My Garden is Actually Growing! {Garden Update July}

I’ve heard that you either have a green thumb or are good with animals. Well, most days I feel like I’m pretty middle of the road with both, but I keep at it and each season I gain more skills and do just a little better than last time.

Last summer I got into place four, 4′ x 8′ cedar garden boxes and planted a variety of vegetables, none of which, for one reason or another, grew. This year, I’m at it again, and the garden is looking much better. I have three of the four boxes planted with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and peppers and all of the plants have vegetables on them currently.

Peppers! The banana peppers are almost ready for picking and will be the first produce harvested from my own garden. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, since I’m not a big hot pepper person, but it’s a big milestone and I’m pretty excited.

Hot Pepper Jelly for the Larder, Mild and Delicious

Amy harvested the last of this season’s bounty from her garden boxes and made some mild and delicious hot pepper jelly last night. Helping her, I was amazed at how easy and quick it was. And how yummy it turned out.

We used last year’s honey harvest for this recipe and next year, if we are able to make hot pepper jelly again, we hope to have some homemade apple cider vinegar to use as well.