out of the gourd vines, adding both greenery and deliciousness. The whole structure felt alive with movement and growth—a magical mix of beauty and bounty. And sitting inside it? It felt like being in a living pergola, with vines creating a cool, shady escape on hot days. It became my favourite little spot to sit, unwind and watch everything flourish around me.
But I’m not stopping there.
Next year, I’m planning to up the game by adding corn to the tepee mix. I’ll be planting native, drought-tolerant corn varieties that can handle my local climate. This will allow me to try out the Three Sisters method—a time-honored First Nations planting technique where corn, beans and squash (or gourds, in my case) work together symbiotically. It’s all about polyculture and sustainability.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to grow heirloom beans—adding variety while supporting seed-saving efforts to preserve heritage crops. It’s rewarding to know the plants we grow carry stories from the past, and now we’re part of those stories too.
Haskap bounty
The haskaps were another major success. Their abundant harvest provided delicious, tangy berries that were perfect for fresh eating and jam-making.
One of the key benefits of haskaps is their low-maintenance nature. Once established, they seem to almost take care of themselves, with little need for regular watering or pruning beyond the basics. Their hardiness to both cold winters and early frosts further cements them as a dependable crop, especially for colder climates like mine, where many other fruits can struggle.
Haskaps are one of the earliest fruits to ripen in the growing season, often ready for harvest by late spring or early summer, even before strawberries.
Looking ahead, I plan to add more haskap bushes to the garden and am excited to experiment with different varieties to see how the flavours and sizes vary, further diversifying my berry harvest for years to come.
Clearing brush for the food forest: A new challenge
Clearing brush to make way for a future food forest was a big win, but I was caught off guard by how quickly perennial weeds and small trees sprang back. It’s going to take some ongoing management to keep everything in check, but I’m excited about the potential of this space. It’s also the perfect spot to relocate the Jerusalem artichokes, which have a habit of spreading out if left unchecked.
In the coming seasons, I’ll be adding hazelnut bushes and thornless berry bushes to build out the layers of this forest while continuing to remove POISON IVY and invasive plants like periwinkle and goutweed.
With patience and careful planning, I’m hopeful this space will evolve into a thriving, biodiverse ecosystem that benefits both people and wildlife.
Gardening has this beautiful way of keeping me grounded while feeding my curiosity, always nudging me to dream bigger. There’s something magical about knowing that no two seasons are alike—each one brings new challenges, surprises and opportunities to grow, both in the garden and in life.
(All photos by Monika Rekola)
Monika Rekola is a certified landscape designer and horticulturist, passionate about gardening and sustainable living. As a budding homesteader and garden writer, she shares her love for recycling, repurposing and birdwatching. Monika is dedicated to ecological gardening, aiming to balance our delicate ecosystem. Contact her at [email protected].
