Mavis Mail – Erica from Richland, Washington Sends in Her Garden Photos

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Hi, Mavis!

I’ve been a loyal reader for a few years now. I love canning, gardening, cooking, crafting, reading, and shopping on Amazon, so your blog is right up my alley! 🙂

I’d actually say that I’m an aspirational gardener. I have great plans in the spring, but by August, I’m totally overwhelmed by the heat, drought, and weeds in Eastern Washington. However, this year, my garden has flourished beyond my expectations!

We built our vegetable garden over the last 5 years or so in the dog run the previous owners of our house built. The chain link fence was a perfect support for the honeysuckle that we planted. I adore it when it’s blooming. The smell is heavenly and takes me back to summers playing at my grandma’s house.

This year, we planted acorn squash, jack o’ lantern pumpkins, ornamental pumpkins, yellow squash, zucchini, pickling cucumbers, butter crunch lettuce (it bolted while we were on vacation), carrots, peas (they also died while we were on vacation), jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, poblano peppers, serrano peppers, onions, roma tomatoes, and green beans.

I have a few questions for you about my vegetable garden.

1. My zucchini plants are full of squash bugs. Do you have any tips or tricks for getting rid of them/preventing them next year? I’m all too familiar with squash bugs {UGH!}. They are nasty. But lucky for you, through my trial and error, I’ve discovered a thing or two that works. I wrote a post all about How to Deal with Squash Bugs that might help you.

2. My onions have pushed up to the surface of the soil. Do I have to pick them or will they continue to grow above the surface? Can I cover them back up or are they done for? It’s totally common to have the onion bulb above ground. You’ll know the onions are done drying when they look like the regular onions you see in the grocery store.  The outer skins will be paper like and brittle, the roots will be dry, and the tops will be completely dried out.

3. I think there is a mildew growing on the soil under my green beans. Should I do something about it? If so, what? Yes. As soon as you notice any diseased plants you should remove and destroy the plants. Remove the affected soil and replace it with fresh, clean soil. 

On our back fence, we have some more edibles growing. We planted our grape vines about 3 years ago, and this year they’ve really taken off. We’ve had lots of table grapes to eat. Yum.

We also have very prolific raspberry canes. This year, we ate all we could, and also put away 1 1/2 gallons in the freezer to make into jam and baked goods later.

Just for fun, I’ve included a picture of my flower garden. It’s wild and weedy, but still pretty. 🙂 Maybe it will be an encouragement to other readers like me who dream of big beautiful gardens, but live in reality. 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to look at my garden!

Erica
Richland, Washington

~Mavis

Find more Mavis Mail Posts HERE.

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop, pantry or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Pantry Pics – Pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

You’ll need to send in a Minimum of 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures and the stories to go along with those pictures. Do not send in a couple of grainy photos and a sentence about them. I can’t post that. It doesn’t make for an interesting or informative story.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. You can send your submissions to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed} and be sure and put Mavis Mail in the subject line. Thank you. I’m looking forward to your submissions.

Go  HERE for the official rules.