July has been the first month for harvesting our garden bounty! Unfortunately, after missing a couple of gardening nights due to excessive heat and thunderstorms, the weeds went a little unchecked and are also quite bountiful.

On July 2, we picked our first zucchini and yellow squash for the free community meal — a total of 77 pounds. Some were longer than a foot and weighed more than a pound!

We picked 114 pounds of yellow squash and zucchini and almost 4 pounds of basil and mint July 8. On July 15, we picked another 80 pounds of vegetables, which included zucchini, yellow squash, basil, eggplant, sweet peppers and hot peppers.

These, along with other donated herbs, were shared with pantry guests.

For the July food pantry distributions, we were fortunate to obtain cabbage, onions, watermelon, grapes and pineapples from Second Harvest Food Bank. Second Harvest also offered a food tasting of cucumber and dill sandwiches, and everyone had the opportunity to take dill plants home with them to grow on their windowsill or in their garden.

In mid-July, our potato plants looked like they were dying off, which meant harvest time was near. On the evening of July 22, the harvest began.

Sylvia Lee and I arrived at the garden early and began to dig potatoes using forked tools. We quickly learned that you need to start digging about 8 inches away from the center of the plant; otherwise, you may fork a potato. After forking the soil, you need to hand dig to find all the potatoes.

Sue Butchinski joined us a short time later, and she and Sylvia picked potatoes while I removed the grass and weeds that slowed down the picking process. Each plant yielded five to seven potatoes of varying sizes, along with a couple of marble-sized ones.

While Sue and Sylvia were picking potatoes, the rest of the team weeded and harvested an additional 28 pounds of zucchini, yellow squash and sweet peppers. Six potato rows were harvested, and our yield was 116 pounds!

We were fortunate to have help from The Seed Farm on the morning of July 23. Hannah White and her summer intern, Debbie McDonald, arrived at the garden to harvest our final seven rows of potatoes. I focused on pulling the remaining weeds and digging the potatoes closest to the fence, where some poison ivy had established itself.

Hannah’s method was to dig more from the front of the row, whereas we had dug from the side of the row. Our yield for the remaining seven rows was 136 pounds. Overall, we grew 252 pounds of Red Bliss potatoes, which we now have stored in boxes in the pantry.

Picking potatoes is hard work! Hopefully, our pantry guests will enjoy them.

We picked 41 pounds of zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant July 27, and we picked an additional 81 pounds of zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant July 31. Most of this yield was available for attendees at our Aug. 3 free community meal.

In other garden news, our second water storage tank is now filled, the corn is showing silk, the eggplant bed was mesh fenced, we have lots of acorn and butternut squash on the vine, our tomatoes are all still green, we have 12-foot-tall sunflowers in bloom, and we harvested 680 pounds of vegetables and herbs to date.

Next, we will prep our former potato bed for fall planting of radishes, red beets and possibly string beans and carrots.

Don’t forget, we will accept your excess garden bounty in the vestibule at RE/MAX Unlimited, 1080 Schadt Ave. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Place these items on the designated table.

Join us 6:15-7:15 p.m. Tuesdays for weeding, watering and harvesting at the pantry garden, 3540 S. Ruch St.

Everyone is welcome!

Editor’s note: This column was written by Gwen Herzog, pantry garden chair.