When we moved to my grandparents’ land—land they had filled with overflowing gardens—I said I wasn’t interested in gardening. It wasn’t my thing.

By our second summer here, I accidentally had two raised beds. The people renting a house from us moved one weekend without telling us, breaking the lease and leaving behind a house filled with trash, filth, and two newly-built raised beds in the garage.

I brought them home and filled them with dirt. I planted tomatoes, jalapeños, zucchini, yellow squash, cilantro, and basil. I watered and tended to the blooming plants as we spent the summer remodeling the rental house.

It was the first summer Chris was sober. We were overwhelmed with getting a house ready to sell while paying two mortgages. Our girls were miserable as we spent hours upon hours at the rental with no internet or air conditioning.

My two unexpected garden beds felt like a quiet gift in a loud, stressful summer.

2021 is my fourth summer gardening. I’ve learned a lot and still have a ton to learn. Here’s what I’m using this summer in the garden. I get a lot of questions on Instagram about garden stuff and I’m definitely not the best person to ask, but I’ll tell you the little I know. (With the caveat that most of this stuff isn’t necessary. My first summer I had two poorly-built raised beds, some veggies from Home Depot, and a watering can with a crack on the spout. Growing food to eat shouldn’t be complicated or fussy. People with resources tend to overcomplicate things because they can afford to. You don’t need the things I have to grow green peppers and tomatillos. Don’t talk yourself out of gardening if you don’t have much to start with. You really just need good dirt and some seeds.)

My favorite addition to this year’s garden is the squash arches. I’ve been dreaming of them since last summer when vines started taking over my yard. But they’re expensive. So I planted yellow squash, butternut squash, zucchini, and acorn squash thinking I’d just accept another year of vine madness. But then, like a week later, I found this tutorial to make an arch out of PVC pipe and chicken wire. I bought the plans ($5), and for less than $100 we made two arches for the garden.

Hindsight, I’d have put them up *before* planting, but it was too late to dig everything up. So I just had to be a little more patient with letting them grow before I started training them up the wires. But they work great. I spray painted the PVC pipe black because the white stood out too much, but there is no actual reason to do that besides being picky about stuff. The arches I really want are not cheap, but I think I might save up to buy at least one of them. Maybe two, if I’m feeling fancy. But in the meantime, these work perfectly.

(The only thing I’d do differently is not be so great at growing butternut squash because those things are super heavy and while these arches are wonderful, they’re not made to hold 14 growing butternut squash without bending. They don’t break—PVC pipes are made to bend—but things got a little wonky a few weeks ago so I had to take matters in my own hands. So maybe I just need the fancy arch for butternut squash. Because those suckers are heavy. And delicious. Heavy and delicious.) (Also #2: the plans make the arches six feet tall, but I’m six feet tall and with vines, I wasn’t going to be able to walk under them. So we made them seven feet tall. That might have added to the bending factor.)

Another new thing I tried this year is this cucumber trellis. In the spring of 2020, we tore down my two (rotting) raised beds taken from the rental property and built sturdier, larger beds in a different spot. I added two more beds, put gravel around the beds, and surrounded everything with a border. I don’t need more space or bigger beds, but I did need better ways to contain all the vines. The arches were one solution. The cucumber trellis was another.

I really like it. I’m not sure why hanging cucumbers seems like magic, but it does and seeing them grow while dangling in the air is better than watching TV. (Your grandma would agree with me, ask her.) One trellis was enough for me; we get more cucumbers than we can eat and trimming the excess to keep it contained hasn’t stopped it from producing a ton of cukes.

I ordered four of these square tomato cages from Gardeners.com when I got the cucumber trellis. I needed more cages, specifically something heavy to hold up tomatillo plants. Those bad boys get so tall and overflow with fruit. I’m not complaining. But the cages I had were not up to par. These square ones are great.

For Christmas, my friend Jessi got me the cutest gardening apron in the world. Did I even know I needed a gardening apron? Absolutely not. But I did and now I’m not sure how I survived three summers without it.

What do I keep in my cute gardening apron? Thanks for asking. These hand trimmers. This twine. And this plant tie. Good for training butternut squash vines up your new arch or tying jalapeño plants to stakes as they get heavy with peppers.

