July Garden Update
Mid-month garden check in, plus my Weekly What
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It’s time for a mid-month garden update! My plants have exploded over the last few weeks—I love this time of year!
Last month I was harvesting spring crops and summer plantlings were growing, some beginning to reach for trellis. This month we have blooms and vines all over the place!
Here’s how things looked mid-June:
Can you believe the change?!
Zinnias and cosmos started blooming this week. Our first two sunflowers are already beginning to wane, but there are more blooms on the way! Some birds, especially Goldfinches, seem to really enjoy the sunflower seeds—we spotted a few hanging around this week. No morning glory blooms yet but it is filling in nicely on the arched trellis.
I’ve picked a few early tomatoes with the promise of plenty more to come. I finally purchased the tall, sturdy tomato cages I’ve had my eye on for years for cherry tomato plants. They’re a bit of an investment, but they seem to be good quality and so far I’m very happy.
The first planting of green beans are beginning to flower, the second planting is just starting to climb the trellis. I’ve got a few baby jalapenos, peppers, and cucumbers growing, and the zucchini seeds I direct sowed in late June have grown to respectable baby plants—I so hope these work out! My basil plants are very happy and the okra seeds I tucked into the back of the flower beds are growing well so far.
How it started, how it’s growing:
Tell me:
Are you doing any gardening this summer?
Reading
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter. The alluring cover and promise of a story set, at least partially, in 1980s California drew me to this book. I ended up dazzled by this story of a middle-aged man on a quest to find out what happened to the father he hasn’t heard from in 40 years by piecing together events of the tumultuous summer he was 12-years-old, the summer leading up to his father’s disappearance. Surprisingly taut, mysterious, and layered, the early 80s California setting did not disappoint, nor the prominence of Fleetwood Mac. Under 300 pages with outsized impact.
Polybius by Collin Armstrong. I kept the 80s California setting rolling with this story about a mysterious arcade game arriving in a small town with disastrous consequences. This story has an excellent premise inspired by an urban legend that I think works as an interesting metaphor for current social media and technology. It very much reminded me of a story you might expect Stephen King to tell. While I generally enjoyed the plot I unfortunately didn’t care for the writing style—so much telling, and the voices and characters all blurred together.
Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller. I love a summer gothic and this backlist Claire Fuller delivers! Set in a once grand, now crumbling manor in the summer of 1969, 39-year-old Frances is tasked with surveying the very overgrown grounds and gardens for the new owner when she becomes enamored with and distracted by the younger couple there to catalog the home. This gothic literary suspense is deeply atmospheric, mysterious, and unsettling. It reads like a forgotten classic in the best way!
Listening
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst. An unbelievably true story of a British couple who left their lives behind in 1972 to sail around the world. All was going swimmingly until a freak accident sunk their vessel leaving them stranded in the Pacific ocean in an inflatable life raft.
The Body is a Doorway: A Memoir by Sophie Strand. This memoir shares the winding journey of chronic illness while unpacking societal ideas of wellness, wholeness, and healing as well as human intersection within our broader ecosystem. Strand has a poetry background and it shows.
Watching
Mad Men, Season 7 (DVD!) We finished our series rewatch. I’m ruined for all other television. This is undoubtedly one of the best TV series ever made. We’ve rewatched the series a handful of times and it never disappoints. The characters! The history! The layers! The costumes! It’s just so good.
Eating & Drinking
We had some wheat rolls that needed using up so I made some Chicken Salad to put on them.
Taco Salad—I chop a head of lettuce and make taco meat with a can of drained and rinsed black beans stirred in and everyone can make their own salad. I like mine with the meat/bean mixture plus cheese, tomatoes, black beans, crushed tortilla chips, Catalina dressing, and a little sour cream. This really hits the spot for dinner on a hot summer day!
Another round of this Grilled Vegetable Panzanella Salad—it’s SO good! I make it with homemade sourdough and basil from my garden. I have so much basil right now and the simple, yet delicious vinaigrette the recipe calls for helps me use up a good bit. The basil vinaigrette itself is worth checking out, especially if you too have a wealth of basil. I think it would be very tasty in a multitude of applications.
I stocked the freezer with a batch of Breakfast Sandwiches
And I made a batch of Granola1 for the fruit and yogurt bowls I can’t get enough right now.
Links + Loves
Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That. (NYT) Digital materials cost libraries so much money! And demand is always increasing. Proposed legislation would pressure publishers to adjust borrowing limits and find other ways to widen access.
I enjoyed browsing The Millions’ Great Summer 2025 Book Preview. (The Millions)
Walkouts, feuds and broken friendships: when book clubs go bad. (The Guardian) Oh, the drama!
The truth behind the endless “kids can’t read” discourse. (Vox) Interesting dig into relevant context and data.
We Can Still Save the Institute for Museum and Library Services. (Book Riot) An update on the Trump administration’s attack on libraries and museums and a time sensitive call to action.
Is Your Dream Home an Old Library? This Place Is For You. (Book Riot) So fun!
10 radical works of fiction and nonfiction that inspired Kylie Cheung’s book on post-Dobbs violence. (Lit Hub) This is a really great list.
These Are The Books on the Most “Best Books of 2025 So Far” Lists. (Book Riot) The best of best of list we all need.
This Large Flat Cloud Clip is SO good! Not only is it more comfortable to wear it’s also better at holding my long hair than a regular claw clip. A summer must-have!
What are you reading, listening to, eating, watching, liking, and/or linking this week? Let’s chat!
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Until next time!
This is my base recipe. I make a half batch at a time (yields 6+ cups). I make mine with coconut oil, omit the flaxseed and ginger, use 2T brown sugar, add 1/2 cup roughly chopped nuts (usually almonds) for my half batch.
I love your garden photos! I've never had one but I am thinking of trying one next year, depending on where we are living.
Have you watched The Wire? I haven't but I'm thinking of starting soonish. While very different topic than Mad Men, I feel it's the only show I've seen spur the same kind of obsession/appreciation!