It’s time to begin gardening inside again.

IMG_2861

Sons dresser is in use again as plant habitat. I dug up 4 pepper plants that I’s started late in the season. Some of them were setting fruit but there was no way they were going to survive the dropping temperatures to ripen. Inside they came. Also inside now is the ginger plant and jasmine plant that had hung out on the back porch all summer. They really enjoyed the summer weather and have grown nicely. Do you like the giant web in that window? We have 2 such spiders in separate windows doing a good job of collecting pests for us. We haven’t bothered them. We like spiders.

IMG_2863

Thai hot pepper anyone?

I am having an issue with the black peppercorn plant still. It has been infested with these little white eggs for some time. I never see a bug, just the eggs. I keep doing stuff to get rid of them but so far, no luck. No real ID on what it is either. I suspect spider mites but I’m not sure.

IMG_2852 IMG_2859

I am quitting my day job in December. I have plans to alter our unfinished basement to become my new plant nursery. So stay tuned for that!

 

Growing Medicinals- An Introduction to our First Year

Medicinals

Since having children I have become increasingly interested in natures medicine. Having sick children is simply miserable. They are too young to take any over the counter drugs and I don’t know that I would want to give them to them anyway. So on top of growing delicious food for us to eat and sell I am growing medicinals. This will be our first year of planting and I am starting with 20 simple varieties. I will simply add on each year.

I have two elderberry plants arriving with this years fruit tree orders. I also have a witch hazel plant arriving with a different tree order. Otherwise I’ve simply ordered a large variety of seeds. Here is a brief list of what we are adding this year.

Lemonbalm

Echinacea

FeverFew

German Chamomille

Plantain

Borage

Ginseng

Mullien

Peppermint

Spearmint

Calendula

Lavendar

Marshmallow

Ginger

Catnip

Safflower

Creeping Thyme

Valerian Root

St John’s Wort

I’ll keep you updated in future posts with what works and what doesn’t when I get the time to test it out!