I’ve talked a lot about our garden and showed a few pictures on social media, but that’s been about it. I thought it would be fun to do a monthly update of what’s going on in our garden.
Since I’m getting around to it in the middle of the month instead of the beginning, I guess this will be a six week thing instead of a monthly thing! This was the first garden season at our new place and we were so excited get back to gardening!
WE GOT OFF TO A ROCKY START, LITERALLY
Early on I had hoped to order heirloom and exotic produce seeds from a catalog, but Baker Creek was closed. But I’m on the mailing list for this winter so next spring we should have some more variety in the garden!
I made a basic list of things I knew we had success growing before and the handy hubby went to the local garden store one day after work. All in all, we spent $56 on seeds and plants, so we definitely stayed in our budget.
The first garden we planted didn’t do so well; the ground was way too rocky to grow much other than weeds. We excelled at growing weeds.
The herbs did well for a time and we had good success with our onions. Other than that, the corn never grew very tall, never really produced good cobs, and half of what we planted… just didn’t come up.
So in late May, the handy hubby tilled up a new, larger garden spot in the backyard where there was better dirt. Luckily this spot worked well.
We planted corn, watermelon, cantaloupe (with seeds from a melon I’d bought at Aldi), cucumber, carrots, squash, and zucchini. I managed to transplant the tomatoes and sole surviving pepper plant from the original garden.
The First attempt 
New Spot!
The tomatoes are thriving, but the pepper unfortunately disappeared completely. We planted them right before the last frost, and between the cold, the dog trampling them, and then bunnies attacking them, I’m shocked they’re still around!
The fifth tomato plant is quite a bit smaller and only now producing anything, but I was just so happy it survived I kept it. We originally planted six, but I’m thrilled to have five.
Only harvest from the original garden 
Tiny Little Transplants 
Perking Up 
Blooms! 
More Blooms! 
Nice!
After a few weeks we could already tell the new garden spot was going to be much more successful than the first! We didn’t plant a lot of anything, but we did plant quite a variety, especially since it was our first garden in a few years.
JULY IN OUR GARDEN
Things started looking up in early July as little green sprouts started popping up all over the garden. Well, almost everywhere.
Corn Coming Up! 
Little Sugar Babies 
Baby Squash
I got behind on weeding (again) and the carrots were quickly choked out. The handy hubby leaves room between rows of plants to run the tiller. The more tedious weeding is up to me.
After a few times trying to weed and having my little helpers pull up what little lettuce came up in the spring I kind of gave up on weeding.
The majority of July we spent watching the garden grow. At the end of the month we put up corn.
Ready To Husk 
Ready To Freeze 
Make Sure To Date Everything!
We were able to freeze five gallons of corn. Not a lot, but about all would fit in our freezer drawer at that particular time! We will definitely plant more than two rows next spring.
After we put up the corn it was time to clear out the stalks. My dad’s cows (who are typically watching us while we work in the garden) enjoyed a nice treat.
While we were thrilled to be able to harvest corn, we lost the sole surviving pepper plant from the original garden. In addition to that, our cucumber took longer than it should’ve to come up. It hasn’t exactly thrived since either.
The cantaloupe seeds from the store bought melon produced nothing. I’m wondering if this is common with commercial melons? Next year I will just buy cantaloupe seeds and then collect seeds from what we harvest.
EARLY AUGUST IN OUR GARDEN
After clearing out the corn, the handy hubby re-tilled that half of the garden and I set about planning which seeds to plant for the fall. I took the kids to the local garden supply store to pick up what we needed.
As you can imagine, it was quite picked over in early August, so we spent less than $10 on additional seeds. I pulled out leftover seeds from the freezer as well.
We ended up purchasing kale, elephant garlic (still not planted), beets, spaghetti squash, and Daikon radish. Parsnips and a couple of other seeds just weren’t there.
The radish we will plant after the beets and squash are done. It looks awesome as a cover crop. We’ve never used one, so I really hope it helps have a better corn crop next year!
Seeds Ready To Go! 
Tilling It All Up Again
We planted more carrots, chard, spinach, arugula, kale, buttercrunch, salad bowl mix, beets, and spaghetti squash! I can’t wait to juice and pickle beets!
EVERYTHING WE’VE HARVESTED SO FAR THIS MONTH!
It’s been a busy month in our garden! It seems like every day we’re picking more squash and zucchini! Every once in a while it storms, everything flattens out, then a day or two later it perks back up and keeps producing.
We’ve had some yellowing leaves and dying buds on the zucchini and squash lately and they’ve started slowing down. This is good since I’ve put up so much already and still have a produce drawer full to deal with in the fridge.
After the latest storm this week flattened it all out I was able to see the culprit; squash bugs. Since we’re operating on a small budget and I’m about done putting up squash and zucchini anyway I think we’ll probably end up pulling what’s left ASAP.
Here’s a short list of all we’ve harvested from our garden in August so far:
- 7 loaves of zucchini bread baked
- 2 sugar baby watermelons
- 2 tomatoes (so far) – just waiting on several to ripen
- 13 bags of squash and zucchini (some separate, some combined), each portioned to cook up for one family dinner
We typically pull up one or two more squash and zucchini a day. And, as mentioned earlier, I have a produce drawer full to put up still. I’m thinking of canning them in a water bath.
As luck would have it we’re already running out of freezer space. We just have the freezer drawer in the fridge for everything and a tiny little freezer in the mini fridge from my old office. That freezer holds our leftover seeds for future use.
First tomatoes! 
A Very Busy Evening 
Always Wash Your Produce! 
That Zucchini Made 4 Loaves! 
Only Cucumbers We’re Likely Gonna Get 
Another Busy Evening
GOING FORWARD
I’m going to try to keep the fall garden better weeded. In the immediate future we need to pull out the zucchini and squash, plant the last of the cucumber (that window is closing fast), and… finish putting up zucchini and squash.
Before spring comes we (the handy hubby) need to build planter boxes and make sure the dirt is even better for next year’s garden season. We have big plans for next year.
Hopefully those plans will include chickens! We have a few other outside projects that have to come first. And we also need to save up more money in order to start building a garage, probably in stages.
We need the garage anyway for parking and a work space, but if the garden keeps expanding as I’d like we’re going to need somewhere to put a deep freeze!
THAT’S IT FOR NOW!
Do you have a garden? What are you growing? I’d love to hear! And I’d love to get more ideas for the future!
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Until next time, stay frugal my friends!