Thinking we should have planted watermelon as our garden is drowning with the abundance of water this summer. We took a 2-week vacation to Florida and returned to a water-logged garden that seems to have kept our neighborhood Peter Rabbit safe.

I had seen this rabbit in our backyard, but the garden had been tightly wrapped to keep him out. Apparently, he found out we were out of town and chewed or ripped the netting to get into the garden. He then dug himself a hole and found safety.

When we returned, our oregano plant had been uprooted to make room for the hole, and many of the plants had died – either from the water or from the rabbit’s activities. I spent some time clearing out the debris and fixing the hole.

After the July incidents, our garden has evolved into mini-wetlands with the following changes:

Strawberries

We harvested 9 strawberries before leaving on our trip. These strawberry plants are surviving the moist conditions. I cut off the damaged leaves and the remaining stubs from the rabbit’s meals.

Bell Peppers

One pepper is developing well. The rest of the pepper plants have buds all over them ready to sprout.

Eggplant

The purple flowers have bloomed. Waiting to see how the vegetable grows as this is our first year planting eggplant.

Blackberries

The little clusters were still red when we left. Paul checked them when he got back, and they were almost black. The next day, he went to check, and they had been eaten. So, no more blackberries on the vine.

Squash

The bright yellow flowers have grown with the squash in the middle. Waiting to see how this plant grows as well. We are down to one squash plant from the 8 we planted.

Tomatoes

Growth has begun, and a few green tomatoes are on the vine.

Cucumbers

These plants are down to one remaining. The stalk looked weak, so I planted it deeper into the garden and am watching it closely. The little cucumbers are still on the branches.

Oregano

Mostly dead with a little green. We’ll see if it revives or dies. (See bottom right corner of garden. The rabbit’s hole was directly behind the oregano.)

Though our garden is less full than our June increase, we have some growth. The parsley (bottom left corner) is doing well and the zucchini plant (right side behind the oregano) is hanging in there. I’m thankful that at least one of each kind of plant survived the time we were away.

Our garden is an experiment. We usually don’t get it right the first time, but the process is teaching us about nature. In using time wisely, we are harvesting a few items and sharing others with sneaky rabbits. I have since mended the garden hole to keep hungry animals out. Happy learning!

Question: What are you growing that loves the extra water this summer? 

Summer fun is in full swing, but the spring-like conditions continue giving us lots of rainy days. The moist soil is attracting the slugs as they have invaded our garden.

While weeding this month, I uncovered the top layer of soil to find a pile of white slugs. Ugh! Using the spade, I removed them from the garden and dug around looking for more to which I found none.

Finding it difficult to put out our slug repellant, as it needs a dry surface, I am ridding these pests one by one with the help of my daughter. In the June edition, I shared how she picks them up. So funny to me that my girly girl is not scared of bugs or creepy crawlies. 😉

With more growth happening during June, our garden changed in the following ways:

Strawberries

Much slower growth this month as our patch produced 4 strawberries. From last year’s garden, the strawberries mostly produced in May and again in September. I am waiting for our next burst in a few months.

Bell Peppers

Last year, our peppers took a long time to grow. This year, the plants already have buds, but the peppers will take weeks to grow.

Blackberries

Our plants are getting huge, so we added stakes to wrap the stalks around. One cluster of blackberries started out green and has turned to red. We are waiting for the fruit to turn black before picking them.

Blueberries

One of our plants had a small cluster of blueberries. We harvested the one that turned blue, but the two red ones were stolen by the birds before they fully ripened.

Cucumbers

My favorite plants are starting to sprout cucumbers. They are tiny, but we found out last year how quickly they can grow.

The other plants within our garden are growing with the green leaves healthy. In going on vacation in July, I’m a little nervous about the condition I’ll find the garden when we return. Last year, we lost a few plants, so we’ll see about this year.

In using time wisely, I love checking on our garden. We haven’t needed to water it much this summer, but the weeds are growing quickly.

Our garden is off to a great start. I am enjoying watching the progress each month as we grow our own fruits, herbs, and vegetables. Wishing you success in your garden this summer. Happy gardening!

Question: Have you lost any plants due to the rain this summer?   

Rain, rain, and more rain makes our garden wet. It is definitely a great year for squash and cucumbers as they love water. Had we known it would rain this much, we would have planted pumpkins and watermelons. 😉

Getting off to a slow start, our garden is barely growing. Keeping an eye on the drainage to make sure the plants are not sitting in water has been the bulk of our work this month. I am also dealing with slugs. These pests love the moist dirt and the leaves of our plants.

My daughter enjoys picking them up and relocating them in the yard. This activity keeps her busy outside as there are lots of slugs living around the base of our wooden garden frame. Thus far, the slugs are staying on the perimeter.

While most of the garden has not begun producing fruit, we have seen some growth and harvest. During the month of May, our garden made the following changes:

Strawberries

Coming in waves, our strawberry patch burst forth and produced a total of 37 strawberries. I harvested 8 on the 19th, 8 more on the 22nd, and 21 additional berries on the 30th. This strawberry variety is very sweet, so I’m thankful the garden is covered with a net this year. If given the opportunity, the birds would grab these delicious berries too early.

