This summer has been pretty amazing for our little garden. At the start of summer, we had plenty of peas, garlic, and herbs like cilantro, parsley, sage, dill and mint. But now we are keeping steady with pole beans, zucchini (so much zucchini), cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

It has been a real effort to keep up with the abundance to ensure nothing goes to waste. Although, I’d be lying if I said some things didn’t go bad before I could get around to eating it.

To make sure we do better about getting the most out of our garden I’ve begun freezing the pole beans. I cut the ends off first and then blanch them before putting them in baggies in the freezer. They will come in handy when I make Craig’s curry and my stir-fry this fall. I also made refrigerator pickles with my cucumbers. They were so good!

For my zucchini, I’ve been adding it to stir-fry, spaghetti, making zoodles and of course zucchini bread. I even made Craig a zucchini lasagna, but I don’t think he was a fan.

Our fall garden is also coming along nicely. We have pumpkins growing, broccoli popping up, and hopefully, our eggplant and brussels sprouts make an appearance.

We are also planting carrots, lettuce, and more garlic. It was a hit! I love to fiddle around in our garden after work each day. Cat follows me around and I show her which vegetables she can pick and of course do a poor job of stopping her from picking things too early. Last week she brought me a bowl full of green cherry tomatoes. Ugh.

I’ve noticed something about our gardening hobby recently. We are getting better at it! If you read our first blog about our garden you’ll see we really struggled with getting things going. But each year, we get more of a harvest and it’s actually starting to taste good!

I loved visiting my brother-in-law’s house this summer and seeing their crop. They have blueberries and raspberries, which makes me extremely jealous! I even have a friend in Eastern Washington whose garden is basically a farm. She has giant onions, strawberries, squash and well, basically anything you can imagine.

What have you planted in your garden this year?

– Veronica Sandate Craker