JOSCELINE'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

JULY 25, 2009 GARDEN PICTURES

JOSCELINE'S CASTE CAKE (5TH BIRTHDAY)

DAUGHTER'S CASTLE CAKE: NEED OPINIONS

OPINIONS NEEDED!

Keep the vining flowers on the towers or not?

DRYING CUTTING CELERY

If you aren't a big fan of celery, I suggest growing cutting celery. I small leaf has enough bite in it and tastes just like celery only stronger!

CUTTING CELERY TAG FROM THE NURSERY

CUTTING CELERY PLANT




WASHED CUTTING CELERY LEAVES READY FOR DRYING

DRIED CUTTING CELERY LEAVES READY FOR STORING

Of course I've never dried Cutting Celery so I had to taste the final results.

Fresh Cutting Celery Leaves 5 stars. Dried Cutting Celery Leaves 5 stars.

DRYING MINT TO MAKE MINT LEMON TEA

Originally I was just going to dry some mint because I'm obsessed with drying herbs right now. After it was dry, I decided to make Mint Lemon Tea. I tried looking for a recipe off the internet, but I couldn't find one. I decided to just make one up. Here is the Mint drying process and making Mint Lemon Tea process.

MINT PLANT

JOSCELINE PICKED THE MINT. HERE SHE IS SEPERATING THE WASHED "YUCKY" MINT FROM THE "GOOD" MINT.



UH OH! SHE CAUGHT ME SNAPPING PICTURES.


MINT LEAVES READY FOR DRYING

DRIED MINT LEAVES

"STEEPING" ABOUT 1 TABLESPOON OF MINT LEAVES AND 1 CUP OF HOT WATER

SLICES OF LEMON FOR TEA

SLICES OF LEMON WITH 1 CUP OF HOT WATER

LEMON WATER + MINT WATER = MINT LEMON TEA

I also added 2 tsp of sugar and a squirt of honey before tasting the results. Wish I had some dried Stevia leaves. That would have been interesting.

Next time I'll increase the dried mint leaves to about 2 Tablespoons and only use 1 slice of lemon.

DRYING GENOVESE BASIL

I started to dry Summer Savory the other day using an upside down methed. I'm impatient and got mad because the leaves weren't crispy, like the Bay Leaves, but limp and gross. So, I decided to start drying the Genovese Basil leaves today along with the Summer Savory in the oven.

I have about 20 Basil plants (Genovese Basil and Sweet Basil) because I have a problem with thinning/killing perfectly good plants. Also, I will be putting a Genovese Basil and a Sweet Basil plant in the greenhouse during the winter. The dried Basil leaves will be used more as a back up in case the greenhouse plant dies or doesn't produce fast enough.

GENOVESE BASIL IN HERB GARDEN

BASIL LEAVES WASHED AND READY FOR DRYING

GENOVESE BASIL LEAVES READY FOR STORING

I dried the Genovese Basil leaves whole because I have a ton of store bought Crushed Mediterranean Basil Leaves. I'll keep harvesting and drying the Basil leaves until I fill the bottle up.

PERFORMING PLANT SURGERY

So sad. So very, very, very sad. I woke up today to find Josceline's sunflowers broken. As I drank my coffee, I pondered on saving the poor plants. Normally I wouldn't resort using Rooting Hormone especially on plants we will be eating from. I allowed my daughter see it for the first time and asked if she wanted to help her broken sunflowers. Without hesitation, she said, "Yes!"

A little background information. Rooting Hormone is used by gardeners to help aid plant cutting to grow roots.



Normally you can take cutting and root them without Rooting Hormone if the cuttings are taken at the right time, place, and cared for properly. As you can see from the picture, I had a big problem and wanted to aid the poor plants ASAP. Let's start the plant surgery shall we?



Locate planting area.


Prepare the planting area.


Cut plant.


Dip cut end in water and shake off excess.


Dip cut end in Rooting Hormone.


Cover at least 1 inch of cutting with powder.


Place cut end in dirt.


Cover with soil.


Water.


And you're done.

If all goes well, these cuttings will thrive. In no time I'll be able to have some seeds from blossoms like...

this one on the other side of playhouse entrance.

On a normal basis, you wouldn't use such a large cutting but this was not my situation. Also, you would insert cuttings in a pot with good mixing soil but I wanted to see if they would root in the ground.

DRYING SUMMER SAVORY

I dried Summer Savory leaves along with Genovese Basil leaves today. I only have Summer Savory powder so I'm storing these as crushed Summer Savory.

SUMMER SAVORY PLANT

FRESHLY PICKED AND WASHED SUMMER SAVORY LEAVES

SUMMER SAVORY READY FOR DRYING IN THE OVEN

DRIED AND READY FOR STORING

I wish I had an extra jar to store these in but I don't. Hopefully the plastic baggie will do.