Small container herb

I have 2 containers with herb in front of the house. I've actually been pretty bad at watering these containers, but yet again, the neglect has not hurt most of the plants. In one container, there is thyme, rosemary, and perilla (or shiso). I had totally forgotten that I had sowed perilla seeds since the first 2 weeks I didn't see any seedlings. But now, it has grown some beautiful leaves. I throw them in salads and it adds a wonderful fragrance.

Left rosemary, middle perilla, right thyme

Perilla with beautiful leaves

There were some pretty flowers on the mint plant. Overall, it looks like it is suffering from uneven watering. But mint is strong so it should survive.

Cute pink mint flowers

Mint needs a little TLC

Harvest Monday - October 8, 2012

It's been a while I've joined Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne Dandelions. I've been harvesting lot of bok choy and some kale but I forget to take pictures of these. I did take a snapshot of the harvest from the community garden: Ichiban eggplant, Italian eggplant, chinese giant red peppers, longhorn peppers, one beet, and lemongrass.

Harvest from community garden

Also, this is from 2 weeks ago, I pulled out the last of the tomatoes in my balcony garden.  These are pink champions. Next to the tomatoes are baby arugula and kale.

Last of the tomatoes from the end of september with arugula and baby kale

I'm also getting a good harvest of giant chinese red peppers. This year, the peppers are bigger than last year. I'm not sure why exactly, but I can't complain.

Giant chinese red pepper

I also found a funky looking pepper in the community garden. This is also a chinese giant red pepper. See it has a skinny little tail!

Tail on the red pepper

Side view of the alien pepper

I hope everyone's fall garden is doing well! Happy gardening!

Sometimes laziness is good?!

I have not gone to my community garden for about 3 weeks or so. Since it has been raining periodically I figured the plants that are left in the garden will be alright. And it turn out, being lazy was good for my garden. One of the hot pepper plants died, but my eggplants (even the one battling the flea beetle) are thriving.  Other than these plants, I have chinese giant pepper, longhorn pepper, yellow pepper, snap peas, beets and lemongrass growing in the community garden.

Pablano pepper is dying, but other plants thriving

Ichiban eggplant

Italian eggplant - the plant that had the worst case of flea beetle attach

Black Beauty with many flowers

The lemongrass has gotten so much bigger. I need to start thinking of different ways to use it.

Bushy lemongrass

The first thing I tried was lemongrass tea. I made in the same way as mint tea, just cut up the whole lemongrass and boil it for 3 minutes. It made a beautiful and delicious tea.

Delicious lemongrass tea

Collecting basil seeds

I have been patiently waiting for the basil to produce some seeds for me to collect for next year.

Basil seed pods

some green and brown seed pods

I'm not quite sure when I'm suppose to harvest the seed pods. I thought it was when the pods were brown. But when I peek into the little pockets in the brown pods, the seeds have already dispersed. So I have harvested some brown and some green seed pods.

If you look into the pods that are still green, the seeds have not matured. So it seems that I cannot catch all the pods at the same time. I'm going to leave some in the pods after harvesting to see if they mature after harvesting. I guess I could also just pluck the pods with the mature seeds but that seems kind of tedious.

Mixture of mature and non-mature seeds