June 2025 Homesteading Update: Flowers & First Harvests

If you want an update on semi homesteading life for June 2025 here in the Midwest, then this article is for you! I’ll show you what is going on with the garden, in the kitchen, and with life in general.

June is always a crazy month here with the first harvests of the season, trying to keep weeds and pests at bay, and gearing up for the preserving season! Add in the mix a “fun” injury, and it made for an interesting month! At least the flowers are stunning this time of year!

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 June 2025 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life

Growing Plants & Pests

There is so much growth that you see during the month of June. Once those sunny, warm days hit, the plants and vegetables really start to take off fast. It’s neat to compare the first part of June with the end and see where the plants are height-wise as well as produce-wise.

Most of the plants are doing well, but we’ve had issues with bunnies again. We even have an electric fence around our whole garden, and those darn rabbits are still getting through. So while most everything is growing well, the green beans have been topped multiple times by the hungry, furry pests.

I’ve started sprinkling blood meal around the garden perimeter, and that seems to be doing the trick. Maybe by August we’ll have full-sized green bean plants. Ugh! (Product Link: Jobe’s Organics Granular Blood Meal Fertilizer)

Another “pest” we are dealing with is deer. They have been ruthless with our fruit trees. Before admitting complete defeat, my husband and I put up a deer fence all around our mini orchard. This is where my injury happened. I must’ve misjudged the height of one of the t-posts I was pounding into the ground and dropped the post driver on my left foot. Needless to say, I was in a walking boot for a while and still have pain I’m dealing with! But at least the deer have left my trees alone!

What We’re Harvesting – June 2025 Homesteading Update

While June isn’t a huge month for harvesting, there are still some plants that we are able to get produce from. Most of them are the spring-planted crops or plants that slow down production once the warmth of summer hits.

At the beginning of the month, we harvested our garlic scapes from the hardneck garlic. If we were to leave those behind, they would turn into the flowers of the plants. Since we want the energy to go towards the garlic bulbs, we need to remove the scapes. They are delicious sautéed up with a little butter and salt, so they definitely don’t go to waste!

We’ve also been harvesting from our single rhubarb plant. It’s finally old enough that we can harvest from it freely without worrying about it getting established. Most of the rhubarb we are freezing to enjoy later in the day, but I have been making a few goodies with some of it.

The other main crops we harvested in June are strawberries, sugar snap peas, and black raspberries. My son and I also dug up our potatoes at the end of the month. They are now ready for curing and storing long-term.

Flowers Growing

One of my favorite sections of these updates is my “Flowers Growing” section! I take SOO many pictures of the flowers growing in my garden that I think even my cell phone camera is tired of seeing them! I just can’t get over the amazing and beautiful colors that Mother Nature can produce!

I try to grow snapdragons each year, and now even have volunteers that come back year after year. This year, I got my hands on a beautiful variety called “Orange Wonder”. They are absolutely stunning! I love their yellow, orange, and pink coloring! It’s like a little sunset with each bloom. (Product Link: Orange Wonder Seeds)

A new flower that I’m growing this year is Cosmos. I know they are a popular garden addition, but one I’ve never dedicated space to. Now that I have the new in-ground raised garden beds, I have more space to grow some fun new flowers this year!

One thing I wanted to point out is that I got the seeds for these Cosmos from Dollar General last year on clearance. Yep, that’s right. They are not fancy seeds from a name-brand store or a popular online website. So, just because a seed is cheap doesn’t mean you still can’t grow and enjoy flowers and vegetables!

Some Recipes I’ve Made – June 2025 Homesteading Update

Cooking hasn’t been as big of a priority for me this month as I’ve spent as much time as possible outside. However, I have made a few things here and there. (Someone has to feed the family still!)

One thing I have been making is rhubarb pies with our homegrown rhubarb. I have been trying to perfect my pie crust and finally posted the recipe on here if you want to check it out. I also have a rhubarb pie recipe that has that great combination of sweet and sour flavors that rhubarb is so known for. (Recipe post still to come!)

We’ve also been using up the last of our local half beef order to make room for the new one we ordered. While it’s not really roast season, I still cooked up a roast we had on hand and enjoyed a delicious meal of juicy roast.

And don’t forget the fresh fruit this time of year! We’ve been eating loads of watermelon, muskmelon, and more.

Miscellaneous Pictures

As usual, I’ll leave you with a couple of miscellaneous homesteading pictures. I take so many different pictures throughout the month that it’s hard to get them all on just one post, so I like to do a photo dump at the end of my updates.

I don’t have as many this month since most of the photos I’ve taken have been of flowers and plants growing in the garden. But here are a few anyway, just to round out the June 2025 homesteading update. See everyone next month!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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