Well this year has been interesting learning what works in the new beds and where we are going to change things next year. This month has made some of those changes abundantly clear in regard to where we have crowded too much and other areas that are wasted space. We are jotting down notes and already planning for next year in the hopes to fully optimize the space without crowding.

The weather has been very similar this year to last year, though I believe the “cloudy” days we have had this year are mostly smokey. That being said, because of the smoke, I can’t see the sky, so perhaps it has been cloudier than I thought. I partially expected the garden to have some stutters in producing because of the amount of days of smoke, but so far the garden seems to be trucking along.

I think the biggest difference from this last year to this year is that we are in a more severe drought this summer than we were last year. Last year there were some minor water restrictions, while this year has been much more extreme restrictions. We are not allowed to water our lawns unless we use a hand-held sprayer and water it by hand. Gardens are also technically supposed to be watered by hand, but the way that we have our garden setup minimizes the amount of water needed as it drips right to the roots. We did this because of the ongoing drought conditions we have where we live. So, we have left our garden watering with the drip irrigation, which uses much less water than if I were to stand out back with a hose to water. If our garden had mostly sprayers, then I would have definitely turned off the irrigation and went to the hand watering as it would make it more of a conscious thing about how much water we are using. As it is, our drippers are on for 5 minutes each night to get the roots wet. So far we haven’t lost any plants due to the lower watering, which is good. I think part of that is also from the fabric we have down, which helps stop evaporation from the garden bed as well.

The droughts are something we are consciously aware of and thinking about as we continue to plan our yard. We have minimized areas that require watering, and have plans to remove more grass for more resilient greenery that don’t need as much water. This is all a topic for another post though, I am getting off track. Onto the August harvests!

Our beet greens have been fantastic this year. I am not sure what has caused the change, whether it is location or the landscaping fabric in all the beds that are keeping some of the bug activity down, but whatever it is, it is great! The greens are not chewed up and wilty, but rather crispy and perfect. Lettuce is so ridiculously expensive, and I just didn’t think to plant any this year, so I have been eating a lot of beet greens in salads. I quite like them as a lettuce replacement. Well sort of replacement. I do supplement with a little bit of lettuce and some kale, but it makes the lettuce go a lot further when adding the greens.

The lack of bug holes and sad wilty leaves is the reason that this years harvest of them have been so much higher. If we can keep this trend year after year, then we will see properly comparable numbers.

The beets are very happy in general this year. Not only are the greens doing great, but so are the beets themselves. We are getting large, hearty beets. Despite their size, there are no splits or breaks in them, which is fantastic. I did also do a second planting, so we should get more later into the fall this year.

Another difference is that last year Basil found her way into the garden last year to dig up all the carrots, burying all the beets in the process. I had to pull all my beets early because the tops were all damaged and completely buried in a mound of soil so that definitely resulted in a smaller harvest last year.

The broccoli overall this year is doing a touch better than last year. Last year we had 8 broccoli plants, and this year we only have 6 but have had a larger harvest so far this year. They seem to like the spot they are in, though we did fight with the cabbage moth, eggs and worms for a while. Our leaves do have some spotty areas where they were munched before we found the culprits. But it didn’t seem to affect the plant overall so that is great.

Most of the broccoli we have enjoyed in stir fry’s or just dipped in some hummus. I did save myself a bag of the little heads so that I can make a batch of cheddar broccoli soup. With the smoke settled into the valley again, it may be a task for tomorrow to keep me busy.

I am so happy with the cantaloupe this year. I have tried to grow them before with no luck. This year, I finally figured it out and have been rewarded with a plethora of melons! So many that we are giving them away to everyone we know and still managing to eat it every day. I will definitely be growing these again.

Like so many other fruits and vegetables, they are so much better fresh from the garden. I can’t believe how much flavour these melons have. Cantaloupe has always been a favourite of mine, but these are a whole other thing. Yum!

The carrots are doing well. They aren’t amazing. They aren’t sucking. They are just ok. We were a little late this year in planting because we had to get the bed they are in prepared, but next year we will be ready for an early spring plant, which hopefully means we will get more carrots earlier. We will also plant a few more than we did this year. We still have some growing, but if we had been able to start eating them in July, then we would have needed more than what we have planted.

