Garden Journal 2020 | June Had High Temps, Flash Flooding, And More

in OCD4 years ago

Garden Journal 2020 June.png

It has been an interesting month for gardening. Many of the photos I’ve taken are a bit hard to see as its been cloudy with a slight dust cloud overhanging in the area for a couple of days. Mix in a lot of what feels like one-hundred degree days and buckets of rain when it’s not. I’m shocked the plants have survived the dramatic swings of nature this month.

Bell Peppers

Bell Pepper 1.jpg

A lot of these high degree days seem to have sent the local infestations into overdrive. My peppers have been battling what appears to be aphids or mites for most of June. Lots of leaves lost and growth seems to have slowed down as well.

Bell Pepper 2.jpg

My green pepper seems to have been hit the hardest. I have been watering them down and hand washing the leaves for all three of my bell pepper plants. Along with using some sprays to try and knock down the issue. In some instances, I just started to remove the more heavily infected and damaged parts as part of pest control. It’s still an ongoing battle.

Bell Pepper 3.jpg

My third plant has started to produce some bell peppers as well. I’m rather enjoying having three plants as they are now going around in a cycle of having something every couple of weeks.

Despite the rough month, I did get 2 green and 2 red bell peppers. I did give them a good washing and inspection before eating. Sometimes you just have to deal with a little extra nature to still enjoy the things.

Tomatoes

Tomato.jpg

I was hoping by now my tomatoes would be doing something. It seems like it’s going be a slow season as anyone else I know around me is having issues as well. They both more or less look the same now.

At least in the last half of June, they have seemed to want to grow taller. I can only hope these high heats are exactly what they have been waiting on. As a result, I’ve been watering them daily sometimes two a day. They sure are thirsty.

Jalapeno

Jalapeno.jpg

Outside of the leaves being rather limp, it’s like nothing affects my jalapeno and the ability to produce. It has been riddled with aphides, forgot about during a flash flood, and I’ll admit I don’t always water it along with everything else either. Despite that, it’s Jalapenos for days.

I think there around thirty Jalapenos on the plant at this time. Almost all of them have been ready to pick for the better part of a week if not longer. I’ve eaten around dozen this month and shared them as well. If I pick them more will replace them in no time!

Herbs

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Last month my herbs were doing great. This time around some of them are on the edge of survival and many others seem to be in the process of withering away. Too much rain and mixed with a lot of hot days is not what they ordered it seems. I have even been moving them into a shaded area from time to time as I felt needed.

In the photo above my basil and cilantro are not doing so great. One of them is my fault and the other I’m just wondering if it’s not happy about the heat. Both of them have been getting a lot of water.

It turns out I love pesto which is something I’m not quite sure I’ve had much of if any in my life. The downside is it took almost an entire basil plant to make it. I had left it with about four times the amount of leaves it has now. At least it’s still holding in there. I’ve been considering getting three or four more basil plants.

I’m not that concerned about the parsley that can be seen in the cover photo of this post. I have yet to find any large scale application other than clipping off a little here or there. Even if I do end up losing a large portion of the parsley it’s been keeping up with my usage.

Dill.jpg

For the entire month, my Dill plant has not been happy one bit. It seems to be slowly degrading and is looking worse by the week. The container’s in also has a decent drain so I’m not quite sure what the deal is. I’ve tried putting in a shaded area for a few days to see if that helps at all.

I’ve given up on another attempt to grow some herbs from seeds. I’m willing to admit now the seeds I have been trying to use over the past couple of years suck. Nothing seems to work even putting them in a damp paper towel only gets them to mold.

Final Thoughts

Despite some struggles with the garden and these high temperatures, it has been a fun month. I find it rather relaxing going out and seeing how things are growing. I hope everyone has had a decent month.

Garden Journal 2020

Information

Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.

@Simplymike runs the monthly Community Garden Journal Challenge which you can find here

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Sorry for the delay, @enjar. Been delaing with a concussion this week, and staring at my screen was nearly impossible. This is the first day I'm able to catch up with commenting again.

Sorry to hear your bell peppers are having such a hard time.
Normally, I spray my plants with a garlic spray every two weeks or so, but I haven't done that yet this year. I just have calendula flowers and nasturtiums growing everywhere - those are such great trap plants for aphids.

I hope the tomato plant will take off after all. It's kind of a big difference with the giant one you had last year 😂

I have like a dozen basil plants growing, so I never run out when I want to make pesto. That reminds me... I should maybe make some tomorrow.

Despite some struggles with the garden and these high temperatures, it has been a fun month. I find it rather relaxing going out and seeing how things are growing.

That's the main reason why I love gardening. It really relaxes me. The garden is my stress-free zone. Any harvest is a bonus, but not my main goal. 😁

That is what I should set up about a dozen basil. Happy making pesto. I hope you feel much better soon.

Always fun to see your experiments. We just can't ever seem to grow peppers. Something eats them just as the seedlings start to sprout. I'm sure it's something we're doing because I can get peppers galore at the farmers market--bell, shishito, jalapeno, poblano, and a number of other types. Mother Nature doesn't make it easy on us sometimes. We had quite a bit of rain for a while, too, so a few of the cherry tomatoes we had pulled off had split, but they were still edible. Our dill was doing well for a while, but it seems like it goes to seed very quickly here. I try to enjoy it while it lasts because it is one of my favorite herbs. I hear you on the pesto, too. I think that's why I usually make oregano pesto--that grows like a weed so there's always more than enough. Hope your peppers bounce back and your tomato starts shooting up like last year!

I’ve given up on trying to grow things from seeds at least this season. Everything was at least a tiny plant when I got it which helps greatly. As I’ve had things just come and eat stuff like the chives.

Yeah, it can definitely be a challenge to start from seed. I think peppers are definitely one that would be better to buy as a plant in the future. Some of the other stuff is fun to get different things than they sell as a starter plant, like the squash and cucumbers we never have a problem starting from seeds. Always an experiment either way!

Cucumbers sound like they be fun to try. One of these years I’m going be able to set up some raised beds and go wild with a bunch of different stuff. Than try out things like canning.

Your peppers look great despite the sun damage. See how green the stems are?

I usually notice this on my bonsai trees too. The old large leaves usually get burned on the first hot day, because they were grown in early Spring. Once they crisp up or turn yellow, they get replaced by stronger Summer leaves.

Think your tomatoes are going to grow hyperspeed when you start getting scorching temperatures. That always sends the flowers into action. My tomatoes and peppers tend to grow slow or weak when outdoor temperatures stay below the mid 70's. Once we get above the 80's everything rockets into fast growth.

I do hope my tomatoes will start going bonkers soon. I don’t expect them to beat last years. I just want some though! It’s been 80’s during the day for a while now. These high 90s I hope will do the trick.

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