Fresh Mint

Back in April I bought a fresh mint plant from the supermarket. The normal pattern with these store bought plants then follows:-

  • Water the plant
  • Pick the leaves to use in different ways
  • Water the plant
  • Pick more leaves
  • Water the plant
  • Unless you have a garden…
  • Plant has barely any leaves left, doesn’t really recover and gets thrown away

Not this time. I was fed up of buying plants to use but then not having them last longer than a month tops.

Living in an apartment is limited when you want to keep your plants healthy, alive and a long time but having good weather most of the year certainly helps them stay around a little longer if not more work to keep them happily watered. If I’m hot then the plant certainly isn’t going to feel any cooler.

In the past I’ve had mint in the garden. It takes over patches year after year, gets stronger no matter how much you cut it back and always returns with a vengeance. It can quickly get out of control but smells amazing so you put up with it anyway.

I decided to tackle looking after this potted mint plant a different way. He’d already survived being grown, popped into a plant pot, travelling to the store and then coming home with me. It had even survived me plucking its minty leaves so I could at least help him survive a bit longer!

If you’d like to save a mint plant and give it longer life than just a few weeks here and there why not check out how I managed to get from wispy to wonderful Strong Minty Plant and still have it around 6 months after buying it.

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Wisdom Wednesday – Yesterday and Today

Your favorite time of the week is here again. You never know, you may be inspired to do something different…yes, its Wisdom Wednesday, where the posts speak for themselves.


Don't let the past ruin the present. Have a great day.
Don’t let the past ruin the present. Have a great day.

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Wisdom Wednesday – Look Forward


Neighborhood Trees

If you wander your local neighborhood what kind of trees do you have?

Here are a selection of my local neighborhood trees and a lot of them are fruit trees 🙂 with a few mystery trees thrown in – do you know what they are?

Papaya Trees

A big thank you to Beatriz of gardeningB.com for pointing me in the right direction – these are actually Papayas not Mango as I incorrectly identified. See, I need all the help I can get 🙂 

However, I’m going to keep this fun Mango fact here 😉 because it’s so interesting.

Mango Mystery – Solved
Mangos are distantly related to a few plants that you’d probably never guess: the cashew and pistachio.

Fig Trees

Did You Know?
Fossil records date figs back to between 9400-9200 B.C.

Avocado

Fun Avocado Fact
Avocados will not ripen on the tree. They must be picked from the tree to initiate ripening. The leaves supply a substance that prevents ripening. The best way to store avocados is to leave them on the tree; they will store for 7 months or more when left on the tree.

Now it’s your turn..

I need some help identifying what the following trees/fruit are? Any clues?

and then of course there was this tree…

Large and nicely displayed in oversized plant pots but do you know what it is?
Large and nicely displayed in oversized plant pots but do you know what it is?

and this was underneath it…a good clue and useful to help identify it. Does this help?

Can you eat this? Looks like something you would dry and put out at Christmas time.
Can you eat this? Looks like something you would dry and put out at Christmas time.

If you can solve the mystery, please leave a comment below.

I’ll leave you with one last photo – a collection of mini balls that were under a palm tree. They’re definitely the fruit/seed from the palm tree (usually green when still attached) but to me they look like eyeballs. I guess Hallowe’en must be on my mind, even though it’s a couple of months away, and the colors reminded me of Fall/Autumn.

Not really eyeballs but it was such a funny collection I just had to snap a picture.
Not really eyeballs but it was such a funny collection I just had to snap a picture.


If you liked this, you may be interested in other food and drink articles
Witch Finger Grapes and The Most Tasty Cocktails