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A trail of herbs
Jun. 8th, 2009 09:30 amI've left a lot of gardens in my time, and in nearly every one I left at least some herbs I had planted. (I doubt my Allentown landlord will ever get rid of the lemon balm, orange bergamot mint, and tansy I planted in the small strip of dirt between the side of the house and sidewalk; on the other hand, given the weeds that were growing there before, why would he want to?)
We went back to the house we're trying to sell on Saturday, and the herbs I left there (some of which will still be separated and come to the new house, but not today) have been growing apace.
There is Tansy, again, in a space between sidewalk and house/planting edge that was largely weeds; there is a sage plant, lemon balm, comfrey (part of an attempt to undermine a old pond liner and the stump of a mulberry tree), variegated lemon balm, sweet woodruff, three kinds of mint (the new owners, someday, will either bless or curse me!), costmary, bedstraw, and an amazing variety of dianthus (pinks/clove gillyflower) that came up again this year.
And then, there are the Nettles. Ok, for 2 years I've planned to harvest and rett the nettles-- you can rett them like flax and/or hemp to make a fiber; I know someone who's done it. I think I'm going to have to do that next Sunday; I hope the landlord at our new place isn't completely freaked out by it. Because there is now a rather large patch of nettles in the back yard of the old house, and it would be cruel to leave them there. Ow ow. Not that *I* have much of a reaction to them-- none at all, in fact, when I touched them on Saturday-- but that doesn't mean other people won't. So, there's pulling-up of Nettles in my future. And obviously, I *need* to rett those fibers. I don't know how well it will work out; they are young yet, and not tough, but I failed to get to it last fall, so I'll make do with what I have.
We went back to the house we're trying to sell on Saturday, and the herbs I left there (some of which will still be separated and come to the new house, but not today) have been growing apace.
There is Tansy, again, in a space between sidewalk and house/planting edge that was largely weeds; there is a sage plant, lemon balm, comfrey (part of an attempt to undermine a old pond liner and the stump of a mulberry tree), variegated lemon balm, sweet woodruff, three kinds of mint (the new owners, someday, will either bless or curse me!), costmary, bedstraw, and an amazing variety of dianthus (pinks/clove gillyflower) that came up again this year.
And then, there are the Nettles. Ok, for 2 years I've planned to harvest and rett the nettles-- you can rett them like flax and/or hemp to make a fiber; I know someone who's done it. I think I'm going to have to do that next Sunday; I hope the landlord at our new place isn't completely freaked out by it. Because there is now a rather large patch of nettles in the back yard of the old house, and it would be cruel to leave them there. Ow ow. Not that *I* have much of a reaction to them-- none at all, in fact, when I touched them on Saturday-- but that doesn't mean other people won't. So, there's pulling-up of Nettles in my future. And obviously, I *need* to rett those fibers. I don't know how well it will work out; they are young yet, and not tough, but I failed to get to it last fall, so I'll make do with what I have.
