Summer Garden

I remember thinking earlier this spring that we’d never get a chance to plant our garden in time for it to bloom this summer. Here in Northeast Indiana, we had multiple hard frost advisories late into the spring, right up through Mid-May!

So, rather than gathering up our seeds and starts to plant outside around the time we normally would, we were instead rounding up any old sheets and cardboard boxes we could find to cover our blooming perennials and crossing our fingers they’d make it.

Spoiler alert: they did! Most of them, anyway.

I got most of our starts and seeds in the ground Memorial Day weekend and, for the most part, they’re already flourishing!

I planted all of our old favorites and didn’t try anything wildly new this year. By the time I got around to the garden centers, the selection was pretty sparse.

Jeremy did track down some hop rhizomes though, which are very much new to us. For those who may not know, hops are one of the main components used in brewing beer!

We planted these along the very back of the garden in the hopes they’ll grow up the fence (once we get some kind of trellis in place). I’m so excited for these, not just for how they’ll look and how we may be able to use them in a few brews, but if they grow enough next year, we plan to use them as some greenery in our wedding!

Many of our peppers are a little stunted this year, and I’ve heard the same from some of our fellow Indiana-based gardeners. They are definitely still alive, but just haven’t really taken off yet. I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the weather we’ve experienced this spring, as a lot of our herbs and lettuces have been bolting earlier than normal, too.

It looks like we’ll be able to get regular harvests from our tomatoes, cucumber, and zucchini soon! As usual, I’ve waited a little too long to harvest the first round of lettuce and kale, so the leaves are a bit tougher than they should be. If you often let this happen, too, something I always keep in mind, so it doesn’t go to waste, is to really rinse and massage the leaves until they’re a little more tender or use them in dishes where they’ll be heated or ground up (I sneak greens like these into almost all of my smoothies)!

In the larger garden bed at the back of our garden, I planted only flowers, mostly from seed. Most of them are edible, which I love having on-hand for decorating desserts and using in teas and syrups, and all of them are great for cutting for bouquets. They’ve finally started getting some height and I can’t wait until they start blooming. If I’m being totally honest, I can’t remember what order I planted them in and have zero clue which seeds actually survived, so it’ll be a nice surprise once they start becoming identifiable!

It’s been so much fun seeing more and more friends, family, and coworkers attempt gardening for the first time this year. I think being quarantined inspired loads of people to give it a go, some for the very first time, and it warms my heart seeing all of the updates on my newsfeeds with all the greens and blooms. And, as you may be able to guess, I love talking all things plants and gardening, so it’s inspired a lot of conversation!