Herbal Spring and a Timeout!

Keep Cutting and Pulling Dead Herbs Out of the Garden!

Won't Have to Worry About the Arugula Crop This Year!

Some Sages Are Making an Appearance!

Germander Before Its Trim!

This is the Way All Herbs Should Come Back!  Again Germander.

My 'Silver King' Artemisia is a Mess, but Alive!

Very Happy to See the Feverfew is Coming Back!

I Thought I Lost My Rosemary-Leaf Santolina!  It's Alive!

 

So you know the drill by now.  I have left you with the first signs of an herbal spring in the 'Burgh.  I'm going to take a short break.  I'm leaving The Herbal Husband in charge.  The garden is in good hands!  Hope your spring is progressing well.  I will talk to you again soon.

It Will Be a Different Herb Garden This Year!

Moved this Primula into the Edge of the Herb Garden

The Green Pepper Basil Has Started to Flower!

The Mints and the Rosemarys Need Sunshine!

My Favorite, Lemon Verbena Growing New Shoots!

I Guess This Lemon Balm is Trying to Give Me A Theme for the Herb Garden!

Suddenly A Space Has Opened Up in the Herb Garden!

My herb garden was redesigned in 2005 and so nine years have gone by and I can tell that it needs some extra attention this year.  With the winter being as harsh as it was, I have lost some older woody plants.  Lavenders that weren't pruned correctly and sages that were just too woody to survive.  We had 10 days that were below zero and that is probably nine days more than we usually have.

So since I found a lemon balm that has sprung up in the herb garden, I guess the theme of my garden this year is a lemon one.  I have a good start with the lemon balm in the garden :) and a lemon verbena and a couple of lemon scented geraniums that are sitting on a west facing windowsill waiting to escape!  I'm planning a trip in a couple of weeks without The Herbal Husband and I hope that he behaves himself and shows restraint in NOT planting any of his plants in my herb garden!  He always finds a way though!

So I hope you have a great Easter weekend with your family and friends.  We are going to have great weather here and so I intend to be working to awaken my herb garden.  Please let me know how yours is coming along!  Happy Easter!  Talk to you later.

Herb and Garden Festival, Downton Abbey Costumes and Terrain!

Well, as I said in my last post, my herbal companion, Bonnie and I went down east as they say here.  We spent the afternoon at the 16th Herb and Garden Festival in York.  Where were we for the other 15 I asked?  Then we spent a beautiful day both outside and inside at Winterthur in Delaware on Saturday and ended our traveling herbal extravaganza at Terrain on Sunday.  This is just a small bit of our adventures.  I'll show you more later.

Posters from Past Herb and Garden Festivals

Duncan, our Garden Tram Operator at Winterthur

One of My Favorite Dresses of the Downton Abbey Collection

An Embroidered Map of Pennsylvania with the Counties!

The Garden Conservatory at Winterthur!

Terrain Decorated for Easter!

We had great weather and a fun time.  I'll write more in my next post.  That 4 letter word (SNOW) that I have come to hate is falling from the sky.  Fortunately for us, the ground is warm and it is just melting on impact.  So hope you are having a great day.  We do have spring flowers blooming in the garden.  Hope they don't get covered by snow!  Talk to you later!

Three More Daffodils!

Finding Old Friends, Herbally Speaking!

Nepeta x faassenii 'Walker's Low' or Catmint Has Walked to Other Places in the Herb Garden!

Levisticum officinale or Lovage

Angelica archangelica or Angelica

I Don't Think My Santolina rosmarifolia or Rosemary Leaf Santolina Made it Through!

Hard to See but I think my 'Linear Leaf' Thyme is Coming Back!

My Thymus serphyum  'Elfin' or 'Elfin' Thyme Looks Good!

Alchemilla mollis or Lady's Mantle is Waking Up!

Even the Rumex sanguineus or Bloody Dock Sorrel is Coming Back!

