New Rooting Project(s)

Propagating Rosemary via Cuttings

So after the rose cutting flopped, I ended up doing some cutting on my rosemary bush. I cut a whole chunk out, trying to reshape it, and realized I had some good pieces that would probably make good cuttings. So why not try?

Rooting Rosemary:

1. Cut some rosemary! Take plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful fragrance. 

2. Select semi wooden branches (too green and it might be too weak) that are 4-6 inches in length. 

3. Strip the leaves from the lower half-ish of the branch. 

4. Prepare your pots with soil, and water the soil well. 

5. Gently push the cutting into the soil. 

6. Press the soil into place around the new cutting. 

Rosemary cuttings made May 12th.

The soil should stay moist, but I'm trying not to have to cover these. The humidity is soaring, and I don't want to invite mold. They get shade but bright light during the day and morning sun.

Aloe Vera

So I have a pot of aloe vera that's doing very well (the same ones I sunburned), and sister wanted a piece of it. I had some new plantlets in the pot that grew over the winter, so I fished them out for her. She picked three, and I fixed a small pot with damp soil. Have a look:

So far so good. I hope they have a long life. My other plants are glad not to be so crowded.

Gathering herbs from the garden

Also: How to make homemade mint tea and how to make your own seasonings

 

Pruning the Mint Plants: 

 

So, from time to time, it's a good idea to cut on your herbs. At first I was a nonbeliever, and I didn't want to cut a single fragrant leaf. My KC mint got three feet tall and spindly, flopping over to the ground. My chocolate mint nearly died, and my rosemary kept getting taller and thinner.

This year I said: I'm going to give this cutting thing a go. I started with the KC mint, took a pair of scissors, closed my eyes, and started cutting. It was like I'd put the plant into overdrive! That mint plant pratically exploded with lush new growth. The rosemary was next, and it's gotten bushier by the week. So now... now it was the chocolate mint's turn.

My chocolate mint had a rough start; it was super tiny and not growing too well. But in the past month I was able to re-pot it into something that gives it more horizontal room. When I turned the plant over in my hands to get the old pot off, the crushed leaves sent up such a blast of spearmint that it was like I'd chopped into an onion! My eyes started watering and I could barely breathe. It was wonderful.

Here's a picture of my chocolate mint, pre-trimming on left, post-trim on right:

It went from an over-sized afro to a scant buzz cut! It looks a bit thin on top now, but I know in a few weeks, it'll be huge again. Just look how much I cut out of it:

  

 I was about to throw the clippings away... but then I decided to bring them on inside and wash them up. I could decide what to do with them later. Then I got struck by the brilliant idea to make some homemade mint tea. 

First, I washed the mint leaves very well in the sink. Then I filled my tea brewer with about 12 stems worth of leaves. 

It wasn't exactly an exact measurement. I just kept adding leaves until I decided I was tired of adding them. I tore most of the biggest leaves as I put them in, and then I poured about 8 oz of hot water into the brewer, and let it steep. 

 Chopping up the Rosemary:

 

While that was cooking, I remembered some rosemary I had harvested on March 16th, a month back. I'd washed it and laid it out to dry. So I decided to chop it up to add some dried rosemary to my spice cabinet. First I stripped the leaves from the branches, starting at about the middle and gently running my fingers backwards down the stem. Then using a large knife, I chopped the little leaves up until they were as small as I wanted them:

Dried Rosemary stems

Here I've stripped the leaves from the stems. I used a small ramekin to catch the fly-away leaves.

Using a knife, I chopped the leaves up until the bits were fairly uniform in size.

Close up of the finished product.

And finally... I didn't forget to enjoy my first homemade cup of mint tea! All in all... it's actually pretty good! 

The Gift of Herbs

Last summer my sister's friend was very thoughtful and gave me three herb plants. They were two mints and a rosemary bush. I had no idea what to do with them.
I could tell immediately that all three were in containers that were far too small for the plants' needs, but I figured that they'd been potted that way intentionally as containers just to transfer them in.
But I didnt have time to do the repotting; I was barely keeping up with my garden's typical demands, let alone figuring out the proper care required by mints and rosemary. Plus last summer was a very hard time for my family.
Needless to say, my inability to devote enough time to my garden last year meant I almost lost all three plants.

The first mint, the Kentucky Colonel mint, required immediate transplanting, since it wouldn't even stand up straight. The pot tipped over due to the height of the plant, and so many roots had grown through the bottom I couldn't just set it in the garden with everything else. So I stuck it in a pot with some recycled dirt and called it good. This mint, thanks to the extra space it got right off, has fared very well.

Here it is beginning to send up stems on new growth.

The second mint, a Chocolate Mint, didn't fare very well. It was very cramped in the roots department, so cramped that there wasn't even much soil left in the tiny pot it was in. The soil that it was in wouldn't hold water and the drain holes in the pot were far too large. Both of these problems meant that water went right through the plant, and slowly it began to die from under watering. The Chocolate mint is definitely my favorite of the two, and I was distressed to find that by the end of last summer there were only a few leaves left on what had been a very healthy plant. So I found a day, grabbed the last of the potting soil left from the whole year, and repotted both it and the rosemary.

I was astounded at how quickly the Chocolate Mint recovered. Within days, there were brand new leaves showing on top of the soil. Within a week or two, the top was green and runners were going everywhere. Unfortunately, as seen here, it didn't enjoy the winter cold. But it's coming back up for me, nevertheless. Hopefully with some TLC this year, I can have a very lovely mint plant once more.

The rosemary very nearly suffered the same fate as the poor chocolate mint. The pot it was in was about 6 inches wide and about the same deep; the root ball was about the second most pot-bound plant I've ever seen. The soil it was in was poor, as well. But this hardy plant only lost the tips of a few branches to yellowing and browning. After all that neglect, 95% of the plant was still green. All of the new growth happened in late late summer after I repotted. It's come through the winter as if unbothered by the cold. The only trouble is the plant had an unpleasing shape to begin with, and the new growth has compounded the rather... unattractive shape.

My goal for this year is to trim and shape the bush into a more... bush-like appearance.

I noticed the scent of the rosemary turning bitter through the winter months; the sunshine I've been able to give it in the past week or so has sweetened the fragrance a good deal.

I'm unhappy with all of the pots that these herbs are in. They were done last-minute and with the scraps of what I had left at the end of the season; therefore these were the last pots I owned at the time. I want shallower pots for both mints; preferably something shallow but very wide, to accomodate the spreading surface roots of both varieties. However, I may end up electing for a slightly deeper pot for the KC mint, as it has a distinct upright shape that may necessitate the balance and stability of a bigger pot.

As for the rosemary, it may sit where it is for a while. That's the biggest pot I own, and my garden plans for this year may mean I dont have the funds to just hop over to the store and grab a pot for it until later.

Overall, I have been happier than I ever imagined with these three plants. I never knew how rewarding it was to have aromatic plants in one's garden. I can brush my fingers across the spines of the rosemary plant, and someone standing two feet from me will smell its heady fragrance. These plants are forgiving and tolerant of a busy schedule and troubling life events; they keep on rewarding you with their rampant growth and wonderful aroma despite it all.

Enough sentiment. I love 'em. I plan on adding a few other herbs to my garden this year. Maybe basil. We'll see.

That's all for now!