I have a feeling that they like the cramped conditions of a mixed container. This is because the area in my medic garden that I planted with a mixture of plants is thriving, where as the single pot areas in the stacker are not doing as well.
I have planted up another mixed medic garden, to test my theory, and will compare plant growth during the growing season.
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My medic garden is beginning to thrive again, I think the brighter sunlight has really kick-started the plants and they are getting lovely and bushy. I sowed some more seedlings last week and they are already getting their 2nd set of leaves! I obviously started my January seeds way to early, as some of these have only just got their 2nd set of leaves. I knew it was a bit early, but the warm weather made me think that it was OK to do a January sow, next year I will do it in May. I have gained another mint plant, a spearmint, and two more lemon balm cuttings, these are outside in a planter with other herbs. - I am planting up two gardens now, one indoors and one outdoors, the indoor growing can be tricky with sudden plant deaths, so for this reason I am also planting the same herbs and medicinal plants outside, In my last post I talked about taking a load of slugs and snails away from my medicinal garden, and releasing them far from my house.
I thought that the slimers I removed would soon be replaced by new ones, eager to eat all my herbs, but so far I have not seen any snails and only 1 slug! I am looking every night and they have not returned :) Tonight it is raining, this must help the slugs and snails propel themselves across the ground quicker. I have a feeling I may have some visitors tonight, and will do the same as before. Collect them up and place them far away from my plants! At the moment I have 5 different types of mint growing in my medic garden. Mint is useful for all kinds of things and a few leaves eaten raw can really help with indigestion.
Mint seems to do really well indoors, at least where I have it, in a north facing window, that gets reflected sun. I have the plants in wall hanging planters, in the kitchen, and in a stacking planter with other herbs, the mint plants like to trail when planted like this, and look pretty dangling down. I like to use mint on cooking too, and enjoy a glass of mint tea on a hot summers day. Check out my peppermint remedy page for more info on the benefits of mint. and a recipe for a simple mint tea. I have; Wild mint, which I think is apple-mint Garden mint Eau de Cologne Mint (a very strong peppermint) Peppermint (a beautiful perfect peppermint) Mild peppermint (this one is like a cross between a garden mint and a peppermint) Some of these mints are probably sub species, or crosses, like the mild peppermint one, and maybe the wild mint. I know that mints like to cross-pollinate, so I remove the mint flowers before they get a chance. It might be interesting to try and breed a new mint though...I wonder if mint will cross pollinate with other members of the mint family, like ground ivy, or dead nettle - I doubt it., but it would be cool to have minty deadnettle plants. The next mint plant I want is a spearmint, these like a lot of root space so that one will probably be going outside. My herbs seem to be doing well this time around! (touch wood) Though already this year I have lost quite a few to pests.
Yesterday I had to bring all of my sweet violet plants indoors, wash them, and re-pot them. They were covered in white fly, and had begun to look sickly. I managed to remove all of the white fly from the violets, and am keeping them indoors for the time being. The pictures show my indoor herb garden this year. It is half the size of what it will be at the moment, as I have had to re-sow the plants that I lost in March and April. Amongst these herbs are other wild medicinal plants, such as self heal, red deadnettle, and ground ivy. Outdoors I have the rest of my medic garden. I have Herb Robert, white deadnettle, Rue, Pot Marigold, and Fennel, out there at the time being. Planting And Growing A Small Medicinal GardenChoosing Plants For My Medicinal GardenAs well as a medic garden featuring al of the culinary herbs, I am going to be making one with some of the commonly seen wild plants too. - A lot of these plants were considered herbs in the olden days, and also used in the kitchen. I started my medicinal garden plans by looking through some books of medicinal plants and their properties, I am mainly using 'Culpeper's Complete Herbal' as it is more fun that way! I love his descriptions, and I have a good knowledge of plants, so I am not worried about poisoning myself. After reading up on all the plants I made a list of the ones I was interested in, I am making this medicinal garden very personal to me and have chosen plants that will help me with some of the problems that I suffer. The wild plants I am having for my medicinal garden are... Sweet