I'm back! After a year's blogging hiatus, I've returned with a newly minted PhD, a new address, a new wedding band, a new garden, a bunch of new kitchen gadgets, and lots of new domestic pursuits.
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| 2013 Patio Garden | Bobbins of Basil |
For now, though, I'd like to show off my new patio garden.
I partially moved to the new place right before Memorial Day, and we bought some small plants at Walmart. After the wedding, my lemon and lime trees arrived along with my mystery plant I'd been keeping at lab. We also added a parsley plant recently (we didn't get one with the initial batch).
Despite a TON of rain this summer and a trip to our friends' house while we were away for the wedding/honeymoon, the plants are more or less doing great, though they very quickly took over their pots and have already been moved to their larger homes and newly root pruned. Here's the garden progress so far! I'll post details on the root pruning (something I never knew about before) another time, as well as some details about my attempt to rescue a yellowing orange plant and an overwatered pepper plant, my forays into using Epsom salt, and lots of recipes using our edible garden.
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| Baby plants--Memorial Day Weekend, 2013 |
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| Baby plants in their small containers--Memorial Day Weekend, 2013 |
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| Mint on the patio (we've since gotten different patio furniture) Memorial Day Weekend, 2013 |
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| Mint and lemon balm out front--Memorial Day Weekend, 2013 |
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| Our first tomato--6/11/13 |
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| Better Boy tomato-- 6/11/13 |
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| Rosemary--6/11/13 |
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| Pineapple Sage--6/11/13 |
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| Serrano Pepper--6/11/13 |
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| Cherry Tomato--6/11/13 |
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| Thai Basil--6/11/13 |
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| Italian Basil--6/11/13 |
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| Peppermint and Orange Mint--6/11/13 |
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| Lemon Balm--6/11/13 |
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| Orange Mint and Chocolate Mint--6/11/13 |
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| Kitchen window--IKEA pots on a tension rod holding peppermint, orange mint, and chocolate mint 6/11/13 |
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| All the plants after returning from their honeymoon at our friends' house. It rained a LOT. The pepper is the only one that really really suffered. 6/30/13 |
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| Thai basil's leaves got smaller due to rain, but the plant was still sturdy. 6/30/13 |
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| The basil got incredibly root-bound during its first month of life--6/30/13 |
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| We split the basil--half stayed in its window box style pot, half moved into big pots with the tomatoes--6/30/13 |
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| We split the basil--half stayed in its window box style pot, half moved into big pots with the tomatoes--6/30/13 |
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| Cherry tomato with Thai basil--6/30/13 |
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| A waterlogged serrano pepper--repotted into dry soil--6/30/13 |
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| Some plants have moved into their grownup homes--6/30/13 |
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| Two basils per pot instead of four--6/30/13 |
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| Our smaller pots had no drainage. We thought that was ok since it was only temporary, and there's not usually a ton of rain in June/July here. We ended up drilling holes in them instead of buying new pots--6/30/13 |
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| Tomato will grow roots out of parts of the stem buried under the soil. When you replant a tomato plant, you can plant up to 90% of it below the surface! Since this tomato was very leggy, I moved it down lower. Unfortunately that meant messing with its cage quite a bit and breaking the stem. I splinted it and will do a separate post on this method later. 7/1/13 |
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| The pepper plant was not (and still is not) doing well. In addition to its new soil, we moved it in the shade and gave it a little "hang in there" rock--7/15/13 |
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| The mystery plant. I inherited this plant from a friend in my old lab who gave me cuttings that quickly rooted. It hasn't received the best care along the years, but now I'm determined for a nice houseplant! It doesn't seem to love the sun, even in its shady location, so I've since moved it indoors. 7/15/13 |
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| The new addition: parsley--7/15/13 |
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| Rosemary hasn't been growing too much, but that could be because we've been using it so much and/or because it has been so rainy. Hopefully it will take off now! 7/15/13 |
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| The citrus trees arrived 7/3/13. I left them at my parents' house during the move. Orange is really struggling. I'll outline my attempts to salvage it in another post. Photo taken 7/15/13. |
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| The basils growing alone are really root-bound. I've since done some harsh root-pruning (again, coming in another post), which will hopefully lead to better growth! I'll wait to see how they do to post it! |
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| Basil sans tomato--not looking so hot--7/15/13 |
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| The basil and tomato are really helping each other out, though! 7/15/13 |
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| The basil and tomato are really helping each other out! 7/15/13 (yes, this is the same photo up top--it's my favorite!) |
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| Pineapple sage really took off! This one also got a serious root-pruning today, so we'll see how it does. 7/15/13 |
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| Cherry tomato with thai basil, 7/15/13 |
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| Our first ripening tomatoes! 7/15/13 |
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| Front yard--the landscapers associated with the community do this, but I added my Mickey and Minnie garden gnomes. |
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