If you’ve ever grown zucchini in your garden you know things can get out of hand really quick! I mean that in the best kind of way but I swear if you go away for the weekend or something you’ll come back toseveral the size of small dogs. After you’ve had your fix of it grilled or fired and all of that zucchini bread though… what can you do with them? Other than give them to all of your family members and then start ding dong ditching them on your neighbors’ front porches? Well, today I’m sharing some of my favorite recipes I’ve found so that you (and whoever you’ve giving them to) can enjoy them all summer long without totally getting sick of them.

Zucchini Pad Thai

via Best Recipe Box

Zucchini Mushroom Stir Fry

via Diethood

Zucchini Bacon Quiche

via Eating on a Dime

Zucchini Refrigerator Pickles

via Valerie’s Kitchen

Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Zoodles

via Cafe Delites

French Onion Zoodle Bake

via Climbing Grier Mountain

Zucchini Pizza Bites

via Easy Low Carb

Zucchini Caprese Frittata

via Our Best Bites

Grilled Corn & Zucchini Salad

via Minimalist Baker

Zucchini Meatballs

via Delish

Zucchini Hashbrowns

via Tasty

Skillet Veggie Lasagna

via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

Zucchini Lasagna

via A Simple Palate

Chicken Alfredo Zoodle Bake

via Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen

Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip

via King Arthur Baking Company

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience which means if you purchase something I recommend I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

Being that we’re smack dab in the middle of gardening season I thought it was the perfect time for another post. Earlier in the year, I did a blog post on gardening tips for beginners and today I wanted to do a follow-up on that with some of my gear recommendations. Especially because with the pandemic I know so many people are gardening for the first time this year. Everyone has their own advice, but today I’m sharing some of my favorite tools and tips that have worked the best for us to make the grow season much easier!

Raised Garden Boxes

If you’re loving gardening this year, something I highly recommend investing in for the next season is garden boxes. I love raised beds for a few reasons. The first being it makes them a little higher off the ground so they help save your back (dang I feel old saying that..) And two, it can be so helpful to cut back on weeding! Our first 2 seasons at our community garden we were in tall garden boxes, and while there was certainly maintenance in cutting plants back, we didn't spend too much time weeding. Then this year, we upgraded to a larger plot in the ground and holy moly have we spent a lot of time weeding.

Here’s how I know it helps too, Evan got us a set of garden boxes from Costco and we planted about half of our crops in those and then our larger plants that needed more room right in the ground. Let me tell you…. the weeding in the boxes has been minimal comparatively! So much so I want to add a few more next year because weeding can be so time-consuming! If you’re looking at this blog out of season the exact boxes we bought may be out of stock there but you can find the same ones on Amazon for a little more here directly from the company. I also included some other options below that could be good depending on your situation below.

Creating Garden Markers that Last

If you know me… you know I like to keep things colorful. So I created garden markers so we could keep track of things and also have the most colorful plot 😜. Here’s the thing though, if you’re going to make them you want to make sure they’re going to last! Between the beating of the sun and getting wet during watering, they need to last through the elements! If you’re looking for ones that are ready to go I recommend these or if you want to go the DIY route like me then I recommend you to seal them with a product like this. I first made ours during our first season and they lasted 2 full seasons (some going on their third). Some of ours would have even lasted longer but we forgot to pull a few during the Fall and Winter last year — which I recommend doing! Here are some other fun DIY options I recommend if you’re into that too!

• Rock Garden Markers

• Spoon Garden Markers

Double-up Tomato Cages

This tip is key! Guys, tomato plants can get HEAVY! I highlight recommend doubling up the tomato cages at the beginning of the year to give them more stability. It’s also key, as they are growing that you pull the branches up and through. If you don’t do that, they will continue to grow out and then they don’t get as much support from the cages they can. Our favorite cages to use are these ones. They also have two different sizes so we try and get the more narrow one and put them inside a wider one so there are different layers of support.

