My Very Beginner July Garden Tour: What’s Growing, What’s Not, and What I’m Learning
- Aug 11
- 9 min read
If you've ever wondered what a first-year vegetable garden really looks like in July, this is it, my July beginner garden tour. No perfectly manicured rows or picture-perfect harvests—just an honest look at what's growing, what hasn't worked, and everything I'm learning as I build a garden to help feed our family.
It is the beginning-to-middle-ish of July, and this very DIY, very beginner garden is officially doing something. Which makes me so happy! After last year's container garden fail, I was really worried I didn't have the green thumb required to have a garden.
With it being July already, I'm slight concerned because not everything has made it into the ground. There are still pots waiting for homes, a few plants that need more attention, some weeds that may or may not be weeds, and an entire arch that is currently more of a dream than a growing structure.
But four and a half garden beds are planted, little tomatoes are appearing, baby cucumbers are growing, the garlic has been harvested, and there are surprise black raspberries hiding in the trees. So I’m calling that progress (and a win!).
Want to see where this garden started? Before you dive into the tour, you can go back to my original 2026 garden plan in Go Get Great Episode 109, where I shared everything I planned to grow, my raised bed layout, and my very ambitious goals for the season. You can read the full blog post or listen to the episode here—then come back and see how closely reality matched the plan so far. 😅
tomato bed Update: a jungle with tiny tomatoes
The first big bed is the tomato bed, and it is definitely full. At one point, there were 16 tomato plants in there. Not all of them survived, a few had to be replanted, and some are still tiny baby tomato plants—but there are tomatoes growing, so we’re celebrating that.
The grocery-store starter plants had a major head start. A few are already producing fruit, including some big green tomatoes that needed staking immediately because one plant was getting so huge it was falling over.
On the other side of the bed are the tomatoes I started from seed indoors. They began much smaller, but they are catching up nicely and have tiny fruits of their own. Most of these are cherry tomatoes and chocolate cherry tomatoes, so the harvest should be full of smaller fruit.
There is also one accidental bean plant in the tomato bed. It is producing beans, which feels exciting even if I’m still figuring out exactly when they are ready to harvest.
Along the back of the bed are flowers, and a few carrots.
In seperate containers (that happen to be sitting behind the tomato bed) I also have three makeshift potato towers. The potato towers are doing… something. I see sprouts but I don't really know what that means. At this stage, that is the official update.
Prefer to see the garden in action? Watch the full July garden tour below before diving into the written update.
when one tomato plant takes over everything
This bed has also become home to lettuce, carrots, flower seeds (which don't really seem to be growing) and a random bean plant. While being closely surrounded by a hot chili pepper plant, potato towers, and two rhubarb plants that still need to be planted.
The grocery-store lettuce starters grew so well that they are now nearly five feet tall. They have been ready to harvest for a while, but summer has been busy and the garden has not always gotten the attention it deserves.
There are also lettuce seeds growing in the bed, although they are not getting nearly enough sun because one very enthusiastic tomato plant is shading everything around it. I forgot that tomato plants can get so big when they aren't confined to a small pot. On the bright side, I should get a lot of tomatoes from this massive plant so that's a distinct bonus!
A squash plant (which was in a separate pot) was supposed to be moved to the new arch once it was built. Instead, it intertwined itself with a tomato plant. So, naturally, it lives there forever now. This bed is getting a little out of hand but everything seems to be growing well so I'm just crossing my fingers, watering and waiting at this point. I hope we'll get a harvest soon since we have some good sized green tomatoes on some of the store starter plants already!
bed two: climbers, peppers, and a little chaos
The second bed was originally supposed to be another tomato bed. Then the first tomato bed became very, very full, so this one turned into the vining-plant bed instead.
There are three cucamelon plants (my fourth one died, sadly) climbing up strings, and they are honestly kind of amazing to watch. They weave themselves around the string as they grow. No cucamelons have appeared yet, but the plants are climbing beautifully.
There are also around six pepper plants in this bed. Some are doing better than others, and a few are likely getting too much shade. Still, there are flowers on several plants and at least one pepper is growing, which feels like a win.
Kohlrabi is growing in there too. I do not yet know what it is supposed to look like at harvest time, but we will get there soon. I've also never eaten Kohlrabi so I'm excited to try it when it's ready!
The cucumber plant on the other side of the bed is doing well too, and has lots of tiny, spiky baby cucumbers. This is one of those beginner-gardener moments where it suddenly starts to feel real: there are actual vegetables growing in there.
There may also be weeds. Or there may be plants that just look like weeds. Everything is sprawling together enough that we are going to see wait and see what happens because as much as I tried to document what I put in this bed, I really can't remember, nor do I know what some of these plants are supposed to look like and I don't want to pull something out if it isn't a weed.
Starting a garden too? I've put together an Amazon storefront with the gardening tools, raised beds, seeds, supplies, and other products I'm using as we build our family garden. If you're looking for inspiration or wondering what's worked for us so far, you can browse everything in one place.
Bed 3: the original lettuce bed
One of the original beds from last year has a little bit of everything happening. There is lettuce, kale, garlic, herbs, raspberry plants, and a collection of plants that were previously living in pots last fall and I panic planted them before the winter because I did not know where else to put them.
The lettuce has been a 50-50 success story. The plants with more sun are growing much better than the ones tucked into shade. The kale, meanwhile, has been enjoyed by pretty much everything except me.
