kept in

A few of the plants I brought in momentarily have remained indoors. These include the Sage cuttings - which seem to be doing just fine-

The little Marjoram pot which looks nearly dead but upon inspection has little, new leaves growing. I don't have much hope for them, as when oreganos in the past began to resprout like this for me, they died.

I've also kept in the tree-like older Thyme plant. Just because I like to look at it, and since it already spent a few days inside here and there I'm wondering if I've already affected its ability to survive cold.

The rest of the plants outside remained tucked into boxes and under burlap. My toddler looks out the big window at them and says: "Plants sleeping!" which is what they should do, in the winter!

more pests

I'm preoccupied with pests, now. Thinking I will toss the Pepper plant. Easier to grow new ones than save this. Inspected the Mint cuttings outside; they have a few aphids again. If I can find a ladybug on a walk I will bring it home -saw one a few days ago on the sidewalk but didn't think to pick it up. It's gotten cold again though, so I don't know if I will see anymore.

Noticed my Stevia has some leaf-curl on the older foliage, and white bleached-looking spots on the leaves. I feared more spider mites but did the leaf-tap-over-paper test and instead of crawling specks got little green bugs that hop. I think it's leaf bugs. Sprayed the plant and the bug jumped off but I never saw it again so it might still be around.

The smaller Marjoram also has had pale splotches on the leaves. Tapped its foliage over paper too. Got a bunch of even smaller leaf bugs. I squished those.

The Palms look better; most of them are growing bright green, new leaves. I've started to trim off the old, damaged foliage. Then if the spider mites persist I'll be able to notice the new damage on the leaves. They get misted every day now, too.

I have gnats again. Around almost all the houseplants. There have always been a few but lately there are proliferating. I have tried putting out dishes of cider vinegar again but it doesn't seem to be helping. Argh.

learning moments

A few of my plants left for new homes today. I've kind of made an arrangement with a local women's group; they supply me with growing materials and I will periodically give them plants (intended for gifts). I thought this might be good as I'm always experimenting at growing things but don't really need five spider plants in my house, or ten pots of palms! Yesterday some items were dropped off and these went out the door:

The purple African Violet (in a smaller, round pot- I didn't know if someone would know what to do with the SIP I'd made). The Marjoram was such a pretty plant, but after trying it in many dishes I realize this is an herb I will probably never eat much of. I just don't care for its flavor. The bigger of these little Spider babies went, too. I took my younger one that was in a hanging SIP and divided it- it was actually three plants growing together. (The two smaller ones pictured here are recently rooted infants off a runner).

I will miss the purple Violet but I like the pink one much better (which is almost ready to divide anyway). Several leaves broke off when repotting; I stuck them into the remnants of soil at the bottom of the vacated SIP.

I've also got a baby African violet that came off that plant (so if these grow I will have new purple ones someday!) The baby violet hasn't grown much and in fact lost a few leaves because they lie so close to the soil, top watering nearly made the entire plantlet float. So I moved that one into a small SIP, where it can get water from below. Hope it does better.

It was interesting to upend the Spider plant and discover that it was pretty dry in there. Spider plants like to stay rather dry as the fat, fleshy roots attest. I've learned to let this one get bone-dry and lightweight, then just give it a little bit of water, about half an inch. I've noticed that the drier I let the Spiders get, the more upright and glossy their leaves are. Brown tips seem to occur with overwatering, too.

So these SIPs do work for any kind of moisture requirements. My violets stay pretty saturated, and get a lot of water each time- several inches. The Spiders get only a little water, and dry out completely in between. The Arrowhead and Pothos plants only seem to need a little water as well, but more frequently to keep them moist... I bet if I was careful I could grow a Crassula in an SIP but I'm not ready to try that again yet.

Arrowhead doesn't seem to like something I'm doing. It is growing like crazy- every time I look at its height against the lamp it stands next to, it's a few centimeters taller. Soon I'll have to move it or start pinching out new growth.

But it keeps getting brown edges, both tips

and rear portions of the leaves. I think it's from too much water.

The felt wicking I made in that larger Pothos planter did work! I watered it for the first time yesterday and after a half hour, the reservoir was empty again, it had all moved up into the soil. This plant seems very happy, doesn't even seem to have noticed it was moved into a new container.

more greens

I went back to the old house a few days ago and dug up more plants to bring back to my balcony. I got five more pots of Swiss Chard, the two largest traveled home in a cloth shopping bag

and the smaller ones tucked into a box. That fourth plant in the box is the Curry Plant. I almost didn't bring it because I can't eat it, but do enjoy the scent and had another pot on hand so I stuck it in.

The Chard is still a bit wilted, but recovering somewhat from the shock of being put into pots.

The Curry Plant doesn't seem to have noticed the change; if anything it is spreading out more and looking more attractive.

