My garden has seen better months than this one but it was also not the worst month either for it. Surprisingly I did not have any issues with whiteflies, caterpillars, black widows or even ants. I even dodged a major one from Mother Nature itself called Hurricane Dorian. Sadly I came down with the flu so the garden suffered from my inability to water it for a while.

Jeff The Tomato

Hurricane Dorian was expected to be a major issue for my area from the early tracks around the start of the month. As a result, this caused me to relocate all the plants since they were in potters to protect them from all the rain and wind. That ended up not needing to be done since Dorian stayed out at sea but we still did got some flash flooding and winds.

The tomato, in particular, was difficult to relocate since it was over eight feet at the time and quite wide. He was already in the tallest part of the enclosed area. I ended up putting him on a dolly and moved at a steep angle just to give him enough clearance room.

During transportation, I lost 3 tomatoes in total at least I did not lose anymore. There was also no more room in the garage where the rest of the smaller plants where moved so he was still outside when the weaker of the winds came through.

Just this week the top part that has no support folded over since it has around five tomatoes up there. While that makes it a bit shorter it was also out of the room so that was really the only route things could go.

In total, I had around a dozen tomatoes for the month. I was quite supersized by the turnout and have been enjoying them each time one was ready. They are still not as big as I would have liked. At this point I know it did not get watered enough as for almost I week I was unable to do much.

Herbs

The oregano and parsley spent over a week in the garage without any sunlight. After that, they then were not watered much for over a week. They are at least still holding on and producing more than I could use. Hopefully, a few good weeks of getting watered daily and sunlight will restore them back into good shape. The oregano, in particular, does not look so great.

I was going to trim them back during September and try my hand at dehydrating them so I could have some over the wintertime. That, however, did not happen since I became rather ill. I still have not fully recovered and I just don’t want risk contaminating something I plan to store over the long term. Perhaps next month I’ll finally get around to doing so.

The good news at least no spider webs covering the parsley. All the spiders seem to have gone missing after Hurricane Dorian. Now if only the invasion of love bugs would hurry up and do their thing. At least they remain on the outside of the screen and have only managed to get a couple inside into my waiting arms with a fly zapper.

Tabasco And Jalapeno Peppers

These two stayed outdoors with the Tomato during the hurricane. I did not want to put them in the garage with how much scent they put off. Not to mention if they started dropping peppers some people in the house don’t deal to well with spicy and I did not want cause any troubles.

These two are also my top producers for the month. Not only did I get a few more Ziploc bags of Tabasco peppers. I had over a dozen Jalapeno peppers as well. They at least work great in trading for other goods in the local area. Since I myself cannot consume as much as they produce.

While I did take some photos of the Jalapeno since it only has one leaf remaining and no peppers it looked quite depressing. I felt I’d give it some privacy and hopefully I did not kill this one with the lack of watering. It seemed rather happy with how much it was producing. Perhaps this one was a one and done plant. Sometimes you just have that kind of luck.

Red And Green Peppers

These two spent time in the garage with the rest of the plants and seemed to have suffered the most. Since they had an ant issue a couple of months back I was worried this was going happen. It also did not help I did not water them for around a week. While it did rain a few times that did not seem to do the trick.

The red pepper sadly appears dead. I’m going to leave it in there for another week to see if any growth comes back. Since it has been dwindling for months now I don’t have much hope. I think it’s gone for good this time.

The green pepper, while it’s still green, has only grown a little bit. No peppers or any growth that I could tell on that front. It seems to just be surviving. I don’t have much hope for this one remaining over the mild winter months. If it producing anything at all I’ll consider that a win.

Salsa

The plan for this year was to grow most of what I needed to make this Salsa I really love. With a couple of failures I had, it did not come as close as I would have liked. While I could have tried to grow in our second growing season more of what I’m missing I just don’t have it in me to try again this year.

As a result, I took what I had and I made up a batch. I had some tonight on my burritos and it was amazing.

The tomatoes, tabasco, and jalapeno that I put into it were from my garden.

What I was hoping to grow the following they either failed or got eaten by other creatures so a failure this year: cilantro, scallion, and red peppers.

Then there was the stuff I did not attempt to grow at all that makes up the rest: garlic, onion, lime, and mango. Along with a heavy dash of salt, pepper, and some red wine vinegar to finish it off.

Hopefully next year I can get most of it from growing it myself. It has proven to be quite a challenge with all the ingredients in it. It does look fantastic and tastes amazing as well.

Looking forward to seeing how everyone’s garden is doing this month for Garden Journal .

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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.