Wood Trellis

When it comes to growing snap peas, beans, and cucumbers we’re all about using trellises, specifically wood trellises. You’ll see a lot of different options out there but frankly, a lot are crap. Especially the netting ones. We tried those our first year and I would not recommend them… Our favorites are these which give you enough height and most importantly stability. For extra support, I also recommend staking them in the middle on one side with a metal fence post (I share my rec below with the plant support). Especially if you’re growing cucumbers or other vining plants that get heavier!

Garden ties

These little ties are KEY! As things start growing, these are an awesome way to guide your plants on where to grow and connect them to support poles. Here are the plants I use these the most for:

• raspberries

• tomatoes

• snap peas and beans

These are great because they’re just like garbage ties and are easy to use and just give plants a little more support in connecting where you want.

Plant Support Stakes

You’re definitely going to want to have some of these guys for your grow season. We have a variety of them but these ones are my favorite. The key here too is get ones that are tall enough and maybe even taller than you thought you’d need. You’ll lose some of the height in the dirt to get stability so I recommend going with at least the 5-6ft tall ones. I’d also recommend having a few heavier duty ones on hand like these metal fence posts. These are great for giving trellises extra support like I mentioned and then we also use on our raspberries which can get heavy and pretty big and out of control throughout the grow season.

Good quality clippers

Don’t skimp on these! You don’t need the most expensive ones but don’t go for the cheapest either, because they’re not going to get the job done. Throughout the grow season, you’ll be doing a lot of trimming and harvesting and having sharp clippers will make your life so much easier! These are the ones I recommend that I’ve had the last few years that were quite the upgrade from others I bought. Costco also sells a 3-pack of different trimming tools at the beginning of each gardening season I’d recommend too. If you haven’t noticed, we’re big Costco shoppers over here!

Kneeler

Add another thing I feel old for recommending… a kneeler! This is key though! Especially if your garden is right in the ground. Weeds are going to happen and your knees will say thank you for having one!

I hope you found this post helpful and if you want to save it for next year be sure to pin it on Pinterest! Below is also a round-up of a bunch of the recommendations I shared too! Happy gardening!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience which means if you purchase something I recommend I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

Gardening season is here and I am PUMPED up about it! When I moved to Tacoma last year I noticed there were community gardens ALL over the place and I immediately knew I wanted to join one. It took some researching and a little legwork to find one that had available plots but by the spring of last year I was the proud new renter of a box! I had mini balcony gardens for a few years while I lived in NYC, but having 14 by 6 ft of space?! So many options! So now that we’re in prime gardening season again I wanted to share some of the things I learned for other beginner gardeners. So you can skip some of the mistakes I made and just grow a badass garden yourself.

The dirt you use matters

This applies more to the herb garden we have in the kitchen… but something I learned the hard way is the dirt you use really matters! I thought.. dirt is dirt right?! Turns out that’s wrong and we ended up getting dirt that had chunks of glass in it and fungus gnats in it and AHH it was terrible. So definitely be conscious of the dirt you buy for your plants — especially if you’re doing a windowsill garden. Our community garden is an organic garden and they provide TAGRO or traditional compost (aka 💩)or and our plants have grown awesome. Then for our windowsill herb garden and our other houseplants, we use miracle grow potting mix. So I’d start by saying definitely pay attention to what the dirt is made for and if there are natural or synthetic fertilizers in it. Starting with quality dirt is the first thing that will set you up for success!

Know your zone

Another thing you want to know going into gardening is what zone you live in. This is based on a lot of different things but is important to know! This will help you learn about when you should be planting different things and what their season will be. Once you know your zone you can find a ton of different planting guides on Pinterest too!

Some plants are easier than others

This totally matters on the location of your garden conditions and all of that jazz but some plants are just a little easier than others. this can totally depend on the season too I’ve learned from other gardeners. So going into your season accepting not everything will be a success will ease a little pressure on you! Plus, like I said you learn as you go. After the first season here is where I would rank some of the plants we grew.

