The Hibiscus That Persists

Last year, we bought a hibiscus plant at our local greenhouse, along with a few other ones. It was the first time we bought perennials, didn’t know what we were doing, and planted them along the side of our house. While I love looking at flowers, I’ve never been a big-time flower grower and typically don’t give them the attention they need to thrive.

After a successful first year, we didn’t do anything to prepare the hibiscus for winter beyond removing some of the dead flowers. We had a harsh, cold, and long winter. We had overnight lows below zero multiple times and received feet of snow, and even though I knew that the hibiscus we bought was suitable for our growing zone, I didn’t have high hopes of it surviving. And when winter ended and spring began, it looked like my concerns were valid. The plant no longer had any leaves, and the stems looked like straw.

Even by early June, there was still no sign of life, and we came close to pulling the hibiscus because there seemed to be little chance of it regrowing. But something began to change throughout June. New leaves started to grow, and the dreary brown was slowly replaced by vibrant greens. Flower buds started to form in July and were beginning to open and bloom in August, and they have yet to stop blooming. We’ve already had a light frost, but the plant continues to bloom and put on new buds. It’s the most amazing and crazy thing. I want to reiterate that we haven’t done anything to help it grow. We used fertilizer when we first planted it but have done nothing since. It’s even reached the point where we’ll probably need to prune it back to keep it under control. I can’t believe it.

It’s the perfect example of nature. We as humans have done so much to cause the earth harm, yet nature rebounds and retakes if we let it. There are abandoned buildings everywhere that are now covered in grass and plants and have trees growing out of them. Entire city blocks will look like woods within a few decades if no one prevents it, and it’s so beautiful. If you’re like me and are saddened by how humans treat the earth and its plants and animals, this is a wonderful site. And it’s a reminder that the damage we’ve done can be reversed.

October 16, 2026 0

Growing Peppers in Containers Is the Way to Go

I love eating peppers but in general have hated growing them. They have fairly specific weather and temperature requirements, seem to be picky about soil quality, and hate weeds. And when you’re still early into the process of converting your yard into a garden, growing peppers in the ground can be a real struggle.

In 2022, when we had an all-container garden, we grew jalapenos and bell peppers in five-gallon buckets. The jalapenos grew very well, and we had enough to can Cowboy Candy with them. Meanwhile, the bell peppers were less successful, but we still harvested a few of them. Last year, when we had our first in-ground garden at our house, we started and transplanted bell peppers and Scotch Bonnet peppers. The seeds started well but began to struggle not long after being transplanted into the garden, and ultimately, we may have harvested a single bell pepper and no Scotch Bonnets. I chalked it up to inconsistent temperatures, poor soil, and weeds.

For this year’s garden, I wanted to try growing peppers in the ground again, thinking that we had addressed some of the issues. That didn’t happen. We started seeds for bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, and gochugaru peppers. They did well after being started, but we once again ran into issues when they were transplanted. Another year of inconsistent temperatures and struggles with weeds led to the plants never reaching full height. In some cases, they died off fully. One habanero and one bell pepper plant grew enough to produce fruit, with the habaneros even producing enough to pick three of them, but it was still largely a failure. And this is where I’ll bring up growing peppers in containers.

Success With Container Growing Peppers

The pepper plants we grew in the five-gallon buckets were successful but imperfect. Due to the solid plastic of a bucket, drainage is always a problem with that style of container growing. This led to issues of overwatering if we went through a period of excess rainfall. And when we weren’t consistently getting rain, it was difficult to judge if the soil and roots had enough moisture without going overboard and causing root rot.

In May of this year, I decided to restart some gochugaru seeds inside. I could see from the beginning that the initial batch of gochugarus wasn’t doing well and wanted to have success with them. With the new batch, I focused on starting them in containers that were larger than they needed, ensured they had the right amount of water without overwatering them, and kept the grow light at the right height the entire time. By the time they were ready to be moved outside in late June, they were more than 12 inches tall and weren’t root-bound or leggy.

At the time of transplanting, we had a batch of potatoes die, so we took that grow bag, refreshed the soil, and planted the four gochugaru peppers in the bag. They immediately took off. Because it was July, the temperature was perfect for growing peppers, and we were able to ensure they had appropriate watering. Before long, the plants reached two feet in height, had dozens of blossoms, and were growing small fruit.

The bag was a great container for growing peppers compared to the bucket. The fabric material of the bag allowed for adequate drainage and airflow, ensuring that the roots stayed healthy. The soil also remained free of weeds and grass, and pests didn’t seem to be an issue either. So, did we successfully grow gochugaru peppers? Yes and no.

The peppers grew amazingly well, with dozens of fruit on the plants, including some that were three and four inches long. However, time wasn’t our friend. We begin to have overnight lows in the upper 40s as early as mid-September, and by early October, we’ve usually had our first frost. Those temperatures are not conducive to growing peppers, and since I didn’t transplant them until late July, there wasn’t enough time to ripen on the plants.

