Learning to Appreciate Every Season

In the past, I have always looked forward to fall, so much so that I would wish for an early end to summer. In fact, that was the case with every season. Toward the end of fall, when all the leaves were off the trees, I wanted snow on the ground. When the bitter cold and iciness of February arrived, I couldn’t wait for the first hint of warm spring days. Then, after several months of rain and muddy ground, it was time for warm summer nights. In general, I have always been someone who looked to the next thing and struggled to appreciate the present moment. But that all changed this year, and the garden is a big reason why. Here are the reasons I’ve learned to appreciate each season, along with lyrics from songs that remind me of the season.

Spring

Let “hallelujahs” flow like a river
We’re coming back to life
Reaching towards the light
Your love is like springtime
Chris Renzema, “Springtime”

Spring has always been a season of excitement for me. When I was a kid, it meant getting back onto the baseball diamond. As an adult, spring has taken on a deeper meaning, but the first hint of warmth in the air still lets me know that baseball season is upon us. In general, the first February or March day when the sun simply feels warmer than it has since October or November is welcomed. The length and intensity of winter will determine just how happy I am for that first hint of warmth. Last winter was a harsh one, so spring felt like a long-lost friend.

Along with the warm temperatures come rain showers and longer days, which soon give us the first signs of life from the soil. Typically, the first flowers we’ll see are the crocus and daffodil. Ironically, neither of these is native to North America. These flowers indicate that gardening season isn’t too far away, and that it’s time to start seeds, either outdoors for the hardiest of plants or indoors for the tender ones. Spring is a time of renewal and looking forward to what’s ahead.

For my song, I went with Springtime by Chris Renzema, who is one of my favorite Christian music artists. It’s a song about the renewal that Jesus’ sacrifice brings. Earlier in the chorus, he sings: “‘Cause death is dead and gone with the winter.” Is there anything more relatable in spring than that?

Summer

Still we sing with our heroes, 33 rounds per minute
We’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished
I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all
Wild hearts, blue jeans, & white t-shirts
The Gaslight Anthem, “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts”

Summer has been both a season I despise and one that I love. I’ve despised the heat, humidity, lack of air conditioning, and oppressive sun at various points, but I’ve also loved what comes with summer: beach trips, campfires, being outdoors, and fishing. This summer has been the first one where I think I’ve cherished every moment of it and haven’t been ready for it to end.

To me, summer represents the continuation of warm weather that starts in spring. It brings with it sunshine and warm nights that are perfect for sitting on the porch late into the evening. I’ve also (re)learned to love thunderstorms. I’m not a fan of the intense thunderstorms that bring a lot of lightning and wind, but I love the ones that produce steady rain and rolling thunder. It is one of the most peaceful weather events we get. In the garden, summer is a season of rapid growth. Plants will double in size in a week, and blossoms will produce fruit that will display each variety’s unique qualities. Eventually, this will lead to harvesting, and there’s nothing better than eating entire meals from the garden.

In general, summer is a time of production, which can be beneficial and problematic for me, as someone who loves being busy. I love being outside in the garden or in my shop woodworking. But by the end of summer, which is where we are as I write this, I’m ready for some rest that we find in fall and winter.

Picking a summer song wasn’t easy, as there are plenty to choose from. Take country music, for example, where nearly every song during the 2010s was summer-focused in some manner. I ultimately went with “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts” by The Gaslight Anthem, which is a rock band from New Jersey. A lot of the songs from their ’59 Sound album focus on summer, the beach, and the boardwalk. Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts perfectly encapsulates the feeling of summer, and the final lines of the song are:

Sleep on the beach if we ain’t got a ride
Sleep on the beach all night

Fall/Autumn

When I close my eyes I see you
No matter where I am
I can smell your perfume through these whisperin’ pines
I’m with your ghost again
It’s a shame about the weather
But I know soon we’ll be together
And I can’t wait ’til then
I can’t wait ’til then
Zac Brown Band, “Colder Weather”

Autumn has regularly been my favorite season. It represented a return to my college campus, friends, football, and general happiness. And while some of those items have changed, fall is still my favorite season. For me, it now means a slowdown after the busyness and productivity of summer. With shorter days, plants and the lawn don’t grow as fast and need less maintenance, which creates more time to work on hobbies and do fun fall activities, like apple picking and pumpkin carving.

Other things that make me think about fall are cool weather, jackets, sweaters/hoodies, jeans, and boots, which are my favorite clothing items. And I certainly can’t overlook fall foliage and drives to see the leaves. Pennsylvania is one of the best states in the country for leaf peeping due to the diverse tree species we have. This leads to red, yellow, and orange leaves peaking at different times.

Even though autumn is my favorite season, it was not an easy season to pick a song for. There is only one song I like that specifically mentions autumn or fall in the title, and it’s by The Gaslight Anthem, and I didn’t want to repeat artists. Instead, I went with the Zac Brown Band’s Colder Weather. I think the song is meant to be more about winter than fall, but the line “I can smell your perfume through these whisperin’ pines” always reminds me of fall and the quiet sounds that come with it.

Winter

And in the winter night sky, ships are sailing
Looking down on these bright blue city lights
And they won’t wait, and they won’t wait, and they won’t wait
We’re here to stay, we’re here to stay, we’re here to stay
Of Monsters and Men, “King and Lionheart”

A lot of people in Pennsylvania hate winter and see it as something that must be endured to enjoy the other seasons. I choose to enjoy winter. I have always loved snow and enjoy pretty much everything about it. I also don’t mind the cold weather and find it refreshing. There’s nothing like the crispness of winter air and just how fresh it feels compared to the other seasons.

Winter is a time of rest for me. Aside from clearing snow, there often isn’t a lot that can be done outside. I usually try to do some woodworking, but even that takes a pause if it’s really cold out. The time of rest is so nice, and after working hard from spring through fall, it’s earned. I also love the quiet of winter. Everything about it is quieter than in the other seasons. Snow makes very little noise, and when there is a snowstorm, people are less likely to be on the roads, so that noise is reduced as well. One noise I do like in winter is the squeaking of footsteps in the snow when it’s really cold. If you’ve never experienced it, here’s what it sounds like:

It can only happen when the temperature is below 14 degrees Fahrenheit, as above that temperature, your shoes will melt the snow as it’s getting compressed. I have many memories of being outside in winter and that being the only sound. It’s peaceful, eerie, and wonderful.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include hot chocolate and baking among my favorite things of winter. I love drinking hot chocolate on cold winter nights, and baking is one of my favorite activities. My preference is cookies, but I’m a fan of baking all kinds of goodies. We recently found an older Betty Crocker cookie book and plan to bake our way through it this fall and winter. Finally, winter is when we begin looking forward to the next year’s garden. We’ll request new seed catalogs, plan out our garden, and order seeds. The break helps me to appreciate all that the garden provides, and I start to get excited for the upcoming garden in January when the cold really starts to set in.

For winter’s song, I didn’t want to go with a Christmas song. Instead, I went with a song from Of Monsters and Men, an Icelandic band. And who better to write about winter than people from Iceland?

