My Midsummer Vegetable Garden

What a difference one month makes in a vegetable garden!  If you look back at my "Newly Planted Vegetable Garden" post things were just popping out of the ground;  now look how big everything has gotten!

It is the middle of summer in the United States and while some states like Texas are done with their vegetable garden's already, the state of Wisconsin is just getting started.  From now until fall I will spend every afternoon in my kitchen preserving the food I picked in the morning.

Let me walk you through my vegetable garden section by section.  This garden is right off my screened in porch.  There is broccoli, peppers, and tomatoes on the right.  On the left is more broccoli, peas, kale, lettuce, carrots, spinach, beets, and one cucumber.  I pack a lot in my beds by growing vertically and allowing plants to cascade down, like the peas you see in the foreground.

I've already picked several heads of broccoli but there is a lot out there yet.

The pepper plants are growing well, but I've only seen peppers growing on one plant so far.

The picture below was taken a few weeks earlier than the photo above;  you can really see the growth difference in the peppers.

Here's the little pepper.  I really need a good pepper crop this year so I'm hoping more appear soon.

Spinach is in front.  It has gone to seed now, but I have three plants I'm still harvesting off of.  Beets are in the foreground, and carrots are in the back.

Can you spot a kitty in the photo below?

I wasn't going to grow peas this year because I have so many left over from last year, but I had a little open spot so I added some more.

My kale is insane!  I wish there was someone else in my family that ate kale because it is just going to waste.  One person cannot consume this much kale!  It's only three plants but it just grew so abundantly.

The lettuce was yummy this year.  I'n still eating right out of my garden.  It's nice not to have to worry about getting sick from store/restaurant lettuce.

Last year I had so many cucumbers and I did not want that again so I only planted one in this sunny garden.  I do have two more growing on the back patio, but that is fairly shady so I don't expect them to do well.

I planted a small row of beets this year and have picked some already.  Here's a few more poking their heads out of the ground. 

And here's a bunch I picked.  Last year I mainly juiced my beets but this year I found a new way to enjoy them:  Air Fried beets!  Who knew you could air fry beets?  I sure didn't.  I wanted to cook my beets but didn't want to use the oven so I googled "Can you air fry beets?" and AI said yes.  You simply wash, dry, peel, cut them into chunks and add some avocado oil with seasonings like garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper, etc.   Air fry at 400 for about 15 minutes....yummy!

I picked all this produce in one morning.  It was a busy afternoon!

This viewpoint shows the newest vegetable garden with the shed in the distance.

To my dismay, this has been the summer of snakes.  I don't know what's going on but I have never had so many snakes in my garden before.  It is really getting irritating.  I have to watch before I step and put my hands anywhere.  These are harmless grass snakes, and we also have harmless bull snakes, but still, I don't like it. 😠

The next vegetable garden I will show you is our newest one;  it was just completed this year and is

producing well.  The beans, strawberries, and onions are very happy here.  One potato bed is doing ok, but the other isn't growing at all.  I put Yukon Gold in that bed, while all the rest were red potatoes, so I'm thinking that's the problem.  Plus, when I planted the Yukon Gold potatoes, there weren't any roots growing! They had sat in the basement for quite a while and the red potatoes developed roots.  I have no idea why the Yukon Gold potatoes did not.  So I planted them without roots, and I didn't get many plants.

The potato bed in the foreground on the right is the one that isn't doing well, but hey, look at those beans on the left!  Aren't they beautiful?  Celebrate your successes and try not to worry about your failures.

The other raised potato bed in the middle is doing much better.

So far I've picked two bushels of beans.  I did not enjoy the time washing, cutting, blanching, and freezing them all.

And what do you think of my Walla Walla onions?  Incredible heh?

Next up is my largest vegetable garden located right off the sunroom windows.  Here I have more potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and squash growing.  The first photo was taken at the end of June, and the second photo was taken this week.

June 29

July 16

What a difference a couple of weeks make eh?

Here are the pepper plants.  The first photo was taken at the end of last month, and the second photo was taken this week.  Notice the difference in height of the tomato plants in the background?  Amazing!

And finally, the squash plants;  this is where you can really see a difference in growth.  With the heat wave we've had this past week, the squash has just exploded!

June 29th

July 16

My zucchini was slow to germinate, but it finally started producing flowers and fruit.  I picked my first zucchini yesterday and plan to make "zoodles" tonight for dinner. 

And in the photo below you can see the summer squash is starting to grow too.

To save space, I grow my winter squash "up".  Yes, you can do that.  The vines strengthen so they can hold a fully grow squash without breaking.

I have Acorn and Spaghetti squash growing up my 9 foot tall fence.

I ran out of fence space, so I grew my Butternut squash up a trellis first, then I weaved some strong string over a beam.  The squash vines grow up the string, but will eventually grow onto the stronger trellis.  Come back in a month and I will show you what that looks like then. 😁

Here's one of my little cucumber vines growing in a shady spot.  It still has lots of flowers!

In my back patio I grow cauliflower and more broccoli.  What do you think of my "window boxes".  My friend had them hanging on her house and she didn't want them anymore so I took them and hung them on my fence.  I just love them!

Here is the start of a little baby head of cauliflower growing.

 I hope you enjoyed my vegetable garden tour.  I'll be back next month with another post!

If you missed last month's vegetable garden post, you can find it HERE!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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