Usually, I post several garden updates throughout the season, but this year we have been so busy I simply haven’t had the time. Looking at the continued supply chain issues and widespread drought we knew we needed a good-sized garden to subsidize our food supply, but last year the deer wiped out everything in just a matter of days. So, with the help of a good contractor we fenced off a 3000 sq foot area off the back of the house. The contractor had overestimated (a lot) on supplies, so I was able to fence 2 more smaller areas using just the leftovers. The wire fencing is 6 foot tall, and we added barbed wire above that to keep out the deer and racoons.
We had a LOT of failures early in the year with many of our seedling simply dying shortly after being planted. However, after reseeding several times it started to take. We are currently on our 4th planting of snow peas and our 5th planting of green beans. Cucumbers have been plentiful, as has okra and black-eyed peas. Tomatoes and peppers came in very late but are now almost more than we can use. Sweat corn didn’t produce as well as we hoped, but what we did get was really good. Watermelons were looking great until the skies opened up and dumped 4″ of rain in just 48hrs making most split and rot.
We invested in one of those trendy new electric pressure canners and have to say it’s worked out really well. I know, the All American canners are supposed to be the best and we do have an old school canner, but this thing really made it easy and didn’t have to be on our ceramic top stove. However, as with everything these days, prices have risen significantly. We have put away homemade spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, black-eyed-peas and lots of green beans. We are currently about 3 weeks from first frost here, so we are definitely in the final stretch and have our tarps ready just in case! It’s been a lot of work, but quite rewarding. We may get tired of eating green beans but at least we won’t go hungry! We are saving seeds and planning for next year; hope you had a great summer.
Prepare now.
Prepper 365 
Wonderful article! Congratulations on all your hard work paying off.
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Thanks for sharing. My eyes have been opened to how difficult it is to prep nowadays. I will definitely keep your experiences in mind as I write my posts. So many things are coming against well-intended and decent human beings. Today is the time to start prepping. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12-13
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Had our first freeze 29 degrees the other night, next week the temps are going to bomb on us highs in the 40s. Gardening done. Got lots of green beans put away though. And zucchini. Tomatoes and peppers big fail this year. Late and the damn deer hit them early.
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