If there is one theme for the 2026 garden at Little Mountain Ranch, it is restraint. (Okay, attempted restraint. We all know how hard it is to say no to just one more variety of squash!)
During our recent community meetup, I walked through my seed haul and the new layout for the year. After years of experimenting with hundreds of varieties, I’m finding myself gravitating toward what works. I’m planting the same dependable varieties year after year because I’ve refined it down to what truly grows best in our northern climate.
Here is a look at what is changing in the garden this year and the seeds I am most excited to get into the ground.
The Forest Garden Makeover
The biggest physical change happening this year is in the “Forest Garden” area. If you’ve followed along for a while, you know this is the area down from the house with the white arch.
While the permaculture concept was beautiful in theory, I’m making some changes for better management and functionality.
- Removing: The Sea Buckthorn is coming out. While the berries are great, the plants are huge, thorny, and send suckers everywhere, making them unpleasant to walk past. I’m also removing the currants (which struggle with sawfly every year) and the irises, which have become too difficult to weed around.
- Adding: I’m replacing those removals with more fruit trees—specifically plums and apples—to create a more manageable orchard structure while keeping the comfrey at the base of the trees to suppress weeds and provide nutrients.
The “Covered” Garden
In the main garden, I’m doing something a bit radical: I’m covering the entire upper section.
I have a bit of a grass problem in that area, but honestly, I realized I don’t need that much space for the amount of food we need to grow right now. By covering these rows, I can rotate between the active beds and resting beds, making the garden size much more manageable for this season.
The 2026 Seed Lineup
Most of my seeds this year are from West Coast Seeds (a BC favorite), though many varieties can be found at Johnny’s or Baker Creek for our American friends.
I also want to highlight a couple of other key suppliers I rely on. My potatoes come from Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes, and I also source seeds from Moonglow Gardens, who provide several heirloom tomato and flower varieties that have been specifically bred for our northern climates.
Here are the standouts I’m committing to this year:
Flowers: Hybrids & favorites
Sunflowers: I’m planting more Teddy Bears and Solar Power varieties. My Teddy Bears have been hybridizing in the garden for a few years, creating amazing unique blooms, and I want to keep that experiment going.
Zinnias: I’m sticking to the Giant Blue Point (multicolored) and Queeny Lime. I tried the “Candy Cane” variety last year and found them lacking character, and the “blotch” varieties were just too inconsistent for my liking.
Cosmos: My absolute favorite is the Xanthos—they have a color that almost shines and looks sparkly in the sun.
Squash: The “One Section Only” Rule
I am forcing myself to use restraint this year! Squash is only going into one specific section of the forest garden (and maybe one tiny spot just because it looks pretty there).
Winter Squash: Burgess Buttercup (for flavor), Victory (great for the north), and Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash (high beta-carotene and perfect size for two people).
Summer Squash: Golden Summer is hands-down my favorite, even if mine always grow a bit lumpy!.
Brassicas & Root Veg
Cauliflower: Skywalker and Amazing are my go-to’s. They produce tight heads and are reliable.
Cabbage: I’m bringing back the Deadon cabbage this year—it has a beautiful purple savoy leaf that looks gorgeous mixed into sauerkraut.
Onions: If you want a red onion that lasts, grow Red Wing. They are rock solid in storage. For yellow, Patterson and Calibra are my no-fail recommendations.
Tomatoes: Scaling Back
This might surprise you, but I’m contemplating growing fewer tomatoes this year. Unless we get another high tunnel, I can’t grow enough to can all our products anyway, so I’ll likely grow my favorites for fresh eating—Old German and Sun Golds—and buy bulk tomatoes for our big canning projects.
Join the Garden Planning!
I’d love to hear what you are planning for 2026. Are you scaling back like me, or are you expanding?
If you need to stock up, don’t forget to check out our friends at Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes and Moonglow Gardens—I have discount codes for both of them below to help you get your garden started.
Discount Codes:
Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes: Mountain10
Moonglow Gardens: LMR2026 for free letter mail in Canada.
3 thoughts on “My 2026 Garden Plan: A Year of Restraint & Refinement”
It’s so hard to cut back on squash. I love so many different ones. But there’s only 3 of us in the house now so I don’t need as much. Bummer. So now I try to do just a hill of 3 different kinds and then hubbys favorite. That seems to be better. They just don’t store long enough for us for fresh eating and we are not fans of it canned, I do use the canned in baking. Small home no basement so our cold room back house.
Keep up the good work I love watching your videos very Sunday I put them on as I’m cooking breakfast and doing my baking for the week.
It is very difficult. Squash are just so fun to grow and they are so beautiful to see on your shelves.
Squash store well in most places as long as they are kept dry and cool. Chelsea’s often stored them under beds when she didn’t have much space and that worked really well. You just have to remember to check them regularly in case any start to rot.
I’m also going to be looking into freezing squash in cubes to roast later because that’s my favourite way to eat it!
Thank you so much for your comment and support!
The button to download the entire seed list for the year just takes you back to the top of the page…. unless I am missing something?