I have gardening Crocs. (I’m sorry, I can’t find a link to them. Good news: I also have house Crocs.) Please respect my privacy during this time. It’s not how I imagined my life going, but we all just have to roll with the punches. While wearing sensible shoes that we can rinse off at the hose and put into sport mode when the occasion calls.

I don’t use any chemicals on my garden, but I do use Neem oil to try to stay on top of squash bugs and mildew. This year I’ve been more consistent about it and, shockingly, it seems to be working. I dilute the Neem oil with water, but I don’t really need to tell you that. I’m sure you can read the directions just like I did. I believe in you.

The last two things I’m adding to this gardening list aren’t for the garden exactly, but for the bounty. I love growing vegetables, but I grow way more than we need. Even planning our weekly meals around what’s ready and freezing things for winter, I have more than we can eat. (I freeze instead of can; also, I freeze what we’ll eat this winter and that’s it. I don’t have the space or desire to prep for years out. I love these for freezing soup, salsa, giving away, etc.) I really love giving garden harvests away. I ordered these quart produce containers so I can give things away in style.

Okay, that’s it. I’m sitting outside staring at my garden as I write this so I don’t forget anything. It’s dark now and the only light is this computer screen. I’m not sure where the bugs are—it’s been the buggiest summer I can remember—but I’m not going to think too hard about where they’re at. It’s nice to be outside in the evening again. A few weeks ago, we put up a hammock so I can read and nap and hide from my family. We hung it in a cluster of trees, over a bed of hostas I planted last summer. It sounds dreamy. It is. But the bugs have made it nearly impossible to use. Let’s hope they stay gone; I have a fresh stack of books and some reading to catch up on.

DISCLOSURE: AFFILIATE LINKS USED

Heaven is a freezer full of zucchini bread.

It’s in the Bible, somewhere in Song of Solomon, I think. A freezer full of zucchini bread with a good helping of banana bread too.

I make banana bread year round. I live in Indiana where we can’t grow bananas so there’s not really a season to banana bread. But zucchinis? We can do those. We can grow them. We can grow them by the bucket full.

Zucchini challenge accepted.

Yesterday I shared some of the ways I’m using zucchini (and other stuff I’m growing in my garden this summer). But this zucchini bread recipe deserves its own post.

It’s really good.
It needs your full attention.
Let us begin.

Zucchini Bread
-Ingredients:
cinnamon
sugar
salt
flour
soda
baking powder
eggs
vegetable oil
2-3 zucchinis, depending on size
vanilla

-Combine dry ingredients in a bowl:
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

-In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil

-Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients

-Then add:
3 cups zucchini (thinly shredded or use a food processor to finely chop; I don’t want to see or taste chunks of zucchini.)
1 tsp. vanilla

-Split into 2 loaf pans

-Bake @ 350 for 1 hour (check to make sure the middle is done with a toothpick before removing; this is a dense bread and takes a while to bake)

Eat this warm out of the oven slathered in butter and slide the other loaf in the freeze for winter. You’ll be so thankful you did.

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I’m pretty loyal to the above recipe, *but* if I make any other bread with my precious zucchinis, it is chocolate zucchini bread.

I know. Chocolate makes everything better.

I’ve got some freshly-picked zukes on my counter right now, and I’m going to make this bread for the weekend: double chocolate zucchini bread.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE.

Bonus bread: Like I said, I make banana bread all the time, but shockingly, I don’t really eat it. It’s not that I dislike it (it’s really good! *pats self of back*), it’s just not what I would pick to eat if I wanted bread or sugar. I’ve made this chocolate swirl banana bread a few times from Skinnytaste and really like it. I don’t make it in the slow cooker–just follow the oven instructions. I’m way more likely to eat banana bread when it has chocolate in it.

I’m feeding my family from the ground this summer.

Sure, it might be saving me some money on my grocery bill each week, but more importantly, it’s feeding my soul.

Jenny Uglow says, “We might think we are nurturing our garden, but of course, it’s our garden that is nurturing us.”

And I am here to say amen.

Mornings spent pulling weeds and plucking ripe cherry tomatoes off the vine. Evenings spent watering my beds as I processing my day and my heart.

