July's Garden (2026)

This has been the most amazing garden month ever. It has rained almost every day and it looks like a jungle.  

The abundance is stunning.

The paths are disappearing.

We put raked grass down as a weed mulch but the lawn is growing so rapidly, Bill can't keep up with the mowing. It was raining as he raked these waterlogged clippings and put them in the walkway. After drying enough to be handled, they will be spread to other areas but until then walking is soggy.

Even though the garden is bigger than previous years, we are still not wasting any space.

The back of the garden where the white potatoes were dug now has carrots and tomatoes (left row by the fence), green beans and corn (center row), and fall tomatoes beside the support fence (right row). The far back empty corner where the lettuce was now has tiny sprouting cucumbers.  A seed is always dropped when a spot of soil becomes available.

Earlier in the year I purchased the "end of the year close out special" of 100 sweet potato slips consisting of 4 different varieties for $25, plus $12 shipping from Sand Hill Preservation Center. It was an absolute steal; however, it is potluck - they send whatever is left, and they don't promise anything. In the past, they have always provided a good service.  After last year's dismal sweet potato harvest, it was time to find a new variety.

As scheduled, over 110 slips arrived at the beginning of this month. This area was finally tilled and became two sweet potato beds. Those that couldn't fit were squeezed into empty spots throughout the garden. The goal is to find my perfect potato and this was an inexpensive way to experiment. Sweet potatoes take 90 to 120 days to mature and there were 110 warm days until first frost at their planting time. It is cutting it close but if winter arrives early, they will just be a bit smaller when dug; hopefully, there will be a massive harvest. The best producing, tasting, and storage ones will used to start the slips next year.

Their vines grow aggressively so the garden will become even more tangled as the season progresses. These were planted below tomatoes and are already beginning to over run the row. They climb fences and will try to cover the tomatoes. I suppose less should have been ordered, but when have I ever shown restraint when buying seeds or plants? 

The Sugar Baby melons from the old seeds that I didn't expect to germinate have grown well but are very small. It seems to be the reason they weren't ever planted again. (Imagine trying to share with a family of five adults.) The tendril closest to the melon was completely brown and the underside was yellow indicating they were ripe. 

We picked two. They tasted good, not great, but were full of seeds and too small for the amount of garden real estate they covered. We will enjoy the rest as they ripen but they won't be grown again.

The garden is surprising me every day but that isn't all that is flourishing on our farm.

A baby arrived two nights ago. Mom brought him to the garden on his first day. (Bill tossed the exhausted mother fresh grass clippings over the fence.) Hopefully they were discussing how the garden is off limits. 

I never realized how much easier gardening could be if the weather cooperated. It is nice to be able to share good news and not be whining! 

Last Month's June Garden (2026)

Last Year's July Garden (2025)

June's Garden (2026)

The garden was ignored while we partied and vacationed - absolutely no regrets. Our sons came home for two weeks. Reese dug the potatoes one morning but other than that, our time has been spent trying new recipes, grilling, and enjoying each other. The weeds took no time off.

This morning I braved the heat and inspected. 

It looks shaggy and there is much work to be done but it survived our neglect. The empty potato rows will be planted soon with tomatoes, squash, beets, and sweet potatoes. 

The fire ants we are trying to evict by harassment has killed a cantaloupe plant as revenge.  After watering the garden, the nozzle of the hose is hung on the fence beside the gate over a cantaloupe. It is a convenient way to avoid losing it in the weeds. The fire ants were drawn to the moisture, dug tunnels underneath, and killed the roots.

We drowned them with water again and instead of moving away from the garden and into the yard where we can hit them with poison, they relocated further down the row.

We will continue to flood their colony until they leave but until then we must tread carefully and harvest slowly.

This is how purple hull peas spread if you let them go wild while taking a break. We have two of these rows.

Yesterday we tied up the one in the shade and it was hard. Bill said "never again. Next year the stakes and strings will be up before we put the seeds in the ground."

We have really waited too long to do this. Finding the peas amongst the jungle of vines will not be fun but it will be easier if contained.

Now for the success stories.  These are the biggest onions I have ever grown! They were purchased last spring, stored in the refrigerator, planted in the fall, and grew all winter. Thrice they were lightly fertilized with 13-13-13 and being grown in horse manure certainly helped. However, not one red onion grew larger than a half dollar. Why??

After everything went wrong last year with the green beans, switching to the Volunteer half-runner variety was a great decision. We must pick every few days.
 

There are four green bean plants around three pepper plants. The beans are growing up the fence and along the top. The peppers are supported by the fence and the open space behind them allows afternoon sunshine to peep through. 

Back in the early spring I decluttered my old seeds by tossing them into cups of soil. Unexpectedly, three Sugar Baby watermelons sprouted from 2018 seeds.  They have never done well for me so this has been a shocker. Two are spreading below this row of tomatoes and will meet in the middle. 

Since success has eluded us, we don't know if we will like their flavor; however, taste testing watermelons is a challenge eagerly accepted.

