How to Harvest dill seeds

The dill in my garden is all gone. In late spring it started to flower a lot and it lost all of its leaves, then it dried and now is just a long stalk in the balcony. To not let it go in vain I picked up all the dead flower heads and tried to harvest the seeds. I got a bunch, enough to plant a new batch and a bit more.

The dill ready to be harvested

The way I learned to harvest the seeds is very simple.

• First, you need to wait until the flower heads get a bit dry while they are still on the plant. Just enough to see them mostly brown, but not as much that the seeds will start to fall.
  
  
• When they are ready snip off the complete flower branch and get them inside a paper bag heads first.

Just get it inside a paper bag to let it dry

• Let them be there a week or two until they finish drying and the seeds detach and fall into the paper bag. In case there are still some stubborn ones just give the bag a good shake.
  
  
• Afterwards just take away the spent flower heads from the paper bag and all you have left is the seeds

And that is all, enjoy your dill seeds.

Dill seeds ready for next season

I am not sure if I should grow dill again because, to be honest, I underused it a lot. In all the months that I had it growing in my garden, I think I only used it three or four times. The space on my balcony is very limited, and a the full grown dill was very big, almost my height. So, maybe I should put something different in that pot. But then, growing again might be a good encouragement to start using it more.

I don't know, I guess I will put a couple seeds in a starting pot and let mother nature, if they grow or not.

Lavender season in my balcony

Here in Japan is very common to have people traveling north to Hokkaido for the summer holidays, and one of the popular things to do there is visit the lavender farms in the area. I was lucky and had a chance to visit on my first year in Japan. Growing lavender is a big deal in Hokkaido. From what saw they treat the season in a similar way to how they treat sakura season. They have festivals, special lavender food, lavender designs and many products related. It is very fun place to be. Before my visit, I had never seen any lavender farms, so it was a great surprise to see all the never ending fields of purple and walk among the trails. It was an amazing experience.

my lavender

So, after my visit to the lavender farms that year, of course I had to have some lavender growing in the garden. I got a plant last autumn and took care of it hoping for some summer blooms. It grew a bit during the winter and even more in spring. Finally it started blooming in May, a bit earlier that I expected, but no complains, It was probably just another effect of the vacation drought of spring.

Now after blooming nicely all June, it seems to be starting to stop, so I decided to cut away the flowers that are left and let it grow for the next year.

See you next year

It was very fun to grow lavender, I had never had a chance to do it before. Even though is a very small plant the scent it produced was very strong, specially in the mornings when I the light wind made it come into the room from the balcony. Hopefully it will give a great display again next season, but for now I say good bye, is time to rest.

How to make lemon balm & mint tea

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. It has been a very busy and tiring couple of weeks. To start again with the blog, I want to share a little recipe that I found very useful to cope with all the stress.

Just the other day, I had a lot of things to do but I needed to recharge, so I sat at the balcony for a little while. Then while I was contemplating my garden, it hit me, I should make some lemon balm tea. I have mid size lemon balm that keeps growing like crazy and I had never really taken advantage of it. Lemon balm is a great aid to fight stress and relax, it was just perfect. So, I got the scissors and snip some branches and made me some tea.

Harvesting some herbs from the garden for tea

This is one of the reasons I like gardening so much, all the work you put in it always have a nice reward. Those of you who are thinking about starting a garden, take notice.

Here is my recipe, hope you enjoy it.
You can try making it with just lemon balm, but I enjoy the extra fresh flavor that mint adds to the recipe.

Lemon balm and mint tea

• 10 fresh lemon balm sprigs
  
• 5 fresh lemon mint sprigs
  
• 4 cups of water
  
• Honey

Making the tea

First get the water to a boil. Take your sprigs and break and fold them with your hands (no knife), this will help the oils get released. Then toss them in the boiling water for around 10 minutes. The longer you leave them the stronger the flavor will be, but, take care not to leave them to long because lemon balm is sensitive to over boiling, it gets a bitter flavor and loses the lemony scent. While they are boiling the water should will get a yellowish color and the scent will be very noticeable. I like leaving some of the leafs behind, but you can you can strain if you don’t want leafs on your drink. Add as much honey as you want and you are done. Enjoy your hot drink!

Delicious and relaxing lemon balm & mint tea

Now, I grew up in a place where 40 °C is considerate normal, so I tend to prefer cold drinks. If you are like me, just wait a little and add ice. The cold will take away a bit of the flavor, but you can crush the leaves more to get it back. And you are done, enjoy you cold and relaxing drink!

Other thing to remember, Lemon balm is also great to help digestion, and so is mint. So, in case you have upset stomach or you are feeling uneasy at the belly, give this tea a try.

A little about Wasabi and Shiso

First of all, I want to thank everybody for participating in the world garden carnival! We had almost 50 entries with a lot of amazing ideas and projects for the starting year. It is always great to see so many gardens around the world and get to meet so many people.

