Garden Report - October 2005 -

Thyme and Sweet Marjoram It’s getting cooler day by day (though it’s been a little hot and humid for the last couple of days), and my herbs seem to be relieved. No more crazy summer heat! This year it really damaged my plants in the balcony garden, and almost killed my blueberry, sunshine blue. You see the part with brown leaves still remaining on the branch? I have to make a confession here…in July this year, my sunshine blue looked that way all over. Yes, all leaves turned brown and the whole plant looked completely DEAD. That 's the reason why I skipped the garden report that month. I was too hurt and depressed to take a photo of my sunshine blue looking totally dried up and dead. It was a result of several unfortunate factors combined, but above all, it was my fault. One day I was in a great hurry to meet up with someone and didn’t give enough water to my plants. Unfortunately in the afternoon the temperature went up sky high (record high, IIRC), and my god I forgot to turn off the air-conditioner before leaving my room! That was the only time in the whole summer that I forgot to turn it off before going out. And my sunshine blue was placed very close to the outside unit of the air-conditioner. Read More As I wrote above, I couldn’t take a photo of or write about the tragic happening at that time. On the other hand, I had a slight hope that the blueberry plant might come back. It was only one afternoon that it was exposed to abnormal heat …not several days. So I watered it like crazy every day after that, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed... I almost jumped with joy when I saw, after all the brown leaves fell, a few tiny green buds sprouting. But I waited to take a photo until more green leaves come out. It looked almost OK in late August – early September and I was so relieved…but I still waited , hoping to see more green leaves. And now it’s already October. ;P I hope my sunshine blue fully recovers from the shocking incident and have more berries next summer. I’m very happy with my thyme this summer. It looked completely dead at one point, but it came back, and now looks better than ever! Last year I had a problem of scale insects in my balcony garden especially on basil, rhubarb and thyme. I had to remove them with an old toothbrush again and again, and that really drove me nuts. This year, I had only a couple on basil and rhubarb, and none on thyme! Now, the dog-rose is the problem. I was hoping to be able to pick some rose hips this Autumn and that was the reason why I bought two (rather expensive) young plants of dog-rose online last spring. But they didn’t bloom. No flowers means no rose hips. Did they cheat or does it usually take a few years before it starts blooming? Nevertheless, I should say that I’m grateful for what the balcony garden gave me this summer. I had my first harvest of blueberries, rhubarb and lemongrass, which was really exciting! Rosemary, mint and sweet marjoram are constantly doing well. Unfortunately, myoga ginger did not bloom, but dill bloomed for the first time (it didn't last year) and now I have about 2 teaspoonful of dill seeds at hand. Parsley doesn’t look too healthy but at least I can always get the amount I need. Not bad. Not bad at all. :)