Violet Red Deadnettle White Deadnettle Borage Chamomile Bugle Ground Ivy Calamint Lady's Mantel Self Heal The Plants I Am Including In My GardenRed Deadnettle"It makes the heart merry, drives away melancholy, and quickens the spirits." That is what Nicholas Culpepper had to say about this commonly seen plant, and I sure could do with some of that! In times gone by, the red deadnettle was considered a food source and was even cultivated for this purpose. You can find this plant growing almost everywhere, it thrives in hedgerows, borders of fields, along the banks of streams, on waste ground... Ground IvyAccording to Culpepper this little weed is useful for pretty much everything... Personally I am most interested in its use for 'exulcerated-lungs', the way it 'easteth all gripping pains', and it's power to 'drive away melancholy.' Groud ivy had previous use of flavouring beer and was also eaten, there is an interesting recipie for ground ivy leaf in tempura, which I really want to try! This is another plant that you can find almost anywhere, it likes shade, and light, and it grows in woods, fields, in fact, it grows in every space it can, look out for its delicate purple flowers winking up from the grass. Ladys Mantel"And such women as have large breasts, causing them to grow less and hard." This statement from Culpepper concerns me as they have gone small enough already and don't fancy them being hard as well as small! Anyway I am only interested in this plant purely for its 'celestial waters' which it produces through its leaves, an old wives tale states that if you douse your face in these waters at dawn you will not age....well, I did this when I was young, and now I am 33 and still getting asked for ID to buy cigarettes and lottery tickets! I want to splash enough of it on my face to keep me going till I'm 90! Sweet VioletAhh, the sweet violet, one of my favourite plants! "It eases pains in the head caused by want of sleep, is effectual in the pleurasy, and all desieses of the lungs, horsesness of the throat, and all pains of the back." - This is infact a short summery of what Culpeper had to say about the sweet violet plant, he lists many other benefits. One of the properties that I have heard about sweet violet having, is an ability to breakdown cancerous tumours..... Sweet violets don't seem to enjoy direct sun, you can find them growing on laws, verges, banks, and other grassy areas, it is easy to confuse these with dog violets, dog violets have smaller, glossier leaves, and they have pointed sepals, sweet violets have rounded sepals. The sepals are the green bits on the back of the flower......I will draw a diagram to explain.. White DeadnettleCulpepper calls this plant 'white archangel' it has the same properties as the red deadnettle, and can also be eaten in a salad, deadnettles are in the mint family. You can find this plant growing by streams and rivers, in fields, hedgerows, and also in the woods, it loves the damp and dries out quickly when not watered. Bugle"The decoction of the leaves and flowers made in wine, and taken, dissolves the congealed blood in those that are bruised inwardly by a fall, or otherwise is very effectual for any inward wounds, thrusts, or stabs in the body." - Nicholas Culpeper Seeing as I was stabbed myself and am not fully recovered, I thought it would be prudent to include this useful plant, Culpeper also states that 2 spoonfuls of bugle syrup will sober up a drunk, and from what he seems to be saying (though it's hard to understand what he is going on about sometimes,) is that it also cures some sort of psychotic episode too, not that I need it for that, I don't want to cure my psychotic episodes, I enjoy them ;-) This plant grows in meadows, woods and on wasteland, I have not managed to locate any of this plant yet myself. Self Heal"The juice hereof used with oil of roses to anoint the temples and forehead, is very effectual to remove head ache." Says Culpepper! And that is why I am planting it in my medicinal garden, I suffer with headaches a lot and am willing to experiment with different ways of shifting them. Self heal is also well known for its ability to heal sores, cuts, ulcers, and other conditions, it is used in oncology too which I will be reading into more. Self heal loves to grow on lawns, it has a thick matting spread that roots very easily, you can also find it amongst paving slabs, on wasteland, and in fields and meadows. Stacked Planters Are Ideal For Indoor And Outdoor Medicinal Gardens.I have a few stacked planters in my house, I really love them, these pots keep all your plants separate and make it easy to tend to them, I am not sure how the plants at the back of my planter will do indoors, I keep turning it, so we will see.
As well as using a stacking planter for my herb garden, I am also using one to make a 'salad bar.' Each of the compartments has a different salad leaf. |
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