It always amazes me how we can connect even when we are so far apart. I feel like you are all my neighbors from around the block. We ask each other for advice, give support, and share our passion for gardening. Thank you very much!

It also amazes me how much inspiration can surge, from this interactions that we might not otherwise have. I have come up with so many ideas and I discovered some activities that I really enjoy thanks to this. For example, lately, I have been getting some mails and having some conversations, where I have been asked about "how to grow", "how to take care" or just special questions about plants or gardening.

Now, I must say, I am not an expert. I might have some knowledge and practice on growing plants and gardening in general, but I still have a lot to learn. But that is precisely the part that I have found most fun. When asked about things I don’t know, I try to go and look them up. It might be my researcher nature, (that is what made me go into engineering and academics) because I really like investigating, researching and coming with a proper answer.

One example is, some time ago, I had a couple of mails from Cina from My Obsession My Compulsion. (She gives a lot of very detailed information on a great variety of plants on her blog. Check it out if you can) where she ask me if I knew something about some Japanese herbs. Although I didn’t knew much of the herbs in question at that moment, I was more than happy to help her.

I look around and in the end I did got some good information that I hope was useful for her. I enjoyed a lot researching for this data, and I learn a lot while doing it too. Here is a tiny bit of what I found on some of the plants she ask me about.

About wasabi

Wasabi plant

• A staple of Japanese cuisine.


• It is also known as "Japanese horseradish".


• Its root is used as a condiment and has an extremely strong flavor similar to mustard.


• Wasabi is a Brassica, so it is related to Cabbages, Cauliflower, Broccoli.


• It is a very hard pant to grow because it has very specific requirements.


• If grown correctly it will grow slowly for two years before is ready to harvest.

Wasabi growing in the mountains of japan

• It prefers cool, shady conditions. In japan it is usually grown in the mountains, using the running water from misty mountain streams.


• At home might be best kept in a Aquaponics system, to keep them wet all the time, even the seeds won’t survive long time without the proper moisture.


• The hardest part of growing wasabi might be getting a viable plant, seeds or plants are not easy to find.

A little about Shiso

Shiso plant

• Also known as perilla ot beefsteak plant.


• Great herb for cooking, garnishing and with some medicinal proprieties too.


• It grows up to 130 cm tall. It has big and toothy leaves, with ruffled edges, and fine hairs on them.


• It comes from the same family as basil, so the flavor is somehow similar but the texture is very different.


• It is a very nice plant to have. It is an annual, but it reseeds easily with the proper conditions. Goes great with sashimi.

Shiso is a great for cooking and garnish

I will post more about this and other Japanese herbs later. In the meantime, if you have any question that I might help, feel free to send me a mail. I will try to give my best knowledge. Or, if I don't know, I will look around for the best answer possible. It might take a bit for me to get back to you if I get "school busy", but I will try to answer as fast as I can.

Also, while we are on the subject of online gardening neighbors. I want to give a special thanks to Jo from The Good Life for giving me a blogger award. I enjoy your blog very much too. Thank you!

My new herbs

I have been having a crave for herbs lately. So, this weekend I made a quick trip to the garden center and got a load of new herbs to go with the ones I already have.

It all started when I was reviewing online about how to grow the thyme seeds I brought from Mexico. I learned that thyme usually grows slow at the beginning, that together with the fact that I need to sow my seeds until spring and also since I am a bit of an impatient gardener, made me decided on getting a grown plant for the winter.

Then this Friday, when I was taking a stroll at the supermarket's gardening section, I saw they have a bunch of herbs for sale. I could not resist and bought a lemon thyme there, and definitely wanted more. So, I made a plan to get some new herbs and also took a trip to Tokyo to buy some wooden pots I know would fit the herbs perfectly. Then yesterday got the new herbs.

My new herbs with their planters

They had a great selection, and it was sure hard to pick which ones to buy. In the end of course, I ended up buying more than I should have, but no regrets.

The new herbs I got in my little garden in japan

From left to right in the photo above

• Dill No idea how to cook with this but I love the flowers


• Oregano For pasta, and for some Mexican sauces


• Lemon balm For some good tea


• Lavender I have always wanted a lavender


• Rosemary This one is still blooming


• Aloe I got this one from Mexico, more about that other day


• Lemon Thyme Its smell reminds me of my lemon tree back at home


• Cool Peppermint A nice addition to my current mint collection


• Thyme The one that started all

I hope they will grow nicely, I still have to set them up in their planters, but I can do that over the week when I have time. There is much to do in my garden, and they are so many new plants.

I also got a much needed rack to hang some of the planters up the rail, because I already run out of space on the floor. I choose to put there the planter that used to have the strawberries and now has lettuce and kalanchoe sprouts. Today I set it up and it works like a charm.

