The Off Grid Homestead Organic Garden Update

My organic garden has already been providing me and a couple friends with some food for a while now. But the best is yet to come.

My cucumbers are doing very well and providing me with a lot of food every day. I have more than enough to give away to friends.

My summer squash and zucchini has not done well this year though and it is rotting on the vine. I am not sure why because I never had this happen before. Maybe because it has been more humid and wet this year than ever.

The tomatoes are very slow but they are growing and will provide me with a lot of food this year when they ripen. I have a lot of tomatoes planted for this year so I can put a bunch away in jars for winter use.

All of my melons, pumpkins, squash and gourds died due to the intense summer heat. It has been in the 90s and very humid since May with no break this year. This is unusual because normally we have about two hot months of summer and that it is.

Most of my herbs have been growing very well this year though and have spread out nicely. Next year I am going to have to thin them out a bit or some will die from over crowding.

My peppermint is especially doing well and has put out little plants all over the place. I will transplant them around the property soon. When the tiny house porch is finished I want to put peppermint all around the perimeter to keep out insects and rodents.

I used leaves this year as mulch to stop weeds and it worked very well. I did not have to weed my garden at all this year where I dumped the leaves on the garden.

I have a pile of tree mulch I want to dump on the garden this fall after the garden dies down. I will also put all the dead leaves from the fall on the garden to keep down weeds for next year.

I am slowly building up a Back to Eden style raised garden area which will be easier to plant, easier to harvest and easier to keep out weeds. This will take some years to properly establish though.

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