Appreciating All the Seasons

Appreciating every season isn’t about loving all aspects of it. For example, I get tired of the mud that comes with spring, summer droughts, the dreary skies of fall and winter, and the ice of winter. But those aren’t enough to get me to hate a season or wish it would preemptively end. Instead, I try to enjoy the general positives from start to finish of each season and squeeze every last ounce of joy from it. I’m writing this as we only have three days of summer left and am filled with sadness and excitement. I’m sad that summer’s end means saying goodbye to our garden and all the fresh vegetables it brought us. But I’m also excited to see our pumpkins ripening and can’t wait to pick more apples. Life is great, but it’s also short, and modern society rushes everything. Let’s slow down and really enjoy what we have when we’re in the moment.

September 19, 2025 0

Animals Are Getting Into the Garden

Our fence has become somewhat problematic over the past month or so, and animals are either taking advantage of it or are the cause of it. In the spring, I wrote about the fence we bought and how we reached that decision. We ended up buying deer fencing that is typically used in orchards to protect the fruit trees. It is seven feet tall, although we folded it over, so it is only about 4 1/2 feet, comes in 100-foot rolls, and only costs $23 per roll. We were able to fence in our entire garden for less than $200, including the bamboo stakes. We bought it with the intention of it being a short-term solution that we can upgrade over time. And for the first three and a half months, it was perfect.

Deer didn’t try to breach it, and rabbits didn’t burrow under it. In general, it worked better than expected, and any issues we had were self-inflicted. It’s relatively easy to overstretch and tear the material, and you have to be careful to not get too close to it when walking near it, as your shoes can get caught in it. But beyond that, it survived heavy winds, driving rains, swampy ground, and general ignorance. That was until about mid-August, when we started to notice that something was getting at our corn stalks.

Deer? Raccoons? Squirrels?

I first began to notice evidence of animals around our garden in July when I saw raccoon poop in the grass outside the fence. I didn’t think much of it, though, since they weren’t getting through the fence. Fast-forward to mid-August, and we started to notice that some of our corn was being eaten and stalks were showing signs of stress. At the same time, our sunflower plants were decapitated not long after the heads began to form. It only got worse from there.

Nearly entire ears of corn were consumed, while others were being torn from the stalk. From the outside of the fence, an animal was pulling our tall Blue Hopi corn stalks to bend down on the fence, reducing its height from 4 1/2 feet to about 3 1/2 feet. Elsewhere, we were seeing bite marks in some of our remaining cucumbers, our melons, and one of our pumpkins. And the worst part was that the animals weren’t eating the entire vegetable. They were taking a single bite and leaving it on the ground. And how did these thieves gain access? Flaws in the fence were the main culprit, and the evidence was everywhere.

It started with small horizontal tears or cuts in the fence that left the top intact and the bottom hanging, exposing an access point that is just big enough for a raccoon to climb through. In other areas, the zip ties, staples, and twist ties we used to connect the fence to the stakes failed, causing the fence to fall down. This meant that entire sections of the fence were reduced to a height of 2 1/2 feet, or plenty low enough for a deer to hop over. Finally, some of the stakes started to bend or angle, which also lowered the fence’s height. I’m not 100 percent certain of the cause, but my theories are animals pushing on them, plant vines growing against the fence and putting strain on the stakes, and the lack of rain not keeping the stakes in the ground as deep as they should be. In general, it’s become a mess.

Thankfully, it appears that the crims are simply raccoons, deer, and squirrels, or just your average neighborhood scoundrels. They don’t do a lot of damage. Funny enough, I think the squirrels are the most annoying of the trio. Even with an upgraded fence, they can climb up and over to gain access.

Upgrading Security

Given that this year’s fence was only intended to be a short-term solution, we’re unsurprised and undeterred by the animals. It may be a bit demoralizing, but luckily, there are ways to remedy it for next year. We’re already discussing how we can improve some of the fencing. While we likely won’t upgrade all the fencing for next year’s garden, we can upgrade it a little at a time. Even improving the fence for individual beds will make a difference. We’ll likely go with some type of chicken wire that is metal. We’re also going to upgrade the stakes with pressure-treated 2x4s that I’ll cut down to the appropriate width/height. Something else we can do is spray plants with a hot pepper solution that will deter animals from wanting the food. It’s not a permanent solution, as it needs to be reapplied after rain, but it’s organic and tested.

Ultimately, there’s only so much we can do. We’re growing vegetables in an area with a lot of animals. It’s a blessing to not live in an urban setting, which means we occasionally have to deal with animals. I’m also choosing to take it as a compliment that the animals want our food. Sure, they could have just eaten forageables, but they’re choosing to eat what we grow, and that’s pretty cool. And we are a big fan of animals, after all.

Have you had problems with animals getting into your garden? If so, what vegetables were they most drawn to and what steps did you take to prevent it from happening again?

September 15, 2025 0

Reflections From the Garden: Lessons Learned

With the garden wrapping up for the year and little happening on a weekly basis, I’ve decided to pause the weekly updates. There isn’t enough to write about without being redundant. I’ll continue to provide updates as vegetables ripen and grow, but in the meantime, I want to alter my weekly segment to be a Reflections From the Garden column. I want to use this column to go over things I learned or thought about while in the garden. Sometimes, it will be directly related to gardening, while other times, it may be focused on personal things. The first edition will be dedicated to some of the lessons I learned since spring.

Accepting When Things Don’t Work Perfectly

I was originally going to have a section called “Letting Go of Control,” but it felt too similar to this section. This year, I learned that gardening is something I found myself wanting to control at every level. I wanted to control the amount of rain and sun we got, the temperature, when plants germinated, when they should be transplanted, when to restart seeds, and how quickly we should start seeing fruit. I had everything organized and included on one of my spreadsheets. But the reality is that for all the work I put into the organizing and planning, it didn’t matter all that much. I can’t control the weather or temperature. Sometimes, seeds take longer than the packet says to germinate, which means giving them more time to sprout. I also can’t force starts outside just because the calendar says they should be in the ground by a certain date. Likewise, plants can take longer than expected to produce fruit and fully ripen.

In a garden, things are bound to not go to plan at times. There are more things out of our control than in our control. Plants will fail at every stage – germination, transplanting, fruiting, and ripening. Sometimes, it’s because we did something wrong, but other times, we can do everything right and it will still fail. And that’s okay. Letting go of outrageously high expectations and control leads to a more enjoyable experience. I wasn’t there at first, but I began to grasp it as the garden went on.

Have Fun

Gardening is a lot of work. I also set high expectations for things and find it easy to create endless to-do lists. In the garden, those lists included, tilling, seed starting, transplanting, weeding, watering, fertilizing, and on and on. Pretty soon, the garden was only work and no play. I stopped seeing it as a hobby I enjoyed and only viewed it as this thing that needed all my time and attention. I quit woodworking or doing my other hobbies. Eventually, I had to say “enough is enough.” Magz got me to refocus on all the fun that can be had in a garden. It’s a lot of fun seeing the growth of a plant as the days, weeks, and months progress. It’s also fun to see the different varieties of a vegetable present their unique qualities. Finally, it’s the most fun when it’s time to harvest ripe vegetables. It’s easy to get caught up in the work, to forever add new items to your to-do list. But hitting the “pause” button and focusing on why you wanted to garden in the first place is important. Gardening is a hobby for most of us, and hobbies are supposed to be fun.