The biggest surprise is that there are still some summer squash alive in my garden! Six are living and four are thriving out of the 12 that were planted. We have gotten five pickings which is more than ever before. We ate squash every day when the boys were here and sent leftover casseroles back with them.

From my experiments on these plants I have learned that putting soil on the stem doesn't work because rain washes it away leaving the unsprayed stem exposed. Running them up a pole allows bug sprays to cover all of the vine but it also puts them at risk of storm damage. The sprinkled wood ash damaged the plants but after adding coffee to the soil, they recovered. It is unclear if it the wood ash really was a borer repellant. Covering them with mesh until they were blooming gave a good head start. I'm not sure if raking the soil and not using a mulch mattered but it will be done again. The experiment is being repeated in every empty space that becomes available in the garden.

When the Chinese vegetables are finished, the net will stay up and squash will be planted underneath. 

The only thing sweeter than the taste of success is the taste of a fresh yellow squash slathered in butter and cheese. 

This morning the Purple Martins who are nesting in the gourd above the garden were teaching their baby to fly. It was quite clumsy landing on the top of the posts. It was enjoyable watching but it reminded me of when my guys left home. I miss them so much. As they left this weekend, each one filled their trunks full of canned, frozen, or fresh goodies from the garden. It will be six months before we are all together again but at least I can still make them home cooked meals. That makes all the garden work worth while.

Last Month's May Garden (20206)

Last Year's June Garden (2025)

May's Garden (2026)

It is raining! The sky is gray, gloomy and I am taking pictures as it is sprinkling! It is wonderful. We shifted from severe drought to a week of slow drizzling rainfall. Everything has been revitalized. The old timers call this a "season rain" meaning it makes the garden successful and there will be plenty to eat come winter. 

Earlier this month was focused on getting the front (southern) part of the garden tilled. 

A few areas have been done but since this was originally the yard, the ground is rocky, weedy, and the dirt is hard clay. It is quite difficult. 

This is May's garden last year when we were installing the fence. It shows how much area has been added. Even though it is bigger, we still seem to be running out of planting space. 

This is Bermuda grass. It has runners that are deep and snap when you pull. Any remaining root will regrow. The ground is like concrete and the tiller won't fit in this tight spot. We plan on removing all we can then covering it with cardboard and mulch.

The soil is being built up at the base of the fence with leaves and compost. Closing the gap under the fence has stopped the rabbits, groundhogs, skunks, and armadillos from entering. They still can dig under but nothing has tried yet. Keeping them out has made a noticeable improvement.

The row beside the fence is being planted with a mixture of whatever is ready to transplant at that moment. This year's garden hasn't had much planning. Everything depends on getting the soil prepared. When a spot is ready, something is planted. 

The compost pile is being emptied to build the new rows and amend the soil. The left side was dug out and then we switched to the right. Weeds are being discarded on the left now. Never do I turn it over because it is too much work - waiting accomplishes the same result. Sometimes we fill it high and the next morning everything it is gone. There maybe a few thieves in the neighborhood. 

An army of fire ants are back in the garden. The colony hides under plants, swarms if you step too close, and it hurts when bitten! They are probably looking for moisture due to the drought so we give them all they want. Bill digs up their hills, drowns them along with their eggs in a bucket of water, and if they try to rebuild, he dumps all the water back in the hole.

Usually, they will move to another area but this colony tried to rebuild in the bottom of the water hole. After another douse, the queen moved under the tomato plants. We will continue to chase them until they are away from the garden.

Anyone who has followed me for a long time will know growing summer squash in my area is impossible. Squash vine borers kill them yet for twenty years now every season I try something different to out smart them.This year they are under a new hoop house net (no holes anywhere) which is removed when the squash begins to bloom. 

These were bought at a local nursery and immediately placed under cover since the borers have attacked my starter plants on the front porch. The extra leaves have been stripped away, the vine tied up a stake to make it easier to spray the stem with mineral oil, and then it was sprinkled with wood ash. Soil has been mounded high over the stem for extra protection. Mulch won't be added so the soil can be regularly raked to not allow any hiding places. A local gardener said her grandfather always sprinkled wood ash as a repellent. She didn't know how much to use, or where to put it, or how often it was to be sprinkled so all of this is a guess. Wood ash changes the PH level of the soil so coffee grounds will be added to hopefully, restore balance.

 

The poor plant at the end of the row seems to have gotten a bit too much wood ash. It will be sacrificed as the control plant and will receive no help other than a cup of coffee to see if anything I am doing makes a difference. Perhaps all the borers will attack it and leave the others alone? Time will tell.

Maybe wood ash is squash vine borers' kryptonite? If it works, I can patent it and make a fortune!

Overall, the garden is doing fantastic now that it has rained. 

As for me, I'm drinking all the coffee I want without feeling guilty - it is to save the squash! They need the grounds. Seconds please. 

Last Month's April Garden (2026)

Last Year's May Garden (2025)