Garden Haul 2025: All Our Plants & Plans for a HUGE Harvest!

Welcome back to Jonestead Farm! This video is all about getting our garden ready for an amazing 2025 season! 🌱 This year looks a little different for us, and we’re sharing why we’re breaking from tradition and what plants we’ve decided to purchase instead of starting from seed. (Hint: It involves a sweet new family member and a lot of grace for the season you’re in!)

Join us as we show you our massive garden haul, walk you through our planting plans, and discuss our no-till methods and upgraded cattle panel trellises. We’re excited to grow an abundance of food for our family, even with life’s new challenges, and we want to encourage you that it’s okay to adjust your plans and still thrive!

Chapters:

0:00:21 – Why Our Garden is Different This Year (No Seeds!)
0:00:44 – Giving Yourself Grace in Different Seasons
0:01:29 – Our 2025 Garden Haul: What We’re Planting!
0:02:59 – Tomato & Pepper Varieties We Love
0:04:46 – Our Plans for Squash, Melons & Sweet Potatoes
0:06:54 – Setting Up Our Garden: No-Till & Trellises
0:07:34 – The Joys of Gardening & Adapting to Life

In this video:
– Our biggest garden haul of purchased plants!
– Why we’re not starting from seed this year.
– Encouragement for homesteaders in busy seasons.
– Details on our tomato, pepper, and herb varieties.
– Our no-till gardening approach.
– Upgrading our garden trellises with cattle panels.
– Embracing flexibility in homesteading.

Connect with Us!
Website: www.jonestead.farm
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jonestead.farm10
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jonestead.farm
Shop Our Products: www.jonestead.farm/shop

Just a heads-up! Links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if you make a purchase. It costs you nothing extra, but helps support our content! Thanks for your support!

Gardening
Grow Lights – https://amzn.to/43zq9eU
1030 Trays – https://amzn.to/43zq9eU
Square Nursery Pots – https://amzn.to/3SpR1sG
Hori Hori Knife – https://amzn.to/43SRABD

Resources/Books We Recommend
The First Time Gardener by Jessica Sowards – https://amzn.to/4kDzJVz
The Tiny But Mighty Farm By Jill Ragan – https://amzn.to/4kDzJVz
No Dig Organic Home & Garden by Charles Dowding – https://amzn.to/3SrU2J5
The Family Garden Plan by Melissa K. Norris – https://amzn.to/3ZxmTj9