Don’t Let it Drive You Mad

If you get focused on the success of your garden rather than the process, you will go crazy. Plants will look healthy for a couple of months, and out of nowhere, they’ll die. Fruits will develop on the plant, making you think that they’re going to reach maturity, only to wither and die off. We had that happen with numerous plants this year, including our ground cherries, spaghetti squash, and multiple tomato plants. We had a plant die off, while its neighbor of the same variety reached its full height and produced lots of fruit. They were in the same soil and experienced the same growing conditions. If you think about it too much, you’ll drive yourself mad. Instead, focus on the plants that do make it and continue to give them the best opportunity to succeed. That mindset change will lead to better results now and also help you have a better mindset.

Enjoying the Peace

In my first blog post, I wrote about how a garden provides a sense of home to me, and a home is supposed to be a peaceful place. It can be easy to forget how peaceful the garden is when we’re focused on the work required to make it happen. The sun and heat can feel oppressive, weeding can be back-breaking, and neighborhood noises can drown out the silence. Yet, if I make an effort to do less when it’s hot and sunny, listen to music or talk to God while weeding, and focus on the sounds of the garden instead of my surroundings, I can become lost in the tranquility. There are a lot of sounds in the garden. You’ll hear bees buzzing as they pollinate your plants, crickets chirping in the grass, and the plants rustling in the breeze. All of those sounds are sources of peace.

Hard Work Is Worth It

Prior to starting our garden, I wrote a lot about how much hard work is required to garden. That is very true. I also said that the hard work is worth it because you get to grow your own food for the summer, and potentially longer if you preserve it. But before you actually see it pay off, you don’t actually know that the hard work will be worth it. Now, with the garden wrapping up for the year, I can say for certain that the hard work was worth it. Being able to eat veggies out of the garden this summer made the hard work pay off. This wasn’t so much of a new lesson learned but more confirmation of what I thought would happen.

September 1, 2025 0

Weekly Garden Update #19 – Cucumbers, Eggplants, Starting More Corn & More

In this week’s update, we harvested and began eating from our garden. I’ll tell you what vegetables they were and how we ate them. We also started more corn for a late harvest and planted the last melons we’re growing this year. I’ll provide a general update on everything we’re growing as well. Finally, this edition of the Seed of the Week takes us to the American Southwest, where a variety of corn has been grown for over 800 years. Let’s dive in.

First Harvest

This week saw us achieve a goal we set at the start of the garden: Harvest something from our garden and eat it the same day. That included three cucumbers and two eggplants. Two of the cucumbers were from plants gifted to us by our neighbor, but one was a Boston Pickling that I started from seed, making it the first fruit harvested from this year’s garden that I started from seed. We ate the cucumbers raw by slicing them and eating them on the side with dinner. For the eggplants, Magz sliced them into coin shapes and roasted them in oil and seasoning. They were delicious. We’ve found that doing as little as possible with high-quality, fresh vegetables is the best thing for them. We have a lot more cucumbers coming on, and there are more eggplants that are close to being harvestable, so we’ll be eating a lot more of them moving forward.

Starting More Corn

We had some open areas of our garden beds where potatoes weren’t growing, which we think is the result of poor drainage and too much rain early on. In the open rows, we wanted to grow more of something that we’ve had great success with: corn. We still had some Hopi Blue and Sweet Mexican/Black Iroquois seeds left, but because the Hopi Blue corn takes a lot longer to reach maturity, we planted the rest of the Sweet Mexican/Black Iroquois seeds. All three varieties (the above two and Butter & Sugar) have done exceptionally well, and a late planting of corn could lead to us having sweet corn in September.

At the same time, we planted all the remaining melons and squashes that we’re growing this year. In a few more open spots, we dedicated two of them to the White Scallop Winter Squash, three of them to Ali Baba Watermelons, and four to the Noir de Carmes cantaloupes.

A General Update (With Pictures!)

Our tomatoes continue to put on fruit, with the Cherokee Blue, Black Krim, and Queen Aliquppa growing close to full size. Now, we just wait for them to ripen.
Our Cal Wonder pepper plants have quite a few fruit on them, but they haven’t reached full size or started to ripen yet. Our plants also haven’t grown to full height, which is weird. I read that peppers are one of the slowest-growing plants and require hot temperatures and full sun, which we’ve had lots of this summer. I’m still holding out hope for them.
Our melons, squash, and pumpkins are all doing well. We have spaghetti squash that are close to softball size and many cucumbers that are growing. Most of the other plants are producing blossoms.
The tomatillos have been growing their husks for more than a week now, with one of them larger than a golf ball. There are many husks starting and even more flowers coming on at the same time.
We are finally starting to see some progress with our beans. The first batch of Provider beans has a few beans on the plants, which is major progress, even if the pods are small. Our Kebarika and Jamapa plants have started to produce flowers.

Seed of the Week

Our Seed of the Week this time is the Hope Blue corn variety. It’s a very old type of corn that has been grown in Northern Arizona for over 800 years by the Hopi Native American tribe. This variety is a flint/flour type of corn and is milled down into cornmeal or flour. The Hopis use it to make a ceremonial type of bread called piki. But even though this variety is primarily used for flour, it can be eaten as sweet corn.

The kernels of Hopi Blue corn are dark blue, nearly black, and the stalks grow up to nine feet tall. We got our seeds from Fedco out of Maine, and on the listing, they quote one of their growers, who says that the corn is “crunchy, corny and wholesome.” We’ve had great success with our Hopi Blue seeds. They overcame torrential downpours within a week of being sown and have excelled. The stalks are currently taller than our fence (so about 4 1/2 feet) and are gorgeous. If you’re curious about growing different varieties of corn, give this one a try.

Up Next

This week, I’d love to see some of our tomatoes begin to ripen. Our cherry tomatoes are pretty much full size, so ripening is the next step. I also think we’ll harvest some of our beans. Beyond that, we’re enjoying how relaxing it is to watch our garden grow. Each day, something new happens or we can see measurable growth. For example, we had a cucumber grow multiple inches in one day. It’s unbelievable. I hope your garden is doing well. Happy gardening.

July 14, 2025 0

5 Easiest Seeds to Grow

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on the 5 hardest seeds to grow this year. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend checking it out. In it, I went over the 5 seeds that I’ve had the most trouble with this year. It could have been the result of an error on my part, poor weather, or something else entirely, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get them to grow.

Today, we’re going to look at the 5 seeds that I’ve had the best luck growing this year. I didn’t treat these seeds any differently from the ones listed in the previous post, yet they took off and are growing abundantly. With each seed, I’ll go over what has made them a success and why I think each was easy to grow. Let’s dive in.

