They say mint is easy to grow, I killed mine!

Obviously I spent some time gardening today. The rose bushes I ordered awhile back finally arrived and I was planting them, then I began to clip dead branches off my plants. This brings me to my 100% dead mint plants. I successfully killed my Moroccan mint and my spearmint.. I am attributing the death of my mints and basil to the annoying white fly’s that just won’t go away. I attempted to buy ladybugs to control my bug problem but the few companies that sell small quantities of ladybugs are fraudsters. (see my post titled “wow I was ripped off” for more on this)

Anyway my realization today is that apartment gardening is not easy! Hopefully things will warm up here so all my sun starved plants can go outdoors for some fresh air and some direct sunlight! 🙂
In addition to my watering and fertilizing I am also adding coffee grounds and crushed, dried egg shell to my garden soil to improve soil condition. Here are a few more gardening tips I learned today that I would like to share in this post:

1. Milk helps control fungus in the garden– The fungus control recipe calls for milk to be mixed with water at a ratio of 1 part milk to 9 parts water and applied every 5-7 days for 3 applications.
2. Beer is an effective slug controller– If you place shallow containers of beer around the slug infested garden the beer will attract and drown the slugs leaving your plants happy and slug free!

3. Garlic & mineral oil make a great pest control spray– Put 3 ounces of finely chopped garlic to soak in 2 teaspoons of mineral oil for 24 hours. Add 1 pint of water and ¼ ounce of liquid dish soap. Stir well and strain into a glass jar for storage. This is your concentrate. To use: Combine 1-2 tablespoons of concentrate in 1 pint of water to make the spray. Do be careful not to make the solution too strong. While garlic is safe for humans, when combined with oil & soap, the mixture can cause leaf injury on sensitive plants. Always test the lower leaves of plants first to make sure they aren’t affected.

Do you have any gardening tips or tricks you would like to share?? If so please post them here!