Precision & Petals: A Lifestyle Blog

After about 2 months of growth, we have some real progress to report on the vegetable garden!

In this article, I’ll go over the following:

• What’s in the garden?
• What have I harvested as of mid-July? & What’s been a bust?
• Plans Going Forward

If you’re curious about my garden set up, tools used, and the overall process, go check out my other blog post, “Starting Fresh: Setting Up Our Vegetable Garden”

What’s in the Garden

We chose to plant (pictured left to right):

• Zucchini (2)
• Green, red, & yellow peppers
• Jalapeno peppers
• Banana peppers
• Cayenne peppers
• Tomatoes (2)
• Cucumbers
• Basil
• Thyme (didn’t make it. The rabbits ate it every time I planted more.)
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Watermelon
• Squash

What have I harvested as of Mid-July? & what’s been a bust?

Harvest To-Date

So far I’ve harvested the following:

• 5 zuchinni
• 4 yellow squash
• 2 banana peppers
• Basil to make 3 things of pesto
• Rosemary multiple times a week (we use it when cooking steaks)

What’s Been a Bust?

Unfortunately, be it deer or rabbits, some things haven’t been going so great. These plants keep getting eaten after showing some growth:

• Tomatoes 😦 I was most looking forward to these!
• Cucumbers (Something keeps eating ALL the leaves, like once a week. So I get false hope, then they’re gone!)

Those are really the only 2 things that haven’t been either producing, or showing REAL progress – and both are because critters keep getting into them.

The peppers are slow, but they’re growing for sure.

The watermelon (as pictured above) is growing too, and the vines associated with it are kind of crazy! They’re taking up almost a full 7.5×2′ bay!

Plans Going Forward

I recently purchased “Deer Repellent” spray (link here: https://amzn.to/3S4odGi) . I used it earlier this week, and while it’s too early to know for sure (it’s only been on the plants for 4 days), nothing has eaten on them since I sprayed everything down.

Really, it just smells 100% like mint. So if you wanted to make your own & you already have mint herbs, you could steep some of the mint in an oil or boiling water and probably come up with something on your own for free!

Also moving forward, since the cucumbers are *thriving* as I’d hoped (they were supposed to climb up the trellis pictured in the garden), I’ll probably plant a climbing rose or some kind of quick-climbing vine. I hate that it’s already half-way through July and I don’t have any growth up the trellis!

Aside from that, I’m just going to keep harvesting as it allows and will continue to add fertilizer about every month or month and a half.

Happy growing & wish you and your garden the best!