5.) Queen Aliquippa Tomato

I’ve written about this seed so many times that people will get sick of it. We didn’t know this tomato variety existed until we saw it in this year’s Sow True Seeds catalog. They’ve been selling it for years, but this was the first year we requested their catalog. As a refresher, this tomato variety is named for Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca nation leader who lived in Pennsylvania during the 18th century. She is so well-known in Western Pennsylvania that a town, a school, and businesses are named in her honor. In fact, the town of Aliquippa is only 10 minutes from where Magz and I went to college.

These seeds could have been a bust, and I still would have been happy we bought them. Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case. Of the first batch of tomato seeds I started, only 3 are still alive, and 2 of them are Queen Aliquippas. I treated the Queen Aliquppas the same way as the other tomatoes; however, the others didn’t take off.

These plants have gone through a late Spring that resulted in them getting leggy at the start, multiple torrential downpours, and a week of excessive heat, but they remain our best-looking tomato plants. We have since transplanted a few more plants that I started later, and they are also looking good. The Queen Aliquippa tomato plant is unique among the others we’ve grown. It has potato leaves that aren’t serrated like a typical tomato plant. When ripe, the fruit will also mostly stay green with a bit of amber at the bottom. To this point, we’ve loved growing this variety, and assuming we like how they taste, we’ll continue to grow it in future years.

4.) Seminole Pumpkin

These pumpkins have done exceptionally well so far. We have plants that were started indoors and transplanted outside and ones that were direct sown. Regardless of how they were started, they’ve grown well. We don’t know how many of these plants we’re growing because I misplaced the labels when transplanting the ones I started from seeds, but we think there are 3 or 4 of them. The ones that were transplanted have vined out about 2 feet from the roots and are getting ready to produce flowers. The ones that were directly sown are smaller since they were started later, but all of the plants look healthy.

Even though these are called pumpkins and have pumpkin leaves, the fruit doesn’t look like a typical pumpkin. It’s buff-colored rather than bright orange and reaches about 6 inches in diameter. They can be stored for up to a year but can also be picked early as a summer squash. These have required little attention. Since transplanting or starting them, we’ve made sure they have been consistently watered, and I side-dressed the older plants with some bone meal. If you’re looking for a smaller and historical variety to grow (these were grown by the Seminole people of Florida) and you live in a hot and humid climate, you’ll love these.

3.) All Corn Varieties

Before we started gardening, a common remark I’d hear was that growing corn is hard or not worth having in the garden. I don’t remember any family members trying to grow it. Now, that could be because fresh sweet corn was plentiful and cheap where I grew up, so it may not have been worth the effort in people’s minds. Magz and I first tried growing it in containers in 2022 and had success with it. We had 3 stalks in each tote, and they produced small ears that were delicious.

This year, we bought 3 varieties: Hopi Blue, Black Iroquois/Mexican Sweet, and Butter & Sugar. The Hopi Blue is a flint corn for grinding into meal or flour, the Black Iroquois/Mexican Sweet is a dark-kernel sweet corn, and the Butter & Sugar is the common bi-color sweet corn. We planted a row of each on the same day in May after the threat of frost had passed. Immediately, we had a week of heavy rain that totaled more than 3 inches. I was nervous that the seeds had washed away because some of the soil had been relocated, exposing the seeds. We covered them over again, and within 2 weeks, nearly all of them germinated.

At this point, all 3 varieties are doing well. The Hopi Blue is more than 4 feet tall already and can grow up to 9 feet tall, while the others are about 3 feet tall and should only reach 5-6 feet tall. Yesterday, when I was checking out the plants, I noticed the tassel developing inside the leaves for the first time. Corn is an easy, low-maintenance vegetable to grow. Besides weeding and watering, the only thing I’ve done is give the plants consistent nitrogen. Corn is a heavy feeder, so it needs extra nutrients to reach full height and develop big, full ears. If you’ve been on the fence about growing corn, it’s worth a shot. It doesn’t require a lot of work, and seeing corn grow is a beautiful experience.

2.) All Cucumbers

Cucumbers are another vegetable we’ve had success growing in the past. In our container garden, we grew a pickling variety, and we were pulling multiple ripe cucumbers off it daily. This year, we bought 3 varieties to grow: Boston Pickling for pickles, Tendergreen, which can be harvested for pickles or left on for slicers, and Richmond Green Apple, an Australian heirloom. We were also gifted 2 starts of a burpless variety from our neighbor.

I started the 3 inside and transplanted 2 plants of each variety into the garden. At the time, they didn’t look good. Like other plants, they were leggy at the time, and the weather wasn’t friendly to growing cucumbers. However, within a couple of weeks, they took off and now have blossoms on them with small fruit growing. The starts we were gifted also weren’t healthy when we transplanted them, but they’ve taken off and have produced 2 fruits already. These have required little maintenance other than a side-dressing of fertilizer. We may need to trellis or stake them at some point, but up until now, they’ve grown nicely without any assistance.

Bonus: Most Melons, Squash & Pumpkins

Because I didn’t want to have a listing for all melons, squash, and pumpkins, in addition to already having all corn and cucumbers, I wanted to add an honorable mention or bonus section. In this section are all melons, squash, and pumpkins. The Seminole pumpkin deserved its own listing, but most of the things I wrote about it apply to all of these. Quickly, these are all the melons, squash, and pumpkins that we are growing:

Ali Baba Watermelon
Noir de Carmes
Tigger Melon
Hokkaido Pumpkin
Black Beauty Zucchini
Candy Roaster Melon
Golden Glory Yellow Zucchini
Queensland Blue Winter Squash
Zapallito Del Tronco Zucchini
Ping Tung Eggplant
White Scallop
Kakai Winter Squash
Jarrradale Pumpkin
Dark Green Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua
New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin

Of the above seeds, the only ones that haven’t done well are the Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Glory Yellow Zucchini, and the Ping Tung Eggplant. I don’t know why the zucchinis didn’t do well since they were planted at the same time as the Zapallito Del Tronco, but they didn’t. Only 1 Black Beauty and none of the Golden Glory seeds germinated. The eggplants were started indoors and never got to the point where they could be transplanted outdoors. The others have all done well.

I started a lot of the squash, melons, and pumpkins indoors. They immediately took off, but we couldn’t transplant them right away due to the weather. As soon as the weather broke, they were moved outdoors, but I had little faith in them doing well. All but 3 of the plants lived and are thriving. We also directly sowed a bunch of them later in early June, and they’ve done exceptionally well. All of the plants look healthy and are growing vigorously. What’s most interesting is how all the squash, all the melons, and all the pumpkins have similar leaf structures and growing behaviors, but have subtle differences between the varieties. For example, the Seminole pumpkins have silver lines on the leaves that the other pumpkin plants don’t.

We bought additional seeds (these are the ones in orange text) in late June to have a wider variety of pumpkins and squash. To put into context how quickly and easily these grow, I started them on Saturday evening. By Tuesday morning, the Hokkaido had germinated, and by Wednesday evening, the Dark Green Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua and Sugar Pie Pumpkin seeds had as well. Consistent moisture levels, full sun, and warm temperatures are the perfect recipe for these. If you find a variety you are curious about, give it a go. Odds are that it will do well.