I've been making an effort to eat something from my grown plants every single day. This week started out the with the end of a swiss chard lasagna, then I made spanish rice with my home-grown garlic and dried parsley in it; enchiladas with most of my fresh-cut Green Onions (the highlight of the week); eggs scrambled with Marjoram on one day, Tarragon on another, Chives on a third; more Chives added to mashed potatoes with cheddar, and Basil plus one Green Pepper diced onto a homemade pizza. Even with the smaller space and limited scope of container garden (plus fewer plants producing in the colder weather) it's not too hard to put something I've grown on the table once a day. If it's just a sprinkling of fresh or dried herbs, that at least adds a bit of flavor and satisfaction that can't be got any other way.

houseplants

After a few days of shuffling I think I've figured out where each of my houseplants will be happiest. They all have slightly different light requirements so it took a bit of time observing where the sunlight comes in to see how they'd all do best.

Most of the plants are in the big kitchen window. I've got quite a few Jades (crassula)

my Crotons seem happy with the new light levels; they're already sprouting new leaves (but not lower down on the stems like I'd hoped, in the crown)

The African Violets still show no sign of blooming but look healthy

The other Hibiscus and Marjoram are inside- to see which do better overwintering, indoors or out-

as is the one surviving Mimosa (silk tree) baby- the other one lost all its leaves and hasn't recovered. This one seems to like the warmth inside the house; it is sprouting new growth which makes me so happy. I've always been fond of ferns (but don't have any) so find the fern-like foliage of mimosa especially attractive.

and I kept the little Tarragon plant inside, too. It seems to be growing new leaves at its base, so I hope this one does better now.

The centerpiece on the table is the Poinsettia, looking lovely.

My big Spider plant is always so droopy. I'm afraid I err in overwatering it...

the little SIP one hanging on the wall looks a bit better

I've also got inside here the big Bell Pepper in a pot

(still producing!)

and a pair of Basil plants- they seem happier inside, are sprouting new leaves near the base.

In the living room area the tall Avocado (seems to be suffering a bit of shock)

and my dumb-cane Dieffenbachia which looks the best it has in a long time.

In the tiny office/bedroom I've got my dragon-tree Dracanea (looking more handsome than ever!)

and the little mini-Geranium (odd appearance because I pinched out some stem tips but not others)

also the Creeping Charlie- this one is struggling. It keeps getting leaf burn and dropping them.

But there is also plenty of new leaves growing so I'm hoping it continues well. Moved it back from the window some.

Phew! I didn't realize I had so many plants. And I missed a few- there's also one (nearly dead) venus flytrap, the pothos, the cyclamen.... will get more pics and update again soon.

balcony

Here's the outside plants, back in their balcony spots. I brought over my daughter's Apple tree, now about four feet tall. Thought it would take up quite a bit of space, but it turns out the balcony was bigger than my brain imagined (I guess compared to all the open-ground space I used to have!). I did prune some branches, so it would fit in my car- it rode over with the top foot of foliage waving out a crack in the car window!

Next to it are three pots- two of perennial green Onions, one of Chives.

Then there are the Lavender and Rosemary.

My two Mints

Two Thyme plants- regular and lemon variety

A trio of little pots- Marjoram, Hibiscus baby and shabby Parsley (the other marjoram and hibiscus are indoors)

Another corner grouping- the tall wavy Stevia, year-old Echinacea, beautiful light blue-green Sage.

There's also Swiss Chard in that right-hand corner. Here's a wider view:

Still a lot of space! I could easily put a few planter boxes out there, a worm bin, some more large pots, some five-gallon-bucket SIPs, a little table and chair to enjoy the view... the possibilities are wonderful!

many pots

Over the past few days I have been busy digging up herbs and other plants from the garden to transport in pots to their new home: an apartment balcony. I hope it's one that gets enough sun.... Originally I planned to just take the perennial herbs but then I kept going. Most of the plants are really thriving in the nice fall weather and if this season is like last we'll have a long, balmy autumn so I might get some more life out of the annuals as well. I ended up with thirty plants in pots, total (most pictured here):

The other five are the Lavender, Rosemary,Tarragon, and two Thymes which I pictured earlier.

Most of them are doing very well. I was particularly surprised at the Mints; I just clipped the nicest stems, most didn't even have roots, but they are remarkably perky (chocolate mint on the left, spear-or-peppermint on the right):

I've also got potted up the Parsley

Sage

two pots of Green Onions

Chives

three pots of Swiss Chard

two youngest Echinacea in my biggest pot

two little Marjoram plants

the Stevia (still hoping to get seed out of it)

a Bell Pepper plant

and one Marigold

There's also two Basil plants that I somehow missed a picture of, and a few experiments in here so watch for a second posting on this...