July Garden Harvest in Zone 8

How is your garden growing this year? I hope it’s thriving this summer. Our garden is doing a lot better than last year.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Last year I had one garden bed that nothing grew well in. I was perplexed as to why since I treat all of my raised beds the same way each year.

But I’m happy that all of the vegetables in that bed this year are really thriving. Well, all except the sugar snap peas, but it’s not because of the soil in the bed. It’s because of all the warm weather.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Those poor peas hate it once it gets above 70 degrees for long and they are starting to show their dislike for the heat. But we are continuing to harvest a few peas here and there.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Strawberries

Our strawberries are coming to an end. They really gave us quite a few berries this year. I harvested 12 quarts of berries and I was thankful for so many. The prices of local berries really went up this year. They were $32 for a flat of strawberries.

I think last year they were around $25 a flat so that was quite a jump in price. Plus our homegrown berries taste so much better than the store bought ones too. So juicy and flavorful we eat them right out of the garden bed.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Raspberries

The raspberries are continuing to produce also. We’ve harvested a few less this year than last year but I think it has to do with the weird wet than dry and hot weather we’ve been having off and on.

I noticed quite a few raspberries seemed to dry up on the vine before they even got ripe. Now I’m not sure why this happened.

It could have been from the one week a couple of weeks back that we couldn’t get out to water them as much. But it was a cooler week so I’m sure they had plenty of water.

But either way, we lost quite a few to this strange happening. We have more to ripen and we enjoy them so much I wish we had more raspberry runs.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Lettuce

Our leaf and buttercrunch lettuce continue to produce. I have a few heads ready to harvest so I didn’t purchase lettuce this week. We will be enjoying the delicious tender lettuce out of our garden all week long.

We are still waiting on broccoli, which I’m not sure will come this year. I got my broccoli in late but with our cooler spring I thought it might produce some, but so far nothing has come of it. I’ll leave them in and see what happens.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Kale

But the Russian kale that is right beside the broccoli is quite happy and doing well. I love the purple color mixed with the green it’s not only delicious but pretty too.

The beans are growing up our cattle panel trellis and soon we should be enjoying fresh green beans out of the garden.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Waiting on Tomatoes

The tomatoes are starting to bloom which means tomatoes won’t be far behind. It looks like the cherry tomatoes will be loaded this year look at all those blooms.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Flowers in the Garden

For flowers this month the hydrangeas have started to bloom and they are so pretty. This little hydrangea was started because a branch was buried in the leaves long enough to set up roots.

We transplanted it but weren’t sure it would survive. But look at it now, just two short years and it’s tripled its size. With pretty lavender flowers too.

A peek at what we’re harvesting in our zone 8 garden this month. We’ve got berries, lettuce and a few other crops we are harvesting in our backyard garden.

Our roses continue to bloom. My favorite is this heirloom tea rose. It has so many petals on each rose and smells heavenly.

When it comes time to prune the roses, I save some of the roses and bring them inside. A few I’ll place into a bowl for potpourri. The best looking ones will go into a vase to enjoy.

Recently I made a batch or rose water and rose oil with the blooms from our roses and both turned our great. I’ll be drying petals for use in bath bombs this winter the next time I need to prune.

Tuesdays in the Garden

That’s about it for our garden right now. But the other Tuesday in the Garden gardeners has more to share about their gardens too. Take a peek at what’s growing in their gardens this year. Just click on the photos below.

Dried Tomatoes   Summer Garden Tour   Blueberry Guide   July Garden Tips   Farm Fresh Recipe

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12 Comments

  1. Hi Shelly,

    Even though I don’t grow much I have to agree that your own grown is certainly better than store bought. All those fresh berries look so yummy. Of course, I adore that pretty hydrangea and can almost smell the hybrid tea from here. 😉

    1. Patti, I love walking by the tea rose just to smell it. It’s so fragrant, I wish I had more in our garden.

  2. Oh, that rose is stunning! And your raspberries are doing better than my moms – they taste okay, but are tiny and fall apart after picking. 🙁 Better than nothing, though!

    1. We’ve had a few raspberries that were small too they seemed to wilt before getting ripe, which is odd since I water them every other day. Yes having small berries are better than not at all that’s for sure Jami.

  3. Beautiful pictures of your lovely harvest. And that Rose! So pretty! We are WAY behind this year. Hoping to catch up next month since we now have water again. Our pollinators were very slow to start since our spring was cold and late. Hoping we get a nice raspberry crop this year!

  4. Thanks for sharing these pictures of your garden, Shelly! I enjoyed reading your update and hope you end up getting some broccoli this season. 🙂

    1. I have my fingers crossed we will get some. I’ve tried to grow broccoli for a couple of years without much success. I think I need to get the broccoli in a lot sooner to get a good crop.

  5. Your tea roses are just gorgeous! I wish we had some in our yard 🙂

    I have 2 hydrangea bushes that are starting to flower again after being half eaten by deer. I’m hoping to have some to cut for a vase in the next week or so.

    1. At least you have more coming on deer can be so hard on flowers.

  6. Hey Shelly,

    Glad to hear your garden is doing better than last year! I really miss my sugar snap peas, so it’s lovely to be able to view yours. They look great! Looks like you had a wonderful strawberry harvest. I can’t believe the price went up so much. Yikes! How many raspberry bushes (or what size singular bush) does it take to produce that amount of berries? I just recently planted my first raspberry bush two years ago, so I don’t get a huge amount yet. The plant is still relatively small. I absolutely LOVE the flavor of buttercrunch. Yum! Those cherry tomato blooms certainly look like a good sign. Happy harvesting (soon!) I’ve always wanted to make rose water. Maybe I’ll have to try it soon! Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us 🙂

  7. Wow! Look at all your tomato blossoms! Nice work, Shelly. I’m glad your garden is doing better this year than last. I’m having a lot of challenges this year, but I hope to work them out this fall and do better next year too. 🙂 Do you guys have Japanese Beetles? They are wreaking havoc on my berry bushes and fruit trees this year. I need a plan. 🙁

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