Herbs as Wedding Favors

A while back,  I talked about dabbling in herb wedding favors.  So I put my herbs in cute little pots and wrapped a ribbon around them.   Feel free to check out my samples.   Anyway, even small plants grow and that's what happened to one of my models.  Check out the before (look at the Japanese mint in the small red pot with the lavender ribbon) and after shots.   I'm gonna have to re-pot that one.  It looks wild with growth in that small pot already.

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Saving a Dying Japanese Mint

Check out the before and after shots of a Japanese Mint plant.  The "before" shot was taken 25 days ago and the "after" shot was taken today.  As you can see, the plant has visibly perked up since almost dying a month ago.  What happened?  Well, I saw this sickly plant in my garden and figured that it might be sun deprivation or over watering.  To resolve both problems, I tied the pot with straw and hung it on a sunny wall.  True enough, a month later, no more crumpled leaves.  And there's even a new shoot growing.  Ah, the sun can do wonders for our plants. 

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Sweet Basil: Wick Watering Update

Remember my post on wick watering?   Basically, I wanted to see if my basil will thrive with a wick watering set-up.  I placed my sweet basil in a yogurt cup and had a wick at the bottom.  The cup is contained in a larger cup with a hole about an inch from the bottom to ensure that rains won't drown my sweet basil.  Guess what?  It's been two months already.  I'll let the results speak for themselves.  Here are the before and after photos:

As you can see, the plants are really big enough.  In fact, I've pruned them before I took this picture.  You won't see it in the picture, but I don't even need the wick anymore.  Roots have gone through the drainage holes.  It's a pretty cool set-up.  I can water and leave them since the water will be good for a couple of days.   If it rains, the excess water just drains out. 

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Perfecting My Pizza

A couple of months ago, I started experimenting with pizza making, primarily because I wanted recipes with sweet basil.   But it hasn't been easy.  In the first few ones, I tried flour with some special type of baking powder.  Supposedly, I wouldn't need anything else (e.g. yeast).  That wasn't such a hit because the dough was too tough.  The pictures here are from my second or third attempt.  I lost count.   Perhaps this was the disaster attempt.  One time, I ran out of flour and figured I'd use a "flour extender".  I tried cornstarch!  It was awful!!  It tasted like paste.  Too bad.  I even added Hungarian sausage with that attempt. 

Anyway, my latest attempt (last Monday I think) was the best.  At least I'm improving.  I've always had problems spreading the dough since I didn't have a rolling pin and I can't seem to do that dough tossing thing.  I've also added yeast!  This made my dough chewable.  Anyway, to solve the rolling pin problem, I used a simple round drinking glass to flatten and spread the dough.  Then I added tomato sauce, onions, garlic, bacon and three types of cheese (quick melt, Parmesan and mozzarella).  I topped it off with some olive oil.  For the dough, apart from yeast, I also added some salt, brown sugar and dried basil.  I then baked this whole concoction for about 15-20 minutes at 300.  It was pretty good.  Next time I'll use a lot more basil.  I'm just waiting for my plants to grow back their leaves.

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Hydrangea Propagation: Stem Cutting

It's been a while since I tried propagating my hydrangea.  I've had about 5-6 cuttings in the past and almost all of them wilted in a week.  However, one survived.  For about a month and a half, it remained fresh in a glass of water, but it wasn't rooting or growing any new leaves or stems.  Now, about three months later, the stem cutting is finally ready for planting.  If you see the picture, it has new stem and leaf growth and it has nice white roots.  I'm not sure why this one survived.  I didn't use honey or any rooting hormone. As a matter of fact, the stem cutting which I smeared with honey died very quickly.  I think ants ate it.  Maybe my shears was clean when I cut it.  I really don't know.  I do know now that stem cutting works for propagating hydrangea.  It has a low survival rate, but it can work.

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RIP: Melon

I really blew it.  Just a few days ago, my big melon plant started fruiting.  And now it's dead.  Ah yes, my cruel fate.

Rewind a little.  How did I go from peak to trough in record time?  Well it's like this.  I wanted to make sure the fruit grows and ripens.  So I wanted to protect the plant from more bugs, which have been eating the leaves.  I sprayed the leaves with a dishwashing soap solution.  In hindsight, my solution may have been too strong.  By the end of the morning, all the leaves have wilted.  Sigh.  Just when I thought my gardening has finally paid off.  Tsk.

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