1.) Provider Bush Bean

I love beans. In the United States, we’ve done a horrible job of educating people on how many bean varieties there are and all the ways we can use them in food. In most grocery stores, the only fresh beans you’ll find are green beans, and you may find some edamame or snap peas, which aren’t beans but are similar enough to include them here. I think that a lot of Americans picture canned beans when they think of beans. Whether these are green beans, black beans, pinto beans, or kidney beans, the average American doesn’t envision bags of dried beans or fresh varieties that are a color other than green. I’ve grown bush beans in the past, but this year, we found ourselves interested in growing other varieties.

American history is filled with people of the past growing bean varieties that were vitally important to their culture and heritage. Baker Creek sells a variety that was found in a New Mexico cave and dates back 1,500 years. In the South, Southern peas (also known as asparagus beans or Cowpeas) were preserved by slaves as a way to save their heritage. It’s the same in Latin America, South America, and Asia – beans (and all seeds) tell stories.

We attempted to grow 5 varieties this year: Kebarika, Jamapa, Red Bush, Provider, and Chinese Red Noodle. We’ve had moderate success with the Kebarika and Jamapa and nearly no success with the Red Bush beans. However, the Provider and Chinese Red Noodle beans have excelled. I planted the Chinese Red Noodle beans in a planter box I built, and they are currently climbing the trellis to a height of 7 feet.

I planted the Provider beans in our bed with the Kebarika and Jamapa, and they’ve done pretty well. They’re not real tall yet (about 18 inches), but are still growing and have started to flower. But when our Red Bush beans failed (only 1 successful plant among a full row of seeds), I planted more Provider beans in the same row around the lone Red Bush bean plant. So, it was the same growing conditions. Within 2 days, almost all the seeds germinated, and at the time of writing this, the plants are nearly the height of the Red Bush bean plant, which is more than 2 weeks older. As Magz pointed out, the name Provider is pretty on point. These plants provide.

So, there it is. These are the (more than) 5 plants that I’ve had the easiest time growing this year. All have a few things in common: they grow in spite of the weather, my mistakes, and questionable soil quality. They’ve all required little maintenance and make you believe in yourself as a gardener. Have you tried any of these varieties? If not, I recommend giving them a go. Do you have any favorite seeds to grow?

July 11, 2025 0

Weekly Garden Update #17 – Visible Growth, Tackling Grass & Side Dressing Plants

In this week’s update, we’re starting to see our garden really take off. Plants that were already big have started to bloom and produce fruit, while plants that were small or looked a little unhealthy have started to grow and look like they’re going to make it. We also needed to tackle some of the grass in the beds that was becoming unruly, and we side-dressed many of our plants with bone meal. Finally, what is this update’s seed of the week?

Visible Growth

Since last week’s update, we’ve been blown away by how much growth there has been in the garden. The tomato plants we bought from the greenhouse, as well as the original Queen Aliquippa plants I started, have all started to blossom and produce fruit. The Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, and Yellow Pear plants all have fruit on them, while the Queen Aliquippa plants have numerous blossoms. Our pepper plants are the same way, with two of the Cal Wonder plants having at least one fruit. The small starts that we transplanted last weekend have grown and are looking healthy.

Our melon, squash, and cucumber plants are also showing a lot of growth. The spaghetti squash plant we bought at the greenhouse has 15 or so blossoms on it, while another plant that I started inside (we think it’s a pumpkin) is also blossoming. All but a few of the plants in our melon bed are doing very well, including our cucumber plants, where we’re starting to see baby cucumbers growing behind the blossoms. Lastly, our eggplants are growing a lot of fruit, with the largest being roughly three inches in length. It’s safe to say that the heat and sunshine have been wonderful for our garden.

Mowing Inside Our Garden Beds

This weekend, we realized that we needed to deal with the grass that was growing in the last garden bed we planted in. We had been using long shears to trim everything, but Magz smartly suggested that we try getting the mower in between the plants. Yesterday, we did and had so much success that we used the mower in our other beds, which made for much less work by hand. I maneuvered the mower while Magz helped me not run over any plants. While no plants were harmed, I did run over a wooden marker, but after 30 minutes or so and many squeaks from Magz, we were done. She is my Richard Hammond. We’ll be using this method moving forward to save time and work.

Side Dressing Plants

With our plants growing well and starting to bloom, I applied a layer of bone meal to our tomatoes, peppers, beans, and our more mature melons, squash, and cucumbers. I like bone meal because it’s easy to apply and gets absorbed pretty well, but I want to find a better fertilizer. I like bone meal when transplanting starts, but I would like to find something more water soluble or even a liquid fertilizer for side dressing needs later in the season. The bone meal has worked, though. The day after I applied it, we got a nice rainstorm, and the plants looked perkier afterward.

Seed of the Week

This week’s featured seed is the Black Krim tomato. We’re growing these from seed and from starts that we purchased at a greenhouse. These tomatoes are originally from the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea and were named after the Isle of Krim. They gained popularity in that region during the 1850s but didn’t become commercially available in the United States until the 1990s. They may have been the first “black” tomato to be sold in the U.S. These are the first black tomatoes we’ve grown.

Up Next

At this point in the garden, we’re largely managing the garden. We’re dealing with weeds, making sure the plants are properly watered, and generally ensuring that everything is healthy. There’s a chance that by next week’s update, we’ll have harvested at least one tomato, eggplant, and/or cucumber. How are your gardens doing? Happy gardening!

June 30, 2025 0

Weekly Garden Update #16 – Heat Wave, Lots of Growth & Seed of the Week

In this week’s update, the rainy weather finally came to an end, we’re seeing a ton of growth in our garden, including the grass and weeds, and I’m starting a new section called Seed of the Week. Let’s dive in.

Heat Wave

We had one of the coolest and wettest springs that I can remember this year. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that this delayed our planting and slowed growth. That pattern broke as the official start of summer arrived with a four-day heat wave that has brought temperatures in the 90s, humidity, and a UV index above 10. There was no gradual transition between seasons this year. While it’s not my preferred weather, I’m very thankful that the ground can start drying out and plants can begin to take off.

The extreme heat can make working in the garden less fun, but it’s a reminder to take breaks, stay hydrated, and get as much work done outside the hottest part of the day. I failed at the last part of that this past weekend by working in the middle of the day, which is a mistake I won’t make again during this heat wave.

Lots of Growth

Even though the recent weather pattern hasn’t been ideal, it is allowing our plants to take off. With ample moisture in the ground, all that the plants needed was warmth and sunshine, and now that they have it, the plants have shown measurable growth in recent days. I want to highlight a few plants where this has been most evident.

Corn: Our corn is now about 15 inches tall and on pace to meet the “knee-high by the 4th of July” saying that I heard growing up. The base of the stalks looks strong, and the leaves are a beautiful green with that lovely waxy and silky texture. I continue to side dress them with blood meal every couple of weeks.

Beans and Peas: Our beans have exhibited consistent growth since germinating in mid-May. All the beans, except for the red bush beans that I started in early June, are about 8 inches tall. Our snow peas are also at this height, which led me to build a trellis for them this past week.