I have redeemed myself! I managed to grow some cheddar cauliflower in 2021, and had these beautiful heads that I thought I had to wrap up in the leaves. Unfortunately, they ended up rotting before we could enjoy them. Darn.

Last year, I had no luck getting my cauliflower to develop any head so it was a bust.

This year, I finally got some heads to grow again…and got to eat them! I will probably plant a few again next year now that I am feeling better about them.

Nothing has changed since my July update. These plants are just sad little celery plants that don’t seem to want to thrive despite lots of space to grow and plenty of water. I like having celery because we use it so much, but I am going to have to switch up the variety and the seed supplier next year. See if I can find something better.

We have had a good year with the amount of corn that we grew. Actually our best year of growing corn in the amount that we harvested. We were able to give some to neighbours and friends as well as enjoy some ourselves and store some for fall soups.

That being said, this is the third variety we have grown and no matter what we do, or how quickly we cook it after picking, it always seems starchy. This years batch had good flavour, and is great in soups, but it still had a bit of a starchy texture regardless. Because of this, and the fact that although we like corn, we don’t actually eat much of it, we may take a year off of growing corn and see what else we can grow instead. There are so many farmers in this area that sell delicious corn, that if we really want some fresh picked corn on the cob, we can just head down the road and buy some from one of the farmers in the valley.

This was a big surprise for me. Based on how poorly this plant started, I didn’t think I would get any vegetables from it. It was nice to have a bit of a harvest, with more little vegetables growing for a few more harvests before the fall weather hits.

I don’t think I will do this plant again. They are a novelty but I don’t taste much difference between these and a regular cucumber. I had anticipated more of a difference, with more citrus or some sort of difference. I do enjoy them on my salad with some cherry tomatoes for a fun aesthetic, but I can grow something we will enjoy more in the space that it is growing. Likely we will replace it with squash, pumpkins or perhaps another type of melon.

The cucumbers have been doing great. We are back to regularly having cucumbers available and being able to give them away to neighbours and friends. It is so nice to have high yield plants so that we can share.

That being said, like with some of our other plants, I am going to change up the variety and how I grow them. These are supposed to be similar to a long english, but they end up getting quite fat quite quickly. Then they are seedy in the middle. Not a problem, I just cut out the centre and enjoy the main part of the cucumber, but it would be nice to get a proper english cucumber going.

I also am not going to try to trellis it anymore. It always grows to a certain height and then can’t go any further. With the landscaping fabric down, the cucumbers that are mostly laying on the ground are staying really nice looking and aren’t getting any rotted bottoms. I think we will just let them trail next year.

So in July these little gems had just started dropping and I was enjoying eating them as is. I was waffling about whether I would grow them again. Well…it is a resounding yes on that topic. I finally made the jam with them and holy moley! I love it. I can’t explain the flavour, but it is now going to have to be a staple in the pantry.

That being said, I have to figure out the jam. 2 batches and I have struggled with both. It is worth it for the flavour, but man it is frustrating to make. I have been making jam for years and have never had so many problems. Ah well, I am sure I will figure it all out. In the meantime, I do get to enjoy the labours of love for this jam with the jars I have managed.

I do think though that next year 2 plants will be plenty. 3 is a little much. But then again, I haven’t tried the husk cherry pie, or other recipes that I found, so I may be singing a different tune at the end of September.

This comparison is a bit off. Last year I really only used a lot of Basil and made so much pesto. This year, I planted way less Basil and a lot more other herbs. I have been using a lot in spaghetti sauces, dinners, garlic jelly, etc. I have actually used the herbs in more ways this year, which is nice.

I still have a lot of herbs growing which I will harvest and dehydrate for winter use so we will see what the end of year numbers end up coming in at.

So this seems like we are having a good year with onions. We could have been, but this is one of the crops that we accidentally crowded. Our potatoes got out of control. I can’t even explain how out of control and happy those potato plants are. I though I left buffer room. Not enough. The potatoes just laid down right on top of the onions, flattening the greens.