This past Sunday the overnight low was forecast to be 36, which is far too close to a frost for my liking when it comes to keeping plants alive. We made the decision to pick the full-size peppers early even though they hadn’t ripened. We did this because we want a shot at ripening them inside if possible. Apparently, this is a pretty common occurrence for growers of this type of peppers, and I learned that people will often wrap their unripe peppers in a towel or paper bag, placing a banana or apple with the peppers. As the apple or banana ripens, it releases ethylene, which will help the peppers ripen too. We’re still early in the process and don’t know if it’s going to work yet, but we’re feeling confident that we’ll be able to use these peppers, which we were so excited to grow.

Regardless of the success we have ripening them inside, we’re confident in our ability to grow peppers in bags now. We’re always excited to grow peppers but have become discouraged seeing them fail each year. Successfully taking the peppers from seed to harvest is a big boost moving forward, and we’re going to continue growing them in bags, at least for the time-being. Have you ever grown peppers in containers or bags? If so, did you have success?

October 8, 2026 0

Apparently We Can Grow Potatoes

I’ve written about it a few other times, but it’s been a difficult gardening year for us. Weeds, pests, weather, and poor decisions have all contributed to struggles with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, and pumpkins. Thankfully, one of the vegetables we’ve been able to grow has been potatoes.

After receiving some rotten potato starts in 2025 and the healthy ones rotting in the soil instead of growing, we were intentional about how we grew them this year. All the potatoes came from Urban Farmer and arrived in perfect condition. We also decided to grow them in bags this year, which I wrote about in a previous post. This is by far the best decision we made for our garden this year. The bags were easy to plant in, could be maneuvered throughout the garden as needed, and the plants took off in all but one of the bags.

We harvested our first potatoes in early August when we pulled a bag of Red Norlands. We pulled them a bit early and probably could have gotten a bigger yield had we left them to grow a couple more weeks, but they tasted great and were firm with smooth skins. We got two meals out of the first batch.

Afterward, we were committed to leaving the potatoes in the soil until we were 100 percent certain that they were ready. We ultimately waited until this past Monday (Labor Day) to harvest another batch of them, and we pulled them from 10 bags, harvesting some of each variety we grew – Red Norland, Adirondack Blue, and German Butterball. We got roughly 10 pounds or so and gave some to our neighbors, but we still have a lot to eat. Plus, we have eight bags left to harvest. We’ve already tried some of the Adirondack Blues, and they were also delicious.

Potatoes Are My Favorite Vegetable to Grow

Successfully growing potatoes this year reminded me of why I love growing them so much. They’re relatively easy to grow compared to other vegetables, especially when grown in bags. They’re also fun to watch grow since the green “stalks” grow super tall and develop beautiful flowers. The most fun part is harvesting. We can lift the bags to make them easier to access so that we aren’t bending down so far. Diving into the soil to find the potatoes feels like searching for treasure, and when you think that you’ve found all the potatoes from one bag only to find a straggler, it’s an amazing feeling.

Our potatoes may have been successful this year, but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement next year. We had 20 bags, but it would have been better if we had another 10 or 20. We planted five potato pieces in each bag, and some of the bags felt a bit crowded. If we only had three pieces in each bag, I think we would have had an even better yield.

Two other ways that we can improve are having more soil in each and applying fertilizer again after the initial application. This year, each bag was about three-quarters full, but if we can top each bag off so that the soil is flush with the top, it will better protect the plants from the sun and help them grow more. We added a scoop of a balanced fertilizer when we planted the starts, but I never went back to fertilize the bags again. That would have certainly helped.

We had a blast growing potatoes this year and can’t wait to grow them again next year. We’ll likely try to grow more bags to have a better yield. We’ve even discussed giving Magz’s parents a couple of grow bags full of soil and starts next year so that they can grow potatoes next year. If you grew potatoes this year, how have yours been doing?

September 9, 2026 2

Looking Forward to 2027’s Garden

I know I’ve been writing less gardening content as the year has gone on, which has been both intentional and unintentional. Unintentional in that my plan was always to maintain a steady flow of gardening posts all year, and intentional in that the garden has been a bit of a letdown this year. I’m going to go over some of the ways that 2026 has been a disappointing gardening year, but instead of focusing solely on the negative, I will wrap it up with all the ways we’re going to improve things for next year so that we’re looking forward to 2027.

Things That Went Wrong

Fencing

Starting with the things that have gone wrong is the fencing. Although it worked better than last year’s mesh fence, the construction/snow fencing we used this year couldn’t stand up to rabbit bites. Almost immediately, rabbits bit holes into the fencing that were just big enough for them to squeeze their bodies through. We tried to repair these holes, but the rabbits quickly adapted by chewing new holes. We gave up after a while.

Crop Rotation

Everyone always talks about the soil benefits of rotating crops on an annual basis. Rotating the various plants puts nutrients back into the soil that are pulled by other crops. I’m sure this happens, but for us, a number of the plants that we rotated from last year’s garden didn’t grow well. Our tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash didn’t grow in their new beds, yet we have healthy tomato and pumpkin plants in the beds they grew in last year. I understand the long-term importance of rotating crops, but it’s disappointing to see vegetables fail when they were so successful in a different location last year.

