Our Suburban Homestead Garden Update – June 2022

Welcome June! I swear I feel like the months are just flying by and all of sudden were half way through the year!

I haven’t shared much over here on this little blog and I wanted to give yall a little garden update! I have been working my butt off trying to get everything in and ready to go for the season. Finally last week, I got it done so now it’s time to share the garden with you all!

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June 2022 Garden Update

This is our 8th year gardening or having something that resembled a garden.

Gardening brings me so much joy, just being out and planting, my hands in the dirt, soaking in the beautiful creations that tiny seeds bring about.

It is all so amazing to me that when I feel overwhelmed, I can walk into the garden and it all fades away.

With that being said, I really wanted to create a space for myself that would be a little sanctuary for myself. So this year, we added 6 more beds to what we had in previous years, as well as trellis’s, an arch, and defined walkways.

Let me show you the difference!

As you can tell from the pictures above, we added a lot of new things.

6 new beds were created for herbs, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, potatoes, and a few fillers in each bed.

I am absolutely in love with how everything turned out.

In the herb beds I planted mainly perennial herbs like chamomile, lavender, mints, echinacea, sage, parsley, and the list goes on.

What I love the most about the herb beds is the trellis arch that we made out of hog panels and t-posts. I planted 50+ cucumber seeds to fill that trellis. I really wanted it to be full so I over did it, but we should have a ton of pickles come this fall!

How To Start Seeds For Beginners

Garden Beds

For beds we added this year, we initially were going to do some no till beds as I have heard great things about them. But being a small, suburban homestead, I wasn’t in love with the way the beds looked once we got them done, so we opted to throw some garden boxes overtop and fill them from there.

If we had more land and the beds were bigger, I would have definitely went ahead and completed the no till beds, but being only 8’x4′ beds, it just didn’t look right or uniformed with the raised beds we already had in place.

Our potato bed however, is the no till method and it is thriving! I hilled the bed into two rows, one for red potatoes and the other for fingerlings. I then covered the potatoes with compost, and then topped with straw.

Raised Beds

For our raised beds, we used 3 – 8’x10’x2″ boards. We used one – 8 foot board for either side of the beds and then cut one board in half for the ends. This makes one – 8’x4′ bed.

To fill the beds, I layered cardboard, compost, coop clean out, and then soil on top.

For our two herb beds I went with 8’x8’x2″ boards so they weren’t so deep and I wanted a little bit of a different look for those beds know the arch would be connecting them.

Walkways

When having a garden, I highly recommend having defined walkways and not just grass. Last year I moved my four raised beds from over near the chicken coop, to an open space in our yard and did not line the walkways. We left them grass and it was such a pain in the butt when mowing. I didn’t think ahead of time and I placed the boxes too close together to get the lawn mower through.

Even with a few beds spaced far enough apart, it was still a hassle having to work around the beds. So this year I used landscaping fabric and playground mulch from a local company to create defined walkways and weed barriers.

So far it has been a dream to have such definition in the garden. If you can do it, I highly recommend it.

Veggies

As far as vegetables, I had a ton of plans to plant as much as I could. And while I did, I didn’t get to plant everything. But here’s what I did get to plant:

Potatoes
Watermelon
Green Beans
Cayenne Peppers
Santa Fe Peppers
Pepperoncini Peppers
Bell Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Roma Tomatoes
Black Tula Tomatoes
Amish Paste Tomatoes
Peppermint
Lemon Balm
Pineapple Mint
Lemon Verbena
Sage
Parsely
Cilantro
Basil
Lavender
Chamomile
Echinacea
Peas
Cauliflower
Garlic
Zucchini
Lettuces
Carrots
Red Cabbage
Chinese Cabbage
Brussel Sprouts
Rosemary
Broccoli

Okay, Okay, the list goes on and on. I have so much in the garden this year and I am so excited to see what I get to harvest.

I still have some perennials from previous years like chives, oregano, and strawberries. I also planted lots and lots of wildflowers, sunflowers, and zinnias.

Now to figure out what to do with everything once it’s ready!

Canning

This year my hope is to can as much as I possibly can and fill our pantry with yummy homegrown food.

We are all feeling the pain at the checkout these days with the price of groceries, so I’m hoping that I can harvest quite a bit and put away food to at least last us the winter. We will see how it goes!

How To Home Can Chicken Bone Broth

Well there you have it, my June garden update! I will be around in July to give you another update to see how the garden is doing so make sure to subscribe or follow me over on Instagram for daily updates!

Thanks for following along on our homesteading journey!

Until next time,