Herb of the Week – Curry Dwarf

You’ve heard me talk about my trip to the Merrifield Garden Center a few months ago with my friends Lee Ann and Alicia. Well, the curry dwarf plant was one of the reasons why I thought it was so awesome. I had never heard of this plant before, and we found it among the more common herbs — basil, thyme, etc.

It’s really a neat plant, with grayish green leaves, it almost looks like its in the evergreen family (it’s not though). The curry dwarf actually smells like curry. Of course, if you are any type of food connoisseur, you know that real curry is just a mix of different spices, it does not come from a plant. It’s still pretty neat, and it can be used to flavor dishes. However, it is not really recommended for culinary purposes, because although the aroma is strong, the flavor is not, and once any heat is applied, the curry flavor becomes completely non-existent.

This plant also attracts butterflies, and within an hour of putting it outside I did catch one on it (of course, by the time I got my camera, it was gone!). I couldn’t wait to get it planted in the garden to attract more, but then a couple weeks went by before I actually got to it, and now I am having second thoughts. Apparently, those butterflies also like to lay eggs on it, and it was covered (seriously, COVERED) with little black caterpillars, about 1/3 inches big and tents that they hatched in. Super gross. I did not touch it. Then, a couple days later they grew into big caterpillars. Grosser.

As of yesterday, the plant is now caterpillar free, but it looks like they might have done a bit of damage and the leaves are looking a little weak. I’ll see if it recovers, but the curry plant may not be all its cracked up to be! I still might plant it in the ground and hope for the best.

 

June 15, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Updated Garden Map 2012

Here it is, the latest version of the map:

I think I figured out what to do with the barrel, which I marked TBD. I really ran out of room in the back row with all the squash and pumpkins, and I know the eggplant is going to be tight with them as is, so I didn’t want to risk planting more squash plants. However, I ended up without any golden squashes! I read that summer squash can actually do well in large containers, so I’m going to try for it in the barrel. I have one ready to sprout this week, and hopefully I can get it in the ground (or barrel) in a few weeks.

Future Home to Golden Squash

 

June 14, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Grow veggies, grow!

We finally finished the garden this weekend, and I can’t wait for stuff to start growing! There are one or two spots that I might try to squeeze in something else, but for the most part, everything is in the ground.

Here are some pics:

I did deviate quite a bit from the original plan when we were finally done, but I’m still pleased with the result. Updated map of garden (maybe I will use a computer this time to catch any key spelling mistakes) to follow.

June 13, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Storm in Morris County

Sunday, my husband & I were at Rockaway mall when a crazy storm came out of nowhere — knocking out the power in the mall (while I was in a dressing room — luckily emergency lights came on in less than 2 seconds) and flooding the parking lot.

Here is a video my husband made. It’s pretty nuts. Rockaway mall was right in the center of the most severe part of the storm. By lack of leaves and branches in the road on the drive home, it looks like our house/street, 1 town over, was left pretty much unscathed.

June 12, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Spring has almost completely sprung!

As the days get longer, we are nearing the summer solstice, and spring is almost over! I have a lot of ‘spring’ posts still to write so I should really get crackin! It’s also probable that some of those posts will be slightly outdated with the pretty flowers in the pictures actually laying as puddles of petals in the yard. I will make that a goal next year to make the posts more real-time, and document when things actually bloom.

June 11, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Fungus is not fun

OK, OK, I learned my lesson with summer squash. You DO NOT have to plant it early. It sprouts enough within about 2-3 weeks from seed and you transplant it right away into the ground. I planted too early, and had to watch my plants suffer a painful death.

The zucchini that was doing great in the pot a few weeks ago ended up catching an orange fungus — GROSS. I think it was probably a combination of all the rain/moisture we’ve had and potential damage during the transplant of a larger plant, that cause a weakness and allowed for the fungus to settle.