The bed looks emptier than usual because the garlic was harvested the day before. For a first attempt, the garlic did pretty well, and I’m happy with that. I think we got a little overzealous and pulled it out too early but still, we successfully grew garlic! It's the only thing I planted last year that actually grew so that was a huge win for us!
Once the lettuce is ready to harvest and come out, this bed is getting redone. Sometimes the best next step is admitting our plan from last year didn't work and reconfiguring it instead of trying to make it work.
the raspberry Bush row needs a little love
The raspberry row was planted last year, and it is doing better than expected—but it still needs work. There are no raspberries yet, and the area needs a proper box or border, less grass, and an overall cleanup.
Because the plants were already established when they went in, it was hard to know whether they were first-year or second-year plants and what kind of harvest to expect. For now, the goal is simply to give them a better home and let them keep growing.
It is not perfect, but it is still alive. That counts for something. I'm optimistic that we'll be able to show this area the love it deserves soon and hopefully get at least a few berries this year. Cross your fingers for me!
Bed 5: blueberries survived, strawberries did not
The newest bed was added only a couple of weeks ago. Then we left for five days unexpectedly, and the strawberry plants did not get watered. Unfortunately, they did not make it which makes me really sad.
The four blueberry plants did survive, though, which is very good news. There is still one strawberry plant in a pot that can be planted nearby, and hopefully it will send out runners so there can be more strawberries—and more blueberries—next year.
I'm trying to make myself feel better by 'playing the long game' with my garden plans but I'm also aware that this is is not their permanent home, it's supposed to be a carrot bed since it's deeper than the rest.
I'm worried I'll have to start over with my blueberry and strawberry bush again when I move them, and that doesn't sound appealing to me.
Bed 4: Broccoli, Cauliflower & Brassica Bed Update
There are big plans for a bigger garden and eventually a full-on orchard, but we are working on a dime-store budget over here. So the garden is growing one project at a time.
This year’s brassica bed includes broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, carrots, flowers and a row that might be radishes or might be beets (it's beets).
The broccolini in the centre seems to be doing especially well. Some of the broccoli and cauliflower plants may pull through too, but many starters stayed in their tiny pots too long and did not survive the move into the bed so the back half of the garden box is a lot emptier than I had planned.
The Swiss chard grown from seed is not doing too badly though, and there are tiny carrot sprouts coming up as well. There is definitely weeding to do, but there is enough growth happening here to be optimistic about getting some kind of harvest this year, and that's an update I'm thrilled about!
a surprise black raspberry patch in the trees
Since the planted raspberry row is still figuring itself out, finding large, productive black raspberry bushes hidden in the forest-jungle area was a very happy surprise.
There are plants everywhere, with lots of little berries. Some probably should have been picked earlier, but they taste so good—and there are enough bushes to make the whole area worth taming eventually.
That jungle cleanup is not happening this year. But it is absolutely on the future garden list because these berries are so good!
the garden arch is finally up
Last but not least: the garden arch is built. Yay! It took a lot longer than I expected but I'm so happy to see it standing now, I feel like it really pulls the garden together.
Have anything been planted on it yet? No. Not yet.
There is still time to plant for a fall harvest, but it has been very hot, and pregnancy plus garden work in high heat is not always the most appealing combination so I've been procrastonating. We're also undecided if we should add boxes to the bottom to fit the aesthetic of the rest of the garden (and hopefully prevent a repeat of the raspberry area issue).
The goal for the next garden update is to have plants growing up the arch and, hopefully, some green foliage starting to fill it in.
I just have to find the motvation to get everything planted... Wish me luck.
what this beginner garden is teaching me
This garden is not tidy, finished, or perfectly planned. It has plants in pots, crops in unexpected places, shade problems, missed watering, accidental beans, and several “we’ll figure that out later” projects.
But it also has tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, broccolini, blueberries, carrots, and surprise berries.
And that is the whole point: you do not need a perfect backyard, a giant budget, or every answer before you begin. You can build a few beds, plant what you can, learn as you go, and let the garden be a little messy while you figure it out. I'm really excited to see what happens to the garden in August!
July Beginner Garden Tour Progress
Growing well
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Garlic
Peppers
Broccolini
Needs work
Strawberries
Raspberry row
Garden arch (install the second one & plant seeds for fall harvest)
Weeding
next steps For the Rest of July & Into August
Harvest the overgrown lettuce and the beans.
Give the brassica bed a good weeding.
Plant the remaining strawberry and rhubarb plants.
Make a longer-term plan for the raspberry row and blueberry bed.
Get something planted on the garden arch for a fall harvest.
Keep learning what is a weed, what is a vegetable, and what needs to be harvested next.
Looking back, it's amazing how much has changed in just a few months. There are still plenty of mistakes to make, vegetables to learn, and projects to finish, but every harvest—whether it's a handful of beans, a head of garlic, or our first tomatoes—makes the work worth it.
My goal isn't to build the perfect garden overnight. It's to build one that grows a little better every year and eventually helps feed our family.
I'll be back with another garden update next month to share what's changed, what's ready to harvest, and everything I'm learning along the way so make sure you subscribe on YouTube, follow me on Instagram @brittanynmiller_ or join my email list so you know when my next garden update video is live!
And if you're planning your own garden, I've gathered the tools, raised beds, seeds, and gardening supplies browse my garden collection so you can see exactly what's working for us.
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