Harvest Monday - Holiday Fatalities

After our four week trip in Europe it was with some trepidation that I stepped out to survey my (neglected) balcony garden. I gave all the plants a BIG water before we left and had a friend pop over a few times to give them a drink, but I think we had some super hot weather when I was away that not everything survived...oh dear!

The fatalities: interestingly (and surprisingly) it was the plants that just would not die when I was home that gave up the ghost the minute I turned my back for a bit of time off.

This was SAGE...but not anymore. 

Remember ALL those posts with garnishes of PARSLEY...and how proud I was that I had a never-ending, never-dying supply of parsley?  Well the parsley is no more. Both my flat parsley and curly parsley are as dead as a do-do. Oops.

 

I'm sad that the THYME has carked it even tough I really had no idea of what to use it all for (I mean I had TONNES of the stuff and nothing to use it for).  I loved going out onto the balcony and running my hand through the thyme as it has had the most wonderful aroma.

This mint has been through A LOT in its short life and even though it's half dead here it is already sprouting little bits of greenery. I'm going to cut all the branches off today and see if it makes another comeback.

The living dead:

The kale is half-dead. I'm not sure what I was planning to use this KALE for anyway as other than kale chips I have NO idea what to do with kale. I think this is going straight to the bin.

Although the tops are looking a bit crunchy I think my CARROTS might be still alive under all that dirt. Only time will tell - fingers crossed.

My SAGE was starting to flower before I went away and it's gone into full-bloom now. I'm wondering if I cut off all the flowers will I have usable sage underneath? Hmmm....

The survivors: 

I lost my mind about two weeks before we flew out and planted these BEANS. I have no idea why and I am gob-smacked that the plants are still alive AND they have beans on them. Albeit, the plants aren't as big as they'd be if they'd be watered and fertilized, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

 

ROSEMARY. You just can't kill it can you (well I usually can, so I'm surprised that this is pretty much in one piece).  There's a few brown, crunchy bits but nothing a pair of scissors cannot fix.

Now that I'm back to reality I'm going to have think about what I want to plant on the balcony for summer. I'm starting to think "less is more" so I think it'll just be a few things for the coming months. Probably tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums. Some new parsley wouldn't go astray either.