Eggplant & Spaghetti Squash: We transplanted a couple of eggplant starts a few weekends ago, and they are doing exceptionally well. They have been consistently producing flowers, and I even felt the start of a fruit on Sunday. We planted a lot of squash and melons this year, and the spaghetti squash start we bought in early May is doing wonderful. It’s spreading outward from the main stem and is starting to show where the flowers and fruit will grow.

Tomatoes & Peppers: Our tomato and pepper plants have started to flower, and one of the yellow pear tomato plants has fruit on it. This hot weather should help produce more fruit and help that first tomato ripen.

One small downside to the weather we’ve had is that weeds and grass have continued to grow at a fast pace. Managing the grass that’s inside our garden fences has been difficult from the beginning. We have a plus sign-shaped walkway between our garden beds. I’m able to tackle that with the mower, but the grass within the garden beds is a different story. We’ve been using hedge-trimming shears to cut down all the grass, which has been surprisingly effective. Hopefully, the hot weather will lead to the grass growing a bit slower moving forward.

Seed of the Week – Queen Aliquippa Tomatoes

This is the first installment of a new section I’m calling Seed of the Week. Each week, I’ll go over a seed we’ve grown and are particularly fond of. I won’t go in-depth with the seed’s history in this weekly post (I’m saving that for a standalone series), but I may briefly highlight the seed’s name inspiration. I will also go over our experience with the seed, including how it is to grow, and what the fruit should look like when it’s ripe. I considered many options for the first Seed of the Week section, but I am going with the Queen Aliquippa tomato, which I briefly highlighted when I wrote about the seeds we bought for this year’s garden.

We bought our Queen Aliquippa seeds from Sow True Seeds, which is located in Asheville, North Carolina. The seeds are named for Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca tribe leader from the 18th century who lived in Central and Western Pennsylvania, which is where Magz and I are from. Queen Aliquippa is a well-known name where we live, so we had to try seeds named in her honor. We’ve never grown these seeds or even seen the tomatoes in person, but the tomatoes are categorized as slicing, so they’re likely larger than pear tomatoes but smaller than a beefsteak. They stay green when ripe but are supposed to be incredibly sweet.

Our experience with growing these seeds has been positive. They were some of the earliest seeds I started, and they were easy to germinate. Unfortunately, not having a strong enough grow light prevented them from growing as big as I would have liked before transplanting them, but we did finally get them outside in late May. We started with two plants going outside when they were about 4 inches tall, and they’ve done remarkably well in spite of the poor weather. As of yesterday, they were over a foot tall. The leaves are beautiful, and we haven’t experienced any leaf curl, which is common with a lot of tomato plants.

Up Next

This coming week will be focused on making sure our plants are watered and aren’t showing any signs of stress from the heat. We’re also looking forward to seeing more flower and fruit development, as well as the potential for harvesting our first tomatoes. Happy Gardening!

June 23, 2025 0

Is Container Gardening a Good Idea?

Prior to 2025, the only way Magz and I were able to garden was in containers. As renters, the opportunity to build raised garden beds or dig beds into the ground wasn’t there. In this post, I’m going to walk you through our history with container gardening, including the containers we used and what we grew, and discuss the pros and cons of gardening this way. Finally, at the end, I’ll ask the question, “Is it for you?”

Our Experience With Container Gardening

The Containers We Used

We have grown in many different containers. Our first experience was a terracotta pot that many people are familiar with. That was in 2016, and we used these pots in the years that followed. We’ve also used hard plastic planters of various sizes. They’re affordable and easy to find. The most unique containers we’ve gardened in are plastic totes and 5-gallon buckets. In 2022, we wanted to try growing a bunch of different seeds but couldn’t have an in-ground garden. So, we bought roughly a dozen plastic totes and two dozen buckets, along with some plastic planters and shallow totes for lettuce.

Finally, the most unique and potentially gimmicky planter was the GreenStalk. If you’re unfamiliar with GreenStalk, it’s a tiered growing system that maximizes the space to grow many plants. It has an ingenious design that trickles water down from the top tier. We had the 3-tier system that is currently sold for $110. We’re still technically gardening in a container with the planter box I built for our long beans. It was cheap to build and only took two hours. We also have a plastic rectangular planter that we have butterfly peas in.

I would say that of all the containers we’ve used, my favorites are the homemade wooden one I built and the GreenStalk. The wooden one is nice because it’s homemade and doesn’t use plastic. Anything we can do to reduce our dependency on plastic, even if it isn’t single-use, is a good thing. I also really liked the GreenStalk design. It allows you to grow a lot of vegetables in a small area and is relatively easy to use.

What Did We Grow?

We have grown a bit of everything in containers. In our GreenStalk, we tried growing lettuce, carrots, beets, bok choy, chamomile, and herbs. Prior to the GreenStalk, we grew a cherry tomato plant at our first apartment. Those are all pretty standard things. That all changed when we did our 2022 garden.

We unintentionally pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with a container garden. We attempted everything we could think of and were interested in. That included potatoes (early and mid-season), corn, cabbage, pumpkins, musk melon, watermelon, and Brussels sprouts. We also grew the vegetables that most people grow: cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and beans. And for the most part, it all grew.

Were Our Container Gardens Successful?

In general, yes, our container gardens were successful, with each attempt producing more than the previous one. We got a few tomatoes from the first tomato plant we grew; however, it eventually died because we had to travel for work that summer and couldn’t find anyone to water it.

Our GreenStalk garden was doing well until we moved. We started everything from seed in early May and had successful germination. Unfortunately, two things happened that caused the plants to die before reaching full maturity. We had a week of intense rainfall not long after germination, which restricted early plant growth, and we unexpectedly had to move later in May. The move led to the plants experiencing shock. After moving, we were unable to tend to them for a week while we were getting some things settled, and by the time we got back, it was too late.

Our 2022 container garden was very successful. I believe people thought we were crazy for trying to grow plants that typically aren’t “container-friendly,” but we harvested multiple ears of corn, at least one big head of cabbage, many pounds of potatoes, and more than one watermelon, musk melon, and pumpkin. We also had a lot of success with our tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers.

Pros & Cons of Container Gardening

I’ve gone over some of our experience with container gardening, the majority being positive, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some negatives. Here are some pros and cons of gardening in containers.

Pros

You’re (Almost) Guaranteed to Have Good Soil

When container gardening, you are typically bringing in soil to fill the containers. I think most people buy their soil in bags, but you can also buy it in bulk from landscape centers or garden supply stores. This soil is typically nutrient-rich, balanced, and light. It tends to drain well because it has vermiculite, perlite, or coconut coir in it. This is important when container gardening, but more on that in a bit. This type of soil makes it easier to have success when growing root crops like carrots and beets, as well as potatoes, since the roots don’t have to battle compacted soil to grow. If you’ve been following our blog from the beginning, you’ll know that good soil isn’t a guarantee.

Maneuverability

Container gardens give freedom that is impossible with traditional in-ground or raised bed gardens. You can place the containers in “creative” ways to maximize your space and relocate them to give them more sun or shade as needed. If you need to move around them, they can be moved for that reason too.

