The Plant Thread

[Ponyfan]

I'm sorry that one of your delphiniums might be dying, Taffeta. 

There was a yellow leaf on Mint 2 for a while, but it turned brown and died overnight.  It was a really old leaf so I'm not sure if that's why it died or if part of Mint 2 isn't getting enough water.



Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

i still need to work on the lawn. it's been so hot I can't really be outside. the late afternoon/early evening when i'm off work is somehow the hottest part of the day. it's almost september so hopefully it will cool off enough soon. i feel like we have the ugly flower beds.

as a gardening newbie i don't want to get overwhelmed. i have a tendency to get really excited about a project and then get over ambitious. maybe just weeding and putting more mulch would be a good start? it's so dry i really hate to plant when i can't really water enough. i think people are watering anyway because some homes in the neighborhood have pretty green lawns.

[Ponyfan]

I know it's a bit early to be talking about this, but does anyone know how to get mint plants ready for winter?  I think I read that I need to cut all of the leaf nodes off once it gets cold and cover them up until spring?


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Our mint plants live outside (as in, they're planted in the garden).

We have frosts, heavy rain, temperatures below freezing and sometimes snow.

They're all fine.  None of them have ever been inside or covered up over winter.

Check on your mint variety and see what it advises, but I can't imagine your winter conditions are worse than ours. Unless it's a local variety that is not frost hardy or is more sensitive to certain temperatures, of course!

@Beth, that sounds like a good place to begin!

My winter project is going to be additional bottles in the ground for irrigation. If we're going to get hotter weather, there are some of my plants that have barely hung on this week and need that extra help.

[invaderhorizongreen]

My wild catnip bloomed and is making seeds, and I have hen and chicken succulents making babies. They are very happy on the side porch.

[Ponyfan]

Thank you, Taffeta.  I'd much rather leave the mint plants alone during the winter and hope they survive until spring instead of doing a lot of stuff that isn't necessary.  I think they are both sweet mint. I know they're not spearmint. 

Our winters can be extreme but more often they we'll have several days below or at freezing with sunshine.  Sometimes we'll have snow. 

Here's this week's progress pic of the mint plants. 

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Mint 1

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Mint 2   

I keep trying to get the long runners in the pics.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

I would then see what kind of temperatures they are tolerant to (how far below they can handle, some plants are better than others) and whether they struggle if you have a lot of cold days together. If you have a sheltered place for them, like up near the house, that might also help. If you go ten below (celsius) during winter, you might need to protect them - but a few degrees below I wouldn't think would hurt.

Definitely google it to be sure though, since I don't think we have sweet mint.

We had rain today!!

Okay, we probably need a lot more of it, but it's so nice not to have to go out and water.

[pinkkittywinks]

My mints live outside too (I'm in the UK like Taffeta), I move the mints to a sheltered spot next to the house and they have been ok. The runners are the mint propagating itself and they will root and grow into another mint plant

I have moved my Venus Flytrap. I found some proper care instructions and am following those. I think it was feeling ill during the earlier heatwave as it got a bit too dry. I have removed the black traps and stood it in a shallow dish of de-ionished water. I looked up the water hardiness in my area (2.53 Clarke) and it is soft enough for me to use safely on my Venus Flytrap and Butterwort. I think I will try and catch some rainwater (if it ever rains again).

Dad has been kindly watering my outside plants/pots due to me being very unwell the last week. They need sorting out as they have "finished" and starting to seed and die off, but it'll get done when it gets done.

Love pkw xxx

[BlackCurtains]

I think my rosemary is dead. I thought I had seen little green needles sprouting but either I was wrong (might have been a trick of the light) or they died. The soil is finally dryer and I wanted to replant it but I think if it is still alive, repotting it would definitely finish it off. This is what usually happens to plants in my care. I got lucky with Ben and the catnip, but I'm not a natural green thumb.

The catnip is getting big too. I keep trying to get my cat interested. I crush up a couple leaves and she can't decide if she wants to eat them or play with them but it doesn't last very long. Not like when I give her dried. I wonder if I can dry mine? It's probably too humid.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I think my rosemary is dead.

To be honest as soon as I saw it I didn't think it would recover. Don't give up. You're doing great with the basil, but the rosemary was probably sat waterlogged in the supermarket for days before you tried to rescue it.

[Taffeta]

My morning glories are basically done, lots of seed pods appearing. Not sure whether to gather them or not. Still have some seeds from earlier this year.

The Thunbergia are still going mad though. They're trying to grow all over Dad's cactus at the moment.

My little indoor cactus didn't like the heat, but is doing better now, thankfully, after some careful targeted watering and a bit of shade.

Sorry about the rosemary, BC The sad thing about plants is that sometimes you lose one no matter what you do.

[Ponyfan]

Thank you, Taffeta, and pinkkittywinks for the advice on the mints.    I tried googling some information about sweet mint but didn't find anything too helpful.  It was mostly just people suggesting different things but nothing I looked at seemed like solid information. I'm going to move them to a more sheltered area once the weather forecast starts predicting winter temperatures. 

I got one of the old flowerpots that was laying around the backyard and cleaned out most of the debris that was in it.  It's a lot bigger than Mint 2's current pot.  I'd prefer to get a new one but every time I say something about it  my dad says "We have tons of flowerpots."  That's true but most of them have remnants of dead plants and other stuff in them that needs to be removed. One of the ones I was trying to get in the yard yesterday has several cracks in it.  We have a chance of rain for the next several days and I don't want to repot Mint 2 if it's going to rain.


BC, I'm sorry that your rosemary died.

Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

@Ponyfan, I think if you clean out the pot with dish soap/washing up liquid and water, it will probably be fine for a new plant to go into. We reuse our pots over and over this way. Cleaning it out just makes sure no bugs or soil based diseases can get into new plants from old ones. Dad has something else he uses for pots but I suspect it's not available in the US - but this method works just fine too

We had a lot of heavy rain overnight, the garden is looking a lot happier now. It's been a really hard summer trying to keep everything going.

[pinkkittywinks]

I'm sorry about the Rosemary I don't think it was anything you did BC

The mints I have are Chocolate Minty (smells like After Eights), Pineapple Mint and Apple Mint

I ended up sorting the pots out last night, I just wanted to be out side doing something after being housebound with Chicken Pox for 10 days.

I use a stiff brush to remove dead plant bits and dry soil from pots. If anything remines I just swill them with water from the hose pipe. If you think their might be disease, hot soapy water should kill anything.

My partners Mum has been known to put plant pots through the dishwasher but then again, I have put ponies through the dishwasher, so who am I to judge?

Love pkw xxx

[Ponyfan]

Thank you, Taffeta and pinkkittywinks.  I feel much better about using the old pots now.   My main concern was the old plant debris or other stuff left in the pots might hurt the newer plants even though I think most of the old ones died from being neglected (not watered or removing baby plants) instead of disease.

I'm already thinking that I might get more plants next spring if the mints to well.  Chocolate mint sounds interesting.  I'm assuming I'd have to look for more varieties at a home improvement/garden store instead of just at Walmart.



Ponyfan