dismay

Guess what this post is announcing?

More death on the balcony garden. I threw out the Mums, the last Mint plant, and my kids' sick plants. Also dumped out the bag of Potatoes, that plant was looking awful. I got a tiny harvest of nice-looking but very miniscule potatoes, just enough to fill the palm of one hand. Not sure what I'll do with them. I recently cut down the swiss chard to eat it, cut down the Basil plants to dry their leaves, and today the Green Onions and Chives to put in enchilada recipe, so there is quite a bit of space opened up now.

Sprayed garlic/dishsoap concoction on the Petunias and other plants that have aphids. There was also what appears to be whiteflies. The next day I inspected the Petunias and most of the bugs had stopped crawling, but it looked all nasty covered with their still bodies. So I took the entire planter into the bathtub, tipped it on its side and rinsed water forcefully through the foliage, which knocked off most of the bugs and spent flowers as well. Looks better; not sure if it actually is better. I've trimmed more bad foliage out of the Nasturtiums (the remaining leaves look surprisingly healthy), cleaned all the Dogwood leaves by hand, and cut down most of the Echinacea (swarming with tiny caterpillars). Done more sleuthing online and finally figured out what has been ailing my beautiful little Mimosa tree. It appears to have fusarium wilt. Fits the symptoms perfectly, afflicts a wide variety of plants and does not affect Ferns.

Not treatable. The solution is to remove and destroy the diseased plants. It comes through a soilborn fungus and I'm afraid my poor-quality potting soil might be to blame, or the leaves I collected from a friend's yard to use for mulch. I've scoured more pots with bleach, swept all corners of collected dust and litter, thrown out bags of old potting soil and leaves. It is looking very clean now, and rather barren.

And all this just when I am able to enjoy sitting outside on the balcony again. In the summer it's too hot, too noisy from the A/C units running in all the buildings around me, too bothersome with bugs. But now that it's a bit cooler and quieter, my plants are succumbing to more ills. I almost feel like I'm being a hypochondriac on their behalf.