Squash

Our 2025 garden was incredible when it came to squash. We harvested a lot of yellow summer squash, green zucchinis, patty pans, and eggplant. This year, we harvested around a dozen total. If we had only a couple of plants, this number would be fine; however, we had more than 20 plants in the garden. This was very disappointing.

Grass/Weeds

Perhaps the biggest issue of all and what can be blamed for most things not going right is grass regrowing in the garden. We thought we had the problem licked before we started planting this year, but by mid-June, it was already back with a vengeance. And it wasn’t just grass. We have these really tall weeds that have popped up everywhere in the garden. They’re really easy to pull, thankfully, but there’s no stopping them once they start. The grass/weeds caused issues for our tomatoes and peppers, and it was a general nuisance given how easily it took over all areas of the garden.

Life Distractions

This category isn’t directly related to the garden, but the results of it led to me not devoting as much time or attention to the garden as I wanted to. Back in May, I had an unexpected and awful visit from my mom and stepdad. The encounter and everything that followed created big-time ripples for more than a month, and it distracted me. I wasn’t focused on weeding as much as I needed to be, didn’t fertilize with any consistency, and even cut corners with watering. Even though I didn’t have control over the situation that led to the distractions, I shouldn’t have let the distractions affect me the way they did.

Things That Went Right

Fencing

But not everything has been bad with our garden this year, and even our fence has had some positives. There are two key positives. One is that apart from rabbits, the fence did a great job of keeping animals out of the garden. As long as the fence stays upright and at its full height, other animals have been kept out. The other positive is that the fence stayed in good enough condition that we can reuse it next year. Last year’s fence got so torn up that we knew we’d need to replace it this year. Apart from a few small tears, the only damage to our fence is the holes rabbits chewed in it. It’s great to know that we don’t have to find an entirely new fence solution for next year’s garden.

Seed Starting and Transplanting

We had amazing success with starting seeds and transplanting the starts out into the garden. There were only 2 varieties that failed to germinate: Mexican Sweet Gherkin cucumbers and the Turk’s Turban winter squash. Everything else germinated well, either inside or in the garden, and did well once they were transplanted into the garden. These positives will be applied to next year’s garden to have continued success.

Sunflowers

We successfully grew sunflowers for the first time in our gardening life. Previous attempts ended in animals getting to them before the heads could develop. This year, though, they’ve grown exceptionally well. Our Mammoth sunflowers are between 6 and 10 feet tall with huge, 10-inch heads. We also have a short, Teddy Bear variety that has grown smaller but fuzzier heads. We grew a third variety, but neither of us can remember its name, but it’s a medium-height variety with smaller, traditionally shaped heads. We love being able to look out the windows and see the sunflowers standing tall and vibrant.

Corn & Beans

For the second straight year, we’ve had good success with corn. All of the varieties grew, even though some didn’t reach full height and failed to produce ears. Part of this had to do with the weeds that grew in that bed. But the ones that did reach full height grew decent-sized ears. The next step will be growing larger, fuller ears.

This year was the first time that we’ve had a great bean harvest. All of the varieties we grew did well, and we’ve even been able to pick shelling beans for the first time ever. We currently have a few Mason jars on the kitchen window sill that contain dry beans we grew.

Grow Bags

We grew our potatoes in grow bags this year and have done very well, with us already pulling potatoes from 2 of the bags. We’re certainly going to grow potatoes in them again next year. We’re also likely to grow other plants in them next year, such as peppers. We’ve had struggles with peppers in the garden this year, but the 4 plants we have in a bag are thriving.

What We’re Improving

So, we’re clearly not satisfied with where our garden is and have found areas of improvement for 2027. One area we’re focusing on is the fence. I’ve mentioned that we’re going to stick with the fence we’ve used this year. However, we’re going to improve it by buying 18-inch or 24-inch chicken wire fencing to attach to the bottom of the existing fence. This will provide an added layer of security against rabbits that are less likely to be able to chew through metal. It’s not exactly a foolproof plan, but it’s better than what we currently have.

We’re attempting to permanently address the grass and weed situation with tarps. We’ve had success killing small sections of grass in the garden with cardboard sheets, and so far, the grass hasn’t grown back in those areas. We’re doubling down on this idea by using large, 12’x20′ tarps to kill the grass in entire beds. We’ve started this process in our squash bed, which was one of the most affected by weeds this year. We haven’t checked its progress yet, but we’re confident that it could finally allow us to get ahead of the grass and weeds. If it works, we’re going to buy additional tarps for the rest of the beds.

We’re likely going back to where everything grew in 2025, with the only exception possibly being the corn and beans, which grew really well in their bed this year. Our tomatoes, melons, and pumpkins are all going back to their previous beds, and we’re going to work to make the squash bed from this year more nutrient-rich.

Even though it’s been a disappointing year for gardening, we still have plenty of reasons to look forward to 2027. We generally have an idea of what went wrong this year and feel confident that we can fix things. We’re going to appreciate and enjoy the fall and winter, but we’ll certainly be excited for next spring.