Blackberries

Our blackberry plants are growing quickly. They both are one long stalk.

Sunflowers

My daughter planted sunflowers at school. We have been growing them indoors, and the plant has outgrown its cup. Though it is still fragile, my daughter really wanted to plant it outside in our garden. So, she dug the hole and planted it between the blueberry and blackberry plants near the garden.

The garden is off to a great start with lots of rain keeping the plants moist. One of our cucumber sprouts started to wilt after planting, but it has revived and is doing really well.

In using time wisely, we are tending our garden, picking out the weeds, removing the slugs, and waiting for the harvest. The process is full of changes as this is our first attempt at tending a garden in a rainy summer. This experience is different from the heat of last year, so we are learning how to adjust. Happy tending!

Question: If you have a garden, what are you growing this summer? 

Warm weather arrived in mid-April, so we celebrated by planting our garden.

Thrilled with the results of our 2012 garden, we learned that lettuce does not like hot weather, so we didn’t plant any this year. We also learned that more plants can fit in our 1-foot square sections, so we bought more plants this year.

Also, I will clear out the garden at the end of this season because left alone, it becomes a huge mess.

Before we dive into all the details of our new garden plot, I will share how we began the process.

Though a bit embarrassing as we did not touch the garden since the end of last summer, I will share the tangled, weed-filled disaster with which we started.  Though it starts out ugly, this garden journal ends with a beautiful result. (If you follow me on Facebook, then you got a sneak peek. 🙂 )

Preparing our Garden

Armed with my gloves, a spade, a rake, scissors, buckets, and a trash bag, I braced myself for the task at hand.

The mini tree on the bottom left corner is our parsley that overfilled its square and visited with the strawberries to its right and the dead basil behind it.

As I pruned the existing plants, I was surprised to see how well the parsley was doing when I found 4 happy slugs under the leaves.

The strawberry plants continue to thrive, and the oregano is also growing well. The rest of the green items were weeds, so I began digging and pulling up stems, roots, and weeds from each quadrant.

I also removed the top layer of soil and dug around looking for slugs to remove from the garden. Though I found no more (thank goodness), we did find worms.

After getting all the weeds out, I removed the strawberries and the oregano into buckets of top soil to replant. Leaving the garden bed empty to recover.

Planning our Garden

Making a few changes from last year, I mapped out the 16 slots on a sheet of paper and began making a list of plants to grow. I kept to the basics with a couple herbs and the rest fruits and vegetables.

When we went to Home Depot, I purchased the items on the list and added in a few extras for the remaining 2-4 squares. I increased the number of plants in each square to multiply our harvest.

Purchasing supplies for our Garden

Our family went to Home Depot for our garden trip. Spending $160, we purchased our plants, slug killer, top soil, Miracle Grow soil, stakes, and trellises.

BONUS: By spending $100 at Home Depot, we submitted a promotional rebate and will receive 2 free tickets to an Atlanta Braves baseball game. With my husband passing on his love of Braves baseball to our son, they will enjoy a game this summer.

While shopping, I met a wonderful gardener, who works at Home Depot, named Jennifer. She answered my questions and made some suggestions regarding which plants to put together or beside each other. I am very grateful for her and will return to her when I need further help.

Providing support for our Garden

With the supplies purchased, Paul added the soil to our garden bed. (See his well-worn Braves cap. ;-))

He also added the trellises for the climbing plants and stakes on the corners to hold up the bird netting.

With the bed finished, Paul created the side beds for our blueberries and blackberry shrubs. Now, it was my turn to begin planting.

Planting our Garden

With the bed prepared, I began transplanting our oregano from last year in one square, and in another square, I transplanted all 5 strawberry plants from last year. We are going to have lots of strawberries this year.

I then began in the back row, and followed my plan. I dug a little hole, and planted the plant from the containers. I then moved to the next one. When I finished the back row, I moved up to the next row, and continued until I finished planting the bed.

Then Paul helped me by digging the holes for the blueberry and blackberry shrubs. My girls are really excited about these plants. Our youngest daughter enjoyed holding the shovel between plantings.

After all the planting, I gave the garden a good watering and applied the slug killer. With the garden cared for, I covered the bed with the bird net to keep the rabbits and birds away from our tender plants. Having lost multiple strawberries last year and catching one thief in the net, I have learned the value of protecting our investment.

Plucking harvest from our Garden

Thus far, we have retrieved 6 strawberries from our mini-patch in the center of our garden. Yum! The buds have lots more coming. The rest of the plants are still establishing root before taking off.

Planting a garden sure is hard work. We make our garden a family project and enjoy watching and eating the harvest. Though I will share our garden journey with you, we are still novices and will make mistakes along the way.

If you are planting any type of garden, then I would love to learn from you. In using time wisely, I will not hesitate to ask my neighbor or Jennifer, at Home Depot, any question. No matter how basic my request, they willingly help me without making me feel like a novice. By asking these seasoned gardeners, we save money, energy, and time. Wishing you success with your plantings!

Question: Did you or are you planting a garden this year?