Garden Update

We were on vacation last week, and we brought some of my plants with us. The individual pots of basil, Thai basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and the rectangular pot of mint came to the beach. The other plants stayed behind under the supervision of a neighbor.

All the plants are alive and well! The cherry tomato plant had some yellow/brown/rotten looking bottom leaves, which I have since trimmed off. I think they probably just got too much water/got too wet. The regular tomato plant is growing OUT OF CONTROL, and I had to add four tall stakes to hold it up. The regular (better boy) tomato had one ripe tomato when we got back, but some creature had chewed it apart. I had to throw it in the woods. So we're still waiting for big ripe tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are holding us over, though.

I never figured out for sure what happened to my Thai basil. The other three Thai basil plants are growing happily (and are huge). My best guess is that it was caused by a leafhopper because they are the only insects I was regularly seeing in the garden. I find it strange that it would only affect a single plant, even when there are others in the same pot, but it doesn't really matter. I threw away the plant (didn't want to keep it in with the rest in case it was diseased). Today I saw a cucumber beetle, but it flew away before I could crush it. Hopefully my plants are sturdy enough to survive a few pests!

Did this cute little guy kill my Thai basil? I've crushed a
bunch of them. Then I read that petunias ward off
leafhoppers, so I planted some in with my big tomato
pots about a week and a half ago. No more leafhoppers
(at least in the last two days). and no more dead plants.
Here's what happened to the Thai basil.

Here's my garden as of August 18th, 2013!

Cuttings rooted over the past month or so.
Click here for details! 

Can you believe how good these look after their shaky
start this summer? Click here for my "saving baby
orange tree" post.

Oregano and rosemary. The oregano is pretty new. If anyone
knows how to make my rosemary take off like my other
plants have, let me know. It just sits there.

My husband wanted to trash this pepper
plant a month ago. I saved it, and it looks
AWESOME! Lots of flowers and small peppers.
Separate post coming soon!

Pineapple sage, root pruned in July, click here for details.

Italian basil and Thai basil looking AWESOME, thanks
to their root pruning in July, click here for details.

Basil, rooted from a cutting back in July!
Click here for details!

Petunias to keep the leafhoppers away.

Petunias to keep the leafhoppers away.

Parsley's struggling a bit.

Had to trim off a lot of lower leaves on the
cherry tomato plant when we returned from
the beach.

Thai basil and cherry tomatoes.

We've probably had about 20 cherry tomatoes so far
this summer. Excited for more!

Better boy tomato is OUT OF CONTROL!
The Italian basil looks and tastes great, too.
Can't wait for juicy tomatoes. I window-
ripened one that had some insect damage,
and that was tasty, and then a bird(?)
chewed apart the other ripe one.

Better boy tomatoes. One stem has a splint
(I'll post on that another time).

Lemon balm root pruned in July, click here for details.

Chocolate mint and orange mint, root pruned in July,
click here for details.