September 2, 2026 0

Making Progress With Peppers

Peppers have proven to be the most frustrating vegetable to grow. We didn’t harvest any peppers last year despite growing several varieties. This year has been much of the same. I started a bunch of seeds inside and transferred them outside. They did decently for the first couple of weeks after being transplanted before inconsistent weather, grass, and pests took most of them down. This has been extra frustrating, because when we had a container garden in 2022, we successfully grew jalapeno and banana peppers. So, what has been going wrong, and what progress do I allude to in the title of this post?

I think the problems with our pepper plants can be separated into two categories: failure points that I had control over and ones that were out of my control. What was in my control is pretty obvious. Annoyingly, grass took over our garden this year despite spending time and money spraying everything with glyphosate last fall before winter arrived. When we planted this spring, the grass was dead but slowly came back until it took over everything. For a while, I tried to keep up with it, but I lost steam (and the battle). With grass at the base of the pepper plants, it allowed mildew and fungus to take root, and they soon died. The other part that was in my control was insects and pests. In early summer, I became overwhelmed by the garden and didn’t keep up with spraying for bugs. This led to insect problems throughout the garden, but especially for the peppers, where the plants soon had leaves and leaves with holes.

Then there’s the issue of weather. Pepper plants love heat and sunshine. However, Pennsylvania weather isn’t always the most cooperative, so we had a cool and wet spring, a week or so of really hot temperatures, and then a summer of average temperatures. It’s not something you can control, but it’s very frustrating when you don’t get the weather necessary for plants to thrive. Of the plants that were transplanted into the garden beds, we lost all but two of them, one bell pepper plant and one habanero plant.

The bell pepper plant didn’t grow very tall and remains only about 12 inches tall. This means that the leaves are barely above the ground and grass, and only one fruit is on the plant. The variety we’re growing will be red when fully ripe, but it’s still green, so who knows if it will mature to the point where it can be eaten. The habanero plant has been much better. It also isn’t very tall, but for hot pepper plants, this is okay. The plant has put three or four peppers on them. One had bug bites and bruises on it, I harvested one, a third one is close to being ripe, and there is at least one more on the plant. We haven’t eaten the picked one yet, but it’s so exciting that I finally was able to harvest a fully ripe hot pepper.

That’s not all, though. About a month ago, I transplanted four gochugarju pepper plants into a grow bag, and they’ve taken off. All four are healthy, have grown to 24 inches tall, and have flowers and baby fruit on them. As long as we get normal weather in September, we’ll be able to harvest at least one of the peppers. So, why is this a big deal? I think anytime we work at something and have struggles, it’s always a reward to have a win. Whether it’s finally playing a riff you’ve spent months learning or you successfully cut dovetails, it’s an accomplishment to finally achieve something you’ve worked so hard to learn. For me, growing peppers in an otherwise tough year for gardening is a big win. It allows me to take the lessons I’ve learned this year and apply them moving forward.

Is there a plant that you struggle with? If so, what is it, and were you able to finally beat the struggles? I’d love to hear from you.

August 25, 2026 0

Identifying Scat in the Garden – What Animals Are in Our Garden?

For the most part, our fence has done a really good job of keeping animals out of our garden. Last year’s garden and issues with rabbits, squirrels, deer, and potentially raccoons getting into it. The deer were the most destructive. They tore through the mesh fence we had, snapped our stakes, and ate corn and melons. Near the end of summer, we basically gave up on sections of the garden because we knew we couldn’t prevent them from getting in. To this point for this year’s garden, things have gone pretty well. We’ve had problems with rabbits getting in since they can chew through our plastic snow fencing, but they haven’t been too destructive. We don’t think we can prevent them from gaining access, so we just try to distract and deter them.

Before we installed our fence this spring, we saw a lot of evidence of animals in our freshly tilled beds. There were deer hoof prints, lots of rabbit poop, prints that could have been from a dog, and few piles of unidentifiable poop. But because we have dogs in our neighborhood, didn’t have our fence up yet, and hadn’t planted anything, we didn’t think too much about it. Later, after the fence was up, we still had animals getting into our garden beds.

What Animals Do We Have in the Garden?

By far, the most common animal we have in the garden, besides birds, is a rabbit.

We Can’t Say “No” to Rabbits

We’ve had two rabbits who’ve been around our garden since spring. They’ve essentially made our yard their home, which we’re okay with. The two of them seem to live in a burrow at the back edge of our property and like to come out and explore our yard in the mornings and evenings. We absolutely love rabbits, as you know by the affection we have for our pet bunny, Mia. And even though Eastern Cottontails aren’t considered endangered, their habitats are always at risk due to urban sprawl and development, so we’re thrilled to offer them a space where they’re safe. They like to take refuge in a brush pile behind our garage as well as under a hibiscus bush we have at the side of our house. They’ve also gotten quite comfortable around us, which is cool but not all that good when it comes to getting them out of our garden. When we see them in the garden, we’ll go open the fence and go inside as well and try to calmly “guide” the rabbits toward the gate opening. Eventually it works, but there are times when they’ll run full speed at the fence, which isn’t fun. That last thing we want is for the rabbits to get hurt.

