Garden in a Pot

Sunday, 6 March 2011

Herbs and their friends

I've had some difficulty growing herbs here in the tropics as I don't know whether I'm giving them too much water, or not enough. A lot of them find it tough as they aren't naturally used to the humidity, but when I saw some lovely plants in the supermarket, I had to try again. This time I thought I'd do it differently.
Firstly, I didn't put them immediately out on my balcony. I left them in my kitchen, which is dark when not being used, for a few days to have some quiet time and to acclimatise to the humidity. I don't know where they were grown, but they'd been in the supermarket air conditioning for several days at least.

While they were sitting there, I tried to research herbs in the tropics and found this useful page http://en.allexperts.com/q/Herbs-720/2008/3/Herbs-tropics.htm. which has some good general information and a list of individual herbs as well. What I got from it was the new plants should be watered daily for the first week, that most of them seem to prefer morning sunshine and they need shelter from heavy rain. The first was easy, but the second was hard - I face west, so my plants get the harsher afternoon sun. Most of my current plants like that. My bird's nest fern, for example, adores it and sulked when I was living facing east for a while.

So, with that in mind, I decided to plant them in with established plants that will temper the sun by giving them some shade yet not cover them completely, and will also give them some protection from the local heavy downpours and strong winds.

So far, they seem to be going quite well, which is great. So now, I want to go and get more!

The basil with my red hibiscus

Basil loves the sun, but it has soft stems, so I paired these two as the hibiscus is bushy and will protect the basil from the wind and rain, but it isn't so high that it'll block all the sun.

The chives and the white hibiscus

I felt that I didn't have to worry too much about the wind with the chives as its leaves are very resilient, but I was concerned about the rain and the strong early afternoon sun. So I paired it with my white hibiscus which will give protection from overhead, but not block the lovely late afternoon sun.

The French tarragon and its local companion

The tarragon (on the right) has woody stems and is fairly strong, but I wanted protection for it as it settles in and gets going. I think it will eventually tower over its partner, but they will give each other support. I don't know the name of the local herb. I was told its properties, but not the name. If anyone can tell me, I'd really appreciate it.

And these are my spinach seedlings.

They are ready to be transplanted to other pots and places. I think I'll pair them up with others as well, as I don't have enough space!! But they grow really easily, the only thing is not to let them grow too big as their roots take over the pot and you can't pull them out without emptying the pot. That's fine if they're by themselves, but tough if they're with other plants.

Monday, 28 February 2011

Tasty Pest Killer

Not something that you'd think go together, but I've found a great insecticide that uses basic kitchen ingredients, some of which can be eaten later!! I got the recipe from Wendyl Nissen's book, advertised below, Domestic Goddess on a Budget. I've been trying to get rid of the white parasite for months now. I'd been using a commercial product, which was effective, but concerned me a lot. We love to sit out on the balcony, we like to touch the plants and when you spray insecticide, it tends to go everywhere. Even covering up and wearing gloves doesn't help as it splatters as it hits the plants and leaks all over the place. Then we can't sit out there for several days or touch the plants, and when it's finally safe, you have to do it again!
So, after a crazy weekend a few weeks back when I took all my bulbs out and soaked them in my remaining commercial insecticide and washed all my plants down with the stuff, I decided enough was enough. I needed something I could use regularly without having to worry about skin irritations and poisoning afterwards. Especially when I checked my plants a week later and found more of the horrible white fluff attacking all the new buds.
In Wendyl's recipe you only need 3-4 chillies, 3-4 cloves of garlic, half a cup of water (the edible part) and quarter of a cup of dishwashing detergent (although, I've used only a few squirts and it's been working fine).
As quoted from her book, "steep the chillies and garlic in the water over a low heat for fifteen minutes. Cool, [strain] and pour into a spray bottle with the liquid detergent and fill the rest of the bottle with water." If you save the chillies and garlic after straining, you could add them to a stew or something (just don't add the detergent too).
I've done this in the last two weekends, and I haven't seen even the tiniest bit of white fuzz. I'm going to do this for a month, and then reduce it to once a month. Parasites are always making a comeback, but I feel better about making this concoction a habit than the commercial ones.