Date Line: 2015-06-28
It hasn’t been long since our last visit to the garden, less than a week in fact. However I had some free time and decided an experiment was in order. What you see pictured to the right is the mint plant, which had done fairly well since I replanted it way back in April. Unfortunately, it had done so well since some of the new shoots were dying and all of the leaves were stunted in size. The mint had outgrown its pot, again.
This was most definitely the Chocolate-Mint-that-could. I thought I was doing an amazing job keeping it happy, but it turns out they’re excellent in their weed-like tendencies to grow no matter what. I cut the plant back a bit and pulled it out of the pot. What I saw (pictured left) surprised me, even though I knew the problem in advance. The entire pot had become one giant, densely packed, strangled, root ball. So I broke up the band.
The three mint pots, after I was done ‘breaking up the band’.
Originally, I had only planned to split the mint in half. The left pot was the original and the middle pot was the new piece. However I had this small extra chunk that barely had any leaves, but something compelled me to plant it and give it a shot. Keep in mind that this was probably the least gentle transplant operation possible. I figured some of the mint may die, but again, I was experimenting.
There was also one other piece of a “good news” from the day’s adventures. I had noticed the large tomato from last week (on the Bush Goliath) has started to turn red. It was quite exciting for me to see real, potentially edible fruit, being produced by my own garden. I wasn’t really sure when it would be ready, so it stayed on the vine for now. Daily checks were on the docket though, so as to make sure I picked this first luscious fruit at exactly the right time.