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It feels weird doing a video without you. It’s also weird talking to someone else when you’re sitting right there. [Music] Okay. Hey, welcome back to Joe’s Death Farm. Um, this video is all about plants. So, we’re going to talk about the plants that I purchase this year. Normally, I’m someone that always starts my plants from seeds. Um, of course, I’m a sucker for a good plant sale, and I do typically pick up a few things here or there, but the majority of the stuff that I’m I’ve purchased this year are not things that I normally buy. Um, I um um have this sweet little honey. I have a baby um in the beginning of March, and that’s typically when um I start my seeds here in zone 6. um beginning of March is usually go time for me. And so um having not uh any energy, no energy, no no brain cells. He was born literally March 6th, so it just wasn’t the season. And so I want to encourage you if it’s not your season, it’s okay. We all have those seasons. But that’s the beauty of buying plants. Um, I chose to change it and make it into something really great because I was decided that I’m just going to pick out varieties of plants that I don’t have in my collection of seeds and see if it turns out something really epic and we really love them, then I get to have new seeds in my seed collection. So, um, I figured I would just share what varieties I picked out this year, what you can see in further um, garden tours and such this year and see where they started out, see why I picked them. So, uh, I’m going to start off with peppers. Um, we had a plethora of peppers last year. And due to my, uh, sweet morning sickness, I didn’t get to enjoy nearly as many as I wanted to, but um, my family did and they really liked some of these of some of them were tried and true. So, I’m just going to go ahead and start. I’ve got, um, the California Wonder Sweet bell pepper. Always always a tried and true. Have those in every garden, right? Um, I also picked up another um, bell pepper. This is called the ladybell. I thought this one looked kind of fun. I don’t have seeds for the ladybell. These mosquitoes are going to be the death of me. I didn’t put any bug spray on. Um, so this one is an F1 hybrid. I just thought it looked really pretty. I liked just the way that the the foliage looked and I was like, I’m going to grab that one. Um, I picked up a nice little fourack of some jalapenos. These poor guys are struggling. They need some nutrition. They’re going to go in the ground um either today or tomorrow. Um, I’m losing daylight, but I may go do it anyway. Um, I’ve got um a lilac. This one is really interesting. I don’t I let this one This one was already starting to turn color whenever I bought it. Um, and I thought, you know what? I’m going to see what happens with it. I’m going to clip it before I put it in the ground, but this one is supposed to have a unique lavender color and it goes from ivory to lavender and I thought that was really cool and then to red. So, I just I thought it was a unique, fun pepper, bell pepper that I don’t have in my collection of seeds. So, I went with that one. Um, this one is just a sweet banana pepper. Uh, grabbed that. And then this is a one that I don’t have, and it is probably really common, but I just thought it would be a fun. We did shashito peppers last year, and I uh didn’t really get to enjoy them nearly as much as I wanted to again due to morning sickness. But I did get um this Goliath griller and it kind of reminded me somewhat of what a shashito pepper might be like. I’m sure the flavor is not all there, but all the shashitos were sold out, so I was sad. Um but you know, there is next year. Um I that’s all the peppers that I’m doing right now. I’m probably going to pick up a couple more banana peppers. Um my family really likes pickled banana peppers. The thing I found with peppers last year is that I’m okay. I’m the person that like will I don’t mind spending $2 on a pack of seeds and just go hog wild and have a million plants because it cost me $2 for this pack of seeds. Of course, the soil and whatnot and the time and care, but I don’t mind sacrificing my time and care. It’s more, oh, it was $2 for this pack of seeds. It’s totally fine. I can plant as many as I want. I can give some plants away, sell some plants, things like that, right? It’s totally different when I have to go to local nurseries, which are amazing and I love supporting local nurseries, but you know, this this is a $4 plant. And while that isn’t a terrible deal on on some started plants, cuz I obviously was being a little thrifty um whenever I was even shopping for my started plants, um I just can’t stomach going willy-nilly and buying a bunch of peppers. So, I also found, you know, the more you pick, the more you get. And so, I’m just going to be really diligent about picking my fruits this year. And I think I’ll still end up with a really big harvest because we got so many peppers last year that we ended up giving some of them to our pigs because I could not do anything with them um due to just being so nauseously sick. It was kind of inconvenient honestly how nauseous I was last year during um gardening season. But I did put away a ton of tomatoes. So speaking of tomatoes, we’ll go to that next. I got so many different tomatoes this year that I didn’t already have in my garden last year. Um there’s only a couple that are um maybe even one that is a repeat from last year because I was able to find it and my family really loved this variety. So um we’ll start off. I I picked up some simple little packets of um celebrity tomatoes from Walmart. They are definitely struggling. You can see that they look really sad right now. They are hungry. So these guys are going to go in this in the ground really soon. Um let’s see. I picked up some from just like big box stores. I said I’m going to pause on this one cuz I have a story to go with it and I’ll tell you that story in just a second. But uh this one I picked up just recently and here’s a pro tip which I love to do. Now it doesn’t always work in your favor but it doesn’t doesn’t it doesn’t change some things that you would already have. Okay. So I picked up this one. This is a