Yesterday I spent over an hour in the noon heat pulling out dead vines and trimming dying leaves. It was good, dirty work, and I could not think of anywhere else I wanted to be.

Last year was my first year gardening with two garden boxes from the rental house we were renovating. Once the season was over, Chris built me two more boxes, bigger than the first two.

In May, I planted zucchinis, cucumbers, yellow squash, green peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry and grape tomatoes, jalapenos, basil, Italian parsley, icebox watermelons, and pumpkins.

When we returned from our 4th of July trip, the garden was ready for its first harvest. I’ve been filling bowls and buckets of produce every few days since then. Sometimes as I’m gathering my veggies, I imagine the Israelite’s wonder at first setting sights on the land of milk and honey, and I wonder if I’m getting a small glimpse of it.

I am overflowing with food.

We are eating as much as we can; I freeze or preserve what we can’t. And even then, I go to every friend’s house, Bible studies, or family gathering with armfuls of veggies to share.

If you’ve seen me this summer, I’ve tried to give you cherry tomatoes and yellow squash. This winter, we’ll eat pesto chicken and chips and salsa once a week.

Where our property line ends, rows of corn begin. By the end of July, we are cocooned in our backyard, surrounded by green trees and tall stalks. Our backyard feels like its own world, safe and still. I say thank you out loud at least once a day for this house, this land, this legacy.

This post is self-serving, to be honest. When my garden beds overflow, I forget all the things I planned to make in the spring. Why did I think I needed so many green pepper plants? What do you do with yellow squash? Do I even like tomatoes?

But then I get to work, refusing to let a single slice of zucchini or jalapeno go to waste. Here’s what I’m doing with my garden hauls this year:

-For dinner, I’ll halve small tomatoes, coat them in olive oil, salt, and garlic powder, then roast for 20-25 at 425 degrees. We’ll eat them straight off the pan before they’re cool, but you can also top any meat you’re serving, put them on homemade pizza, or toss them with some pasta. (I could eat these roasted tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and some warm pasta for dinner every single night.)

-I’ve also been dehydrating cherry and grape tomatoes in the oven. Store them in the fridge in a jar with olive oil and garlic cloves then eat with pasta, bread, crackers, or a fork right out of the jar. They’d be good (and pretty) added to a charcuterie board too. (Side note: for breakfast this morning, I had buttered toast topped with a fried egg and these sun-dried tomatoes. I stopped at two slices of this delicious toast, but it was a huge exercise in self-control.)

-An Instagram follower shared a tomato confit recipe with me; this is not the recipe I used, but it’s identical except I didn’t use rosemary. I’m storing these in the fridge in a giant Bell jar and using it all the time. This link has a whole list of ways to use the confit. (Also, saying words like “confit” makes me feel professional and adult-ish. It will probably make you feel the same way. Try it.)

–Southern squash casserole with yellow squash. Listen, I have a husband who does not like casseroles. He has a lot of childhood trauma, some serious and some not-very-serious. This casserole issue falls on the serious side. But if you have yellow squash, make this recipe please. I’d describe it as really similar to a cheesy potato casserole. It’s decadent and delicious. I love it. The first time I made it, I planned it to be the main dish in a weekday dinner. That was a mistake; it’s a good side, not a main course. It would be a good substitute for a starchy side or with bacon and eggs in the morning. Plus, you get to crumble saltine crackers on top of it just like your grandma used to do to everything so you just KNOW this is gonna be good.

–Pickled jalapenos! I was drowning in jalapenos last summer and made these as a last-ditch effort to not throw them away. But then we ate them and realized we had not been living our best lives with the store-bought jalapenos. Make these to top hot dogs, tacos, hamburgers, nachos, whatever your heart desires, but you’ll never go back to the rubbery jarred jalapenos from the grocery store.

-Fresh vegetables with ranch dip. Is this common sense? Probably, but I need to give you a tip that will change your life. First of all, do not come at my garden bounty with your bottled ranch dressing. That is insulting. You can make your own buttermilk ranch if you have the time and patience, but I do not. I buy a container of sour cream and TWO packages of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix. Don’t do just one, that’s the downfall of most ranch dips–not enough seasoning. Double up, don’t ask questions, just do it. Double the ranch season packet to one container of sour cream. If you don’t think ranch dip can change your life, we could never be friends in real life. (Confession: my husband doesn’t like ranch dip or dressing. It is only through the grace of God we’ve held on this long.)

