It’s time for another garden update, mostly because we are getting ready to get ready (did you get that?) to plant our fall stuff (more lettuce and such) after making some room.

We ripped up all the beans and peas because they were way past their prime.

We got 3 good pickings from the beans and quite a few peas. We only had 6 plants so it wasn’t enough to really cook and eat, so we mostly ate the young pods as sugar snap peas, even though that isn’t the variety we planted.

So, now we have an empty bed to plant fall things in. We’ll probably do that at the end of August…depending on the weather.

The tomatoes seem to be doing a little better…but still not great.

Same with the peppers.

 

But at least we have a few things out there to harvest…

And the eggplant and cucumbers have really slowed down, too. But that’s okay. We’ve had a bunch!

I’m also still pretty pleased our zucchini are alive, although they aren’t producing quite as much as they were either.

I’m not sure they’ll make it ALL summer, but I’m pleased we’ve had as much success as we have had with them considering we had like a total of 3 zucchini last year before all our plants died…. (Stupid squash borers…)

I’m super disappointed our raspberry still isn’t blooming. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I’m pretty bummed. I can’t even find out what variety it is to try and research it since it was just a generic “raspberry” plant from Home Depot last year. Boo.

 

The strawberries are blooming again though. The second time this year (they are ever-bearing so they have more than one cycle each year…)

Our popcorn (only planted because I got the seeds for free in the mail) seems to be doing great, but I don’t have any idea what I’m supposed to do with it to get it to get popcorn…

The marigolds are doing great though.

And we can’t forget the little walnut tree Wyatt dug up and saved from our yard…still doing fine in its little pot…

Overall, we’ve been pretty pleased with the garden this year, even though it isn’t really producing as much as it could be. It’s still more than we can eat, which is good because we enjoy sharing!

I know my mother-in-law has lost a few things from her garden, and I’ve heard a lot of others are also having trouble with tomatoes this year, but hopefully, we’ll get some good ones before the end of the year.

My thoughts are also turning towards summer and fall canning and preserving, so we’ll need to get on that eventually…soon.

In the meantime, share some of your favorite summer garden recipes, or do you have any awesome ways to cook eggplant? What about cucumbers? What about making your own popcorn?