I got invited to a fabulous Burning Man party last weekend and as part of participating, we were asked to contribute food and drinks.  Here you can see, I’ve put Henrik (my new love) to work on building these caprese h’orderves on a toothpick.  Mozzarella and tomatoes were purchased at the store.  I will get my act together and grow my own tomatoes next season!  The basil came from my roof garden.  Nonetheless, everybody LOVED Henrik’s caprese h’orderves and couldn’t stop complimenting him on how delicious they were.  The party was a total success as well!  We all had a blast!  I even sang my first karaoke, which was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.  People did cheer me on when I hit the high notes, so I must have not sucked…  🙂

Henrik : the Capresinator

So my mint plant had just recovered from a good pruning from one month ago and was flourishing.  Yesterday I noticed holes and black spots appeared on some of the leaves.  Today there were a lot more holes so I decided to document this occurrence.  All it is is a hungry little caterpillar!  This is totally harmless.  I in fact love having caterpillars around as they always remind me of Eric Carle’s book The Hungry Caterpillar.  I find the whole metamorphosis into becoming a butterfly is so fascinating.  If I were to cook with my mint, I could just make sure to clean the mint leaves (as I normally would) and just make sure I haven’t added the caterpillar into the meal by mistake.

I’ve repotted my mini fern and stunted rosemary into larger pots.  I love rosemary for culinary purposes, but have been so afraid to use it as it hasn’t grown in over a year!  I just hope the full sun and and larger pot just do the trick to letting it become a lushous culinary plant.

Rosemary

Fern

Strawberries are doing beautifully, but to reiterate I am definitely going to get a lot more plants next year because 3 plants just ain’t cutting it for our appetites!

Alpine Strawberries

“Welcomes” are in order for my first rose bud!  Unfortunately it’s covered in the powdery mildew fungus.  I found a fantastic article on this ailment about causes and remedies.

http://www.mastergardeners.org/publications/powderyMildew.html

Rose Bud

Citronella is doing quite wonderfully!  The flowers smell amazing (as potent if not more than jasmine).  While I was out on the patio for 15 minutes today, I observed 3 bees go and take care of their business with the lemon flowers.

Meyer Lemon Tree

Meyer Lemons Flowers

Meyer Lemons

I made a trip to Lowe’s in San Jose last week, where I have found the best prices for seeds.  They have a great selection of varieties as well.  My mission was to get flower seeds to attract beneficial insects and replenish my herb supply.  WARNING: FOXGLOVE IS VERY POISONOUS TO CATS AND DOGS.

I finally got around to planting all the seeds.  Now we sit back, wait,  and let the magic happen!

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One of the great things about gardening and nature in general is that there are sometimes unintended results that break up the monotony of one’s life.  Here is a video of Mo, our neighborhood feral cat who finally found the cat nip source!  I had to record a video of Mo going at it with the catnip!