Herbs in the Garden

Archive for the ‘Herb Garden’ Category

I think Wisteria is beautiful. Sure, I know it involves much work and dedication on the part of the gardener and that it secretly wants to take over the world, but honestly I think Kudzu is doing a better job in that department.

This is what I want my Wisteria to look like.

Wisteria Being Gorgeous

Well don’t get all excited yet. It doesn’t.

I have had some planted in several locations for 5 years. Really. It can take a long time for them to bloom.

This year I finally saw what looked like buds forming on two of them.

Wisteria ALMOST Blooming

I had to go out and check on them hourly, and pinch my self to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

I was especially concerned after some big storms rolled though but all was A-OK until….

THIS.

Albus the Monster Dog

Did THIS

Gnawed Wisteria Vine

Causing THIS.

Murdered Wisteria

It was all I could do to lurch back to the house, grab the camera and take a picture of

THIS

I'm Sorry...

And no, he wasn’t, not really.

He is just pouting because I took his new stick away.

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Peony Buds

I LOVE PEONIES! Sorry, I am yelling.

But I do. I love them. And I love Springtime…and all the other ‘gardeny’ stuff  that blooms this time of year.

But I digress…

Last year these double pink babies did not look so hot, and I really feared they would rot due to all the wet weather we had.

Pink Peonies

Imagine my surprise and delight today when I was greeted with this gorgeous display!

This is just the first of the peonies to bloom, so unless I can control the impulse to take 12 squillion peony photos, be warned. You may get really sick of peonies in the next few weeks!

The Peony and her Bee

Oh, and even better? Besides their stunning good looks, they smell really good, too!

You just have to remember to watch for bees before doing a full face plant into a blossom.

Yesterday I started to clean out this

raised bed out front in the medicinal herb garden. During the warm months this particular raised bed houses lots of Marshmallow and Comfrey.

Marshmallow and Comfrey in Raised Bed

Here you can see the grass and Comfrey in the bed coming back after a long winter…and see how the concrete bed has heaved and moved around from the ice and snow? Ick.

Comfrey is not taken or used internally now, but is still used externally for wounds and healing. I make salves and ointments with the leaves and root. This stuff will reseed and spread like CRAZY and the smallest bit of root will grow a whole new plant. Or twenty.

Comfrey Sprouting!

Yes, the grass has miraculously turned green in the time it took you to scroll down and you can see that last years dried Marshmallow stems or stalks are still standing.

Don’t worry, they will magically have been cut back by the next picture! Marshmallows produce their seeds in a wheel or “cheese” and they have a tendency to reseed all over the place. I use the root and sometimes the leaves for teas…

Marshmallow Stalks Magically Gone

Well, here it is all magically cleaned out and naked. Well mostly…and yes, I know I need to mow now. I also had to go eat some lunch before I finished so you get to see the picture of the bed at about 75% complete. You can see some wayward Comfrey plants that jumped out of the bed and have taken up residence just outside it…

And finally-

Marshmallow Emerging

When you whack down last year’s marshmallow stalks, you find this!

New growth.

It’s so exciting it’s almost overwhelming.  I think I may faint.

OK, I just had to get outside today.

This morning it seemed every time I stuck my head out it rained on me. Hard. In between thunderstorms it was absolutely gorgeous though!

Doubt me? Here is the sky

Gorgeous Sky!

When it cleared off I spent a little time harvesting some young nettles for sauteing and soup-and set some in the shed to dry.

Young Nettles

Nettle is my favorite herb for hay fever season…

Then I went and checked on some little herb seedlings in the greenhouse.

A Few Herb Seedlings

Herb Seedlings in the Lean-to Greenhouse

Everything looked absolutely peachy so I headed back to the house…just in time to get drenched again.

My Cattle Panel Greenhouse

At home, besides my medicinal herb garden I also have a kitchen garden. I start almost everything from seed or cuttings, so I have a nice little ‘homey’ greenhouse to work in.

The greenhouse at home is unheated except for heat mats in raised grow beds, so most seedlings and starts go into the greenhouse around late March. Around here nothing goes into the ground before mid May-except peas- and we wait until the guys down the road have quit spraying in their fields.

This greenhouse is a nice size for home growing. It’s also a cheap affair, my “Cattle Panel” lean to.

The whole thing is a mere 16′ x 15′- and is attached to the back of the potting shed….or as I like to call it-the Mental Health Center.

There is a small mist system for cuttings, and an 8′x 16 shade house for the 100* months of July and August- it’s also a cattle panel job.

Here is the shade house frame, completely naked and without flooring. It will have it’s top on and have landscape fabric laid down by early summer.  See? Nothing fancy. The LP tank for heating the potting shed is to the right.

Oh sure- go ahead and laugh at how ugly they are, but these things have held up through snow storms, straight line winds that took out a goat barn -WITH the goats in it- and more. Since I am in the middle of open fields I need sturdy. The metal arches wired together does the trick.

New plastic is definitely due this year on the greenhouse-I’ve gone 5 years on this bit and it is showing it’s age…and it was just a 4 year plastic.

The fact that the cats insist on climbing it doesn’t help with rips and tears, so until it’s replaced, all I can say is thank goodness for repair tape!

Yeehaw!

There are buds. Buds on things that share the herb garden. And there is actually supposed to be sunshine today as well.

That means Spring is here-despite the below freezing night temperatures. Robins have been spotted as well-which makes it all official.

You can see grass greening up which is beyond thrilling. I’ll enjoy it while I can, since I know perfectly well that our lovely Midwest has hellacious Spring storms that can bring tornadoes, ice and snow. Sometimes all at once.

Here is a dwarf Forsythia about to bloom as well.

Kind of brightens up the dull fields behind, don’t you think?

We can’t avoid it.

There is going to be weather.

All around the world there are climate changes occurring.

Various groups have been screaming about climate changes for years. Unfortunately, not all weather changes are in line with the cries of the Go Green, Ecological, Scientific, Impending Doom of 2010,2011,2012, and possibly the Don’t Wear Deodorant Groups.

Before you start emailing me about my lack of political correctness be aware that I myself may fall into several of those categories…

Here in the Midwest the weather has been weird this year…really, the last few years. Just plain weird.

I am sure it has been the same for many of you, so I won’t whine or complain about it and the destruction of my little ol’ herb garden.

I really just wanted to share my new ”Cover it all” gardener’s weather greeting. When I meet you on the street uttering this greeting,  please know this is my attempt to cover all of the ‘weathers’ and give a shout out to our climate change organizations. So here goes:

“My Goodness, we’ve had such hot-cold-wet-dry-solar-flare-el-nino-blizzard-green-house-gas-tornadic-mini-ice-age-la-nina-pole-shifting-weather-lately, haven’t we?”

Yes, it’s a mouthful.

Please tell me, is there ‘anyweather’ (my new word) I have forgotten? Let me know.  I think there’s room for another in the same breath.

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