Tea is about the only thing I can safely drink all day. The water in the apartment I rent tastes terrible, so I buy bottled water for drinking. If it weren't so expensive, I'd use it for all my cooking as well. I find store tea gets boring very quickly. I've always preferred loose leaf tea when I could afford it. Now that I can't really afford tea, I plan to use even more herbs to make the most of the money I spend on regular tea. And have more variety in flavors to fit every mood.

I'm hoping I can afford a couple grow lamps in the fall so my indoor stevia won't get so leggy in the winter months while I pick the fresh leaves. I nursed one stevia plant through winter and killed off most of it. Oops! I thought I'd killed it all until I saw one pop up in the planter. It grew ever so slowly. I was glad to find some stevia plants locally because I lost patience with the slow growth. It is now the same size as the plants I bought because I've kept it outside so it can get as much sun as possible before the hot summer days and nights take over.

The grow lamps will be invaluable for getting a much earlier start on my herbs, saving some seeds, and even extending the amount of time I will have to grow cold weather crops. It would be great to have a greenhouse so I don't have to try to garden in the hot sun. But I'll just have to keep dreaming while waiting to see whether I'll see the fall and can put my plans into action.

ckat:

I'm hoping to use my July property tax refund for a) a better computer and b) an appropriate indoor setup for seed starting. IF nothing else gets in the way....

I'm more frustrated than usual this year because I have just completed a decent veggie bed and my seeds mostly all damped off waiting for the weather to plant them out.

SO I will likely be later than everyone else as I start my seeds outside after the warm gets here, but I'll get SOMEthing going! I always do.

And hopefully the seeds I put out the other day will sprout despite last night's freeze.

I finally was able to ask my neighbor about the free mint plant I got in my front yard. She said it is a spearmint plant that is growing all over their back yard.

I don't think she really knows what it is. She thought it was the weakest spearmint she ever had. I'd like to take it to a nursery to see if anyone there can tell me what it is. I don't like spearmint, and this doesn't taste like spearmint to me. It tastes lemony. But short of going to the neighbor's back yard and sampling a mature plant, I'll just wait until this one I potted is bigger to have another taste. I put the pot outside yesterday. It was very windy in the afternoon while I was resting. In the early evening I went out to check on the plants and the mint was the only one looking beat up. I gave it a bit of water. Will see how it looks this morning.

Now that I know the source, I'll ask to dig up a more mature plant if I kill this one off. I know mint can be very invasive, but the way our yards and houses are set up, I don't see how the mint got to my front yard. They have none growing in their front yard and their is a wall between our properties. On our side of the wall, their is a thick layer of rocks and then the sidewalk. The mint was on the other side of the sidewalk. My neighbor hasn't been in my yard and I haven't been over there. We've only talked with the wall between us. There is a portion of their wall that also has high wooden and chain fencing because they have chickens kept in that area. The chickens aren't able to get to the backyard. My backyard is a narrow strip that doesn't go past where the chicken coop is. My other neighbor has that side of the duplex. I can see into his yard and there are weeds but no mint. He bought mint just the other day to grow in a pot.

So I'm a bit fascinated by the mystery of this mint. Although now I'm saddened that I didn't protect this gift a little better. But the weather was mild and not windy when I came in to rest. I didn't think it was possible to kill mint so quickly. Just my luck. Hehehehe.

Gotta go water now before the cutoff time.

Chat, grow lights are fantastic. I grew all my Coleus cuttings under them during the winter months here. You will love them when you are able to get one.

quietyard said:Chat, grow lights are fantastic. I grew all my Coleus cuttings under them during the winter months here. You will love them when you are able to get one.

Yeah, grow lights are like the nirvana of gardening. Hehehehehe. When I got grow lamps the first time (years ago) it was because I dismantled my freshwater aquariums. I had several fish tanks. One was I think 80 gallons. The tanks were perfect for growing herbs because I still had the light furnishings. Only had to get different bulbs to grow from seeds. I miss how warm my dining room was. Stopped being a dining room early into my fishkeeping hobby because one fish tank was not enough. To cut down on the amount of lights needed, I lined the inside of the tanks with aluminum foil, so each tank only needed one light. The big one obviously had two, I think 4' bulbs. I had much higher germination rates back then.

Still working on trying to get my brain to remember stuff from back then. I think returning to gardening will be good for my memory because bits of stuff keeps coming back. But frustrating at the same time because I gardened for years, yet forgot so very much. Is only slight consolation that I am in a much different zone - would have had to unlearn a lot of zone-specific details.

Dann_L said:I've got mine in the ground except the Sweet Basil and French Thyme. I have basil growing in another location but I want to put some in the new herb planter. All of my herbs were purchased plants this time.

Too funny! Love It!

I have to seed my basil in containers that I keep in a 6x6 foot chainlink pen, WITH chainlink roof!
Between the deer and the groundhogs I'd never get any for myself!!
Haven't gotten that far yet, but I WILL.
Gotta have my own pesto in the freezer going into winter!