Even though our fence is much stronger than last year’s, it’s no match for rabbit teeth, which chew through it in record time. They’ve chewed small holes in the fence and know how to enter and exit each bed. We tried to deter them with Irish Spring soap and aluminum baking pans, but neither has worked. We also tried to repair the fence by installing a piece of pressure-treated wood over the holes, but they just chew new ones, so we aren’t doing much to address the issue this year. We do have plans to fix it for next year’s garden, though.

Once inside the garden, the rabbits aren’t too destructive. They used to chew on the young corn stalks but stopped after realizing they don’t like the taste. They also chewed down a couple young sunflower plants, some cucumbers, and a melon that was close to being ripe, but it hasn’t been too bad. It’s a small price to pay to keep wildlife around.

How High Can Deer Jump?

Our fence stands four feet above the ground. I know that deer can jump higher than this, but when combined with growing plants right up against the fence, I thought it’d be enough to keep them out. Then, when we saw hoof prints in the garden earlier this summer, I increased the height of the fence posts and ran twine around the perimeter of the garden, about two feet higher than the top of the fence. This idea came from our neighbor, and, in theory, it makes it impossible for deer to get into the fence other than at the gate. However, in spite of this, we saw a hoof print in the soil on Sunday. I thought it was a fresh one, but I’m not wondering if it was an old one that was covered by plants and grass. That would make me very happy. I think that as long as we grow corn and aren’t willing to put up an eight-foot fence, we’ll have to deal with them.

What Poop Is This?

Don’t worry. There will be no poop pictures in this blog post. For the second time this year, we have animal poop in our garden that I can’t identify. In spring, I thought the poop was some sort of a canine, perhaps a coyote, fox, or dog that got loose. We even saw canine footprints in the dirt. On Sunday, we saw two fresh piles in our garden. It was reminiscent of dog poop but slightly different in shape, and the color was odd. It confused both Magz and me, and we soon started researching what animal it could have been from. After looking into it, we still aren’t completely sure, but I think we’ve narrowed it down to a fox or a raccoon. This pile looks a bit like both animals’ poops, but because we can’t find any footprints, it’s hard to tell. Both animals are common in our area, and of the two, we’d prefer it to be a raccoon, but I’m unsure how it would have gotten in. Raccoons don’t jump like foxes do, and our fence was up, albeit down a bit, when the animal would have entered.

Either way, I never expected that a portion of gardening would consist of identifying unknown animal scat to figure out what animals are getting into our garden. Hopefully, this is a one-off, and it doesn’t continue. I think this will improve each year as we further address our fencing. Have you had animals get into your garden? If so, what animals were they and how did you deal with it?

August 18, 2026 0

Weekly Garden Update #8 – First Corn & Potato Harvests, Melons & Little Bing Tomatoes

I skipped a gardening update last week because there wasn’t much to write about. We were at a place where things were still growing but not ready to harvest yet, and there just wasn’t much to include in an update. Thankfully, things are different this week. Let’s dive in!

Harvesting Corn & Potatoes

Yesterday afternoon, we spent an hour or so in the garden harvesting vegetables we’ve been waiting on, including corn and potatoes. Most of our corn has been growing very well. Two varieties are over 10 feet tall, two others are more than six feet tall, and the others are about four feet tall. All seem to be in line with expectations. The stalks have been in tassle for several weeks and have had ears growing for quite some time. But until yesterday, none of the ears were ready to be picked.

I believe we picked a half-dozen ears split between three or four varieties. There were two Painted Mountains, two Country Gentleman, and I think one each of the Luther Hill and Black Iroquois, Sweet Mexican varieties. The ears varied fairly widely in length, but they were pretty full ears. I think our favorite variety was the Country Gentleman, which is an heirloom from the late 18th century. It is sweet corn, but not nearly as sweet as our modern hybrids. It also doesn’t grow in rows like corn typically does. Instead, it is a shoepeg type, so the kernels grow in zig-zags. It’s beautiful.

We also really enjoyed the Painted Mountain corn. This is a flint, or dent, corn, so it typically isn’t eaten fresh like this. Instead, it’s usually left to dry on the stalk and then ground into cornmeal. We decided to eat it fresh because we’re unlikely to grow enough ears to mill, but we didn’t want it to go to waste. Plus, it can still be eaten fresh, and we learned it’s absolutely delicious. It’s one of the best-tasting corn varieties we’ve ever had. The downside is that its texture is a bit off. It’s starchier and chewier than sweet corn usually is, but if you can get past that, the flavor is excellent.

We also pulled our first batch of potatoes yesterday but likely did so a couple of weeks early. Growing potatoes in bags has gone very well, with all but one bag growing very well. All the others are full of two-foot-tall plants, and most have flowers on them. Plus, some have started to die back, indicating that they’re close to being ready. Unfortunately, I was misled by some Reddit threads, and we pulled a bag of Red Norland potatoes a bit too early. The potatoes we did harvest look amazing. We have roughly a dozen appropriately sized, beautiful red-skinned potatoes. They’re firm and are going to be delicious. But we could also see on the roots a lot of places where new potatoes were starting to grow, so we likely lost out on the opportunity to grow another dozen potatoes. With the rest of the bags, we’re going to wait until the plants have completely died off before harvesting.