I think I this one was a Cherokee purple. Yeah, I had Cherokee purples in last year. I picked this one up last minute. I saw it at our local um feed store and I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna have to pick this up.” So, it’s a double tomato plant in this one pack. Okay. And if I’m super gentle and sweet, this guy’s going to give me two tomato plants. I’m not going to break it. If I break it, worst case scenario, I can stick one the broken one in some water and root it and I still end up with two tomato plants. Just going to be a little bit farther behind because the roots aren’t as established, but it’s still going to be two tomato plants. I didn’t pay any different having this right here than what I would have had had I bought the one plant. So, you’re going to see that happen a lot in some of these tomatoes that I bought because I kept looking for doubles so that I could really make it um make it work for me and the side the the like the size garden that I have. Again, these guys are struggling. They’re hungry. They’re ready to be in the garden. But what I’m going to end up doing whenever I do plant these tomatoes is I’m going to be plucking off these lower extremities anyways. And I like to bury my tomatoes deep. So, this top foliage is still really happy and healthy. So, these guys are again, they’re going to be going in the in the in the soil really soon. Um, this one is a yellow pair. And again, I got a two for one, which is really cool. Um, I love I love a good deal. Also, I have a decent sized garden and filling it up with excuse me, pre-seorted plants is kind of difficult when you’re trying to shop on a on a tight budget. Um, I got the mortgage lifter. I did not have the mortgage lifter last year and um I just didn’t have seeds for it and I thought I did. So, I’m excited to have this one in there because it’s just really prolific and I’m looking forward to having a really prolific uh another really prolific tomato plant in my garden. Um let’s see. This one was a black cherry. We did have those last year. Um and they were delicious. Everybody loved those. Uh let’s see. This one is a lemon boy. Um I did not have this one last year. This is a new one for us. I think this Yeah, F1 hybrid. Um, so I’m excited to try these. Um, my family really loved our lighter colored tomatoes last year. So, I just thought it would be fun to throw some new ones in our in our seed collection if they end up being um ones we all love. So, that’s kind of fun. Um, fun thing or not fun thing, sad thing to do, but a uh necessary thing to do is if my tomatoes start putting on flowers before they’re in the ground, I always pluck off their flowers because I want them to put more energy in the roots. Again, they don’t have anywhere to put more roots right now, but again, they’re going in the into the ground very soon. I held off putting my tomatoes in because we had some we had a nice cold snap and I was a little concerned that it was going to stunt their growth. So, I ended up waiting. So, that’s kind of the story behind why my tomatoes are still not planted. Also, newborn life. Um, all right. So, this one’s a a sun gold. And this one, again, I got a twofer, so I’m pretty excited about that. This is a cherry tomato. So, uh, my my family loves cherry tomatoes. Um, I really love having opportunities for my kids to snack in the garden, and that’s one of them for sure that everybody loves to just walk around and pluck off the vine. Um, this one is an a blink. I got this from a uh local farmers market. Um and so this one is very hungry and it’s going in the garden again, like I said. Um we’ve got a hillbilly. I didn’t have this one and I just thought it sounded fun and I wanted to grab it. So this guy’s really hungry. Oh man. Um this one is a pineapple. I I have had pineapple uh the pineapple tomato before, but I didn’t have it in my garden last year. So, I’m looking forward to having this one again. And let’s see, what did I pick up again? This one was at our local feed store that I picked up, just like a Barney plant. Oh, this is a super sweet um 100 a cherry tomato. Um I wanted it’s an indeterminate cherry tomato, but I I got wooed in whenever I saw it was two plants again, so I’m like, “Okay, yeah, I see you. I’ll take you home.” Um, and then this one I’m so excited for. And when I showed my girls this one, they like freaked out. So, I think everybody has just as much love for cherry tomatoes as I do. But this one is called a Rapunzel. Okay. Looks like just a regular, you know, cherry tomato. Um, it it just, you know, doesn’t scream anything until you see this picture. Look at these tomatoes. I’m obsessed. They’re so fun. Um, so this one says that it can have um as many as uh 40 sweet cherry tomatoes in one um like row. And I’m like that’s bananas. So I’m really excited to see what this one produces. I’m hoping she’s a rock star that I save seeds from for forever. We’ll see. Um and then I did pick up some herbs. And herbs are one of those things that I usually pick up every year. Uh well, I should say some herbs. Some herbs I I always start from seed, like basil and um thyme and oh, let’s see, lemon balm and mints. Oh, these two are giving each other a hug. Um but this year, I just honestly having a baby has taken the time away from me starting things. So, um yeah, I I I just haven’t had a chance to start them. So, and also I’m trying to establish some different spaces in my inground garden that I now kind of have an idea of what I’m going to be doing. And so, I wanted to go ahead and get some a little more established plants. But, some things are going to be going in my green stock. I have a green stock here on my deck. And I really like having herbs really close because then I can just come out and pull what I need when I’m cooking and I don’t have to go out to the garden to grab them if I don’t want to, unless I want to harvest a lot. So, I got some oregano. Um, oregano is one of those that you must put in a pot. If you don’t, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Um, I It’s kind of funny. Our Kansas City house where I really was able to have some space to um to just learn and garden and have fun um and dream a little dream. Um, and it’s the house