Variegated Mint

Variegated mint

I am not sure what variegated mint is, but that's what I picked up from the nursery at the size you see here. I haven't put it into a large container because I've read that mint grows like crazy (weed-like) if not contained. I don't want it to have an adverse affect on my other plants, and I have a limited amount of space, so I moved it up to a container that was twice as big as the one it came in but still isn't very big.


I noticed on June 22 that a lot of the leaves have holes in them. Is something feeding on my mint? Or did I buy it this way? I'm not sure, but I think my plant is being munched. I munched a leaf myself, and it definitely tastes like peppermint, not spearamint. I thought I'd like peppermint better, and maybe I will for mint tea, but I can't use these leaves in mojitos. Yes--I bought a mint plant so I could make mojitos with fresh mint. Frankly, I don't know what else I'd use it for.

One interesting thing about this plant is that it gets thirsty very quickly. It wilts to the point where it looks completely dead, but after watering it the plant looks completely normal again within an hour.

Update: Variegated mint died within a month. Perhaps whatever was munching on it killed it.

Growing Lavender

Lavender seedling


Lavender, June 12, 2006


Lavender, June 19, 2006

6/19/06: Suddenly there are two new seedlings. Are they from seeds that are just now germinating, or does lavender send up more plants somehow? I am confused.

My original lavender plant finally looks like it's growing (however slowly). See how small this plant is? I planted the seeds the last weekend in February!

9/8/06: Lavender continues to grow at an impressively slow rate. At this rate, I may never see a flower. More seedlings have shot up in the last three months, but they have scarcely grown. I now have a total of 9 plants from 3 seeds. Two of the nine are starting to look like lavender plants, and when you touch them, your fingers smell of lavender. If I really want a lavender plant, I should probably buy one that has already grown up from the nursery or farmers' market. I'll keep watering this one, though, and see if it ever gets big.

Growing Leeks

My leeks have looked pretty much the same the entire time I've been growing them. I have no idea if they're growing properly underground, but the above ground part sure doesn't look ready yet. I know leeks take a really long time to grow. Need to look up just how long. Also, may be a cool season crop, which means that I'm trying to grow them at the wrong time of year. If they survive summer, maybe they'll take off in the fall or winter?


8/1/06: Noticed that one leek seems to be growing more, as indicated by a thickening and lengthening of the green tops, but only of one plant. However, while there are four leeks in the container, I can't find the fourth one because the green tops broke off when I tried to pull it out (yes, I was willing to kill the weakest plant because I was so curious about how they were all looking underground) and now the remaining tops are buried beneath the soil somewhere. Hopefully they'll reemerge at some point.

9/8/06: One leek continues to grow larger (very, very slowly) with the others making little or no progress, including the buried leek.

Super Sugar Snap Pea Plants

I bought these seeds partially because they were supposed to be disease resistant, but apparently they aren't. On the other hand, I think I might not have planted them in enough soil (not deep enough?). When I threw out my lincoln peas, it seemed like there were a ton of roots circling around the bottom and they were too wet (though they didn't look like they were rotting or anything) so I wondered if they needed deeper soil. I only filled up this container about halfway. It had lots of slits at the bottom for drainage though.

Another possibility is that I didn't use the right soil mixture. I planted these in the half organic potting mix/half perlite mixture and in June when I started transplanting things in soil only they grew a ton better. Also, it may have been too hot, as peas are a cool weather crop. However, it was a very overcast spring so I'm not sure it was really a heat issue. What I think is hot and what peas think is hot may not be the same thing, though.











Based on the way the bottom leaves on some of my basil plants tend to turn yellow, then whitish, then fall off, I also wonder if the peas just weren't getting enough sunlight. Even though I have a second story balcony, it faces west and might not get enough hours of sunlight each day.

June 22, 2006 Update

Blue borage--2 out of 4 plants are flowering. Flowers are edible, as promised, but do not taste like cucumber. They are surprisingly sweet. Flowers only stay on the plant for a couple of days then fall off. Not sure what use my plant will have once all 7 flowers bloom and then drop as there is no sign of another pod of potential blossoms. I'm somewhat disappointed because I was expecting a plant with lasting flowers. Also, my plant is very tall and thin and bottom leaves are turning yellow then brown.
The small borage plants at home have a sticky substance on the underneath side of their leaves and the leaf undersides are covered with small black things. I mistook them for soil, but they appear to be something else. I'm afraid it's some sort of infestation which will kill my currently thriving borage.

Cherry tomato plants--As of last Saturday, my first tomato had begun to develop. Now I have three growing. I'm thrilled about the prospect of having home grown tomatoes. It seems like nothing short of a miracle given the previous shabby condition of these plants.

Container Garden Setup

Container garden overview

I've moved up to big containers. I'm not sure how big they need to be, so I sprung for two 18" containers which were $10 each (sigh). The rest I'm growing in free/cheap containers, most of which are about 12" except for the big black tub.



Variegated mint

I bought this one already grown. It's been prone to wilting to I moved it into a larger container. The cool thing is that it really bounces back from wilting.


Cherry tomato

Most of my tomato plants looked pretty bad, but when I transplanted them and removed the bad leaves, they really started to flourish.


Green zebra heirloom tomato plant

I bought this one, too.


Blue borage

Despite what I read about these plants having a long tap root and not liking to be transplanted, they were easy to remove from their original containers and have held up to the transplant just fine. One is on the verge of flowering! I'm so excited.



The leaves on my basil plant were already drooping when it was at my friend's house, but then I took it home and transplanted it into a large container, the leaves started to turn pale yellow. So I dug it up, put it back in the kind of container it was in before, and took it back to my friend's house.




The sage plant at my friend's house also started doing poorly at home. Four leaves dried up and fell off and the others seemed on their way to dying as well. I added some more soil since the container was only half full and took this one back to my friend's house, too.



The newest sage leaves are very soft and furry and totally unlike the older ones which are bumpy like a tongue and not furry.



The big one is a cherry tomato and the smaller one on the right is an unknown heirloom. Both are doing well. I'm not sure I should have put both in this pot but the heirloom was doing so poorly that I thought it was going to die. Boy was I wrong!


Closeup of my now-flourishing heirloom tomato