This month I decided to try drying whole figs in the sun for the first time, since my dehydrator doesn’t have enough space for the fruits to be dried whole. I’m not happy with the results, because they started getting bad before they were fully dried, so I don’t think I’ll use this method again. I will continue drying figs cut up in pieces in the dehydrator I did before.
Figs drying in the sun
Figs 3 days later
Figs drying in food dehydrator
The basil and chocolate mint that I had in pots were getting too big and I cut some it so I can dry it. After I washed them, I put them in trays and placed them in a darker place in the house. I also dried some oregano.
Today I made my first Aloe Vera fertilizer. I inherited a lot of Aloe Vera plants and I didn’t know what I can use it for in the garden.
I had a few more projects today in the garden:
Dried mint leaves
Removed bolted celery
Split tomato seedlings
Aloe Vera fertilizer
A few weeks ago I read an interesting article explaining how to make fertilizer from Aloe Vera. It’s a natural and easy to make fertilizer, which benefits the plants and helps them grow better root systems.
First I took a few Aloe Vera leaves and blended them together. Afterwards I took the blended liquid and mixed it with rain water. I poured 2 cups of mix and filled the watering can all the way up with water.
Mint
Every year I have a lot of mint and I don’t use most of it. This year I decided to dry a lot leaves and use it for tea. I cut the mint and after I washed it, I placed it on a tray to dry in the sun. The mint was dried in a few hours, but I found out later that I have to dry it in the shade for the mint not to loose a lot of it’s nutrients and flavor. Next time I’ll do it correctly and I’ll update the post.
Before and after mint
Remove bolted celery
The last project of the day was to remove bolted celery that was keeping too much shade to the other plants and also slowing their growth.
Below are a few before and after pictures with the trimmed celery. The tomato plants are only visible in the after pics, before it was just a celery bush.
Before
After
Before
After
Split tomato seedlings
Every year around the end of August or beginning of September, I loose the battle with spider mites that kill all my tomato plants. This year I planted a few tomato seeds later in the season. My plan is to plant them in containers far away from the other tomato plants in order to hopefully avoid getting spider mites on them.
I planted seeds in 4 pots and a few of them had more seedlings per pot. Instead of removing the extra seedlings, I moved each one in its own pot. This was a good opportunity to plant the seedlings deeper in the new pots, which will help them develop a better root system. If you would like to see more detailed instructions for potting up seedlings, you can see a step by step guide in this post.
Before and after tomato seedlings – May 5
Tomato updates
In the next section I will post periodical updates with the above tomato plants – Glacier and Golden jubilee.
May 14 Update – the seedlings doubled or tripled in size