I was out in the herb garden this afternoon taking stock of what might be alive.  I'm seeing more signs of life than I thought.  Although I think I have lost one of my favorites, the rosemary-leaf santolina.  I guess it didn't like the minus 9 temperature we had.  I think one of the herb categories that took a big hit this winter were my lavenders.  Although I'm hoping that they will come back from the ground and I can prune them all back.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I'm going away for the weekend with my herbal companion, Bonnie.  The Herbal Husband has a list of items to do.  Probably not anything I've given him!  Of course, it is supposed to be very nice here!  I guarantee you will enjoy where we are going.  I promise to blog about our adventures next week.  Have a great weekend.  I'll talk to you later.

High Tea at the Savoy, London, England 2013!

The Savoy Hotel Entrance!

A Very Cozy Entrance to the Hotel!

The Traditional English Gentlemen Club

A Sitting Area Waiting for Tea

The Thames Foyer Where Tea is Served

Our Menu for High Tea!

China by Wedgwood Exclusively for The Savoy!

Wedgwood Tea Cup Ready for My Tea!

Lovely Flowers Adorn the Table!

Assortment of Tea Sandwiches.  Fillings will be Discussed Below.

Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs!

Very Toasted Crumpets!

 An Assortment of Cake.  Types Described Below.

My Choice, the Pistachio and Raspberry Galette!

My Partners in Tea, Gloria and Susanna!

I always want to have a new experience when I go to England.  So in May of last year, my English herbal companion, Gloria suggested we have high tea instead of just afternoon tea.  High tea was more of a meal than just sandwiches, scones and tea.  Well, I love afternoon tea so high tea should be even better.  Gloria does like The Claridge's for afternoon tea and so do I but we had have this adventure.

The Savoy is a very beautiful hotel and the Thames Foyer where tea is served is light, airy and magical.  We all ordered our teas and I ordered jasmine.  Then came the tea sandwiches.  The fillings were lemongrass chicken salad, smoked Scottish salmon with mild horseradish, Wiltshire bone ham with honey mustard, egg salad with chives and tobiko and cucumber and tomato with basil cream.  Then came breakfast (or what I would consider breakfast) scrambled eggs (light and fluffy), smoked salmon and Melba toast.  Instead of scones and clotted cream and jam, there were crumpets with butter and jam.  Finally we had our choice of cakes, Gugelhupf cake, traditional Dundee cake and pistachio and raspberry galette.  Gugelhupf cake is a marble or bundt cake and with chocolate being the primary ingredient in this one, it was out for me.  Dundee cake is fruitcake and not my favorite.  So I chose the pistachio and raspberry galette which was delicious.

After a very wet day in London, the only one we had, it was wonderful to have high tea at The Savoy with Gloria and Susanna!   It is just about lunch time here!  So hope you enjoy it!  It is a beautiful day here in the 'Burgh!  Hopefully we will get out in the garden and tackle the cleanup!  More rain coming tomorrow!  Hope you are having a great Sunday.  Talk to you later.

Finally Something Green Popping Up in the Herb Garden!

Fine Leaved Chives

Just the Regular Garden Variety Chives!

Yes They Are Along the Edges Too!

There are At Least Three Clumps Here!

And One Clump Trying to Break Through This Lavender!

There is not really too much going on in the herb garden!  The one or several bright spots herbally speaking are the chives!  Even when you have as cold and snowy a winter that we had (and I guess it was #10 worst in the 'Burgh!), the green blades of chives coming back are a welcomed sight.  In 2011 I did a post for The Herb Companion magazine (now Mother Earth Living) called Spring Favorites:  The Good, the Bad and the Curly Chives.  In it I give you a couple of my favorite ways to chives and their blossoms.  A big reminder once they start to bloom only use florets of the chive blossom.  Don't use the entire blossom in your omelet unless you really want to have onion breath all day!   They are very pretty in a mixed salad and there you can stand the flavor of one blossom in an entire salad.  How do you use chives or their blossoms in your cooking?

We are getting ready for the rain to come and then cooler temperatures over the weekend.  Hope you have had a great day.  Talk to you later.