No post to a long post :O)

Mint, mint, mint everywhere and a few other herbs. Yes we are expecting 102 for a high today but whats a girl to do when she has been pinned up inside due to 105-107 degrees and a arm/shoulder that wasn't wanting to do garden work. Well you wait till your arm is at least some better and when its only going to be 102 ... and you can work in the shade for the most part. You grab your gardening gloves and your honeymans brand new still in the package hand saw :O) and head outside with your gardening dog. Ummm yes Keeper is in this post as well. 
Remember the new beds honeyman made me for herbs, mostly for my mints. With luck I can keep them some what contained and separated. 

Why a hand saw you ask? Because my potted mints were all root bound, some really bad some just kinda. I wanted to cut off a chunk of each to pot up for my best buddy,  so I figured the hand saw was my best bet! It worked great!  Sliced right through those roots! These two varieties were not root bound like some of the others, but the roots were tough and this made it easier to get a slice. Hopefully the saw is no worse for the wear. I cleaned it off and put it back in the cardboard sleeve :O). I might have forgot to mention I was going to use it to honeyman. But you know why bother the man with such trivial details is what I figured. :O) LOL  No really he wouldn't have cared, umm I am pretty sure :O)

The roots were thick enough that the saw is sticking mid air without me holding it LOL. It worked great to make a pie shape cut out of each plant. Needed to cut a piece that would fit in the recycled containers I had for potting in.

 When done I had all the mints in the ground and a piece of each potted up.  Doesn't everyone need 40 kinds of mints? LOL Ok not 40 but I have quite a few.  They do all taste very different. Spearmint, Chocolate Mint, Pineapple Mint, Mojito Mint, Mint Julip, Lemon Mint, mmm that is all I can think of off the top of my head LOL.. 
One spot I used for comfrey, clary sage, lime basil, onion chives and a sweet basil. These were all plants given to me.  Most are perennial except the basil. I am hoping the Lime basil will reseed for me it does for Melodie. I will save seeds off it just in case! It taste fantastic if you have never tried it. You can really taste the lime to it. I had two plants but darn squash bugs killed one! No really, they left my pumpkin vines and went every where after  I picked the pumpkins and the vines died. They were all over everything, they even crawled all the way to our garage area and were all over the place. That was a quite a haul for a squash bug. uggg... I had  to move all these pots. But one of my lime basil didn't make it, it had to be them as it was fine before they got all over the plants.. grrrrrrrr squash bugs. 

The hydrangea below was in a little 4" pot, my neighbor gave it and a few other little plants she didn't want to me. They all needed to go in the ground pretty bad. This is a blue hydrangea. It will be fine, I actually have several hydrangea and have very good luck with them. Yes shocking I know here in the sahara desert. Will let this fella grow a bit and get some roots. Then I will find him a home in the shade. 
 This is what happens when your pumpkins are picked and you haven't been able to pull the vines or the weeds. sighhhh.. The one other row has  herbs in it. Sages, thymes, marjoram, lemon balm, oreganos, rosemary, lavender.  I hope to start cleaning up all my garden rows this week. A few hours early morning is about all I can take, then its to blasted hot.


Keeper helped me the whole time, oh yes he is quite the gardener! He gets right in there and gets his paws, legs, face dirty with the best of them.. ROFL he is due a bath today anyway. There was a muddy spot at the faucet as that faucet sprays water. Its on the fix list, but anyway he thought that was the best time digging in that mud and water. I just let him he was having so much fun. Plus it was so hot I am sure the water felt good to him.  If you click on the photos lol you can really appreciate his muddiness LOL

 and I helped!!!

14 comments:

brokenteepee said...

It's always good to have company!

TexWisGirl said...

i love your sweet gardening assistant! i have admired hydrangeas all around blogland but didn't think they'd make it here!

jp@A Green Ridge said...

For some reason I never thought about planting mint in a container but will now! Your four pawed friend is nicer than ANY hydrangea I've seen!...:)JP

Inger said...

You did all that in 102???? Phew, it's hot here too, about the same, and no way will you find me outside gardening. Keeper is adorable, that face!

1st Man said...

That's something I want to do next season, have a dedicated mint area/garden. I know they are very invasive. Lime basil? Holy cow, sounds delicious. I love basil and I love lime. Now if they could just come up with bacon basil? LOL! Nice job and glad you are feeling better. That picture of Keeper with the "and I helped" caption made me laugh out loud!

the wild magnolia said...

You and Keeper have your hands full.

So much work because of bugs.....

Wishing you rain and freedom from bugs.

Carolyn said...

Your dog is so cute :D The mint with the hacksaw picture made me smile! Mint is so drought resistant it is one of the few things I actually have no trouble keeping alive either :) Wishing you lots of delish mint juleps to help withstand the heat...

Kev Alviti said...

As a carpenter I can now tell you that the saw is now quite a bit blunter than it was before (all the grit and stuff in the soil takes the edge off!) but don't worry I wont tell. I repotted all my mint last week (although I've only got three kinds at the moment compared to your assortment) it does it some good to have some new soil. ooks quite a bit hotter there that it is here!

Terry said...

Love your helper!
That mojito mint sounds yummy!

Paula said...

*haha* Keeper and his muddy paws are hilarious! Your raised beds look great~ I never thought of using cinderblocks before.
Very neat idea!

Anonymous said...

The gardens look so wonderful. I'm not sure how I'm going to reclaim my herb garden after a year of neglect and now this drought forced neglect. Hopefully, I'll get it taken care of next spring.

V.L. Locey said...

Boy howdy, you`re a better woman than I. I`d fizzle into a puddle working in such heat. That is one fine looking helper you had!

Lana said...

You are doing a great job with the gardens! I love the cinderblocks as the edge to create a nice, hard-edged raised garden zone. You can also take a weed-wacker to the outer edge without doing damage to the blocks. Great!

Keeper is adorable!

Lana

Carla said...

LOL I giggled when you were listing the types of mint. It made me think of Forrest Gump when he was talking about all the different kinds of shrimp.
And a smile for Keeper. A wet muddy dog is a happy dog.

Don't over do.