We did a bit of a harvest of some potatoes and managed to clear out the area over the onions. Unfortunately, it was too late and the greens had all started wilting and dying. So I pulled all the onions that no longer had green stalks so that we could at least use what had grown. There were a few that still had some green, so I have left them in, hoping that we have a few decent size onions in a few weeks. I’m not overly hopeful though. Next year, the potatoes will be going in their own area, with nothing growing around it just in case it is happy again next year.

As you can guess from my update on the onions, we didn’t get to harvest much of the greens. Maybe next year….

The peppers have surprised me. The sweet peppers have been growing lots of vegetables despite the plants being quite small and stunted. On top of that, the vegetables have thick flesh, which I again didn’t expect. So far a pleasant surprise.

They cayennes however still have not flowered so they are definitely a lost cause.

As mentioned above, the potatoes are happy. The harvest that Kurt did was just a small spot and we managed almost 4 lbs. I think we will potentially have a ridiculous amount on our hands. Which is ok. It means that we can continue sharing with our friends, family & neighbours. I will cure some to store for the winter as well.

IF we get the harvest I think we might, then I am sad I didn’t try harder to get my leeks to grow. Leek and potato soup is one of my favourite. I will have to go to the farmers market to get some fresh from someones garden, or perhaps offer to trade some potatoes with someone for some leeks. Then I can make my soup.

We did enjoy the potatoes that we picked in a BBQ foil pack, and air fried into some crispy wedge fries. I will probably do some kettle chips with our next harvest.

The rhubarb is still super happy and still ginormous. I’ve only had time to harvest the stalks that encroach on the strawberries. If I were to pick as much as there is growing, it would bee 5 times this number.

I will likely harvest a bunch more in the fall before the frost to make some cakes and loafs to freeze for the winter. I like having some stored in the freezer for when company comes.

I can’t even explain how happy we are with the new strawberry patch. Obviously we knew the new plants would produce more than our older plants, but wow. The first year for strawberries don’t usually produce such a huge amount. Usually the second year is the best. If that holds true then we are in for a stellar year next year!

We have had such an abundance that we have been able to share. Usually we don’t share our strawberries because I make jam, which I do share. This year, I have more than enough for the jam, plus eating, plus sharing. Its awesome. And they are so tasty. Red all the way through, super fragrant and so sweet.

Yowza! We have the same amount of plants as last year, yet our tomatoes are thriving. I have heard from a lot of gardeners that it is a banner year for tomatoes, which we are definitely seeing. I can barely keep up, which is a great problem to have. Salsa, spaghetti sauce, sandwiches, soups, etc have been made. Plus we have given a lot of them away. It’s fantastic and we will be enjoying the sauces that I have made through the entire winter.

The romas have been especially abundant. Some of the plants are 10′ tall with tomatoes growing the full length of the plant. 2 of the plants however have had a bad case of blossom end rot this year. I tried giving them nutrients to no avail. Not too much of a problem. They are still useable, just cut off the ends.

The big beefs have been slow to ripen, though are still producing great. We will see how it compares to last year. We had a lot of big beef tomatoes last year. I’m still quite happy with what they are producing. I don’t think I could handle if they were producing like last year, and the romas going crazy this year. It would be too much.

Our sweetie tomatoes have definitely struggled this year. One died in early July, with the other being crowded by some big beef tomatoes. I think we didn’t pay enough attention when planting and both were crowded. Next year we will do better to make sure they have the space they need.

Last but certainly not least for this month is the zucchini. This was a last minute addition specifically because I needed it to make some more zucchini relish. Originally I was just going to get some from my co-worker, but then I panicked and planted some.

This year it is not planted under the cucumbers, so it has made it easier to stay on top of the vegetables before they get too big. Which is saying a lot because the harvest numbers from last year were based on overgrown zucchini. This year, they are all smaller, more reasonable size. If they were overgrown like last year, by number for weight would be double. Which would be too much!

I am going to make some zucchini loaves for my coworkers, family and some for the freezer to pull out and enjoy this winger. Unfortunately zucchini is a hard one to give away.

Well that is it for this month. We are creeping up on the 2021 numbers for weight grown, which was our highest year. I am sure we will surpass it. Have a great start to the late summer, pre-fall month of September.