Hip Hip Hooray!! I am still managing to keep the weeds and bugs at bay! My EGO Cultivator is seriously a life saver. This time last year I was weeding by hand almost an hour a day and still was not keeping any sort of handle on the weeds. Right now, I spend an hour a week with the cultivator and will go by hand around plants where the cultivator can’t reach and amazingly, I can still see plenty of dirt!
Neem Oil
Bugs are starting to appear, so I did a second big Neem Oil spray this week in hopes of controlling them. I had purposely splurged and bought the giant bottle with an automatic spraying, but of course it arrived and the sprayer didn’t work. So it got poured into my regular spray bottle anyway. Lesson learned! Just buy the concentrate. It is cheaper and goes further.
Beans, Snap Peas, Arugula & Blueberries
My beans, snap peas and pink lemonade blueberries have been plentiful the last couple of weeks. It is crazy how simply changing how I started my beans and snap peas and where I planted them this year has made such a difference. I have 2 raised beds overflowing with plants and can typically harvest a handful every couple of days. Next year, I plan to add at least 2 more raised beds, so that I can have 2 archways of beans.
I wasn’t expecting much from my pink lemonade blueberry plants this year because I just purchased them this spring from the Daniel Stowe Plant Sale. I thought I might get a few berries and then would have to wait until next year. Well, I was wrong. I can pick off a few berries at least a couple of times a week. Not enough to do much with other than eat straight away, but there is nothing wrong with that!
I have also been able to harvest quite a bit of arugula in the last couple of weeks as well. I would likely have had more, but it started to bloom while I was out of town. So now I am working on cutting it back and hoping for some new growth.
Wild Blackberries
The wild blackberries on our property have started to ripen this week, so I made it my mission last night to pick some before the birds got to them. 3 cups later, I turned them into a delicious blackberry crumble for dessert.
I found this recipe from Noble Pig. It was absolutely delicious and has been added to my Recipe Keeper app for future use: Blackberry Crumble. I did add a bit of blackberry honey to the recipe because I happened to have some on the counter and it seemed fitting for the recipe.
Veggies on the Horizon
Trips to the garden are getting more exciting because we are getting to the point where the plants are showing real signs of life. My basil and oregano is coming in strong. I have my first signs of tomatillos, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. There is nothing quite like walking through all the plants and seeing what new has happened since the last visit.
My carrots, radishes and beets are all growing tall, but I’m still completely guessing when it comes to should I pull them yet or not. Some of the radishes and a couple of beets have literally popped out of the ground, so I have taken those, but they are all very small. So I will continue to wait and see what happens.
What’s Next
I do have a small space still open in the garden where I will likely add more carrots, so that I can have more than one harvest. I would also like to add another couple of cucumber plants since more of the plants didn’t survive the frost.
I’m also already dreaming about next year’s setup, if I am brave enough to attempt a fall garden this year and what I would need to do with my greenhouse setup to try and grow some stuff through the winter.
Cheers to dreaming about the garden and a bountiful harvest!
A Look Back at Garden Updates: Prepping My Garden for 2026, 2026 Garden Update: Compost, Mulch, and Seedlings Off to a Strong Start, Garden Update: New Plants, First Bean Harvest & a Trip to the Plant Sale
Leave a Reply