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    Home » Garden

    Published: Sep 3, 2020 · Modified: Jan 19, 2022 by Meryl Downing 11 Comments

    In the Garden Year 2 - August

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    Take a tour in the Garden in August as my garden journal tells the successes and failures growing garden fresh foods. Find recipes for all the tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, and so much more!

    garden harvest, tomato, green beans and cucumber

    Garden Journal

    September 3, 2020

    The end of my garden journal year 2 is here. We did it, the summer of 2020 seems to have slipped through our fingertips. I look at the garden each day and it just tells me fall is here and this crazy year marches on. The garden has hit the point of the year where it looks quite terrible, but still is full of a lot of garden fresh food.

    raised garden vegetables

    Garden Harvest

    We had a successful vegetable summer harvest and we've been eating well! All coming in at their own times, we've eaten broccoli and cauliflower, peas, kale for Kale Chips. Lots of Swiss chard and lettuces, kohlrabi and some beautiful purple cabbage. Tons of great carrots, cucumbers for days, baskets of green beans, and a huge basil harvest. Plenty of zucchini and yellow crook-neck summer squash went into Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, a few peppers and so many garden fresh tomatoes.

    Harvesting kale
    Harvesting kale for making kale chips

    Tomatoes

    The tomatoes came, the plants looked ugly with blight from the beginning, but the fruit did mostly well. We loaded them onto Homemade Pizza, Creamy Tomato Basil Fettuccini, and Garden BLT's. They were needing to be used, and I threw a bunch into a Marinara Sauce with a bunch of our extra herbs for the freezer, portioned in different sized jars for flatbread pizzas for the kids for lunch and as an easy pasta sauce.

    Garden Tomato Harvest

    I was mostly happy with the tomatoes, but seeing some gardener's amazing photos has made me think our varieties are a little dull. The plants I got at the local garden store are fine, and I'll do some again next year (mortgage lifters, super sweet 100's and pineapple something, the big yellow ones, were our favorites). But, I'd also like to add some more unique heirloom varieties, which I will have to order seeds and start indoors or find some new shopping spots.

    Grow food, raised bed vegetable garden
    Tomato Harvest

    Zucchini

    The zucchini are winding down, and a lot of Healthy Zucchini Cookies are stocked in the freezer. We got a lot of cucumbers, the weight broke the twine strings on the trellis, and I made a couple batches of refrigerator pickles which have been awesome on Skillet Burgers. I planted 8 broccoli plants this year, a lot! So we've been harvesting broccoli like crazy and I've chopped a bunch for the freezer. We've also made a lot of Broccoli Salad as a side dish for grill nights. Our abundant harvest of kale, zucchini and green beans are in the freezer too.

    Cucumber harvest for refrigerator pickles
    abundant harvest of zucchini, cucumber and tomato

    Winter Squash

    Our winter squash was unsuccessful this year, we had some squash vine borers completely wipe out the butternuts and other varieties. There are a couple pumpkin vines that are still growing but don't really seem to be thriving. The summer squash had the same issue, but hung on and did pretty well anyway. The cantaloupe that was so much fun last year completely died, it was in the same area as the winter squash so I think had the same problem, I'm not sure. I'll try that again next year. The watermelon again failed to grow a single fruit so I think I'll probably give up on it.

    Winter squash fresh from the garden
    Grow food in a raised bed vegetable garden
    Harvesting broccoli

    Peppers

    The bell peppers were a disappointment. Last year I bought several large plants for cheap at the first farmer's market and grew a ton of peppers. Most didn't make it past green but still it was a lot, plenty to slice for the freezer. This summer I bought plants at the garden store as I didn't go to the farmer's market much in June (because of covid). The plants look very healthy but have only grown 4 or 5 total peppers total, not much!

    Garden Fresh Green Bell Pepper

    Overall, it was a successful second year in the garden! It felt good to grow our own food, lessen our need for the grocery store with garden fresh produce, and have our freezer stocked for winter!

    garden fresh produce from raised bed gardens
    Snacks fresh from the garden
    Summer harvest zucchini
    Garden fresh tomatoes
    end of summer harvest from the garden
    Raised garden vegetables
    Garden fresh abundant harvest
    Garden harvest from our raised bed gardens
    Harvesting carrots
    Fresh Garden Tomato harvest

    Our Favorite Garden To Table Recipes!

    • Homemade Pizza - The Complete Process
    • Garden BLT's with Pesto Aioli
    • Healthy Super "Greens" Hummus
    • Healthy Zucchini Banana Cookies
    Tomato Harvest, Basil Harvest
    « Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta
    Freezer Marinara Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes »

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    Welcome to Sungrown Kitchen!

    Hey guys!  I'm Meryl, chef, gardener, and mother of two little Minnesotans.  The Sungrown Kitchen combines two of my favorite things that naturally go hand in hand...cooking and gardening (read more)

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