Until the last week of July, “no measurable rain” was a significant theme at the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry garden, and we once again ran out of water.

We purchased two 66-gallon tanks to transport water from the pantry to the pantry garden. We also bought a battery-operated pump to get the water from the portable tanks into the water storage tanks at the garden. Thankfully, we have a garden grant from Lehigh County to assist with this purchase.

We spent a lot of time in July getting our garden beds weeded and watered, but our vegetable plants grew like crazy. We were able to pick zucchini July 14 and on five additional days for a total of more than 130 pounds. Our original zucchini bed, along with our second planting, are now both yielding fruit.

I am writing this article July 30 and haven’t been to the garden since we had rain this week, so our July final vegetable total will be even higher.

Because we received zucchini from Second Harvest for our guests at the pantry distribution July 16, we instead took the zucchini to WCHI’s free community meal July 21. More zucchini will to be shared Aug. 2.

At our work night July 7, Jenn Dietz, Sue Butchinski and I weeded through the potato patch. While Jenn finished up, I ran my small rototiller/cultivator between the rows to loosen the soil while Sue hilled the dirt around the plants. The potatoes have been flowering quite a bit, and the plants are big enough to hill again. That will be on the list for an upcoming work night.

We had Girl Scout Troop 6173 join us on the evening of July 14. The girls and their leaders were great help harvesting zucchini, pulling weeds and watering. They plan to keep joining us Tuesday evenings for the remainder of the summer, and I am very grateful for the extra hands!

Check out our Facebook page to see a photo of the group with some of the vegetables they picked.

As I mentioned previously, we have been trying to clear weeds from our beds. Fortunately, most of our weeds are grass, so once you can convince one or two clumps to release from the dirt, the rest seem to follow along without having to use tools to loosen them.

Our winter squash bed is another matter. We have a weed in there that hugs the ground and needs to be removed with a tool. The squash plants are getting bigger, so soon they will cover the weeds, and we won’t need to deal with them anymore. Our peppers and tomatoes are about half weeded, and the sweet potato vines are also starting to cover the grass in their bed.

Love to weed? Join us at 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays!

Thank you to the generous individuals who dropped off their extra garden produce at the RE/MAX Unlimited office or brought items to the pantry. We received zucchini, yellow squash, rhubarb, string beans and herbs for a yield-to-date total of 27 pounds.

At our mini work morning July 18, Jenn Dietz planted some additional sweet potato vine, and Sylvia Lee planted another batch of zucchini, while I began pulling weeds and hauling them to the tree line. Then we all pulled weeds for about an hour and discovered our cilantro and basil seeds did not germinate well.

I stopped by Lehigh Valley Home and Garden July 28 to see what herb seedlings they still had. The selection was small, but I bought a beautiful flat of basil plants that we will get into the ground at our next work night.

I wrote earlier that Second Harvest provided zucchini for our pantry guests in July. Second Harvest also provided us with collards, broccoli, potatoes, cucumbers and grapefruit. The pantry purchased grapes, green peppers and bananas to supplement the produce selection.

Remember, food donations, reusable shopping totes and paper bags with handles may be dropped at the RE/MAX office, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. If you want your donation to be picked up or if you prefer to drop off your donation directly at the pantry, call or text me at 610-379-6823.

I’m still waiting for that first ripe tomato from my home garden, but in the meantime, I am enjoying all the other vegetables that my garden has been providing. I hope you have been as well!

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