Harvest Time and Hard Lessons

Every row’s offering up something: cucumbers, raspberries, kale, beets, and each harvest tells its own story.

Author

The Grounded Homestead
August 05, 2025

Weekly Roundup

August isn’t gentle. It’s heavy with heat, bugs, and a garden that demands more than it gives some days. But there’s beauty in the work. Fruit on the vine, beans on the trellis, soil still open to seed.

We don’t just survive the season. We shape it.

— The Grounded Homestead

Homestead Happenings

A Bug Took a Bite of My Pumpkin

The vines looked great back in June. We had a healthy stand of pumpkins; full leaves, big growth. But then came the squash vine borer. You don’t usually catch them until they’ve already done their damage. By the time I noticed the wilting, one of our best vines was a goner.

I sliced open the stem and found the grub. Fat and right where he shouldn't be.

It’s one of those lessons you don’t forget. Vine borers don’t care how early you started or how good your compost is. If you don’t act ahead, they’ll wreck your crop midstride.

The main vine in bottom left was damaged by a squash vine bore grub and sent the plant into early maturity.

This week I broke down everything I’ve learned. How to spot, prevent, and fight back against the squash vine borer.

It’s hard-earned knowledge from a rough season, and it might save your fall squash or next year’s crop:

Thinking Past the Heat: Your Fall Garden Starts Now

Summer crops have been harvest, refreshing the soil for an August planting.

Most folks don’t plant when it’s hot. But, the best fall gardens start when summer’s still pushing 90°. Your timing this month sets the tone for late-season lettuce, carrots, and hardy greens.

If you're not sure what to sow or when to get it in the ground, I’ve put together a straight-to-the-point guide of fall crops that thrive when planted right now in August:

From the Garden to the Table

Cast Iron Garlic Green Beans

If you’ve got a mess of green beans coming off like we do, here’s one of our simplest go-to sides:

Cast Iron Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups fresh green beans (trimmed)

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1 tbsp olive oil or bacon grease

  • Salt and cracked pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Heat oil in a cast iron pan over medium heat.

  2. Toss in garlic—let it get fragrant, not brown.

  3. Add green beans and stir until coated.

  4. Cook 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until blistered and slightly tender.

  5. Salt, pepper, serve.

One Last Thing…

If you haven’t planted yet, don’t let the calendar boss you around. Even a single raised bed of lettuce or radishes in September is a win. And if a few bugs get to your squash, like they did mine this year? Learn from it. Adjust. Plant again.

We build a harvest one season at a time.

— The Grounded Homestead