The summer garden

Our garden this summer was big, bountiful, and beautiful. Every summer we attempt to grow as many of our own vegetables as we can. It is a big time and energy investment but very rewarding. We love to try out new varieties of vegetables and herbs. Here in MD, zone 7A, our weather usually gives us a decent summer growing season and we were able to grow over 20 different kinds of vegetables. We have had a lot of success following the planting calendar by the University of MD.

A few of our favorites

Below are our top five favorites for this year:

• Black cherry tomatoes
• Clemson Spineless Okra
• Sugar Cube Cantaloupe
• Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
• Mini cucumbers

Top choices for next year:

At the end of every summer we prioritize fruits and vegetables to grow for next year. We decide based on the plants that grew well in our environment, our consumption levels of the produce, and the amount of maintenance the plants required. This year we really enjoyed the black cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, beans and cantaloupe. The tomatoes, beans and cantaloupe were abundant but the growing conditions for the mini cucumbers will need to be adjusted because, although perfect for our eating purposes, they did not produce as well as we wanted. And, while the okra was definitely one of our favorites this past year, it was possibly entirely too prolific. We ended up with so much okra in our freezer we may not need to grow it for next year.