Not Mint To Be

P1040781Both of my mint plants have been attacked by web making caterpillars. According to some of the over-the-moon raves about the pest repellent properties of mint, there shouldn’t be an insect, spider nor caterpillar dare to venture close to my mint plants. It’s on the internet so it must be gospel. Right? … Umm Nope!

Obviously, these caterpillars didn't take time to read about mint being  a repellent before moving in to it.

Obviously, these caterpillars didn’t take time to read about mint being  a repellent before moving in to it.

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Apparently a ladybeetle and another odd looking insect didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to be repelled by the mint.

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What do you supposed this creepy crawly is?

dllgs-thWhile I’m at it, I may as well point out that in my photo in my post ‘Daddy LongLegs with it’s 2 red eggs‘, she was on my mint plant as well.

So, there you have it.
My mint is bagged and tossed so these creepy crawlies don’t spread. Hopefully, my basil won’t get infested, but unfortunately it could happen.

I guess the bad luck with mints could be just my experience and it may work well for other folks.

Have you tried mint plants or fresh mint as a pest repellent? Did it work?

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First Squash Harvest & Herb Garden

0-1squashI harvested my first green egg squash. It grew at sonic speed after the storm we had the night before. 0-2squashThe rule at our home is the first squash of the season should be fried, but since a few years ago we avoid greasy foods, so our first squash are stir fried instead of deep fried.0-3squashI picked some chard, green onions, onion chives, garlic chives, sweet basil and rosemary to add to the stir-fry along with orange peppers that I froze last gardening season. The stir fry was delicious.0-4squashWe grew everything in this stir fry, except for the olive oil that we used to stir fry the veggies. I think that’s awesome!chef

 Now for the reveal from the teaser in my ‘Friday in Green‘ post.

herbgardenWe got carried away with buying herbs and had no choice but to make an herb garden.
My husband picked out the cute birdbath for the center of the herb garden. We think Mickey and Minnie Mouse are so adorable. My husband planted some celosia flowers to add color to the herb garden.
I figure by fall, if the weather acts right, the herb garden should be quite productive.
I figure most of the herbs won’t survive a winter, but we’ll wait and see.

You may have noticed that I have 3 rosemary plants; the one in the pot that I’ve been posting about for awhile and 2 plants in the herb garden.
My brother sent me a ‘Rosemary Madeline’ plant for my herb garden. It’s supposed to be hardy in our growing zone. I hope it survives the winter and grows well.
My husband also bought a rosemary to grow in the herb garb garden. I don’t know what it is other than rosemary. Like the rosemary that I bought, in the produce department, it didn’t have any other name or variety info on it’s plant stake. I’ve checked several garden centers around here and they all grow/sell rosemary but none label what specific variety it is.P1000599aI originally planted peppermint and chocolate mint in the herb garden, but after reading up on the mints and how invasive a plant they can be, I transplanted them into pots and keep them on my porch. By-the-way, the chocolate mint smells like a andes mint or a york peppermint patty. I haven’t tasted it yet though. P1000500aYou can tell from the photo that my sweet basil and cinnamon basil are growing well. My lemon basil is the pot on the far right, it isn’t growing as fast. I’ve replanted the lemon basil seeds at least 5 times and only a few plants have come up. I believe there is something wrong with the seeds like they’re old or something. However, if the plants I have growing now survive they’ll be just fine for being greenery on my back-porch and maybe for flavoring a food from time-to-time.

Except for the herbs in our stir-fry, I haven’t used most of the other varieties. However, I’m planning to look up some recipes to try them out. I hope I can stick to my plan and maybe I’ll discover some tasty recipes.

Wishing you all a happy weekend!
smileflower