Last May, I bought a garden sage to see if it could pay for itself as an
essential ingredient in our bean dish. The ten-leaf seedling has since turned
into an aromatic silver-green bush of dozens of up-shooting branches thriving
in a 10gal pot. It has yielded over 1000 leaves, most of which have been dried
and stored up. According to the Web, the culinary sage has three to four years
of high productivity. So I'm expecting the total harvest to top 8000 leaves,
i.e., if I take good care of the herb.
After the earlier caterpillar attacks (see a previous post), I have stayed
alert. Winter was peaceful, however, and early spring, the plant spurted. At the
tip of each branch first appeared two minute leaflets as if holding each other.
In a few days, they would fork out into young leaves to reveal a new pair at the
fresh tip. In a week, the first pair would have maxed out in size and ready for
harvesting.
I was not the only one who paid attention. The other day, as I was hovering over
the plant, I noticed a pair of young leaves hugging. That was wierd, I thought,
as they should have grown apart at their size. Curious, I pulled them open and
saw within a tiny green larva already wiggling and chomping. Following the same
cue, I foiled two more similar attempts from the enemy.
My parsley has been a different story. The first pot early 2020 did so well
that I added another four by Jan. Together, they gave abundant fresh leaves for
my weekly pasta and I took it for granted.
They had no pests until recently an army of aphids descended. The tiny green
foot soldiers claimed territories by sheer numbers until they sheathed whole
plants. Although annoying, they did not destroy the herb and could be rinsed
away.
A few days of sudden jump in temperature, however, sent signals to the parsley
and, like last year's cilantro, they bolted. Unsightly thick trunks formed and
the leaves and branches hardened. There was nothing I could do but to replace
them with new ones. This time, I was going to have them indoors to avoid bolting
and maybe to grow garlic in the same pots to repel aphids.
By far, 13 heirloom tomatoes from last year's seeds have flourished in three
20gal pots. One thing I could've done better was to leave more room between the
seeds when sowing to avoid hurting the roots when it's time to separate the
seedlings. So far, they have grown big and strong regardless and been flowering
since the end of Apr. With the picture of their juicy plump yellow fruits in mind,
I set up cages and enjoyed watering them and taking off sucker leaves almost
daily. I never remember having to worry about tomato pests. Let's hope the good
luck continue.