My new rack all set up with the lettuce seedlings

Seeds from Mexico

I have a delay on working on the garden because my fish tank suddenly got a leak, so all my attention was on that. For now the fish are Ok, but now I don’t have much time left for the garden and is almost time to go back to japan.

Yesterday I was finally able to do something garden related. I went to shop for some seeds. This city doesn’t have that much of a "grow yourself from seeds culture", so I had some trouble finding some. We usually buy the grown plant from the nursery, by trades or even collect plants and seeds from the wild. After some looking around I was able to get some nice seeds at little stores and supermarkets. I still have one more place to go, so I will probably get some more.

Here is what I got so far

Seeds from Mexico

• Desert plants (Cactus, Nopal, Maguey, and more) It would not be Mexico if you don’t have a fair amount of cactus.


• Zempasuchitl The Mexican marigold, this particular type has a very intense scent, I hope it can get me some butterflies.


• Chile poblano A very common Mexican type of chili pepper, one of Mexico signature dishes is made with this, I don’t think I can recreate, because I still need so many other ingredients, but I can have a bit of Mexico flavor at home.


• Epazote This one is a common herb in Mexican food, is a bit spicy and goes well with stew.


• Chile chipotle Other of Mexico signature chili, this one will require a bit more preparation since we usually have them dry, but I hope I can learn how to do it and get me some good sauces.

I hope this plants get to grow in Japan, I think they will with proper care, but I won't find out until next year.

I got way more that I could have in japan, so you will probably hear about a giveaway some time in the future, keep on checking.

My herbs

Herbs are easy to grow in little gardens. They usually thrive in containers, and most are very resistant to everything.

My mints were the first herb I got for my garden, but after seeing how they could grow so easy I decided to get some more.

My Cilantro (Coriander/Chinese parsley)

my first batch of Coriander

I had to get this plant because I missed that flavor. For me "cilantro" is one of the basic herbs for cooking, also I know it is native of Asia so I was very surprised when I got to japan and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I went to many supermarkets and food stores but it was nowhere to be found. I only saw it once in Nihonbashi, but when I went back to buy it they didn't have it anymore.

Getting a bit frustrated because I couldn’t buy it fresh I decided to grow It myself. I looked around internet and research about how to grow coriander. It was winter so I had to wait, but the idea was on my mind already.

Next spring, after I moved and I discovered the garden center I got some seeds there, I sow them and waited for some tasty leafs. The plants were growing fine, but then I went on vacation and they suffer quite a bit. When I came back they didn't look good, I water them thoroughly and when the leafs got fresh I harvest them all. They were really tasty.

After that I have sowed some more, I hope they are still on season.

My sweet basil

My sweet basil is growing well

After my success growing mint and my semi success growing cilantro I wanted to get some more herbs. Last month on a trip to the garden center I saw that they had sweet basil for sale, so one more plant for my little garden. I did some research about how to grow basil and set it up.

Now it is growing very happily where the marigold used to be, it is growing quite fine and I already used it for my cooking twice.

I do want to have more herbs, but I am worried I will run out of space, my little garden is really a very little garden. Well maybe one little lavender, it can't hurt that much.

My mints

Today is all about mint

My mints are by far the most successful of all my plants. They simply never stop growing.

My mints growing happy as always

I've always had wanted to have mints even before coming to japan, but back then I was never able to get hold of a mint plant.

Here in japan I found them. The first time I saw them they were selling some at kichioji station but I didn’t buy them at that moment. I didn't have enough money and I was already carrying a lot, so no extra hand to carry plants.

Much later in early winter, on a second trip to kichioji with more drive and some luck I was able to get some. I got two, one apple mint and one peppermint. They were very small and fragile.
That winter because of improper care from my part I almost lost the apple mint (I didn’t water for four days) but then I change them to a bigger pot and they start growing like crazy.

They simply didn’t stop growing, I try to harvest some cuttings now and then but they overwhelm me completely. I was lucky because as usual I did not have any clue on how to take care of mints.
By the middle of spring they both measure more than 1 meter and were by far the biggest plant in the garden.

The only problem I had with them was some yellow leafs but it was nothing serious.
I decided not to cut them and wait for the flowers. I had never seen mint flowers so I was very curious, also I wanted to take advantage of the beneficial insects they attract. They continued to grow a little more to finally bloom in early summer. They give beautiful light purple flowers one after the other.

They were very happy until that week of the dreaded vacation drought. When I came back all of them were dry. Not even a couple green leafs remained. I did what I could, I cut all the dead branches, watered thoroughly, and wished for the best.

A couple days later, some green new sprouts come out and then more and more. Now it is again in a state of never ending growing like if nothing happened. I love my mints they are such a hardy herb.

Also, now I have found several ways of avoiding being overwhelmed by the continuous growth. So it's all perfect.