wordless wednesday

Seeds

It’s difficult to believe that wonderful plants come from such tiny things as seeds. They are full of promise, a whisper of spring and summer to come, another year exciting and new and unseen.
We’ve already done one sowing of seeds such as chamomile, elecampane and sweet cicley in the autumn, and they are starting to come up. But we’ve got much, much more to do.
Here’s just some of the 20+ packets we’ve got. Much of it we collected from our garden this last year, but others like Mandrake (from the wonderful Nicky’s Nursery) we are trying out.

This week, we’re continuing to sow seeds that need stratification - that is, a period of cold weather before they start to sprout. I know it’s been a mild winter so far, but you can bet that colder temperatures are round the corner.
Angelica, Calendula, Viper’s Bugloss, sweet woodruff, sweet cicely, self heal and wood sage, together with vervain and soapwort will all be sown in trays, covered with vermiculite and a sheet of glass, and left outside in all weathers.

Viper's Bugloss

Others, like toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), Meadowsweet, St John’s Wort and Agrimony, we’ll sow and leave in a cold frame to get a bit of extra protection.

Toadflax

There’s just one thing…. Anyone know where I can borrow a greenhouse?

Fairs

from this...

to this... bliss.

Now all we need to do is the Christmas shopping.

The Icky Pond

Today I finally had a day off work (after 27 days straight!) and decided to end the gardening drought by heading off outdoors to see what needed doing. There was so much it nearly sent me screaming back inside to call in and beg my boss not to let me have any more holidays. But then I gave myself a good talking-to (and bribed myself with a gin at 4pm on the dot) and headed off to tackle the most hideous job: the icky pond.
I started it four years ago with fond hopes of it becoming something like this

But it hasn’t. Instead, here’s the slimy, leaf-ridden mess I’ve just spent an hour and a half clearing out.

There’s leaves, leaves, and more leaves. And the water mint which just took everything over and smothered all the nice marginal plants which I’d carefully sunk round the sides in pots. Not that the frogs seem to mind, in fact one of them happily sat and watched me yanking all the knotted tangle.
The pebbles which were put round the liner have all fallen into the pond and needed hauling out, to be replaced by slabs to cover them. And hurrah! There’s a marsh marigold which has survived and a yellow flag water iris underneath all of it, as well as a water lily which was thriving.

Finally, it’s done. The plan is to have loosestrife - yellow and purple - and meadowsweet around the sides, and lots more marsh marigold.

Pictures of plants in summer are ALWAYS cheering, aren't they?

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

Tardiness

I’m hopeless. There, I’ve said it. My life is full of things which I started in a rush of enthusiasm, only to abandon them a couple of months later - or weeks, even - in favour of something shinier and new.
There’s the garden journal, which I faithfully pledged to keep updated. I found it the other day - I managed to write most of January before it got forgotten. There’s the stepper I bought from QVC. It seemed brilliant. Step my way to fitness while watching the TV, I thought. Where is it now? Gathering dust under the spare bed upstairs.
There’s this blog. Ooh, I thought. A Blog. I will write all about our herb garden, our sales, soaps, recipes, and my herb projects. And what’s happened? I’ve put up a few - admittedly cute - pictures of our cat. It’s like looking at the snaps on my fridge door.
All this is a very roundabout way of admitting how remiss I’ve been on the blog front. No more. From now on, there will be lots of posts about all things herb related and our continuing efforts to turn this hobby into a way of life. And if anyone reads it, it’ll be a bonus.
Here's a picture of a marigold, for no other reason than it looks cheery.