Warm greetings all. 🙏 💚
Today I planted the new planting bed under the strawberry guava, the creation of which I described in this post. This bed has dappled shade throughout the day, so I decided to plant two more shade-loving species.
The first one is Strobilanthes dyerianus, or Persian shield, an extremely attractive species with green, silver, and purple leaves. It also has lovely light purple flowers, though those are not seen as often. Many species in the genus Strobilanthes have notable medicinal properties, and while I have not yet seen anything on this species' medicinal qualities, it likely has them. I'll be experimenting, as always. I planted two, one larger and one quite a bit smaller. Curiously the smaller plant is flowering, which is unusual.
The second species I chose do plant here is Pogostemon cablin, or patchouli. While most people are familiar with this species' use in making essential oil, few know that it is also a medicinal powerhouse. It's one of my favorites to put in my medicinal tea blends. I planted three of these, two larger, and one small plant that I moved. The smaller one is recovering from someone accidentally cutting it to the ground.
These plants should all do well in this location, and will all increase in size notably in a few months.
I also moved several large Krishna tulsi plants, Ocimum tenuiflorum, that I had salvaged from someone who did not want them, out of the shadier spot where they were recovering, to a much sunnier location so that they can harden off a bit and acclimate before planting. I moved a few Comfrey plants, Symphytum × uplandicum, and tropical milkweed seedlings to the same area, for the same reason, to harden off and acclimate before planting. I'll plant the Krishna tulsi and the comfrey in the bed next to where I put them, though I may plant the tropical milkweed in another spot. The milkweed are looking sad because monarch butterflies discovered them before they got much size on them, so several were completely defoliated. Thankfully this happens often, and they always recover.
The last notable thing I did today was move a white (or Chinese) mulberry, Morus alba, from a garden bed to the border of the property, on the edge of the forest (600-acre forest reserve), next to another one that I had already transplanted about a month ago. I know it's not very easy to see them. It wasn't easy getting shots where they were both easily visible. These mulberry are next to the main kitchen, so that their delicious fruit will be readily available for making smoothies and fruit bowls.
That's all for this update! Thank you all for sharing another round of garden adventures with me! 🙏 💚