July is always a crazy month here in Illinois when you are semi homesteading, and our update for 2024 is no exception! The garden is starting to produce for us and we’ve been able to harvest red potatoes, garlic, zucchini, a few tomatoes and peppers, and loads of green beans. That means I’ve also been able to preserve all those garden goodies!
We were even able to take a last-minute getaway with the family before the kids started back to school (hello beach life!). But, we’ve also had our fair share of issues and pests to deal with as well here, too.
With these updates, I hope to do more of a “journal” type of post at least once a month to keep you updated on life here. Hopefully, it will allow you to get to know the person behind these articles (me!) and how we run our semi homestead a bit more.
This will allow me to share the loads of photos I take on my phone instead of having them collect dust in my camera gallery. (You can also look for updates on Instagram if you want to follow along with me there, too.) I’ll also try to link to posts that might be relevant to what happened during that timeframe.
Hopefully, you enjoy getting to know a bit more about our life here in Illinois and how the homestead is going – Both the good and the bad!
Our July 2024 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life
July is one of my favorite months because the garden is growing along nicely and plants are starting to set a ton of produce just waiting to be harvested! (It also happens to be my birthday month, so yay for that!)
I started the month by harvesting our red and white onions. Every year I struggle with onions no matter where I grow them. Even though they were on the smaller size, their tops had all fallen over so I needed to get them out of the ground before they all rotted. They are currently curing away in the basement with the garlic.
The star of the garden so far this year has been the green beans. It has been so nice to see the plants filling in and setting blooms! After not having hardly any success last year because of the visiting rabbits, I welcome the full plants and plenty of beans to pick.
Toward the end of the month, I started harvesting the beans and canning them to put up for the winter. (I’m team can green beans whereas I know some of you are team frozen. I don’t judge either way!) I love seeing our shelves fill up with this year’s homegrown produce! It always feels like such an accomplishment.
I messed around with dehydrating a bit more and did zucchini chips as well as mini marshmallows. The chips came out super tasty and were a fun way to use up some of that extra zucchini we’ve been harvesting from our seven plants. (What can I say, I love zucchini!)
Independence Day Party
In early July, we had our annual Independence Day party here at the semi homestead. We don’t actually live in the country but are on the edge of our little village. Anyway, we have the best views to see the town’s fireworks display, so we always invite a few friends and family over to watch and celebrate.
One of my favorite parts of the party is the food! Along with other things, I made a fun tray of fruit and white chocolate-covered pretzels to look like a flag. I also made my famous scotcharoos with a festive twist on top (a favorite amongst the family).
Thankfully, even Reese got involved with the festivities. She is scared to death of about everything but for some reason fireworks or thunderstorms don’t bother her thankfully.
Sweet Potato Slips – July 2024 Homesteading Update
For a fun experiment, I decided to grow sweet potato slips. I had a store-bought sweet potato sprout and decided to let it go. While it is way too late in the growing season to plant here in Illinois, I thought I’d just see how it went on the counter.
I put the slips into a jar with water on July 5th. After just three days, they started to produce roots. By July 14th, the slips were producing beautiful green leaves and vining well. Maybe I’ll just keep them as a houseplant and see how long they stay alive (in our house, that can be questionable).
Pests & Bugs Galore! July 2024 Homesteading Update
July also brought about a whole slew of pests and bugs. This year on the semi homestead, I’m trying to implement more of an organic gardening lifestyle. (That, or I’m just unprepared this year. You can decide which is the biggest truth!)
That isn’t to say that I won’t bust out help if things really get out of control. However, I’m trying to not immediately jump the gun and reach for the sprays. But because of this, we have had way more pests and bugs to deal with this summer than I’ve ever had.
The first one to stop by the garden was the Japanese beetles last month. Thankfully, they weren’t a huge ordeal and I have been able to stay on top of things by hand picking them off.
They seem to have taken a huge liking to my rhubarb plant. But since I am basically done harvesting it, I allowed most of it since it keeps them off the summer crops. (Hopefully, that isn’t a mistake!)
Squash Vine Borers
Next was the squash borers. Do you remember that I found one flying around my plants in June (see that update)? I was hoping that the issue was taken care of when I got rid of that guy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough and/or there were more out there I missed.
While checking my garden in mid-July, I noted a lot of chaff around the bottom of the stems with multiple zucchini plants. After some digging – literally – I found squash vine borers in 5 of my 7 plants.
That turned into major surgery since I had to make sure all of the worms were removed and bury the exposed stems. As of the end of July though, the plants are still hanging in there and producing zucchini for me to harvest.
In addition to those pests, I’m also dealing with squash bugs and aphids like usual but a few new ones as well. This summer we’ve had cabbage loppers and cucumber beetles also stop by very much unwanted. It’s been a constant battle.
Flowers Growing
Just like June, the flowers are growing beautifully here and helping to bring in loads of pollinators. The zinnas I planted are finally starting to pop up as well. They are in a spot in our garden that doesn’t get as much sunlight, so they are a bit delayed. Hopefully, I’ll have enough for a bouquet before long!
In addition to the zinnias, the nasturtium is starting to fill in and produce loads of bright blooms. Both the seeds I purchased and the seeds that I saved from last year are doing great! I just love the variegated color on the saved seeds variety.
Miscellaneous – July 2024 Homesteading Update
As usual, I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous homesteading pictures. It’s always a bit sad to say goodbye to July and hello to August because that usually means the start of back to school for the kids, darker nights, and thoughts of fall right around the corner.
Hopefully, I can fill the time by harvesting all the garden goodies and putting away as much as possible before fall does arrive. Thanks as always for seeing how the semi homestead is going here in Zone B! August, here we come!
Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea
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