Things are not looking so good for most of my garden at this point. With the loss of the Jalapeno last month. This month brought some heavy multiday storms. The tomato plants are looking bad and the basil looks like it had a nervous breakdown. At least the bell peppers have been going strong.

Tomatoes

This year with picking up a second tomato plant a little further into the growing seasons I was hoping I was going have at least one do something by now. I’d poke them with a stick but I fear all the leaves would fall right off.

While I do feel a bit disappointed with how they are looking and the lack of anything else going with them. Everyone else I know around here has either given up on their tomatoes for the year or is in the same boat as I am.

The second one looks worse than the first and it was the younger of the two. I picked it a few months back when the first one looked like it was done for the season. Now this one seems like it’s had it. It gets plenty of rain just from all the storms we have been getting alone.

Looks like I won’t be enjoying tomatoes fresh from the garden this year unless the cooler months we are heading into soon enough are more preferable by them. We had quite the hot and humid summer that seemed to fry most things. The only good news here is that the bugs that have been attacking most things have been leaving them alone.

Herbs

With the three different herbs I’m growing parsley, basil, and chives only one of them has been holding there own. Everything else seems to be quite beat down from the nasty weather that we had rolled in a few weeks back. While the potters they are all in do drain it’s not enough.

The parsley still has been going strong. I did a little pruning from some of the dead spots it was getting from last month. It seemed to have recovered decently well. Many weeks I just find myself cutting off a few and chopping some up for the week to have on hand.

The chives are starting to look like more of an unwanted plant growing in a planter than something you would cook with. I don’t use a lot of it so there is at least more than enough to last for the next month. Perhaps by then, it will be doing a bit better.

Last month the basil was to a point where I almost had enough to use it. It was tall and full and I was even tempted at one point to just harvest some leaves so I would at least have something just in case things went downhill. Turns out I should have followed my gut on that one.

For most of the year, the basil has been under some cover from getting to much rain or sun. It seemed to rather prefer that then what the tag that came with it calming that it should get full sunlight for my region.

I have been moving it around so it could at least get some direct sunlight days at least two times a week. During one of those cycles we had two full days of a heavy downpour and it got left out. It lost quite a lot of leaves from that alone. After that, it has sadly just wilted and developed a lot of spots on it since then.

At least everything for now in my herb section looks like it’s not beyond recovery. With some cooler temps rolling in as well I am hoping things will look much better next month. I do need to do some pruning this week at some point.

Bell Peppers

Something that has been kicking some behind this year has been the green and red bell peppers. While they did get heavily hit with some bugs and are still wearing those battle wounds they have gone into another cycle of production.

All the rain we got has knocked down what has been attacking them. Followed up with some straying and handwashing I’m hoping things will remain under control for the rest of the season. Sadly though what I assume are mites never quite get eliminated so they could be regrouping for a rebellion in the garden soon enough.

I had over a dozen bell peppers growing this month between the two plants. Somewhere consumed and others are being left alone to grow out some more. They never quite get massive enough to have some real fun with them in cooking but they are just fine being diced up. I’m at least glad these are working on.

Final Thoughts

Outside of the bell peppers everything else did not fair that great. At least I’ve not given up on anything just yet and there is a good chance for some comebacks next month. Starting to think getting some tomatoes is going be out of the question with how long they end up taking and things failing to move forward from flowers sprouting and dying.

Garden Journal 2020

• April Was A Battlefield And Most Things Survived
• May Growth
• June Had High Temps, Flash Flooding, And More
• July Heat

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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.