Our Summer Garden

We’ve been harvesting our summer garden’s organically homegrown vegetables. Get ideas for your summer vegetable garden with lots of pictures.

Hoooray! Summer is here. Yes, I know it’s not June 21. Yes, I know the Memorial Day holiday doesn’t officially signal the start of summer.

Yes, I know it was 52˚ yesterday here in New York. But over the last two weeks we have been harvesting our organically homegrown vegetables. That’s how I know summer is here.

First, we harvested some beautiful Buttercrunch lettuce. It is absolutely delicious as the main component of our daily garden salad. The leaves have a luscious buttery texture. There is simply no comparison between homegrown lettuce and lettuce bought in a store, even if it is organic. 

The next week or so looks like excellent weather for lettuce. One of the advantages of Buttercrunch is that it’s supposed to tolerate the heat pretty well. I’ll let you know how it is doing next month.

Next, we picked some kale and put it in the chicken soup Barbara had just made. Wow, that really gave the soup a hearty taste. I realize that chicken soup is not really a warm weather meal, but a few of us are still recovering from nasty spring colds.

This Russian Red is our favorite kale. It is tender with a super delicious taste. It does especially well in our summer garden.

Everyone loves it when it’s sautéed with garlic, oil, and a little butter. Yes, butter. It’s the secret ingredient. The kids like this kale so much better than spinach. They’ll eat as much as we will give them. Sorry, guys, you’ll have to wait until some more grows.

We eat a lot of kale so we planted quite a bit. If we keep it well watered, we will harvest it until late fall. I know you don’t see any drip irrigation. I haven’t set it up yet. I’ll get it going this weekend.

Our nursery didn’t have zucchini plants until a couple of weeks ago so they are still pretty small (We grow all our vegetables from seedlings. We tried growing from seeds years ago, but they never seemed to thrive here.)

We’ve had good success with zucchini in the past, so much so that we usually give some to our neighbors. We hope it does as well this year.

Our cucumber plants are thriving and, God willing, we will reap some nice produce. I might even try pickling some this year. We have one 4’ x 4’ box of strawberries. They have grown annually for four years.

Picking them is fun, even though they don’t usually produce a lot of fruit. Michael says they are the best he’s ever had. He’s kind of our family berry expert.

Our garden is a true family endeavor. I prepare the soil in the raised boxes. Barbara selects the seedlings and plants them. I water and cultivate. We both harvest, and the whole family enjoys goodness from the Lord.

It’s not too late to start your summer garden. Read more about how to get started in this post.

If you don’t have a well stocked nursery near you, High Mowing Organic Seeds (affiliate link) ships 100% certified organic seed straight to your door. How easy is that!

They have a wide range of seed starting supplies for organic growers including trays, flats, compostable pots and potting soil.

Do you have a summer garden? What are you growing this year?  Go on, make me jealous!

Delicious Vegetable Recipes 

Autumn Kale Salad with Apples, Pomegranate, Pistachios, and Goat Cheese

Massaged Kale Salad

Healthy Lemony Marinated Zucchini Salad

7 Healthy & Delicious Zoodle Recipes

Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Cucumber Salad