that we sold to be able to get the farm. Um, but it uh the lady that lived there before us, it was a oneowner home before we moved there and she was an avid gardener, amazing gardener. She had absolutely stunning plants and but she had she had put this really beautiful variety of oregano that was just like this lime color. It was beautiful. And she had it as ground cover in the front of the house. Well, every time um like I would try to get out there before it would go to seed and it it it didn’t matter because this thing just recededs and comes back and receded and comes back and it’s just it’s a wild wild little thing and every time my wood mow it would smell like pizza. So, this is going in a container for sure cuz I love oregano but I don’t need that much oregano. Um I have some Tulsi basil. This is going to be um holy basil. It’s going to be going in my green stock again. And then I got a small little Genevese um basil plant that’ll go in there as well. These smaller ones are going in my green stock. This is um sage. I love sage. Smells like Thanksgiving to me. Um and then I have a small little um thyme plant that’s going to go in my green stock as well. But I also purchased a large one because I wanted to recede in a specific spot in my um my big garden and have a big place to be able to harvest time. We use a lot of time. I typically buy it in bulk at um natural grocerers because we just go through so much time. I make a lot of chicken stock and turkey stock and lots of bone broth. And I honestly just cook with time a lot. And so um I want to have a place I can dedicate to have a big mature thyme plant. And so that’s where it’s going to go. This one is. And then I also got some mojito mint because I love mint in my water and I just I like mint in general. Smells so good. And um this guy is definitely going in a big container as well, but I wanted to have a little bit of a mature mint plant because I enjoy mint a lot. Um I also got this dark opal basil. Poor little guy is a little sad, but we’re going to put it in the um the green stock as well. Um and then I have two really large um plants that I picked up on clearance. Not clearance, but on a sale, and I was really excited about it. Um one of them is rosemary, and it’s massive. Um I picked this up at Costco. And look at how big this is. I’m so excited about this this rosemary plant. Like you can’t even see me. You know what I mean? Like it’s a nice lush rosemary plant. And I’m going to definitely be harvesting quite a bit from that. Um I always start off with a small rosemary plant and then I end up harvesting it to death. And um then it gets some neglect because I usually put it in a pot. So, I’m now going to try to establish a nice spot for it to stay and live and pray that we don’t have like the world’s worst frosts and then it comes back. I also picked up this really large basil plant because, like I said, I usually start my basil. I picked up this big large basil plant from Walmart and it had a decent pot and I wanted to be able to have some sitting here in my on my deck. Um, because I love basil. I have sewn basil already in my garden, but we like to make basil lemonade. It’s a big thing at my house and um it takes quite a bit of basil for me to um make as much as my family wants me to make basil lemonade. So, I picked that one up specifically as my basil lemonade basil plant. Um okay, so the tomato that I decided to do an experiment on, this is going to be another video, but I wanted to just kind of show you this v this last variety. This is the last one I got. Um, I just picked this up at Tractor Supply at the beginning of the year. So, it looks rough because it has been sitting in the same soil. Should have been uppotted again. Baby life, but I didn’t experiment with it. So, I got six of decent sized tomato plants. These are the better boys. These are a nice big beef steak tomato, but they’re nice and healthyish, but looking a little puny on the ends. But again, like I said, once I pluck off all the dead on the bottom, they’re going to be great. Um, it was a six-pack. I have another one in this, but I did an experiment to test my um my uh straw that I used as mulch in my garden. Um you want to I wanted to test it and make sure that it had didn’t have any herbicides spread on it because it will stunt and kill all your night shades. And um just in general, I like to try to like be as organic as possible in my garden. I don’t like spraying anything in my garden. And I definitely don’t want to cover my garden with glyphosate or any other herbicides that have been sprayed on grasses that then I will have to um deal with the repercussions of that for a while cuz I don’t want that to leech into my soil. So, um I definitely wanted to test it before I put it down. It was good to go based off the test that I did and so far so good. I’ve have plants growing in my garden right now. Still baby little seedlings, but still doing well. So, I think it was a good good to go um assessment. But I hope you enjoy plants as much as I do. Um and I hope you enjoyed seeing what we’re going to be putting in our garden. It’s going to be a really fun year. I’m like staring at all the bounty that is around me. Although you’re right there staring at all the bounty. It’s beautiful. Um but I am so so excited for this garden season. And I think this year I’ve been able to really assess my space um and really kind of just go, you know what, it’s going to be a fun learning year, a different year than what we’ve ever done before. Um I normally never buy this many plants ever from a store, and I definitely don’t like the I love the experience of planting seeds and doing it from start to finish. I love the beauty of getting some really cool plants that you don’t get to go buy at the store. But I am going to look at this year as a year of seasons. I have this sweet little guy that needs me to take care of him. And if that means that I’m going to grow some different plants that I normally don’t ever grow, and I’m still going to feed my family some really yummy meals out of my garden, then that is a win for me. So, I hope you have a great day. Um, and then thanks so much for being here. God bless you, and we’ll see you next time. [Music]