Zucchini with a bit of fungus

Sorry for the bad picture (I am realizing lately just how terrible of a photographer I am… I am actually thinking now that maybe an adult school class would probably do me a world of good, we’ll see), but you can see the bit of orange at the end which is fungus. This is actually the better of the two zucchinis, and I didn’t actually get a pic of the REALLY gross one. It looks like it’s contained to the fruit, so hopefully the rest of the plant will be OK. It looks like there are several flowers that will produce fruits on both the zucchini plants, so I hope to find out soon.

Good news though, the Largos I guess were small enough not to have been damaged in the transplant, and there are quite a few small ones that will hopefully be ready in a week or so.. or maybe I should stop saying that, because every time I’ve said how ‘good’ the squash is, shit happens. Oh well, here is a pic anyway.

June 10, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Tilling Complete!

Finally! It stopped raining long enough this week for my husband to finish the tilling in the garden plot so we can get the rest of the plants in. He worked super hard, and it looks great. This weekend we should be able to finally finish all the planting.

Below is a pic showing the section where he tilled, and he also put down some planks for walking, and put down mulch. On Monday of this week, everything between the last weedblock and the gate was covered in grass / weeds about 3 feet high. Now, to the top left of the pic, you can see an 8′x10′ nicely tilled area, and a nice PERIMETER (for those of you paying attention, in my graph paper drawing a few weeks ago, I wrote ‘parameter’. I’m SMRT.) of mulch against the fence, which we found is a decent control for weeds from outside our plot.

As you can also see in the pic, he put in the tomato cages, too, since the tomatoes already need a bit of extra support. Most of what is going in this weekend is beans (which usually grow super fast, I hope this year is no different) and lettuce mixes. I’ll do a full review of all the plants in the garden at some point, and I’m sure I’ll do some features as things start to mature and/or it’s time for harvest.

 

June 9, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Herb of the Week – Apple Mint

I took me awhile to actually figure out what kind of mint this was. It was pretty easy to identify the ‘mint’ part because it smelled so good, plus, the mint symmetry is pretty distinct. The thing that threw me off was the fuzzy leaves.

Turns out, the fuzzy leaves are one of the key identifies for Apple Mint. The mint flavor is definitely dominant, but there is an additional subtle sweetness here. I actually originally thought this was spearmint and the spearmint was peppermint, because the additional sweetness was so obvious.

Apple mint seems to be just at hardy as its cousin spearmint — growing right in the middle of the rocks, not getting eaten by animals, and spreading its roots like wildfire. 

Apple Mint behind the Barrel
Apple Mint behind the barrel in the garden

June 8, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Rain Rain Go Away

I’ve had a few negative posts recently, and I thought maybe it was my typical pessimistic attitude showing its ugly head. However, this time, I realized, it’s not my fault! I blame the weather.

Look at this terrible forecast:

I know rain is good, but I think we’ve had enough for a few days and the plants desperately need a good sunny day. I have not once had to go to the garden to water since getting the plants in the ground. This is not your typical June weather for NJ. It has rained just about every day for the past 2 or 3 weeks (we did at least have some days with a decent amount of sun before it poured), and the threat of drought that was looming at the beginning of spring is long gone. We haven’t even been able to finish the rest of our garden plot because the ground is too wet to till the remaining section! I need to get the rest of my plants in ASAP!

I guess the only (not garden related) silver lining is that we haven’t had to run our AC for more than 2 days, so we will get another month of a low(ish) electric bill. Hopefully the weather will clear up sooner than Friday, and I’ll get back into more smiley and sunny posts.

 

June 5, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
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Irises

To be perfectly honest, I’m not in love with Irises. They are neat looking flowers when in bloom, and we have yellow, light purple, and dark purple in our garden. The dark purple ones are so dark, they actually look black when they first start to bloom.

However, I just can’t say I really enjoy having them. They look a little sloppy for my taste, and I’ve been thinking about getting rid of them. For now, its just not my priority to focus on them, so there they will stay. I will do a bit more research, maybe there is more I can do to make them more ‘neat’ and Sheryl-friendly. Or maybe they will just come out as some point.

 

 

June 4, 2012 · Sheryl · No Comments
Tags:  Â· Posted in: Flowers