My Beautiful Mint Plant

Mint is an awesome and easy herb to grow but it can also take over your garden! This is why I plant my mint in containers. It keeps it contained and easy to get too. 

Usually my mint will come back every year, even in the container. However, with really cold and snowy winters lately, some of my mint has been killed off. However, this year my spearmint did come back! Although it took its sweet time coming back, I didn't see new growth on it till late May. By that time I had planted a peppermint plant in the same pot. 

Now they're growing together in the same pot and it's actually working out pretty well. Not to mention it makes for some nice green foliage in the garden. 

I've used the mint to flavor my water recently and to chew on some leaves to help with indigestion. 

I could also try drying some and saving it for peppermint tea in the winter! 

New Blueberry Canes!

This year has been a little disappointing for my blueberry plants. I think it's mostly due to the fact that I hadn't trimmed the plants at all since I bought them a few years ago. However, it looks like the trimming I did this year is going to benefit me next year and years to come. 

On my oldest blueberry plant, I noticed new canes growing out of the soil. New canes will produce more blueberries. 

This is why trimming blueberries canes are a very important tip for growing blueberries. 

My bucket of Greens! 8/8/13

My bucket of greens in my container garden! Basil, Swiss Chard and cut & grow lettuce!  It looks like a healthy salad bowl! What makes it better is that the basil is from seeds I saved last year! 

First ripe Blueberry!

Apple seed experiment! 6/19/13

The organic apple seeds I saved from over the winter are really taking off! Some of the seedlings are now approaching the top of the container!

Finally dug up the Radishes! 6/15/13

After a rainy month and planting the cherry belle radish seeds on May 6th I figured I might as well dig them up.  They never got to the size they were suppose to but did bounce back the last week or so. 

They still look really cool and I can't wait to try them!  I dug up 7 radishes today. 

My Rosemary Survived the winter!!!

My potted Rosemary from last summer survived the winter! Of course it helped that I put it in my shed for a few months!  Ever since I took it back out in March it didn't show much life at all but I just noticed today some new growth at the top of every stem!  Rosemary can't survive in the ground up here in CT due to the cold winters but leaving it in the pot and taking a little extra care paid off! Now I don't have to buy new Rosemary this summer! 

Radishes growing slow 5/29/13

Radishes normally grow pretty fast but when conditions are not quite right they slow down.  Perfect case is my radishes I planted this year.  In optimal conditions the radishes should only take 22-23 days to mature to harvest.  I planted the seeds on May 6th so today would have been a day to harvest, however my plants are still small.  I think it's due to the cool and wet conditions lately.  Even though radishes are a cool spring plant and fall plant, the conditions this spring have been pretty nasty! Hopefully things will change in the coming weeks! 

The radish plants should be close to 6 inches high, they're barely bigger than newly sprouted radish seeds! 

Potting Tabasco chili plants!

Planted Radishes! 5/6/13

On Monday I planted some radish seeds in black pots.  This is the first time I'm growing radishes and I love the fact that from seed they are ready to eat in less than a month!! 

I used Burpee's cherry Belle radish seeds that mature in 22 days! Which means I should have radishes by May 28th! I can't wait! 

I put them in black pots in hopes to keep them warm if we get a chill in the next week or so.  If it goes well I have seeds still that I can't plant in September for a nice fall crop too! 

Berry plants in a snowstorm

My blueberry and blackberry bushes got covered in the snow over the weekend. Although the marshmallow like blanket of snow that the storm left behind on the shrubs may look cold, I'm actually hoping the small layer of snow will keep the plants warm the next few nights as temps dip down into the single digits!!! Snow can be an insulator and keep temps slightly warmer! With single digit temps I'm not sure my rosemary bush will make it through the winter but you never know!

Blueberry Bushes in the snow! 12/29/12

Finally seeing some snow today and its covering my potted blueberry bushes!

My potted Blueberry Patch!

Cut 2nd Sugar Baby Watermelon!

Check out more of my garden photos in this Hub!

I put up some photos of my vegetable garden, container garden and herb garden on Hubpages.com.  I titled the hub:

The Beauty of #GrowYourOwn: Photos of My Backyard Garden 

 

Check it out, the photos are higher resolution then the ones I put on this blog because instead of using my iPhone I used a DSLR camera!  

Problems with a Blueberry Bush

The precipitation this summer has been strange bouncing back and forth between moderate drought and normal conditions. However the very end of July and August so far has seem wetter. It's not just that we have gotten a decent amount of rain, but we gave gotten this rain in torrential downpours which doesn't evaporate that quick in high dew-points. I began to notice one of the blueberry bushes pots was collecting water at the top and I would occasionally have to tip the pot to empty it. The bush didn't seem impacted by it at first. However after torrential downpours last week, the pot flooded, leaving standing water for days! This did have an impact on the bush, browning and killing a lot of the new growth! So I had to empty the bush from the pit remove the water and a lot of the soil. To my surprise I had forgotten to punch holes in the bottom of the pot, which was trapping the water! Such a STUPID mistake!! After pinching holes in the bottom and replanting the bush I trimmed off the dead branches. The bush isn't as pretty anymore but hopefully it will come back!

Cucumber plants and watermelon growing strong!

The cucumber plants I started from seed the first week of July 2012, which I then transplanted into pots for my container garden are doing great! Below I have pics from the day I transplanted and today the last day of July. They even have some flowers on them!

As for the watermelons that surprised me last week they are still growing strong! Except they're two different colors which is interesting!

Another watermelon! 7/27/12

I just went outside to move around some of the container plants in case of bad weather this afternoon and came across another watermelon growing! It's not that big yet. I didn't have high hopes for growing watermelon but now I'm excited cant wait till they're ready to eat!!

A Wonderful Surprise!! 7/27/12

For the first time ever I'm growing watermelon, sugar baby watermelon to be exact! I'm growing them in a container on my deck and started them from seed. I've diligently watered the plants everyday when needed and was super happy to see blossoms on the plant a few weeks ago. As the vines began to elongate across the wood deck, I began questioning if I would get any watermelons...

Then today as I was walking on the deck I noticed something under one of the vines, the vine had moved during storms the night before. To my surprise there was a grapefruit size watermelon!! It made my day! I hadn't even seen this one growing and I've even been looking for it!

Finally a rainy day! 7/20/12

Finally got a day long rain event! It's been lightly raining most of the day which is great for soaking the ground and the garden!!! My family is having a picnic tomorrow and we needed some celery for potato salad. My mom asked if she could use my celery plant growing in a pot in the backyard. I said sure and cut her a bunch! This is from a celery plant we originally bought at the store that re rooted and grew! Talk about recycling!!