Falling behind

I feel I'm falling behind again in trades my mom is once again getting hyper about cleaning this is week 2 of her 3 week vacation she claims her ideal of clean is nominalistic but her room is a complete mess by those standards then again she also says anything touching the floor is garbage making her garbage and to think on tuesday I have a driving test to take too one that she seems determined to make me fail because she dosent let me drive like ever it seems

Oh! And we got a dwarf/teddy bear hamster mix I'll post pics later so far her name seems to be critter because I kept saying we will need this or that for the critter so it's my job to take care of her and allready I think she likes wheat germ after giving her some she is an omnivore so she will eat anything and I'll let her try some of my herbs later and outher stuff were growing maby even fresh corn? Angel seems just fine with critter (angel my golden kitty) so I'm not worried ATM about that pairing

More garden to come just don't like when my moms all hyper/OCD it's the worst I think

Some plant info/use sources?

I'll try to post as I come across I do plan on doing a feature on herbs and uses in time some of the sources I use will be listed here
botanical guides

Tent sale findings

Ok so there's a mess in the background and there's one extra item lol

I'm gonna tally everything up at the end so lol

1 ea the 4 yellow topped fert last year they were 3/10 I got 1 blue 2 organic/brown this year 2 blue 2 purple
.75 the small green topped washed out tomato fert
.50 7 containers (the orchid ones --pink red and tin) a bonsai container (the small red square) and the clay pot)
1 the large bonsai pot
.25 the tray for the clay pot
3.50 the blue/green pot
2 the square blue/green pot (from goodwill)

So at the tent sale I spent: 13 bucks (lucky 13! No that wasn't planned lol) and I think I made out pretty well some of the pots do need a clean or this or that lol but overall I think I can handle it lol and I think I did well too

Some garden finds from a couple days ago

As typical my life has gotten busy and my blog has fallen back on my list of priorities I'll get to it in another post but I was at a tent sale and got some good ferts so I applied them to everyone a basic and a tomato one for them I do think everyone needs more care then there getting with my mom being off and yes I did get a good few pics --so shall we get started with the pics?

Let's start someplace different? That's the rasberry bush after I taped it up some there's also my blueberrys and some cuttings

Here's a close up of some of those cuttings most of which I think I'll bring in for winter some are likely to even have "personal" containers from what I got in the tent sale

Here's my strawberries I'm hoping they survive my plan for them for winter there mostly everbearing it also looks like I'll have a good few for trading too the junebearing dont seem to be multiplying so quickly but I should have some more of them going atleast enough to get some strawberries from it

The peppers I baught --could prolly use some picking lol

And here's the peppers I started from seed I think most of them will be coming in in the winter with some of my containers I'll likely need a once weekly watering likely with my orchids and aloes and such hoping they will atleast stay alive possibly produce a little too

The mint planter

As you can see some of the tomatoes need to be picked I also am waiting on seeds from the yellow brandywine and more seeds from everyone as well

There's the windowbox I really should be using everyone more but meh lol

The ones to come in or be resorted some are rooting some should be about set lol

There's my cauldron I added oregano you can see the mint needs a trim perhaps the sage could use one too?

Mints from the cauldron my goji what I'm rooting my lemongrass many many cuttings as well some may go sale or trade depending

That pot that I got and planted and all for my birthday --there starting to outgrow the look I had but they still look ok I think lol

My corn if you look you can see the start of some of the ears there's quite a few starting to show

The loofah top I really hope the flowers and fruits start to show themselves soon

The watermelon im hoping these start to develop the fruits soon

Some cool stuff

I'm personally a huge fan of freebies and while I don't want to turn this into a blog all about them I may occasionally post about some for example the expand-n-grow maricle grow that I got it also included a 3 buck off coupon that I just used so it wouldn't expire it claimed to be able to fill 4 12" pots

I've also gotten samples for things I wasn't certain of like Lipton tea and honey I am not a fan of bleached sugar which is what is in there so that sample let me find that out withought having to spend much at all

I'm looking thinking to try a nameplates one see what there quality is like perhaps in time order some stuff for this little company that I'm trying to get started up so I can create some cool stuff for people at fair prices

Moved some peppers

So a quick one today first off I moved some peppers that look a little over crowded to me I don't know of that's why they are so small or if there just small lol if they don't produce I'll bring them in for the winter so they can next year

There's the pepper pot there are even 2 verigated plants I think there fish lol the one with the stick is my apple pepper that I saved seeds from then there's also jalapeños those are the only ones I know I had some peter and more peppers in there lol

