Let’s take a gander at our garden throughout July and see its progress! Let’s get to it!
Our garden update begins July 2 and here’s our white patty pan squash – also called sunburst squash. I’ve never grown a white one before, always yellow, so I’m excited to see all the flowers and squash growing!!
Our mint is doing exceptionally well this summer! It took a bit to get going, but with the rain and heat we’ve had, it sure took off!!
I love mint so we have a variety of mint plants! I like adding it to my water for a light minty taste because sometimes water can just be a bit boring! I also like to just chew the mint leaves — it tastes great, freshens breath and help with my digestive woes!! Mint also has so many health benefits too, so it is a great herb to have on hand!
Mint is great for digestion by calming the stomach muscles, relaxing the bowel and improving the flow of bile which is essential for digesting fats. This helps food pass through quicker resulting in less gas and bloating. Mint helps to decrease symptoms of nausea thanks to its calming effects on the digestive tract and nerves. It can also help improve brain function, help with bad breath, and lessen the severity of headaches. Mint leaves are rich in phosphorus, calcium and vitamins like C, D, E and A which helps to improve the body’s immune system.
Historically, mint was used to mask bad tasting medicines and provide relief of an array of gastrointestinal issues like bloating, flatulence, nausea and gastritis. It was used for coughs and to help alleviate aches and pains. It was also used in perfumes and baths and to flavor cordials. Surprisingly, mint was used as an air freshener by being scattered on the floor or ground. During the Civil War, hospitals were equipped with peppermint and spearmint including their oils to be used as tinctures, in lozenges, to drink in water, and as a spirit used for various ailments. Scholars believe mint has been around for about 3500 years. Learning historic uses of mint is quite fascinating. It is a herb that I use often.
I have a variety of mint, each tasting slightly different. Here is my good old fashioned, regular mint.
It’s July 4 and we just picked up this tomato plant from the store — it had lots of green tomatoes on the plant but looks a little under the weather! We are slowly bringing it back to life (my daughter is seriously the tomato whisperer) and the tomatoes are now turning red!! This is the best part of summer!
I tasted some this evening and they are so deliciously sweet, and flavorful – so much better than conventional store bought!! Yum!
We bought a few plants this year and grew a bunch from seed as well. Our plants we grew from seed are starting to get blossoms and of course the plants we bought are doing wonderful!
Now to nourish our plants so we get lots of tomatoes!!
As I mentioned earlier, I love mint and have several varieties. Pictured below is my orange mint!! I love the citrusy-minty taste! It’s great in water, but you can also use it to make homemade mint extract, scent lip balms, freshen breath, toss in fruit salads or smoothies, make tea with it plus so much more!!
It’s high in vitamin A and C which is an antioxidant that helps the body’s cells. Mint is also high in calcium which is important to the heart, muscles & nerves, phosphorus which is important for tissue repair and healthy DNA production and potassium essential for balancing fluid in cells (electrolytes). Herbs like mint should be used frequently for the body to obtain all its nutritional benefits!!
I also love how fragrant mint is. I can smell it when I’m outside, which is very soothing.
The mosquitoes have been horrendous at the community garden lately — but we did manage to pick the weeds and water everything before we ran!!
The rhubarb is doing amazingly well and I’m looking forward to picking it one evening and making something delicious with it!! I like making rhubarb squares, rhubarb fruit, jam and even freezing it to enjoy all winter long!
Time for the next update! It’s now July 7 and I’m excited to see that our potatoes will soon be flowering!!
We have 2 sections of potatoes — some in our short, lower garden and some in the tall one. The potatoes in the lower bed are doing so much better because we brought our own soil to add to it whereas the other plot has just dirt that was provided by the garden. That definitely shows me just how depleted the soil is and how important it is to nourish the soil in order to grow food that will nourish us!
I love seeing just how much the garden can grow and change in just a few days. It’s July 9 and with it being hot and watering often, the garden is so green and growing well! There are spots where nothing grew and sections where we have replanted quick growing veggies like lettuce.
I decided to share what was happening at our garden plot in the community garden over on Our City Homestead on Facebook. You can watch our video here: July Garden Update
We have a variety of tomatoes growing in pots close to the house where they get both sun and shade and are protected from wind and rainstorms. We are also growing Hungarian Peppers and Bell Peppers which we have been enjoying. These peppers have a sharp flavor and the Hungarian Peppers are slightly spicy like a jalapeño.
“My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from a plant’s point of view.”
– H. Fred Dale
It is already July 16! I have never grown white patty pan squash before… so waiting for it to turn white from green took a while, and we now have a monster of a squash! We water often, especially with the heat but unfortunately I can smell just how bitter the squash is becoming. I sure hope it will not taste bitter.
We watered the garden and the potatoes are all flowering!! So pretty! Looks like we’ll be enjoying fresh garden potatoes soon!!
July 21 and there’s been some developments!! The peas are growing wonderfully and flowering. We have regular peas and sugar snap peas with edible shells. This is the first year peas have done so well at the community garden for us! The zucchini is growing good too but the onions are a horror story!
The onions are strangely rotten and infested with worms. The white onions are fine and I picked some to enjoy. The purple onions and shallots however are disgusting! As soon as we pulled them from the ground, it looked as though they were crawling. You could literally see those crawling buggers inside and outside the onions making the onion move. The onions had hundreds of worms in them, so we pulled them all. Such a shame that we planted 100 onions to end up with hardly 10. We cook with a lot of onions all year long, so I was really looking forward to having lots to enjoy. Those onions were something from a gardening horror!
The sunflowers are finally growing. They are supposed to be 14 feet tall, but with how late they are, I do not think they will grow quite that tall. The asparagus has gone to seed and is flowering. We only enjoyed a couple stalks this summer, but they were tasty. The lettuce is small but finally ready to be eaten. Nothing beats fresh garden lettuce!
We are lucky that my folks have plenty of raspberries on their acreage and that we are able to have extras. I froze these raspberries to eat in the winter.
It is quite easy to keep busy all summer long between watering, picking weeds, enjoying fresh produce, tending to the garden and potted plants, cooking delicious meals and simply enjoying summer that before long, it is the end of July! Here’s what our garden plot looks like now — lush and green.
Peas are ready as are some zucchini. Beans are ready and a few beets are as well. We have had a chance to enjoy potatoes with fresh dill! This is my favorite time of the summer – when we can enjoy garden goodies and all that hard work!
I have another video to share with you of our garden’s progress at the community garden. You can watch the progress update here: July 31 Garden Plot Progress
And that’s our garden for July! How has your garden been doing? How has your weather been? I would love to hear about your flowers or fruit and vegetable gardens!