Super Easy
These plants are hearty and super easy

• lettuce

• kale

• sugar snap peas

• broccoli

• potatoes

• peppers

• basil

Easy but need some maintenance or need specific conditions
These plants will produce a ton but need a little more maintenance especially if you’re in a smaller gardening space

• zucchini — these suckers get HUGE. Since our garden is smaller we have to keep them trimmed back some so they don’t take over the world.

• raspberries — same with these guys I mean they are an invasive species after all so be diligent about keeping them under control.

• tomatoes — They get really heavy so making sure they have adequate support is key.

• strawberries — These take a little more time to get rooted and produce (usually a few seasons)

• spinach — These need cooler temps and bolt (which literally means bolt and grow crazy) So make sure you have the right conditions

A little tougher
We didn’t have great luck with these our first year for a variety of reasons which is why I’m saying they’re a little tougher (but also may have just been our season)

• cucumbers — you need to be careful with the leaves because if they get too wet they will die off eventually killing the plant… We didn’t have great luck our first year so we opted for a vining variety our second season and had much better luck

• carrots — we actually grew a decent amount of carrots but they require a lot of patience. We grew them from seed and they took all year to be baby carrots

• onions — same with the onions. A lot of this was due to not spacing them out enough or thinning them out (that’s a topic for another post) but I used the tops for green onions a lot more than the actual bulb part.

Give them some room to grow

That little baby zucchini or tomato plant will be a monster in a few months. So make sure you pay attention to the spacing they need. I wanted to cram as much as we could into our box but I quickly realized that some of the plants definitely could have used a little more room. Another thing is some plants need to be thinned out. Which basically requires you to decide the survival of the fittest after they’ve been growing a bit and you’re supposed to pull out some of the weaklings so the others thrive. I didn’t really know about this… but another thing to consider for spacing. If you’re gardening in a smaller space the square foot gardening method is a really great way to make the most of your space. You can learn more on this website and there’s a ton of books and blogs on it too!

Here are a few books I recommend checking out:

• Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

• The Backyard Gardener: Simple, Easy, and Beautiful Gardening with Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers by Lyons Press

• Rodale's Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden by Rodale Books

• Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space by Rodale Books

• Field Guide to Urban Gardening: How to Grow Plants, No Matter Where You Live by Cool Springs Press

Plant some flowers

Bees are your friends so make sure they feel welcome in your garden! Once some of your plants start getting blooms, they need help with pollination and bees will help it happen! We had really great luck planting marigolds throughout our garden in between our veggies. As the garden continued to grow we ended up moving them around a bit (probably not great for them but they survived) and it’s crazy how much of a difference having the flowers made.

Keep up with Maintenance and support

Like I mentioned earlier, your plants are going to grow, grow and grow some more! If you’re in a smaller space pruning is going to be very important. During the peak of summer we were probably pruning at least once a week I’d say and watering every day. It’s crazy how much plants can grow in a day or too with all of that sunshine! I’d recommend getting to know what plants and how you should prune them. The ones that needed the most pruning were our zucchinis, broccoli, tomatoes and now our raspberries. The other thing is making sure your plants have adequate support. Tomato cages are essential and you’ll need to start those when you plant them but you’ll also likely need stakes and other things throughout the season. This year, we actually doubled up our tomato cages to give them more support since they get sooo heavy. Here’s are my recommendations:

• Trellis for snap peas/beans/cucumbers: don’t skimp on these.. we tried one of the plastic poles with netting and it was absolute crap… I also know you probably don’t want to spend a million dollars either.. we ended up getting wooden ones that are sturdier but also inexpensive. Of course I also painted them because I’m extra like that.

• Stakes: My favorites were these ones. You can get them at Lowe’s or other hardware stores.

• Garden Ties: These are just the little twisty ties but are really helpful for securing vining plants like your snap peas to your trellis, tomatoes or peppers as things grow

I hope this post has been helpful! I’m definitely not an expert by all means but this is what I’ve learned so far in our first 2 seasons! Happy gardening!

Originally published June 2019 and updated and republished in May 2020