Melons Are Growing Well

In what has been a very weird year for gardening, from the inconsistent temperatures and rain to the Canadian wildfire smoke, our melons have been doing exceptionally well. This is odd, because growing melons in cooler climates like ours is difficult. We’ve tried growing them in the past, but they always failed to grow to their fullest size or lacked flavor. This year, for whatever reason, they’re doing well.

We’re growing three varieties of melons: Pride of Wisconsin (muskmelon), Montreal Market (muskmelon), and Cream of Saskatchewan (watermelon). I’m confident that we have at least one of each variety growing, with multiple fruit being close to volleyball size. None of these tend to produce huge melons, but if we get something around five pounds, I would be thrilled. I think it’s difficult to tell when melons are ready to be harvested, but by early September, we should be close.

Try Little Bing Tomatoes

The Little Bing tomato is one of the most highly anticipated things we’re growing this year. Not only is the name funny, but it’s also described as being one of the best-tasting cherry tomatoes the seed company employees have tasted. I started them inside and transplanted them into a small rectangular planter we have. After transplanting, the plants took off, and we’ve had dozens of blossoms and fruit for weeks. Thankfully, the tomatoes have started to turn red, and we were able to harvest the first ones yesterday. The seed company was 100 percent correct on the flavor. This tomato is very sweet, but not syrupy sweet. It also has a great tomato flavor without any of the “tinniness” that can happen. They’re not too big, but they can still be sliced. They may be the perfect cherry tomato.

Elsewhere in the Garden

We’ve also continued to pick beans, even though I thought they would have stopped growing by now. We’re still eating Cherokee Wax and Blue Lake Bush beans and even gave a quart of them to our neighbors last evening. Our shelling beans are also doing well. They have large pods, and the plants continue to look healthy.

Our other tomato plants are holding on, and the bulk of the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Our peppers are in a similar state. We are also finally starting to see some eggplants growing on the plans. Last year, we harvested a ton of them, but this year, they’ve been much slower to grow and develop.

Finally, our sunflowers are looking great, and one of the Teddy sunflower plants has grown a flowerhead. It’s stunning. I wasn’t sure if we’d ever see this happen. That’s all for this week’s update. Happy Gardening!

August 10, 2026 1

Weekly Garden Update #7 – Melon or Pumpkin?

In this week’s gardening update, I’m mainly going to focus on a plant that was supposed to be a melon but is looking more like a pumpkin with each passing day. Additionally, I’ll go over some of the harvesting that we’ve done as well as what we’re seeing in the garden. Let’s dive in.

Is It a Melon or a Pumpkin?

One look at this picture, and it’s obviously a pumpkin, right? That’s what we’re thinking now too. The skin is giving off serious pumpkin vibes, and the stem is thick and curved much like a pumpkin. Heck, even the leaves look like pumpkin leaves. And I expect that by early September it should begin to turn orange. So why did we think it was a melon? The answer is simple: we didn’t plant any pumpkins in this bed this year. In this section of the bed, we planted three varieties of melons, and for most of the plant’s life, I thought it was a melon plant. I obviously wasn’t paying attention to the leaf shape, which looks nothing like a melon leaf. This begs the question of how do we have a pumpkin when we didn’t plant pumpkin seeds?

I think there are only two possibilities. One is that the envelope of Cream of Saskatchewan melon seeds we received actually had pumpkin seeds in it. I don’t think this is the case because I believe I would have noticed if the seeds looked like pumpkin seeds rather than watermelon seeds. Also, in this same row, we have several melon plants growing, so I’m confident we received and planted the proper seeds.

The other possibility is that this seed was left on the ground from last year and grew this spring. I’m confident this is what happened. We grew pumpkins in this bed last year, including a New England Sugar Pie variety, which is what this pumpkin looks like. There were a couple of pumpkins that deer started to eat, allowing seeds to fall on the ground. Then, this spring, I likely tilled them into the soil when I was turning it over, allowing this seed to germinate and grow. It’s similar to the rogue tomato plants we have in this same bed. Those are also growing well. I’m getting a kick out of how this happens, and we’re pretty happy with this pumpkin plant since the plants we’re intentionally growing aren’t doing all that well.

Squash, Beans, and First Tomato

We’re continuing to harvest summer squash, with the yellow crooknecks being ready to pick. We’ve also been picking more Costata Romanesca and Lebanese White Bush and have learned the importance of consistent watering and waiting until the vegetables are fully ripe before picking. One of our Costata Romanescas was firm for about 75 percent of its length before tapering to a soft section in the last 2 inches. We picked two Lebanese White Bushes. One was white and the other was a pale green. We learned that they need to be white before picking because it indicates full ripeness. We’re also starting to see the first patty pan squashes growing on the plants. Last year, these were our favorite summer squash to eat, so we’re really excited to be able to eat them again soon.

One thing I can’t figure out is why our winter squash have done nothing. We planted a couple varieties with multiple plants of each variety. Some of the plants have completely died off, while others haven’t taken off, and we haven’t seen any fruit development. It’s a similar story with our intentionally planted pumpkins. I’m unsure if this is the result of the intense heat wave we had in June or something else, but last year, our winter squash grew very well.

