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

Monday Harvest - October 3, 2011

I was nominated for my first online award by Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden!! I will comment soon, but for today I will like to post some pictures of my harvest from last week.
First I have a bunch of thyme to dry. Since it getting cold, I need to move some of the herbs inside.

I've got some bok choy, peppers and hot pepper.

The GIANT chinese pepper plant is still producing very cute small peppers.

And some lettuce. These lettuce are slightly bitter, but it also has slight hint of shiso flavor (the herb used to make picked plum).  I really like it!

I'm joining gardeners around the world for Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne!

Harvest Monday - August 29, 2011

Fortunately, the hurricane was not so bad in charm city. The wind was quite strong, but not much damage near us. The balcony garden survived with little damage (just some slanted plants). I think the tomatoes are done though. The leaves are all getting brown and dry. I harvested the last of the tomatoes - many of them had split (probably because of the rain?). I plan to pull the plant this weekend and hopefully transfer chard, bok choy and chinese broccoli. Here is the harvest this past week.

Not so giant, Giant chinese peppers

The last tomato harvest, most likely - some sweet 100s and early girl 50s

Rosemary to dry

Handful of thyme

I am linking to Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne.  Its amazing to see the harvest from other's garden. It makes me excited to expand next year:)

Herbs in the garden

The hot weather is doing great things for the rosemary and german thyme. The plants are getting lush and look generally healthier than when they were growing inside. I would really love to learn more recipes using these herbs.

German thyme looking strong

Rosemary smelling wonderful!

The basil and oregano don't like the heat as much. The oregano is turning purple and bolting. I've pinched the flowers but I think I need to move it to a shadier area.

Both the purple and sweet basil leaves are narrowing. The plant itself is very strong (ie: the stems are hard) but these are also starting to bolt.

Purple basil turning green?

Sweet basil are curled up and the leaves are very hard

I will be moving them to a cooler area in front of the house. If you compare the basil plant on the balcony with the basil in the container with the tomato plant out front, you can definitely tell the difference. The leaves on the plant in the cooler spot is larger compared to the ones on the balcony. The balcony basil are considerably stiffer.

The balcony basil used to look like this before the heat wave

My only concern about moving the basil here are slugs. So far the slugs have not found their way up to the balcony but last year when I had the basil on the ground floor outside, they slugs feasted on them. EWWW. I will have to keep a close eye on them! The dill is also doing so much better now that it is out direct sunlight. I love dill and hope to use it more in my cooking.

So now I have a little bit of space on the balcony. I'll have to see if there are herbs that are particularly resistant to heat (any suggestions?). I'm wondering if the jade plants would do well in the heat. They are generally unhappy in the house and I saw some of neighbors with HUGE jade plants in front of their homes. I love these plants but succulent tend to die in my hands...

It is hotter than my thermometer!

The temperature according to weather.com is 96F. But my thermometer on the balcony says otherwise. It is so hot! In between movies, BBQ and going out to dinner I've been gardening (there is so much to do!). There is so much to do! I am determined to pot all the plants I started from seeds so my balcony is going to be more crowded than I originally planned. I just can't get myself to throw away them away.

It is unbearably hot on the balcony, but the sun is good for the herbs. I thought they were happy when I had them indoors, but I realized that they are much happier outside. Clearly the thyme and rosemary are much stronger and greener now. The rosemary are actually growing upward rather than scrawling around all over the place.

I made 2 self-watering pots using 18gallon containers. I was initially wanting to put 3 plants in each container but quickly realized it is too small for 4. I put 3 of the pepper plants (Chinese giant sweet pepper) in one and 2 tomatoes (either homestead or supersweet 100) in the other. I have 5 more tomato plants left so I plan to make 4 5-gallon self-watering container and put the last in a 4/5 gallon bucket from walmart. I used to water the plants using empty juice and soda bottles. Now this is not manageable so I invested in a hose making the watering process much quicker. An great upgrade for the balcony container garden!

The wonderful hose and 3 pepper plants in 18 gallon bucket

2 tomatoes in 18 gallon bucket

I also transplanted all the basil from the seaweed experiment and one tomato seedling and put in a pot up front with the petunias. I'm not sure if the tomato will fruit but it is worth a try. Hopefully the slugs will not get the basil!

Amazing herbs

I stuck some rosemary & english thyme cuttings in water and left it on the kitchen windowsill. I had forgotten about them for a while. Today, I went to go open the window and I saw this:

Rosemary roots

English thyme roots

They are so resilient! I should find a little pot for them. I love herbs! They just grow & grow and smell amazing!
     The dill that sowed last week are starting to pop out. The seeds smelled like dill but the seedlings do not. I actually forgot that about these too since I left them out on the ground floor next to my backup zucchini plants (which are doing still doing way better than the ones in the bigger pots). It seems that the plants do better when I'm not hovering over them like an overprotective parent!