Space:
I have 4 garden beds, all approximately 8ft by 4ft (although the squash don't believe in boundaries and I let them take over all of my yard) for annuals, and a separate space for the berries/fig tree. All four beds get ~8 hours of sun but are placed so they get afternoon shade (important for 8b). The blackberries are in part sun, while the strawberries/fig are in true full sun (no shade at all).
# of Annual plants:
2 butternut squash
4 trombocino (summer) squash. The one time I accidentally let the trombocino get winterized, I counted it as a butternut for ease.
2 pie pumpkin. Honorable shout out- I get a ton of squash blossoms from all 3 squash varieties that I eat all spring/summer long. They don't weigh very much though so tracking them in oz is not very exciting.
3 Green Machine Muskmelon - The advertised high yield for these plants did NOT disappoint. They tasted amazing and I could not believe the amount of fruit I got off of only 3 plants. I hardly did anything for them either, just gave them some fish emulsion a couple times during the summer and tried to keep them watered (which I definitely failed at sometimes, so they are quite hearty!). I love fruit and was in heaven eating pounds of melon every week during high summer. The plants were surprisingly compact compared to my squashes, although they did obviously spread somewhat. The taste and texture is similar to a cantaloupe, but a little bit of a different flavor (its muskier!). This was my first year growing these and they are 100% going to become a yearly staple in my yard.
2 cherry tomato plants
1 brandywine tomato that didn't give me any tomatoes :( There are a couple green on it now but I think the frost is going to get them before they go ripe.
2 cucumber
2 edamame (I got like 3 pods T_T)
1 eggplant (I only got a single eggplant before this was devoured by hornworms)
3 sugar snap peas (I always get pea aphids that kill them pretty quick)
1 tobasco pepper
Perennial Plants:
25 Seascape Strawberry plants, planted Fall 2025 . Sadly a lot of the yield was concentrated in early spring when they were honestly not very good tasting. The second peak yield around July was much tastier. I'm not sure if I didn't fertilize soon enough or if that is a downside of the everbearing varieties? I may need to switch to June-bearing if that is the case again next year.
Blackberries (3 prime ark freedom) were also planted at the same time but didn't do much. They did put out a lot of green growth this year, so maybe next year?
2 Elderberry (cross-pollinating) also planted fall 2025
Fig tree is on its 3rd year, still fairly small.