Welcome to the July vegetable garden tour of my Ohio gardens! I’m sharing what’s growing in the garden, some seasonal challenges and what I’m harvesting right now– thanks for joining me!

Some of the links included here are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. I will only recommend items I love and should you choose to make a purchase, it helps support the channel! Thank you! 💚

Hortisketch Garden Planner and Garden Manager (use my code JENNA5 for $5 off) – https://gardensavvy.com

My favorite, long-lasting seed starting trays: https://allaboutthegarden.com/?sca_ref=3177483.OMdSez9uOx

RX Soil Testing (use my code “growfully” for 10% off your order): https://rxsoil.com/nutrients?source=growfully

North Spore Premium Mushroom Starting Supplies (use my code GROWFULLY for 10% off):
https://northspore.sjv.io/Nke3Q2

HISEA Gardening Boots https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2070082&u=3609025&m=122274&urllink=&afftrack=
Use discount code 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝟏𝟓 for 15% off all HISEA products

Dripworks Irrigation: https://www.dripworks.com/?ref=Growfully

Omlet Chicken Coops and Supplies: https://www.omlet.us/shop/chicken_keeping/?aid=KTYTQCQR

A.M. Leonard Horticultural Tool & Supply: https://amleo.idevaffiliate.com/184.html

Growfully Amazon Storefront (products I use): https://www.amazon.com/shop/growfullywithjenna

23 Comments

  1. Thank you for your honesty in showing your parents garden. I thought it was just me. I live in Central Ohio so I completely understand what you're talking about. Seems the weeds are the best growing plants in my garden and I gave up. But because of you I'm going out today and smothering them as you suggested. Love your garden and am jealous of your onions! I would dice them and make a homemade Mirepoix mix of diced carrots, onions and celery. Freeze . Add to soups and casseroles!

  2. SO excited to see that you uploaded! happy to see a more experienced Ohio gardener! i have a fig recommendation for you Jenna, its the Longue d'Août fig! i planted one in a container and its its first year, yet its fruiting!! its also winter hardy. and those pop up showers always wash off the surround i put on my squash too! What kind of melons are you growing? I'm growing leelanau sweetglow watermelon, and Sakata's sweet melons, these are doing great in my central Ohio garden, and have been disease and pest free! I have also had so many volunteer mulberries, have you?

  3. I've been foolish but now know only experiment with limited numbers as I've tried several additional soils mixed into my seed starting mixture.
    I'll be returning to the mixture you made a couple seasons of peat moss perlite and worm casting but did try and like the sugar grow fertilizer as you tested a few months ago..
    I believe following giant sunflower with tomatoes the following season and in a well drained area is really less work and best method and easiest methods I leave the sunflower root in ground so it's less till after the first season before the sunflower are planting
    So far no problem with my cucumbers I've made 2 batches of your refrigerator pickles and had several cucumbers for salad.
    I'm the long handle Asia Gardening Hoe builder hopefully you'll get it handled it's super great for chopping weeds
    Thanks again your tomatoes are better than mine.. But.i've several gorgeous plants in my following the sunflower patch They are better than anything else
    Determinat tomatoes you.must have trim some I didn't but regretted that
    Blossoms end rot on my Roma tomatoes are my worst ever my pepper are fine been harvesting since the 30 of June..I do give my pepa cup of water almost daily.
    Mid Ohio
    WOW onions!
    As you stated early for the potatoes bet they grow 1/3 more leave them alone till 2 weeks after tops browns.
    Don't disturb the sunflower root just place tomatoes seedlings I guarantee you will see it's great and less work please share with the handicap folks and elderly how easily they can have great tomatoes
    At your parents that Asian Garden long handle hoe you can chop and drop weeds
    Thanks

  4. Those cleomes come up like weeds. I'm trying to cut off the seed pods now so I don't have them all over my garden next year. It's too much.

    The surround does seem to help but the flea beetls swarm to the eggplant after a rain like you say and do tremendous damage before I can get the clay back on them. So annoying.

    I tried growing a winter squash for the first time this year called golden hubbard but the plants died and I only got a few squash. Looked like bacterial wilt. Not sure if the squash are even any good since they did not cure properly on the vine. When do you plant your winter squash? I may try later in the season next year since they grow so fast. Thanks!

  5. In places with ground water and weed pressure planting through plastic seem like the way to go for your parents. No watering or weeding just plant wait then harvest. Your garden looks amazing. Im going to add more flowers next year.

  6. The damage on the chard looks like earwigs. They've been so bad this year, I'm in central Ohio, worse than the slugs and sow bugs together. All of my chard and celery have earwig damage.

  7. Wow, what I’d give for those pop-up showers…it’s been so painfully dry for us 😭 the forecast/radar gets me hopeful but it always dissipates. It’s another rough one.

