winter results

Well for once I did not loose as many plants. Ice plant is still here,

and curry looks okay too although it suddenly has a lot of leaves drooping- I wonder if it wilted from draft or needs more water. Pot feels very light. I moved it further from the door, and gave it a drink.

My tarragon dried up- I was being careful to let it stay dry but I overdid it. Rosemary looks dead, sigh. I will have to replace it yet again.

However I got stevia through the winter this year! I've been picking it's bug-riddled leaves for sweetner in my tea every morning, to clean off the plant some and I can tell now, the new foliage growing in is untouched. So seems I managed to stop that tiny bug as well.

I am going to re-spray with soapy water the ice plant, stevia and rue. It's warming up so perhaps some surviving pest might revive.

lemon balm plus

My little potted lemon balm has doubled in size! I keep it in a warm spot against the window, currently moving it over to a shelf every night to avoid the chill.

Salad burnet is getting eaten. It's one of the very few fresh greens I have right now- and discovered my kids like it on fish, in soups, in stir fry, I added some to a dish of herb-infused noodles and peas once too.

Curry plant doesn't seem bothered by pests any more- it has great color and is growing- but continually falls over like this- the roots don't seem strong? I am not sure if I should bury them further (add soil to the pot- the stem is not deep) or water more to encourage root growth.

Untrimmed mini geranium scions continue to look great!

Here's more of the crowd in the winter window spot- two kinds of sweet potato vine, cuban oregano, jade plant, salad burnet is there in the middle so small.

others are great

Not all the houseplants in my winter sun spot are doing poorly. Cuban oregano cheers me with its bright glow.

Salad burnet has grown back healthy young stems after I pulled out a bunch that looked pale. Tarragon I've been eating. Well, lithops still looks to be on death's door. But the rest are fine. On the floor (top to bottom, left to right): ice plant (before I moved it), curry plant, jade, mini geranium tree, salad burnet, chives, lithops, tarragon, cuban oregano, sweet potato vine.

On the little shelf, back to front: zebrina (wandering jew), mini geranium, and underneath the geranium's leaves are the younger succulents I've been trying to start-

the pretty one I think isn't ponytail, kalanchoe- not visible echeveria and two others I don't know the names of... . . .

winter plant ills

This notched sweet potato vine is doing pretty well in the window spot- although one leaf edge blackened from draft. The other one- still in a jar of water- continues to have pale leaves. I finally caught the culprit- saw an insect on the window and thought: oh, there's a bug. Then I noticed it scooted sideways- and I recognized that motion. I darted over there and pinned it with my fingers- a leaf hopper. I bet it's what was making a few of the coleus look poorly, too. I inspected them all close, but didn't find any more bugs among those windowsill plants.

Others at the best spot for winter light- in front of the sliding door- aren't doing so well. The ice plant is worst of all- it keeps dropping leaves. I can't see any bugs on it- and I have tried spraying it twice- so finally I just separated it from the other plants. But it doesn't get as much light now.

Curry plant had this. I think it is some kind of mites. I pinched off all the stems that had this pale, slightly withered appearance

Making the plant go from this

to this

and then sprayed it with soapy oil/water mix, and rinsed twice, and pinched it back again when I found a few more ill-looking stems. Now it's down to this- but finally looks healthy.

Geranium plant had some pale, anemic-looking leaves, I pinched it back too.

Jade looked okay, but I gave it a serious trim, because upper stems were getting overbalanced. Here's two views of its new look.

Several other plants that share this window spot got doused in soapy water too just in case, and I moved everything out of the corner and vacuumed. I hope I've stopped the bug issue- this happens every year I bring plants in from outside. But seems I've got it more under control this time around. If I loose one, it might just be the ice plant.

coming indoors

My sunniest window spot for winter months, is getting crowded now- the regular plants here are the large jade and cuban oregano (just visible behind it) but also sharing the area now are chives, salad burnet,

ice plant

geraniums- my oldest 'trained' one, just now growing back its leaves after a trim, and two of its scions which have much larger foliage

and curry plant

which brought in a guest

It's an assassin bug, which I think has been eating whatever tiny insects plagued my curry plant- because it's been looking so much better since this bug has been hanging out. I didn't mind at all if it visited other plants in my house- maybe it will clean them all up. Two days after taking this picture I couldn't find the assassin bug again- I hope it is still happily consuming pests around here, but it might have wandered away because on warm afternoons I set most of these plants out on the deck to get more sun.

brought inside

Most of the garden pots I brought indoors to shelter from the weather are crowded into my basement window.

Left side of the window to right. Lemon verbena and ginger

Stevia

wild mint I dug out of friend's yard month ago

coleus 'gay delight' under the others- I cut it back further, taking pieces to restart indoors and also replanting some cuttings in the front bed- so it's shorter than the other plants here

coleus 'watermelon'

curry plant- I often disturb it on purpose because I so love its scent

Mini jade or 'ice plant'- sadly this is the only one of the plants I got in a box for my birthday, that is thriving. Elephant bush got devastated by insects outside- I've had to shelter it apart from the others, in case its malady spreads. String of pearls just kept deteriorating and I'm almost ready to reuse the pot for another plant. Lithops continues to look sad. . . . But ice plant is doing great! It liked the summer outside.

Rosemary. Bottom half of the stems the leaves had turned brown and fallen. A lot of these plants got withered leaves trimmed and heavily sprayed with soap/oil mix against bugs before I brought them in, especially the rosemary. Top half looks healthy, though.

Another view of the rosemary-

Ginger mint

Chocolate mint- this one got a severe trim. I cut out all the stems that had sickly-looking leaves on them (from tiny leaf hoppers), stripped the bottom halves of stems and hung the tops to dry for tea in my dining room, and sprayed down the pot.

Here's how lovely it looked before I cut it back

Some of these plants will go back outside once we get sun again- but others- probably the stevia at least- I might keep inside now until spring. Other garden containers I simply left outside to take their chances: russian sage, summer savory, dill (those are mostly done for the season anyway).

spring additions for the garden-

those I bought at the nursery and greenhouse, didn't manage to grow from seed- three heirloom beefsteak and brandywine tomatoes. (I tossed mine, they were so pathetic).

Herbs! a replacement english thyme-

something new- Chervil-

I've used it already in a potato soup. I think it kind of tastes like celery, but the flavor is very subtle- next time I'll have to use more of it!

Salad burnet- this one is so pretty I'm keeping it in a pot on my deck table so I can look at it all day out the window. Had it in a salad- adds a pleasantly sharp taste

leaf growth pattern-

closeup-

after the rain-

Stevia, at last. So large I already had to repot it.

Ginger mint

Lemon balm

Curry plant! just for the delightful scent

These are for decoration- a few more coleus varieties- 'Gay Delight' with purple veins

'Wizard Jade'

I have already trimmed its largest eaves off top to start a new pot- and here's the rest of it

'Giant Exhibition Limelight'- it has really huge leaves. I've trimmed this one too, and stuck its cutting straight into the ground in the lower back garden by a hosta. It's so big, I can see it easily from my kitchen window! Hasn't wilted at all either, the ground is so muddy down there right now.

Not a new plant, but since I'm showing off coleus, here's the 'kiwi fern' grown from cuttings overwinter, now out of the coldframe in its summer pot (does that container look familiar, ha).

I found the same as my pink-centered coleus on sale too, btw. It's called 'watermelon'. And the red-and-lime one is something like 'wizard ruby'.