Growing Tea and The Battle of the Beetles
Well, most of summer got away from me before I even noticed. Between the garden, research, and migraines, there wasn't much time for other projects. More about the research soon.
As far as gardening goes, it was an educational season. I learned that mint does not like sustained temperatures of 100 F or more, and peppers do much better when started indoors at least a month and a half before being planted outside. The pepper plants this year got about 3x bigger than they have in the past 2 years. In addition, pole beans really do need poles to grow on (or at least a trellis more than 4 ft tall), squash doesn't need to be fenced because nothing seems to eat it, and if you forget to check on the zucchini plants for a week, monster zucchinis can appear in your garden.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the garden this year was my attempt to grow tea. Not black tea, but several types of mint to make into herbal tea, specifically peppermint, spearmint, and chocolate mint. Yes, there's actually a chocolate mint plant.
Admittedly, that one was more of an experiment than the other two
mints. It was more of a challenge, because it prefers part shade, and
there's not a whole lot of shade around here. But despite a few
set-backs, it has managed to survive, as have the other two mint plants.
Fresh mint tea was super easy to make.
I just picked some mint leaves, rinsed them off, patted them dry, then
tore them into smaller pieces and put them in the tea infuser. It did have to steep for a long time (about 15 minutes), and it was a bit paler than packaged herbal teas, but it did taste like mint tea.
It was also very easy to dry some of the leaves for later, once I found a method. I just picked the leaves, and rinsed and dried them as if I was going to make fresh mint tea. I did try to find a way to dry them that didn't use any extra power, such as laying them out on a piece of cloth over a window screen and leaving it in the car. But sadly, those methods didn't work so well. In the end, I gave in and used the oven. I cut up a paper grocery bag to get a piece of brown paper that fit on a cookie sheet, then laid the leaves out on the paper on the cookie sheet, and put the whole thing in the oven at 170 F. They tended to be dry and brittle within 20 minutes. I left the leaves whole, and stored them in labeled plastic containers for later. This method worked well with cilantro and parsley, too.
The Battle of the Beetles
Now, you're probably thinking that gardening sounds all cute and fuzzy. Making tea, drying herbs, turning gigantic zucchini into cakes and muffins and zucchini Parmesan (which are all very tasty, by the way). We know it can be a lot of work too: tilling, weeding, watering (and remembering to turn the water off). But then, there's the battle of the beetles. Japanese beetles, to be precise. I don't remember them being much of a problem last year, except for eating a pot of basil. This year it was a whole other story. They are trying to eat everything. Basil, peppers, beans, carrots, lettuce. . . . the only things they don't seem to like are tomatoes, squash, and onions.
I don't really like to use chemicals if I can avoid it. And my budget is rather limited, so I hesitated to try something organic, like neem oil. But soapy water is very effective, as it turns out, and budget friendly. Every morning (and sometimes in the early evening), I go out and pick the beetles off the plants and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. It takes a bit more time, and there's the eww factor of having to touch them, but it has cut down on their numbers. Sadly, the battle is still not quite over. The only thing I can add at this point is that they seem to prefer Kentucky Wonder beans over Rattlesnake beans, but they will eat both.
At the start of this post, I also mentioned some research. Don't worry, I didn't forget! Check back next time for 'A Tale of Two Sergers'. Until then!
As far as gardening goes, it was an educational season. I learned that mint does not like sustained temperatures of 100 F or more, and peppers do much better when started indoors at least a month and a half before being planted outside. The pepper plants this year got about 3x bigger than they have in the past 2 years. In addition, pole beans really do need poles to grow on (or at least a trellis more than 4 ft tall), squash doesn't need to be fenced because nothing seems to eat it, and if you forget to check on the zucchini plants for a week, monster zucchinis can appear in your garden.
Fresh mint tea was super easy to make.
The Battle of the Beetles
Now, you're probably thinking that gardening sounds all cute and fuzzy. Making tea, drying herbs, turning gigantic zucchini into cakes and muffins and zucchini Parmesan (which are all very tasty, by the way). We know it can be a lot of work too: tilling, weeding, watering (and remembering to turn the water off). But then, there's the battle of the beetles. Japanese beetles, to be precise. I don't remember them being much of a problem last year, except for eating a pot of basil. This year it was a whole other story. They are trying to eat everything. Basil, peppers, beans, carrots, lettuce. . . . the only things they don't seem to like are tomatoes, squash, and onions.
I don't really like to use chemicals if I can avoid it. And my budget is rather limited, so I hesitated to try something organic, like neem oil. But soapy water is very effective, as it turns out, and budget friendly. Every morning (and sometimes in the early evening), I go out and pick the beetles off the plants and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. It takes a bit more time, and there's the eww factor of having to touch them, but it has cut down on their numbers. Sadly, the battle is still not quite over. The only thing I can add at this point is that they seem to prefer Kentucky Wonder beans over Rattlesnake beans, but they will eat both.
At the start of this post, I also mentioned some research. Don't worry, I didn't forget! Check back next time for 'A Tale of Two Sergers'. Until then!
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