Opportunity to Garden

If you rent a house, you may not have the chance to build a raised garden bed or till up the lawn to create an in-ground garden. And if you live in an apartment, you certainly don’t have that chance. Containers give you that chance. I think it’s important that people have a connection to their food. Knowing how your food is grown gives us an idea of how much work goes into that vegetable you’re about to eat. A container garden may allow you to only grow a few plants, but that is better than nothing. The joy of harvesting your first successfully grown tomato or pepper is hard to describe.

Cons

Weight

Containers may provide maneuverability that rigid gardens don’t, but they’re not easy to move. The totes we grew in, especially the 33-gallon ones that our potatoes were planted in, were very heavy when full. We never weighed them, but I would guess that each was over 50 pounds. I could pick them up, but it was awkward and gave me some back pain. Dragging them was the easier option. Moving them a couple of feet each week to mow around them wasn’t a problem, but anytime I needed to move the rows around, it was a struggle. The buckets were much easier with their handles.

Another part of the weight is moving the soil around. If you buy soil in bulk, you have to get it into the containers. If you use bagged soil like we did, you have to carry those bags around. An individual bag may only weigh 40 pounds, but when you buy 20 of them at a time, it quickly adds up.

Watering

Something I didn’t know about container gardening before we began our 2022 garden was how different watering is compared to an in-ground garden or raised beds. Traditional gardens retain moisture quite well, so you can get away with only watering them once a week. You place your finger into the soil, and if it’s dry a couple of inches down, it needs water. It’s pretty straightforward. A container garden requires a much more hands-on and active approach. Even though the soil is good, the containers still don’t drain as well as raised beds or in-ground beds. The top of the soil will often dry out, while the bottom retains moisture. This can lead to overwatering and root rot. I found that you need to check the moisture level at a greater depth. Depending on the weather, we either needed to water the containers daily or every other day, but it was rare that the plants went more than a couple of days without water.

Cost

Starting a garden of any type can be expensive. I’ve gone into the costs of this year’s garden in various posts. Container gardens are no different and may actually be more expensive. If you don’t have the containers, you need to buy them. When we bought our totes, each one cost $5.98, so we spent roughly $80 on those. Each bucket was around $3, so we probably spent $50 on those. You also need soil and various amendments to help with draining. We bought perlite and broke up foam to put in the bottoms of the containers. Then you need to buy the seeds/starts, fertilizers, and plant supports that are needed for any garden. It quickly becomes expensive, and it doesn’t include the cost of water. We probably spent $500 on that year’s garden and got rid of most of the containers at the end of the year. For a one-year experience, it wasn’t cheap.

Neither a Pro Nor a Con

Amount of Work

Gardening in any form is a lot of work. It requires physical labor and time. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but it’s a commitment, and oftentimes, it’s done in hot weather. Container gardening is no exception. You don’t have to deal with the digging and weeding required with traditional gardens, but the amount of work is comparable. Each container needed to have drainage holes drilled. They were then filled with the perlite or foam and soil before the seeds were sown. And as I mentioned, the containers needed to be moved. I even moved them into our garage early in the year when we had torrential downpours. It was a lot of work, so please don’t start a container garden, especially a big one, if you think it will be light on work.

Do I Recommend Container Gardening?

Absolutely. If you’re interested in growing your own food but either can’t have a traditional garden or don’t want to commit to one, growing in containers is a great alternative. It is a ton of fun, and if you can commit to only having a few containers, it’s not too much work. The payoff can be huge and can take advantage of space that may otherwise go unused.

Tips for Container Gardening

After recommending gardening in containers, I want to share some tips that can hopefully help you. These are things we learned through our experiences.

1.) Buy the Right Seeds

It’s important to buy the right seeds when container gardening. A vegetable variety that works well in the ground could be problematic in containers. This is often due to the depth of the roots and the height of the plant at maturity. For root crops like carrots, you will have more success with shorter carrots like oxhearts than you will with longer ones like yellowstones. Most containers won’t have enough soil for carrots to reach their full size of 7 to 9 inches, so it’s best to stick to varieties that are only intended to reach 5 to 6 inches.

For non-root crops, you should look for container or determinate varieties. These are only intended to grow to a set height, making it easier to contain them. You can also look for bush varieties that don’t need trellising or supports. You can find bush varieties of beans and cucumbers and determinate varieties of tomatoes. For corn, we looked for varieties that only reached a height of 5 feet. That will reduce the risk of them getting too tall and blowing over in strong winds. There are a lot of container-friendly plant varieties now, so don’t be afraid of growing what you want to eat.

2.) Choosing the Right Size of Container

It’s important to choose the proper container size for the plant you’re growing. When in doubt, go with the bigger option. Plants want soil for their roots to explore, so give them as much depth as possible. You can put multiple plants in one container, but don’t crowd them. We tried growing more than one pepper and bean plant in 5-gallon buckets, which was a mistake. Your plant will be happier and grow fuller with extra room.

3.) Have Fun, and Don’t Worry About Mistakes

Gardening can be a lot of fun. It’s meant to be relaxing and helps us connect with nature. It can also be stressful. Accept that you will make mistakes, but please don’t let that get you down. Keep going (and growing) and focus on the success you’re having. At the end of the season, you can think about ways to improve next year’s garden.

If you’re thinking about container gardening but have been unsure if it’s a good option for you, I hope this post helps you feel confident. It’s certainly worth it.

June 20, 2025 3

Weekly Garden Update #15 – Final Plantings, Weeds, and Dealing With More Rain

In this week’s update, we continued to harvest greens and radishes as they were ready. We also bought some starts for plants we were having trouble germinating, we navigated weeds and grass getting a bit out of control, and the rain just won’t stop.

Buying and Planting the Final Starts

We made a decision this past weekend to revisit our local greenhouse and buy some more vegetable starts. This decision came on the heels of struggling to get our Principe Borghese tomato and eggplant seeds to germinate. Earlier in the spring, I had success with getting the Principe Borghese seeds to germinate, but I’ve struggled with the eggplant seeds. We bought 2 eggplant starts, 4 San Marzano tomato plants, and 1 cherry tomato plant. We have some cherry tomato plants started, but we wanted a more mature plant at this point.

We also bought 4 Cal Wonder pepper plants, 3 tomatillo plants, and 1 basil plant. We have a few Cal Wonder plants started, but the cool weather and rain have made growth slower than we’d like. We bought more tomatillo plants after our struggles with the three-striped potato beetle that I mentioned in last week’s update. Finally, we bought a basil plant because we didn’t have any basil until now. Those were all transplanted into the ground on Sunday.

Basil, Gardening — The basil plant we picked up

Last week, we also got the majority of our own starts into the ground. We planted all our squash, cucumbers, and melons, which were the bulk of our remaining starts. We also planted our final beans, yellow squash, and zucchini seeds. That leaves us with only a few tomato plants and any seeds we want to succession sow until we plant our late-season crops.

Dealing With Weeds

Weeds are something that every gardener has to deal with each year. You can do everything to prevent them from growing, but they’ll still pop up. In our situation, the weeds have been as bad as we expected. Because this is our first year gardening in this space, the property was covered with thick grass and many weeds, mainly dandelions. We didn’t have the chance to kill off the grass and weeds before tilling. Ideally, we would have laid out our garden beds in the fall, killed the grass with chemicals or plastic, and tilled them in the fall so that everything could have taken effect during our very cold winter.