In outher news my ears are clearly starting to show and some silks are coming out as well which hopefully means I'll be harvesting them soon

First ears starting

The first ears of corn are starting to develop! I also got some cuttings and a mini harvest! Pics to follow

Here's the cuttings there's lemon verabena and stevia that I've added there was some rosemary catnip lemon verabena and such in before as well

More lemon verabena cuttings these are in with my goji

There's an update to the holy basil and lemongrass I'm just waiting for them to get larger before I transplant them into the cauldron

Here you can see the start of one of my ears of corn --I'm likely to save a few seeds I have no clue what/how they will be next year because I'm just letting them do whatever they like (meaning I'm not stopping these from crossing) I'm still corious to see what happens hopefully I can get a strain that looks great tastes great and is great in containers too that's what the experiment is becoming lol

My first yellow brandywine it's smaller then the purple Cherokees I've had in the past it's about but a little small for a brandywine that I've grown in the past I can't wait to bite into it! I will be saving seeds this is from seeds that I started this year!

The tiny tomatoes the plant itself is under a foot tall and it's kinda cool to see! I have some saved seeds allready I'm trying to get more as well lol

Here's a "yellow" cherry tomato the plant is rather large I personally think these are golden not yellow I do have some seeds and am working on getting more seeds from these as the plant produces more fruits

A use for some mint?

This post is *long* overdue

On Monday I went to the state fair knowing the drinks would be expensive as would the food be expensive there I decided to have a drink ready to go

I used a 12 oz waterbottle (tin) that I got from eaa (i took 2 with 1 broke) I assume that this recepie can be altered to different amounts that's why I'm saying how much water I had

So I took 3 large stevia leaves washed them then lightly folded them and put 3 tears in the leaves then put them in the water bottle

I also put 3-4 freshly cut 4/5" mint sprigs in after I washed them then bruised the leaves by lightly twisting them around the base after pulling them up I hope that makes sence

By the time I was ready to drink it it was more like a light tea about a quarter the strength that I would like for a mint tea however for a light green tea it I think was great

Even the next morning the mint in the waterbottles looked very happy when I pulled them out

Some new shots from today

I while annoyied over a potential trade got outside today and watered my plants even got some pictures for everyone to see whats going on as well

Let's start with the herbs shall we?

Some of what I think to be the single best artificial sweetener on the earth stevia!

Some lemon verabena and lemon catnip as you can see I need to bag a few more blooms however I'm gonna let some mints "op" too thinking that they could create some really fun crosses with eachouther too

The orange thyme not doing as well as I would hope *but* you can see some rooted Greek oregano cuttings in there too

The rosemary (BBQ) I decided it was taking up too much space so I braided it together

You can also see sage basil lemon verabena orange thyme and Greek oregano in that picture

My white sage (looks white to me)

You can also see stevia rosemary and basil

The Basil's I think there to be a green that has a touch of purple purple and Thai tho it smells like liquorice (I'm guessing? Lol that's what voice detect got) the bags are there so I can hopefully save seeds from them and have them be "pure"

You can also see stevia lemon verabena

Here's my smaller regular rosemary plant it's pretty much staying that small too

Oh look my fingers making a cameo! (really I should retake that but I don't feel like it)

That plant is the lemon thyme

There's the greek oregano momma and some stevia too

That looks like regular catnip and sage to me also bagged for seed purity (growing both regular and lemon I thought it would be smart)

The water drains slow from some pots these are the cuttings I'm trying to root

They include lemon verabena rosemary and I think there's a sage too

The cauldron it's waiting for good lemon verabena (I hope that one roots in there) lemon grass and the Basil's (Thai holy purple holy red and green and green/purple are all likely to be put in like the mints)

The rosemary isn't doing much there are a little bit of Corsican mint there's also lemon and orange thymes

I do think maby I should trim the sage a bit

Here's the seedlings lemon grass and holy Basil's

There's the mint pot

Some new plants (well cuttings) they look like they might just survive and prosper once the mints are large enough there gonna get cuttings moved into the cauldron as well with the rest of those mints

The goji looks like its pretty happy

There's the watermelon starting to crawl around

The loofah loving it's trellis

My corn --I'm hoping I get some ears soon lol

My peppers there are some fish plants and even a couple apple peppers coming up (the fruit)

Tomatoes

My strawberries these will need to be protected come winter

The rasberries and blueberries that will also need to be protected come winter