-I’ve never grown onions before. I don’t know if you can in Indiana, but I think the effort does not equal the output so I buy them from the store. But I do grow almost everything else I need for salsa: green peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, and cilantro. Just chop it all up and dump it in there. There’s really no wrong way to do it. If you have a lime, squeeze it in too. Add a lot more salt than you think you need. Add garlic and then eat it. I’ve been freezing salsa to eat once the garden is done; throw the salsa in the Crockpot with some chicken, pour some in your fall chili. There’s no wrong way, really.

-Loads of zucchini become: bread! using the recipe I’ll share tomorrow. (I just tried to type it out here, and it was a disaster so I need to make the recipe its own post.) Cake! I was at a cookout on Sunday where someone made chocolate cake using zucchini bread. I was cautious about eating it because when I’m eating cake, I don’t want it to be ruined with something healthy, but it was actually really good. So now I’m on board with zucchini chocolate cake and going to try this recipe soon. (Don’t click on that link if you’re craving sugar. The pictures of the cake might actually kill you.) A side dish! I love chopping up zucchini, onions, and yellow squash and grilling it or sauteing it. It’s the perfect summer side for any meal.

-I planted three basil plants this spring in preparation for loads of pesto-making. I follow this recipe loosely, but don’t use nuts. I really just like the basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil, but you can do whatever you want. I make a huge batch of it, put it in ice cube trays, freeze it, then pop the frozen cubes into a large ziplock baggies. All winter I’ll throw a couple cubes in recipes or thaw for a dipping sauce whenever I need it. (I grew an obnoxious amount of Italian parsley this summer and you can also make pesto with parsley. Sometimes I do half basil, half parsley to use upwhat I have.)

-I’m also blanching lots of green peppers and jalapenos. I’ve made jalapeno poppers for a few meals, but I want to save some for football season so I’ve cored and sliced them, given them a quick cook in boiling water, then popped them in the freeze so I can fill them with meat and cheese on a Sunday afternoon in the winter.

-Chili bags: I’m sure there’s a better name for that, but I’m too lazy to think much about it. I filled quart freezer bags with diced tomatoes (cherry or grape), green peppers, and a few jalapenos then put them in the freezer so I can pull out a bag, dump it in a pot for chili or any other soup I’m making. Freezing the veggies without blanching tends to make them a little mushy when they’re thawed, but for chili or soup, I’m not too concerned about it. (These bags would also work for taco meat or Crockpot chicken.)

-My girls will eat a whole fresh cucumber at dinner, so I don’t really need to do anything else with them, but my aunt shared her Thai cucumber salad recipe with me last summer, and I love making/eating it. [In a bowl, combine: 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil, 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix and set it aside. Then chop 2 large cucumbers, 3 green onions, and 1/4 cup peanuts and combine to the dressing mixture. Coat and let it sit for about an hour so everything melds together.] I love that salad as a side or on top of pork. It might even be delicious on a hamburger.

-I’m waiting on a bunch of almost-ripe beefsteak tomatoes to make a huge batch of pizza sauce and freeze. That will be my biggest undertaking to date; 20 pounds of tomatoes and lots of simmering. Prayers are appreciated.

-In the fall, my aunt’s garden next door will be wild with delicata squash. I could eat a whole pan of it roasted with sesame oil and a little salt. But I also made this delicata squash and sausage gratin last year, and it was delicious. I’m already dreaming of a cool October evening with the windows open and this in the oven.

I think my first harvest of icebox watermelons will be ready next week, and my pumpkins are starting to grow. I can’t wait to see what they look like in October.

Gardening has been such a pleasant, enjoyable surprise for me. Never in a million years did I think this is something I would do or love. But now, if we happen to cross paths during the warm months, I’m going to update you on my garden growth and dirt moisture levels. Perhaps we will discuss bugs and how much sun we had yesterday.

It’s who I am now.

“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty, or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” -David Hobson