We continue to have an excellent year for beans. We’re picking a batch of them every couple of days and have been enjoying eating our fresh snap and wax beans. We’re also seeing pods on our shelling beans, which is really exciting.

Cherokee Wax, Blue Lake Bush, Iroquois Skunk Pole Beans

Finally, we harvested our first tomato last night. It was a cherry tomato was delicious. Our tomatoes have been kind of weird this year. The plants took off after being transplanted into the garden, but inconsistent watering, weed issues, and uneven temperatures led to some issues. At one point, it looked like most plants were going to die, but that’s no longer the case. There are a lot of tomatoes growing and starting to turn red, but the leaves are still brown and don’t look healthy. I’m choosing to focus on the positives in that we’re going to be able to harvest tomatoes from plants that don’t look great while thinking about ways to improve next year.

Cucumber Bitterness

One of the most disappointing vegetables this year has been our cucumbers. Like our tomatoes, the plants took off after being transplanted, but a combination of not remembering how far the Bushy variety spreads and not being able to see the vegetables below the leaves has made it difficult to pick the cucumbers at the ideal size. And the flavor of these cucumbers has been hit and miss. Some have been amazing and similar to the freshest-tasting cucumbers I’ve ever eaten. Others, though, have been bitter and not pleasant to eat. This was due to the heat wave we had in June since cucumbers are apparently very heat-sensitive and respond to it by developing thicker skins, which causes bitterness. We may take a year off from growing cucumbers next year because they’re a bit finicky and annoying to grow. But when we do grow them again, I want to find a variety that is less heat-sensitive because we tend to get one weeklong heatwave each summer.

Up Next

Do you have any experience with cucumbers being bitter? If so, do you have any tips for addressing the issue at this point in the summer?

July 30, 2026 0

The Fun of Naming Your Garden Beds

Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Prime original Clarkson’s Farm is one of our favorite shows. The show provides a less-than-glamorous look at everything that goes into growing the food that Britain eats. And even though he is far from the average farmer, given his financial success in the entertainment and journalism industries, the show has been lauded by farmers across the globe. I wrote about the show in an earlier post, which I think is worth checking out, as it dives into everything that can be learned from the show. I’m revisiting the show in this post because it’s where we first learned about naming garden beds, or fields, in the case of a farmer.

In the first season (it may have even been the first episode), Jeremy invites Kaleb to the farm to have him become the farm manager. As a test, Jeremy asks Kaleb to go through the field names without looking at a map. This was the first time I had heard of a farmer naming fields. I worked on a dairy farm early in high school and don’t remember him ever referring to a field’s name. Granted, my job was mostly milking cows, but I think I would have heard him referring to a field by its name if he gave them names. The cows had names; the fields didn’t.

But I think naming fields is brilliant. When you have a bunch of fields in close proximity to each other, it can be really difficult coming up with directions for farm workers. Think about the last time you attempted to give directions solely off reference points instead of road names or route numbers. It isn’t easy. By naming the fields and using those names on a map of the farm, everyone can quickly identify the field’s location. Granted, using numbers or letters is equally efficient, but it does lack creativity and fun.

Last year, our garden consisted of 5 beds, and it was confusing trying to talk about the same bed if we weren’t standing outside looking at the garden. Saying “the bed behind the garden” worked because it was the only bed there, but it was a struggle anytime we needed to talk about the 4 beds beside each other on our second lot. So, this year, we wanted to come up with garden bed names to help us quickly identify which one we’re talking about when discussing seeds, plans, harvesting, etc.

These are the names we came up with:

Beer Talk – This is the bed we often hang out by and talk with our neighbor over a can, bottle, or glass of beer.
Oh, Deer – This bed was where we grew our corn last year. Deer got into the bed and ate a lot of our late-season corn. We aren’t growing corn there this year, but the name remains.
Bunny – This is a new bed for 2026. It’s where a lot of rabbits hung out before creating the garden bed. They still hang out in the yard and grass that surrounds the bed.
Swamp – This bed struggles with drainage. When we get a lot of rain in the spring, it’s the last bed to drain.
Rain Barrel – This bed is the one closest to our rain barrel, so this one makes a lot of sense.
Watch for That Pole! – An homage to the movie George of the Jungle, we found a cemented, hollowed-out metal pole in the middle of this bed last year. We think it may have been a clothesline pole in the past, and instead of removing it, the previous owners broke it off at the base.

Those are the 6 names. We may change them in future years, or we may keep them as they are. But it was a lot of fun figuring out creative names that fit the beds, and it’s a lot easier talking about specific beds now. Have you ever named your garden beds to make things a bit easier? If so, I’d love to hear the names you came up with.

July 27, 2026 0

Weekly Garden Update #6 – Cucumbers, Zucchini, Corn Growth & More

In this week’s update, we finally harvested our first cucumbers from this year’s garden. We also picked more zucchini, our corn is producing ears, our melons are showing major growth, we harvested a bunch of beans, and more. Let’s dive in!

