Late Summer Garden

We’ve reached that point of the summer when our garden starts doing its own thing and feeling a bit like a jungle – some plants producing more than we can manage, some dying off, and most all in some major need of pruning. It’s also the time of year I start thinking about what seeds I should get in the ground for a mid-to-late autumn harvest.

Overall, this gardening season was a weird one. The massive amounts of rain in the early spring, followed by record-setting high temperatures throughout the summer caused some stress on much of what I planted. Did you know that extreme heat can result in really, REALLY hot jalapeños? We sure didn’t (until the first bite)! Fortunately, most of our plants have been able to adapt and thrive without tasting wildly different.

Our peppers have been the shining stars of this year’s garden so far. Green bell peppers came on quick and the jalapeños and poblanos weren’t far behind.

I’ve also had my first successful year with green (and purple) beans! I’ve been able to get a few harvests off of each plant already over the past month or so.

Both our large and small tomato plants produced fruit right away but seemed to take forever to ripen. We’ve been picking the cherry tomatoes for several weeks now, but the large ones have only just started turning red. With them all turning at once, I’m planning to make lots of salsa and sauces soon!

Our onions also took off better than any other year, as did our cucumbers. Usually they both start off strong but quickly die off (or are stunted) early in the season. Both are still going strong now!

I harvested our broccoli in early July (Rosie got a big helping all to herself, too). Our zucchini plant was not doing well most of the summer, only producing a few zucchini. I simply could not stop the squash bugs, so I pulled it early, after letting them munch away for a couple of weeks, and considered it a sacrificial plant (meaning they hopefully won’t come for anything else in the garden this year).

Kale is still going strong, and we’ve got a couple of little watermelon babies growing! I tried white eggplant out for the first time this year, and it’s really been thriving.

I also planted loads of edible flowers by seed in early spring, but moved them around so much that I’m never sure what’s what as they start to bloom. Each one has been a really nice surprise, though, and some are so much bigger than I anticipated!

I’m planning to sow a few seeds for a fall harvest, including carrots, snap peas, lettuce, and spinach.

We’ve also been hard at work on other landscaping projects this summer – including expanding our garden area to have some space for seating and more containers or raised beds next year.

And our front yard is currently a big mess as we removed three giant shrubs (and are stuck waiting to have the massive roots dug up professionally). I’m so excited to (hopefully) get some perennials in the ground yet this year. I’ll definitely share before and after photos of that process as soon as I can!