    Maybe I’ll try those onions one day. I’ve had maggots in every allium we try to grow. Not sure if they’re the root maggots or leaf miners, someone else said leek moth, probably lots of names for them. Anyway, what can I do? Stop growing for a few years? And will wild onion plants and my ornamental onions harbor the pests anyway…?

    I adore hibiscus too, but the sawflies were too much. Gave them to my mom and she absolutely loves them, no pests to be seen 🤷‍♀️

  8. Could the damage on the chard be from a sucking bug like stink bug, Lygus, or even a leafhopper? Feeding sites of sucking bugs on young plant tissue sometimes mature into scars like that.

  9. Thanks for the honest and transparent look at your garden. Seeing all of your challenges and how you deal with them is way more helpful that seeing perfection for those of us that actually rely on YouTubers for guidance. Very appreciated and the garden is also still amazing. Those eggplants flew the finger at that insect damage, lol. Never give up.

  10. Your garden are lush and lovely ♥️ I love the scent of lemon basil. I have Mrs Myers’s lemon basil and it’s amazing! I have a lemon verbena I purchased this spring that’s got a n amazing scent too! I have never replanted borage since my original planting from seed 4 years ago.. I actually pull it from areas I don’t want it.. as it would take over my garden. Oh wild petunias ♥️adding to my hummingbird and pollinator gardens for next year! ♥️ the cucumber beetles are brutal this year… munching on my tomatillo and ground cherries. I keep on picking and squishing them 🤢 I just planted my squash, cukes, melons, zukes ..out and so far so good.

    My peppers a a bit slow, but my pepperonis are doing fabulous! I’m planning to pickle them too 🧑‍🌾

  11. A++ on your tour. You identified what plants you were showing. We use it to compare and contrast with ours.

    Those are some great HUGE onions. Onions are so Fun to grow! Fairly maintenance free, just a little weeding, but rewarding. I have some leeks in too. The problem with your rain splashes is you get blight and mildew. I have the same goofy owl on a steel post as well. I have brussel sprouts for the first time this year. Keep us posted on those. I was going to try that kaolin clay on them. They are getting bug holes in them. Gave up on eggplants. Had a lot of flea beetles like you, but no fruit.
    I use fabric and triple shredded wood chips in my walkways. It’s basically last year’s old wood chips they’ve re-shredded. I let the cucumbers vine out on that. I swear by it for weed free or easy to weed mulch.
    Speaking of which… your kid is growing like a weed. We used to eat our grandpa’s strawberries, raspberries, and grapes. Shouldn’t be hard to get him to pick the crops. But getting any back into the house might be difficult. They are yummy. I miss my grapes! REAL grapes.

  12. Your gardens, look fabulous (even at your parents).
    You might want to check out David the Good, he has a chaos type method with no rules and few guidelines. He has coined grocery row gardening which seems to be a realistic, family-friendly version of other types of gardening all mixed together.- assuming you have the space for it. It has intermixed plantings with informal guilds. He uses chop and drop to both feed and mulch. As well as letting/encouraging the plants themselves to become the ground cover and choke out weeds. He has lots of videos, here is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cELgHGkQSL8.

  13. Been one of those years for sure. Wet early and dry mid season. South central Ohio here. We went through a dry period and almost 3 weeks with little to no rain. Thankfully most of our stuff was out early and done ok. One row of corn suffered and didn't fill out ears well. In the last two weeks we've got rain. All our garden first harvest are done except tomatoes. Tomatoes are coming on and look good. Potatoes are great and we're digging them a few at a time. Green beans, corn, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, spinach and carrots are all in and processed. Now to replant some for second crops. Pumpkins and gourds are going nuts and will be ready this fall with a few cantaloupe. Have a second bloom of green beans coming on. Peppers are doing ok. Flowers seemed to take the biggest hit. Many didn't germinate and we replanted multiple times for some. Dahlias (200) came up well but haven't grown well and now are blooming but are really short. They look healthy but short. The dry spell hit right in their foliage growing period. However, sunflowers( estimate 800-1,000 stems) are amazing and some of the most extraordinary we have ever raised. Outside of the cutting flowers it's been a really good year. We have three gardens. One traditionally tilled garden with large veggies and sunflowers. One no till flower garden with Dahlias and zinnias. Then 16 raised beds with a mix from onions, strawberries, brassicas, peppers, tomatoes, flowers and various other garden plants. We built our raised beds over a wet area and filled them with modifies fill of rotten wood fiber, soil and compost….they do well retaining moisture. I enjoy your post and consider them some of the best because of your honesty, frankness and valuable content.

  14. Columbus here, and I’m experiencing the same thing with the vine borer and cucumber beetle. Usually , winter squash don’t give me a problem. I have been able to grow any plants this year.

  15. You're are fabulous! 😍 Could you please share again the onion variety and where you ordered the start? I listened twice but couldn't make it out. I live in NW Ohio.

Write A Comment