First Cucumber Harvest

Until last week, our cucumber plants were perplexing. As a refresher, we’re growing a variety called Bushy, which originally came from Russia and does well in cool climates. I started them from seeds and transplanted 4 plants into the garden, with 3 of them surviving. What has confused me about this cucumber is that the name Bushy implies a contained plant that doesn’t sprawl out. That hasn’t been the case, as the plants have vined out feet from the roots. Yesterday, I revisited the seed listing, and this variety still produces 5-foot vines, so they’re growing as expected.

Bushy Cucumbers, cucumbers — Cucumber Harvest

The other thing that’s perplexed me about them is how long they’re taking to grow. It felt like this year’s cucumbers (and other vegetables) were taking longer to mature than last year’s garden; however, looking at my weekly blog entries from last year, I learned that we didn’t pick our first cucumbers until the second week of July. So, at most, we’re a week late, which is almost entirely the result of the weather. The craziest part is that on Wednesday of last week, our cucumbers were only 3 or 4 inches long, but by Sunday evening, we picked 6 that were 7 to 8 inches long, with 2 of them being overripe. Magz cut 2 of the cucumbers into chunks, and we ate them raw with dinner. The Bushy cucumber is a very tasty variety that is firm enough to hold up to brining for pickles but still tender enough to be eaten fresh.

Experiencing New Summer Squash Varieties

In last week’s update, I wrote about our first zucchini harvest for the year, which was a Costata Romanesca. Since then, we’ve picked 4 or 5 more of them as well as 3 or 4 Lebanese White Bush, 2 Ronde de Nice, and 1 Black Beauty. The Lebanese White Bush is an heirloom variety that produces 4-to-5-inch squashes that are light green in color. The Ronde de Nice is a French heirloom that has an acorn shape but is a summer squash. It can be dark or light green and is typically picked at 4 inches in diameter. The Black Beauty is the dark green zucchini that comes to mind for most people when they think of a zucchini. It has a smooth skin with an even color, and we pick ours when they’re 8 to 10 inches in length.

Costata Romanesca, Black Beauty, Ronde de Nice, zucchini — Costata Romanesca, Black Beauty, and Ronde de Nice summer squash

We’ve eaten at least one of each variety except for the Black Beauty, and all are delicious. My dad and stepmom visited us this past weekend, and we were able to send them home with some Costata Romanesca, Ronde de Nice, and Lebanese White Bush. My dad messaged me yesterday and said that they fried the Ronde de Nice and loved it. In a future blog post, I’ll review each variety and detail the flavors.

Corn Tassels and Ears

Our corn has really taken off over the past week. Our Painted Mountain corn has the most beautiful reddish-purple stalk, and even the tassels and silk have a purple tinge to them. They’re almost 6 feet tall and have ears developing. Meanwhile, our Sweet Mexican corn is approaching 7 feet tall, and the tassels are starting to appear. Nearly every day, we go out to the garden to tap the stalks to help germinate the ears.

A Bean Harvest

On Sunday, we had the joy of being able to harvest a full dinner’s worth of beans. We grew beans last year and were able to eat some, but they didn’t grow well, and we never had enough ripen at once to have as a meal. This year, conditions seem to be perfect for growing them, because we’re having a ton of success. We picked Beurre De Rocquencourt and Maxibel Haricot Vert, yielding a quart in total. Magz steamed them, melted butter over them, and added a pinch of Kosher salt and black pepper.

Beans, Maxibel Haricot Vert bean, Beurre de Rocquen bean — First bean harvest of 2026.

Even though we ate the two varieties together, you could taste a difference between the two beans, which I love. Yesterday, that harvest was followed up with another quart of beans, with Cherokee Wax beans comprising the bulk of the haul.

A Grab Bag of Topics – Potatoes, Peppers, Flax & More

Our potatoes continue to do well with the exception of one bag of Adirondack Blues. For some reason, that bag never took off, and on Saturday, I noticed that the plant that had been growing in it died. It’s not a big deal since we have 19 other bags that are doing well, and we’re going to use that bag to transplant a couple of the Gochugaru pepper plants I started late. In other pepper news, one of our habanero plants is producing fruit. It currently has 3 or 4 small peppers on it, each about 2 inches long.

Our flax and sunflowers are looking great. The flax plants are about 2 feet tall and have a lovely light purple flower on top. Not knowing how they grow or what to expect from them has made the process of growing them all the more fun. What we didn’t realize is how much flax you need to grow in order to turn it into a sizable amount of yarn/thread. We thought that growing a few rows of it would yield a decent amount, but it looks like we’ll need to grow an entire bed of it in the future. Meanwhile, our sunflowers are 4 feet tall (Mammoth variety) and 12 inches tall (Teddy Bear). The plants are looking healthy, and we’re hopeful that we’ll get heads to form on them this year and that we can prevent the squirrels from attacking them.

Lastly, we’re beginning to see progress from our melons. All 3 varieties are vining nicely and producing flowers, but the Montreal Market and Pride of Wisconsin are stealing the show. Both have fruit growing. The Montreal Market is nearly the size of a softball, while the Pride of Wisconsin is close to tennis ball size. Happy Gardening!

Montreal Market Melon, Melon — Montreal Market melon growing

July 21, 2026 0