enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

garden update.

Junegarden

Since I last shared…

Mint

…I saved my mint plant's life. It was looking terrible after a large "harvest" for mojitos when we had family in town back in April. I didn't even share photos in my May update, it looked that bad. I was ready to toss the whole thing in the trash and buy a new plant, but at the last second decided it deserved another shot. I trimmed all the leaves with giant holes in them, re-potted it into a larger container and added fresh, nutrient rich dirt. It's recovered really well – seems like it just needed more space and some pruning.

HARVEST

…I've "harvested" basil twice for pesto.

BEFORE
After Before2
After2

Most recently was yesterday afternoon, and as you can see in the before & after photos, they look pretty wimpy now. I decided to trim each plant way back (using my herb trimming method) because it seemed like every "sprig" was producing a flower – and with basil, you want the focus on leaf production, not flowers. We'll see how things go. Hopefully, that was what they needed, and if not, we'll get at least four meals out of all the pesto we were able to make with that batch.

Lemon

…I realized I have been over-watering my lemon tree. It has not been doing so well and based on the yellow leaves, I think it's got to be excess water. I've cut back and it's looking a little less droopy, but those weeks of too much mean we lost a lot of little lemon buds. Bummer.

Tomatoes

…I've got oodles of little green tomatoes. I have five tomato plants. Two have at least 20 little tomatoes each. One plant has just one giant tomato. And the other two have no fruit to show for themselves, but a few yellow flowers, so hopefully they're just late bloomers. Like a total novice, I didn't save all of my plastic markers so I don't even know what type of tomato is doing what. FAIL. Next year, I'll be keeping a diligent garden journal (on paper) and I'm awkwardly excited about it.

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15 responses to “garden update.”

  1. haya Avatar
    haya

    hey, don’t worry about the lack of plastic markers! it will add an extra layer of magic to tomato harvest because everything will be a great surprise!!

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  2. Madeleine Avatar
    Madeleine

    I agree with Haya. My Granddad always grew tonnes of tomatoes each year … like 20-30 plants. I’d always ask what they were but he’d shrug and I say “I don’t know”. I found out this was because of the way he got his seeds… he’d walk through the local supermarket and when no one was looking pop a tomatoe he liked the look of in his mouth then spit out the seeds and grow a tomatoe plant from it!! I think there are somethings only the 60+ can get away with.

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  3. r8chel Avatar
    r8chel

    It’s interesting to see how your garden is doing, since I’m also growing tomatoes, basil, and now mint. My mother-in-law gave me part of her mint plant on Monday, but it’s still in a bucket waiting to be properly potted this evening. I can’t wait to eventually make tea!
    I’ve been so afraid of underwatering that I think I ended up overwatering my basil for a while, because I noticed that mine was turning a little yellow. It’s looking better now — and it’s ready for a good harvest! Oh, and my five-year-old counted eight tiny tomatoes on our four plants this morning. 🙂

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  4. royela Avatar
    royela

    are you planning on staking the tomato plants with the most fruit on them? i feel like i never knew how to properly do that but the fruit got so heavy by the end, I was afraid the whole thing was just going to topple to one side.
    super jealous of your impending tomato harvest.
    when they’re ready to eat, my go-to recipe for tomatoes is a tomato & cucumber salad. use a garlic press (or minced finely) on 2-3 cloves, add a drizzle (2 tsp-ish) of balsamic vinegar, a little squeeze of dijon mustard, freshly cracked salt & pepper and whisk with enough olive oil to make it meld (1/4 cup). then add diced tomato (3-4 small) and 1 large cucumber (peeled). toss with the marinade and let the flavors marry while you prepare the rest of your meal.
    i know that’s not really a recipe but it’s one of those “season to taste” simple things.

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  5. Linn @ The Home Project Avatar
    Linn @ The Home Project

    Your garden looks absolutely amazing (love the clean, potted look!) In terms of the mint, I have had a similar experience myself. To me at least, it seems like you barely can kill mint, it’s super resistant and grows back even if you happened to take a bit too much off.
    Love your basil harvest! How nice to have that kind of amount to make pesto with. Also, I’m rather jealous of your tomato plants. You’re going to have one fantastic harvest on your hands!

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  6. kimberly Avatar
    kimberly

    I bought a little, tiny mint plant a few weeks ago at a farmers market in Iowa. I sat it outside and watered it, but didn’t have a chance to re-pot it. I re-potted it last weekend and it’s spreading out, growing like crazy–I am hoping for mojitos soon! (Because that was the whole reason for buying the mint!) Oh, and isn’t it just crazy how much we pay for those plastic shells of herbs?! I can’t even imagine how much we saved last summer on just basil & mint alone!

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  7. Avital Avatar
    Avital

    Wow, you are simply amazing. I am constantly killing my plants, even strong ones such as mint and basil plants. Even under the Californian, Bay Area sun. It’s a pleasure looking at a living herb garden for a change 🙂

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  8. o-girl Avatar
    o-girl

    I’m sure you’re doing this but I thought I’d check anyway: are you feeding your plants with some sort of plant food? I’ve used Miracle-Gro and specialty types sold at a local nursery. Either works very well. I’d feed them/water them after harvesting leaves. 🙂 I’m only a few years into growing my own veggies/herbs so I’m not an expert by any means. 🙂 Your patio garden looks lovely!

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  9. Diana Avatar
    Diana

    I have been loving reading your garden updates. Last summer, my apartment had a nice patio so it was my first time planting container plants. I loved it! This summer I have been neglecting my plants a bit, I need to get on that. Anyway, I love your life updates. They’re very lovely to read. 🙂

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  10. Corinne Avatar
    Corinne

    Hi Elise!
    I love reading your blog, and have really enjoyed seeing your gardening adventures!
    I worked for a yard maintenance company for years, here in Canada, and some of our lakefront clients had potted lemon trees on their properties.
    From my understanding, it is quite normal for the trees to lose a fair amount of little buds.
    It would happen every year, when some of the fruit had already developed, which looks like the stage your tree is at.
    It naturally gets rid of some buds, and then nutrients head more into the already developed larger fruit.
    And any leaves that turn completely yellow, we would remove (as they would be fairly loose and easy to pluck off – similar to ‘dead heading’ flowers, where you remove any brown, dead flower heads so that they are no longer removing nutrients from the plant)
    It looks as though the lemons you have are doing well!
    Just feel the soil, and use your touch to decide if it needs water, or not.
    Good luck, and I look forward to reading more about your garden!
    Love your blog!!
    -Corinne

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  11. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    The main portion of the plant is staked or caged, but I do not yet have a plan for the little branches that are getting full of fruit! Hopefully they do okay!!

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  12. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    I did use a tomato food early on, but it advised to stop using once the fruit started to come in. I tried some on my basil and those plants, if anything, did worse than the ones without it. It is a learning process for sure!!

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  13. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    wonderful tips and advice!! thank you! I will take a look at the plant and try to clear off some yellow. 🙂

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  14. Debie Grace Avatar
    Debie Grace

    Beautiful garden, Elise! I have a problem with my tomato. The flowers won’t last because they fall before they totally bloom. I water them everyday in the morning. 😦

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  15. liz Avatar
    liz

    love reading about your garden!

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