When we initially tilled the beds, the weeds and grass were largely removed, and in the rows where we planted things, that’s remained the case, for the most part. In the first bed we planted in, the grass has come back in full force, which is annoying. It’s difficult to see the carrot and beet tops through the grass, but we’re managing. Our plan is to re-till that section of the bed after the carrots, beets, and parsnips are harvested. I did that in another section of the bed, and the grass has mostly stayed away. In the meantime, we are using a weeding tool to dig up dandelion roots (who knew they were so woody) and pruning shears to cut back the grass. After everything is harvested for the year, we’re going to take an aggressive approach to remove all the weeds.

More Rain

This spring has been one of the wettest I can remember. Early last week, we had several days of sunny, dry weather that allowed the soil to dry out nicely, which the plants loved. The end of last week brought more rain, however, and lots of it. Even though the meteorologists were only calling for about a half-inch of rain, we got more than 2 inches. It led to our beds temporarily flooding until the water drained through the soil. Thankfully, the soil did drain, which indicates that our efforts to amend the soil have been successful, but there’s still so much rain.

The plants aren’t growing as fast as they normally would because of the lack of sunshine, but they’re holding on. It has taught me so much about how hardy plants can be. The 10-day forecast provides some positive news. Although there is some rain in the forecast for the next 4 days, the total rainfall isn’t a lot (about three-quarters of an inch). After that, we’re supposed to have 4 consecutive days of hot, sunny weather, which the plants will love. Hopefully, the meteorologists get it right this time.

Up Next

We are definitely getting to the end of the planting portion. We’ll get our remaining tomato and pepper plants in the ground, and that’ll be it. I still need to build the trellis system for our beans, which I’m hoping to do this week. But in general, it’s starting to become a time period of maintenance and slowness, which I’m looking forward to.

Long Beans, Gardening — Our long beans are taking off

Have you had any problems with your gardens this year? Is it a wetter-than-usual spring where you live? Thanks for reading, and Happy Gardening!

June 16, 2025 0

Weekly Garden Update #13 – Building a Planter Box & a Germination Update

In this week’s update, I share a planter box I made over the weekend to grow some beans in, and we had a lot of germination take place. We also got to experience how gardening can help spark conversation and make friends.

Building a Planter Box

When we were picking our seeds for the year, we bought a packet of Chinese Red Noodle long bean seeds. These plants produce pods up to 18 inches long, and the plants can grow up to 7 feet. Safe to say that they need some support to climb that tall. But because these grow so tall, we couldn’t plant the seeds in the same space as our other beans since they grow to different heights. Instead, we decided to plant them outside our garden beds in a raised box and in a location where they can have ample space to reach their full height. A lot of gardeners would buy something for this purpose, but because I love woodworking and building things, I had to make it.

It would have been nice to make the planter box out of cedar, red oak, teak, or fir, but I didn’t want to waste the red oak I have on this project and didn’t have any cedar, teak, or fir. Instead, I had a bunch of pressure-treated lumber left over from our screened-in porch project. Pressure-treated lumber often gets a bad reputation, but it is a versatile product that is affordable and will last a long time if maintained. Decades ago, it wouldn’t have been safe to use in gardening applications, but it’s now perfectly safe as long as you aren’t chewing on it.

My goal was to use as many scrap pieces as I could without having to cut too many of the full-size pieces. That’s why there are smaller pieces between the two longer pieces on the sides. This allowed me to only take a little bit from one of the remaining full-size 1x6s I have left. All told, the box is 11 inches front-to-back, 40 inches wide, and 10 inches tall. There are vertical supports inside to attach the stacked side pieces to each other, corner supports to connect the four sides, and horizontal supports to strengthen the sides. There are also a few holes in the bottom for drainage and feet on the bottom to lift the box off the ground. It’s quite heavy and should serve our needs.

Once the box was done, we lined it with a couple of black garbage bags. A lot of gardeners will buy black plastic that is sold specifically for gardening, but it’s essentially the same thing as the thick garbage bags people use for collecting lawn clippings. They both serve the same purpose: lining the box so there’s some separation between the lumber and the soil. It should also help the box last longer and create less of a mess.

With the liner installed, we cut drainage holes into the bottom and filled it with soil and Garden Tone and planted the seeds. After a thorough watering, it was ready to go. The seeds are supposed to take 5-8 days to germinate, so we’ll monitor them. The box was placed on the side of our garage/my woodshop where the plants will be in direct sunlight for most of the day. The only time it won’t get sunlight is at the very end of the day. To accommodate the trellis system, I’m going to build two brackets that will hang on the garage. The brackets will have holes in them to hold a dowel or bamboo stake, which will have garden twine tied to it. That twine will hang down to the planter box so the plants can climb.

Germination Update

In last week’s update, I mentioned that we were going to restart some of our seeds. That was the result of some of the starts not doing well and the rain preventing us from transplanting them for a few weeks. It led to some plants being leggy. There was also the fact that I messed up starting some of them, and I wanted to get a second chance with them. Last week, I restarted all of our tomato varieties, peppers (Cal Wonder and Scotch Bonnet), melons, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatillos, and ground cherries. I took extra time this go around by pre-moistening the soil and pressing it down a bit to pack the cells a bit more. The soil remains light and airy, but there’s more soil now for the roots to grow in.

In the 5 or 6 days since sowing the seeds, most of the varieties have germinated. The majority of the tomatoes and nearly all the melons have already sprouted and are looking healthy. This morning, I moved the cells with germinated plants in them off the heat mat and into another tray under the grow light. I’m attempting to be a bit more proactive with moving the starts sooner this time. The goal is to have the starts inside for a few weeks so that they can develop strong root structures before moving them outside.

In the garden beds, we have also started to see the successful germination of seeds, including corn, beans, carrots, and beets. The root crops have been growing pretty well for a few weeks now, but things have been a bit slower with the corn and beans. Corn is a slow germinating plant, so patience is key, but with the heavy rains we had not long after sowing, as well as the cool weather, I don’t think we were overly confident in their germination. However, on Sunday, we noticed that both had sprouted. The corn stalks were only about an inch above the soil, and the beans about two inches, but sure enough, they’re growing. That is incredible news! And with how fast bean plants grow, we should see them take off pretty quickly since we’re supposed to finally get some seasonally-appropriate temperatures this week.

Meeting a Neighbor

Yesterday, when we were working in the garden, our neighbor from across the street walked over and introduced herself. She is an older lady whom we hadn’t met yet, but she wanted to say hello and bring us a few cucumber starts that she had. It was such a wonderful gift and a great way to get to know a neighbor. Gardening is a great way to make friends and spark conversation.

Up Next

That’s it for this week’s update. Between now and next week’s post, we’re going to finish tilling the last bed, plant some sunflowers in front of the corn rows, and sow some butterfly pea seeds in a store-bought planter box. Thanks for reading, and Happy Gardening!

June 2, 2025 2