<p>A-ha-ha-ha, mini! I will be torturing my eggplants and tomatoes later today. When I approached the greenhouse this morning, I thought I heard, “Heeelllp?” coming out of there. It is that time, babies!</p>
<p>My alpine strawberry groundcover is finally covered with red berries. Last year I was already making alpine strawberry preserves during the Memorial Day weekend! :eek:</p>
<p>I have lots of strawberries and blackberries. It’s the first year that my strawberries aren’t eaten by slugs.</p>
<p>So I got tempted this morning, and added a Purple Prudence tomato, a purple bell pepper, and six Sweet Basils. Oh, and a round zucchini. The rest of the garden is getting beans, mostly my “Marvelous Beans of the Piedmont”.</p>
<p>Finally got my tomatoes, peppers and basil in the ground, and it’s finally warm in N. Cal.</p>
<p>My neighbor is an avid gardener, I get her hand me downs & the product of thinning- my mint is doing great 
and I just put in cabbage and basil</p>
<p>By the way - anyone wanna know about my Marvelous Beans, it is these:</p>
<p>[Seeds</a> from Italy](<a href=“http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=011&PROD=1054380727]Seeds”>http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=011&PROD=1054380727)</p>
<p>I love “Seeds from Italy.” Check out their favas for the fall.</p>
<p>Somemom, be very careful with the mint. It’s very invasive.</p>
<p>Somemom, are you sure she’s a friend? Mint is trying to take over the world.</p>
<p>Yes, mint has to be planted in containers, or it will spread like a wildfire.</p>
<p>My irises are also did very well- I have bearded & English irises. They are mostly gone now however.
greens are crazy too.
I don’t have any mint in the ground except for Corsican, so hope it will behave. It smells great.</p>
<p>I buy seeds from “Seeds from Italy” as well, although last year we found some oddities mixed in with the zucchini.</p>
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<p>I wanted to grow mint once, and thought I could cope with the invasive nature of the plant by growing it in a container. I set the container down on some flagstones that had space between them. The mint grew down through the hole in the pot, into the ground, and the next season, I had mint coming up in a large circle around where I’d placed the pot.</p>
<p>hayden–Wow! I have had various mints over the year and they haven’t been than invasive. But then, not much grows well in New England… or at least on my plot. Lots of shade & a north facing hill. :(</p>
<p>I’ve got my two mints (chocolate mint and spearmint) sitting in on pots on top of solid cement!</p>
<p>My mint is in pots on my elevated deck, hopefully safe</p>
<p>You are safe, somemom. :)</p>
<p>Picked about three quarts of very fragrant alpine strawberries - barely made a dent in my abundant crop. Now I have to decide whether I want to make a pie or some preserves or just freeze them. So much for eating healthy!</p>
<p>Wow. I had a sick plant (foliage, not flowery), and talked to my local nursery for suggestions. They recommended I apply some dried blood.</p>
<p>I did, and now the plant is bursting with new leaves, and the leaves already on the plant have turned a healthy green. I’ve never seen a plant take off so much.</p>
<p>I think it’s like a vampire plant now, feeding on dried blood. But, wow, what a difference. Is this like some magic elixir, or is there anything I should be wary of?</p>
<p>Do you know what was wrong with the plant? I have used blood meal sold as fertilizer; it is especially good for bulbs, and I believe high in the “N” in the “PNK.” Is that what you used?</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_meal[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_meal</a></p>
<p>Yes, that’s exactly what I used. We weren’t sure what was wrong with the plant, but we could tell it didn’t appear to be an attack from bugs or fungi. So the gardener thought that since it’s not a flowering plant where fertilizer too high in nitrogen can inhibit flowering, I should give it a try. </p>
<p>Well, it worked. I applied it around the drip line, and within 2 weeks the plant was recovering nicely. So then I ran around throwing it around all my other foliage plants, and they all greened up nicely.</p>