Garden Update: July 8, 2025 - Let's Get this Party Started!

Success!

My 2025 garden was started in October, 2024 and since I have already harvested garlic scapes and lots of lettuce, its time for another update!

I planted seeds for both Boro (purchased from High Mowing Seeds) and Detroit Red (purchased locally) beets.  I have no idea which are which.  I kept planting because none came up - and then a bunch came up.  This year, thinning and a long cool spring made all of the difference.  These beets are sugar sweet and smooth.  Their huge size did not affect their texture.  I have been baking them wrapped in foil like a baked potato, then trimming, slipping off the peels and slicing them.  I have more out there including some Golden Beets. I just need time to get them canned.  A favorite recipe for our family for using the "juice" from cooked beets when making canned or pickled beets is my Raspberry "B" Jelly (beet jelly), recipe found HERE.

Music Garlic, purchased from Baker Creek 

Onions, purchased as "starts" (not sets) 

from my local Walmart

Two surprisingly new (to me) crops this garden season are garlic and onions.  I was super excited when I saw the size of the garlic heads!  I have never seen garlic so big. Same with the onions!  I planted onion starts (not sets) and was in shock when I found softball sized onions perched above the soil.  I harvested 15 heads of huge garlic June 24 and 15 onions on July 6. My husband thinks I'm a little loony for getting so excited about garlic and onions lol. I plan to make garlic and onion powder using a dehydrator and blender since those two spices are the most used in my spice cabinet.  The garlic and onions are curing in my shed for a few weeks.

Pictured are Suyo Long and Merlin cucumbers, my first zucchini, two yellow squash, one Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage and a half jar of oregano.

So far, I'm not thrilled with the Suyo Long and Merlin cucumbers.  These are parthenocopic varieties but the Suyo Long are super spiny and sometimes skinny and the Merlin seem to have a slimy texture that I'm not sold on.

I had added knee high (panty hose) stockings to my cabbage plants which were being attacked early on by cabbage loopers.  The knee high panty hose worked great and seemed to solve the cabbage worm problem.  The bigger threat lately which caused me to harvest early was a new family of groundhogs.  After my first  and only beautiful head of broccoli became a midnight snack for the groundhog family, I decided to pick the cabbage early.

First canning project - 

Tomato Sauce from last year's (frozen) tomatoes

In an attempt to make room in the freezer, I found three gallon zip bags and one tied Walmart bag full of whole, unpeeled tomatoes.  Geesh!  Sunday, I decided to soak them in a sink of warm water, slipped off the skins, removed the stem areas and put them on a slow simmer for tomato sauce.  I blended the cooking tomatoes (including some cherry tomatoes) with my immersion blender and canned up this luscious sauce using the tested instructions for tomato sauce from my Ball Canning Book.  I ended up with 11 nice jars (mostly pints) which I will use for soups, chili, and lots of Spaghetti Sundays.

Failure!

These were three huge tubs of beautiful sweet potatoes.  😕  I started my own slips in soil instead of jars of water and they were doing so great!  Sadly, the groundhog family picked them clean.  I'm not sure they can recover.  I need to get some of the weeds out and see if they can be saved.  This happened last year and I still got plenty of sweet potatoes, but I don't know.  These seem especially sad and I'm not sure they will make it.  The groundhogs also picked clean a few squash plants and some teddy bear sunflowers that I was especially looking forward to.  

I'm not sure how to handle the groundhogs.  The mama groundhog has babies so I hate to capture and relocate her if she has babies to take care of.  I'm a softie and so I'm hoping I can add some fencing so that we can co-exist a little better.  I don't mind sharing, but dang, girl!

Lots of Yellow Flowers!

My new favorite seed-started flower is the Celosia-Yellow Queen Cockscomb.  I love its thick yellow blooms which seem more like soft chenille than flowers.  I had hopes for cutting a few and adding to vases of zinnias.  Still waiting on the zinnias but at least the Cockscomb has proved itself a show stopper!

I overwintered my two hibiscus plants in a sunroom and one of them is an overachiever after they were both placed back outside.  Her flowers are bright yellow with red centers and she is just preaching some good news to me out there!  

Coreopsis Tinctoria (Golden Tickseed) 

I believe these are Coreopsis Tinctoria (Golden Tickseed) and they are so pretty.  I have several self seeded sunflowers and I hope later in the summer to fill the vase on my dining room table with some of my own seed-started flowers.  Apparently yellow is the color of the summer for me, so far.

I have a few crops that I am anticipating.  My luffa plants are huge and are creating a jungle over my cattle panel arch.  Here are a few beautiful yellow (of course) luffa blooms.

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Here is my one and only sugar baby watermelon.  This vine is growing on the other side of the cattle panel from the luffas and I am watching ever so carefully in the hopes that I can get a sweet taste of homegrown watermelon soon!

I enjoy reading about my previous gardens when the winter dreariness settles in so I hope no one minds this little view of my garden AT HOME MY WAY.

I am sharing this post at Harvest Mondays - Dave's Happy Acres Blog.  We are all growing different things in different parts of the world and it's so fun to see a day in the life of those of us who love to garden, take pics, and blog about it!  Please check out all of the gardens featured there this week.

Enjoy!

Gina

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