One of Those Weeks

Sometimes things just go well.
I'll set a goal for the day and meet the goal. Maybe even another one or two.
Lists get checked off, plans go as planned. 

Or maybe some things won't go exactly as expected, but turns out okay in the end.

I like those times.

But then there are the times when it seems like things are out of kilter. Like anything you try to do just doesn't work out for one reason or another.

The week started out pretty well.
Last Sunday I had a list of things to accomplish, and got the first few things tick, tick, ticked off. 
But then there was an annoyance, and another, and another.

That's really all the things are, annoyances, so I shouldn't complain, since things could be a whole lot worse.

Anyhoo. Haven't done a garden update in a while.
Not much to update, it hasn't been doing much --- unless you count dying.
The tomatoes are pretty much officially done for.
The pepper plants are still alive, but that's about it. Not growing any bigger.

Two of the Jalapeno pepper plants has some peppers. Four on one, two on the other.
That's it.
Guess I might pick them eventually and make some jalapeno poppers or something.

We got this cabinet moved into the kitchen and I cleaned it up good. Best as I could anyway. My Mom got it off the curb out of someone's trash, so it's not the prettiest thing.

But it's pretty sturdy, other than the cheap, cardboard backing, which could easily be replaced with stronger, 1/4" plywood.

It doesn't match the look I have in mind for my new/old kitchen - if I ever get that far - but after I designed the new/old kitchen, turned out I hadn't designed a place for a microwave oven.

I wanted to try not having a microwave anymore, but that didn't work out too well. We're too lazy, I guess.

I had been going to find a vintage metal cart to sit it on, but then Mom had this cabinet in her carport and wanted to get rid of it and it occurred to me not only would it hold my microwave, but also small appliances and canned goods.

(Sorry for the weird picture angle - the spare fridge is sitting in front of it, waiting for us to move the main fridge, after we get the floor done, after we get the house jacked and leveled....)

I don't love it, and I'm not sure even painting it will change that, but for now, it serves it's purpose, and it was free, so can't complain too much.

Last year this time - actually 2 weeks ago - I had already started decorating for Fall.
Funny, I was reading back over that old post and I had written, "that today was September 1st.

Generally that wouldn't mean much, usually only that we'd be in about our third week back to school and it's still hot as heck around here and no one's even thinking about leaves changing or pumpkin patches or apple cider yet."

This year it's different.
Schools started starting back around the first part of August and it was like people said, "Ok, school's started back, Summer's over, it's Fall now! Bring on the cold, hoodies, and pumpkin spiced everything!"

But I wasn't ready to let Summer go yet.
Still ain't, really, but I did start cleaning the mantle off yesterday, to get ready, to get ready. Supposed to be some cool fronts moving in, so when it starts feeling like Fall, then maybe I'll feel more like getting into Fall.

I had the three creamers and saucers above left over from the yard sale.
(They may or may not have been priced a bit higher than the rest of the stuff in hopes they wouldn't sell.)
(I only had a $1.00/set on them. According to eBay Sold listings, that was extremely cheap.)

As I had been setting out things for the yard sale, I kept thinking "This would be good for that" in regards to different things, and these little pitchers struck me as being cute planters.

I put them out to try to sell (although I hoped they wouldn't) and they didn't, so I decided I'd made the effort, and it was fair that I got to keep them and use them as planters.

I planted Aloe in two, and Christmas cactus in the third.
While I was messing around out on the back porch I saw the Christmas mug and thought it would make a good planter, too.

Back in February, I had pruned my Christmas cactus plants, and decided to try propagating the pieces into new plants.

They somehow lived, and even grew roots.

In addition to the two in the planters, I moved the rest of them to three larger pots.

The two largest ones in the back are the original plants I got from my Mom last September, a year ago, the three smaller black pots in the front are the new plantings.

My Aloe babies, babies' babies, grand babies.

Seriously, if you're not any good with plants, get succulents. They have to be just about impossible to kill, considering mine are still alive and reproducing like crazy.

The newest addition to my little garden family - which, sadly, I don't expect to still be around by next Spring - is Chocolate Mint.

I knew about regular ol' Mint, my Grannie's old neighbor had it growing alongside her carport, but I had not heard of these different varieties - Chocolate mint, Orange, Apple, Pineapple mint, etc.

We first saw the different mint plants at the Colonial Williamsburg Gardens Nursery we visited last month.

I can't remember why I didn't buy a plant there at Colonial Williamsburg, but anyway, I ended up ordering 3 Starts from someone on eBay.

The seller sent me like 4 good plants with roots, and then some roots with no plants. Maybe it was supposed to only be 3, but I don't know really know what I'm doing, I might have pulled one apart or something. Anyway I ended up with 4 plants.

The root by itself I just buried in soil, not sure if that was the right thing to do or not.
The black bucket on the left below is what came of it. Multi-plants.

Some of the plants started growing out long, and I had read that the leaves should be picked off to help with growth. Still not too clear on that.

Also, I don't use leaves in recipes or teas, so I don't know what to do with them when I do pick them off.

I was going to attempt what I did with the Christmas cactus, break/cut off the extensions and try to root them into new plants.

I ended up pulling the plant up and dividing them at the roots. (I don't know why I ended up doing that.)
Never did pinch/prune them back, but now I have several plantings of Chocolate mint from the original 4 that I only planted a couple of weeks ago.
 

I'm going to try to grow them indoors over the winter and hope they survive better than my Rosemary plant did last year.

Maybe they will. From what I read, they're a hardy, aggressive, hard to kill plant. I guess if they didn't smell so good, they'd probably be considered Weeds. I believe "Grass" people already do consider them weeds.