Herbs in the Garden

Archive for February, 2010

It LIVES! Sage in the Snow

A few weeks ago I posted a bit about leaving some pots of Sage out all winter in the snow.

 Several kind and well meaning emails suggested that by leaving my sage outside in pots IN THE SNOW I was  murdering poor innocent plants. I can only surmise they live in warmer climates.

For all the Nay-sayers…See? It did come back!

 I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.  I’ve never even been on a turnip truck.

 At any rate, you can see that the Sage is back and although it needs a good trim, it’s doing quite well.

The key to overwintering herbs is to know the hardiness zones of both your herbs and your  location before you neglectfully leave your herbs naked in several feet of snow. Admittedly not all herbs can tolerate the kind of abuse I occasionally dish out- but I know which of my herbs will hang tough around here.

So don’t worry.

For those that worry anyway… in all honestly just the herbs that can take the weather and prairie conditions are the only ones I abuse in this way. The rest are coddled and kept tucked in the greenhouse, potting shed, kitchen window, or strewn around the house.

My Poop Manufacturers

Do you compost yourself, or use compost in your gardens?

I do, but then I have tons of the stuff, thanks to my animals.

My friend Steve Wright is ready to go big with his new composting business located in Springfield Illinois.

He’s tackling a big waste problem by composting ‘expired’ grocery store greens and other biodegradables.

 I am pleased to say that my farm critters will be providing some of the manure for his enterprise! Go horses, goats, bunnies, and chickens!

You can learn more about this type of composting and visit his brand new site at http://www.soilsouffle.com.

Herb and Gardening Books

If you want to learn to do something new, study the subject, but more importantly – get in there and just DO it!

*Disclaimer*  This advice does not apply to fields such as surgery, welding, or electrical work.

Big Pile Of Wood Chips For Mulch

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I love mulch.

Besides looking nice, in the summer months it really conserves water in the raised herb and kitchen garden beds. The last few years mulch for that reason has been really unnecessary…we’ve had WAY too much rain.

 See the picture to the right?

Well the county was out and about this week trimming storm damaged trees and branches that had grown up into the power lines.

The crew kindly offered to bring me some of the chipped branches when they had finished trimming along my road.

“Oh sure, bring me some. You can just dump them off the side of the drive over there.”

I had forgotten about it until late in the afternoon when I heard a BIG truck rumble into the drive. A big dump truck. Full of chipped branches. They dumped it fast,offered more should I need it…and took off.

I now have my summer pile of mulch. Size-wise it’s up there with a Chevy Pick Up- so it should last awhile.

 If you need mulch, check in your areas for inexpensive and even free mulch. Many counties have places where you can go load up your own mulch.

We have found that it is really easy to get mulch after storms that take out big trees. Trimming crews often just want some place to dump the stuff!

If you can’t find any, give me a call. I could probably spare a little of mine

Here is my special treat for you- I had SO much fun putting this little humorous Valentine video together for my beginner herbs class. I hope you enjoy it!

Wow, these are good!

A really excellent herb-snack, these Rosemary glazed nuts are beautiful and simple to make.

Six ingredients is all it takes. Mixed nuts (or just your favorites) fresh Rosemary, Cayenne pepper, butter, brown sugar, and sea or Kosher salt. You can find Nigella’s recipe here.

You can tweak the recipe and add a bit more cayenne for those that prefer the spicier stuff.

Me? I’ll add more Rosemary next time since I love the stuff.

Either way, it’s all really good!

OK, no herbs or gardening stuff for you today, because everything in the herb garden is still frozen, and I haven’t gotten into the greenhouse yet. Sheer laziness on my part…

So- instead I have a video for you!

As I was driving my Herb-Child # 4 into town yesterday, we spotted a pair of Bald Eagles. This may come as no surprise to many of you that live in Bald Eagle country, but it really floored us!

Now, normally we see scads of Red Tail Hawks, Kestrels, Owls, and other birds, but these two were simply phenomenal!

We’ve seen Eagles once or twice fishing at the lake about 7 miles from here, but these two were just hanging out in the cornfields, and lounging in the wind breaks.

Sorry the quality is poor-

I caught them with my little Flip camera and was driving the backroads simultaneously. I know, don’t say it.  It was worth driving into a ditch or bean field in order to get this film!

I don’t know if it’s any better in fullscreen-but you can try and see if there is any improvement.

Wow!