Notice the calendula bottles just keep going right off the photo…
My calendula-infused oil and yarrow tincture are finally finished and in tiny brown dropper bottles. I have been waiting what feels like an eternity and now the waiting is over.
One thing I learned: I don’t need to fill up 3/4 of a pint jar with olive oil. I ended up with four dropper bottles and a massive mess on my kitchen counter.
The yarrow was a lot easier to transfer because I had steeped it in a generic spice jar like you get at a grocery store. A quick pour later and it was settled into its own dropper bottle.
Please don’t take my words as any kind of suggestion, but I’m kind of hoping I get a bug bite or something so I can test these out. Totally normal reaction, right?
At some point, I’d like to turn some of that oil into a salve but right now, I’m just enjoying the row of brown dropper bottles.
*Disclaimer* The evidence for herbal remedies is mixed. I don’t consider my experiments medicine, and they’re definitely not a replacement for actual medical care.
This garden experiment/hobby/passion has shown me that the research never stops.
I thought I had enough information to have a flourishing garden, with a dozen tinctures, infused oils, and teas in the making.
But no.
Right now, I have one oil and about half an ounce of tea. I do have some other herbs drying, and I’ve had much better luck with the culinary herbs, but a lot of my medicinal herbs are looking kind of done for the year.
I planted 16 corn seeds, but I messed up the timing. When I measured the soil temperature, it was warm enough, but I failed to wait until after the last frost date. So I have a few small stalks that have produced ears, but the ears are tiny and I probably won’t be able to do anything with them except save the seeds.
I did plant some other corn later as an experiment, and those plants seem to be doing better. There are no ears yet—which is probably a good thing, because the stalks are still pretty short.
The jury is still out on the tomatillos. I have dozens of husks, but so far, no fruit inside. I need to do more research to figure out whether they’re still going to fruit or if I’m just getting a magnificent crop of empty husks this year.
However!
The tomatoes are looking pretty good. I have, I think, 12 plants, and only a couple of them don’t have fruit. The tomatoes are getting pretty big, and about seven of them are starting to turn orange.
So I think that in a week or two, I’ll be asking myself what the heck I am going to do with two dozen tomatoes that ripened at the same time.
And I will not complain about that!
And now it is time for me to log off and continue planning next year’s garden.
Right now, I’m drying several kinds of herbs—some for cooking and others for future tinctures and infused oils. The problem is that I’ve officially run out of space.
One thing I’m especially excited about is that I was finally able to harvest calendula seeds. This is my second year growing them, and it’s the first time I’ve managed to collect seeds from my own plants. There’s something incredibly satisfying about knowing next year’s flowers can come from this year’s garden.
The top of the bookshelf in my office is covered with plates and coffee filters full of drying herbs. As one batch finishes, I jar it up and replace it with another. There’s even a bundle of lavender hanging from a wall-mounted desk organizer.
Storage has become its own project. My herb cabinet is such a disaster that I don’t want to mix the new harvest with the old, so the culinary herbs have taken over a different cabinet. The calendula-infused oil lives there too, and once I bottle it, those bottles will need a home as well.
I’m also pressing flowers. Since I don’t own a flower press, I’m improvising with paper, a storage container, and a very heavy book balanced on top. That setup currently lives on another bookshelf.
Eventually, I’d like my Etsy shop to carry physical products, which means I’ll have to rethink the entire room. So far, my best idea is turning an old slatted bookshelf support into a drying rack for herb bundles. Beyond that, I’m still figuring it out.
And don’t even get me started on next year’s seedlings. Apparently my cat decided this year’s starts made an excellent lunch, so I’ll need to find a much safer location.
I’m certainly not complaining—having more herbs than I know where to put is a pretty good problem to have, especially while I wait for the tomatoes to ripen. But wow…everything needs a permanent home.
I spent five hours on 5/9/2026 weeding and somehow still feel like I barely made a dent. Still, I was able to confirm growth from several more plants, even if others continue to elude me.
Vegetables I can identify so far: six carrots (not too concerning, since carrots can be reseeded every couple of weeks through July), sixteen potential heads of lettuce, six or seven heads of Swiss chard, four or five heads of arugula, and two corn stalks. I planted two rows of corn earlier than usual because the soil temperature was finally warm enough…or so I thought.
Herbs I can identify: lots of dill, oregano, borage, lovage, lemon balm, and marsh mallow. Oh, and of course the mint I planted in the strawberry pot — the same mint I apparently dig up every single time I weed. -_-
About a week ago, I transferred my Japanese Trifele Black tomatoes into larger pots, and by today they already looked strong enough to plant outside. I planted five of those, along with five Brandywine tomatoes that skipped the intermediate pot stage entirely. I decided not to transplant the Cuore di Bue yet because they still don’t quite have true leaves. Those will probably be ready in another couple of weeks.
Finally, I was also able to transplant the mini bell peppers and the cayenne peppers. Huzzah!
Not everything is going smoothly, though. My zucchini and cucumber starts — which I bought to replace the pickling cucumbers that died — are already struggling with powdery mildew. Since I don’t have a drip irrigation system, these plants need extra attention to keep moisture off the leaves.
One common treatment is mixing 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 gallon of water. I applied it with a watering can, although apparently spraying it directly onto the leaves would have worked better.
I also used a vegan disease and bug repellent on the greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. The Swiss chard already has a few holes in the leaves, and I know from previous years that stink bugs absolutely love my squash plants. Turning over a squash leaf and discovering hundreds of stink bugs underneath is not an experience I care to repeat. No thanks.
One leaf on the right, one on the left with powdery mildew.Total of 10 tomato plants in.
