A Basement Full of Scent!

Well, that's a tiny exaggeration, but the rose and peppermint scented geraniums have grown by leaps and bounds this season!  It is ridiculous how large they have become.  We need to move them into the garage now that the heat has been turned on!  They do much better in the unheated garage with south facing windows. It has been cool and wet today.  Hope you have had a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Fireworks in the Fall!

This is a Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks' or goldenrod that has volunteered in various parts of the garden!  Hope you had a great day wherever you may be!  Got to go eat the latest apple pie!  Someone has to do it!  Talk to you tomorrow! 

Never Too Much Parsley and Other Herbs to Harvest!

Found some leftover parsley in the freezer and it is about time to be cutting more for this winter.  I made a double batch of Parsley Dill Soup this afternoon.  A favorite here in our household!  It is time to start cutting some parsley and chives particularly for the freezer.  I'm also going to cut some lovage for drying and anise hyssop leaves to dry for tea.  Still have jelly to make.  The days are getting shorter and the nights are cooler.  May get some frost soon.  Hope you had a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later!  I also wanted to say we lost our dear friend, LaVerne this week.  She was a dear friend and her dear husband, Jim will be very lonely without her.  They were married 65 years!  The funeral was today and he was having a tough time as were many of us at the service, including me!  Rest in peace, LaVerne!  You were a gem!  We will miss you!

A Visit to Exeter, England!

My English Herbal Companion and I moved on to Exeter from the outskirts of Bristol.   From top to bottom, the Cathedral at Exeter under restoration.  Violette's, a shop on Castle Street with herbal touches, the ruins of Rougemont Castle and the monument at Northernhay Gardens, I think!  Exeter is a wonderful city along the river Exe.  I will share more photos later.  I'm not going to press my luck.  I think downloading is working again.  Talk to you later!

If Your Garlic Chives Look Like This...!

Get out your clippers and clip those seed heads off quick!  I have zillions (OK, just millions) of garlic chives!  I already have tons of garlic chives.  So if your seed heads are like the ones above, get busy!  I got most of my mine cut yesterday.  Yes, I become herbally obsessed!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  Remnants of Nicole are giving us a gentle rain.  Not like on the east coast!  Hope there is not too much flooding with Nicole.  Going to see the new Wall Street movie.  Talk to you later!

A Quick Update for Becca and Anonymous  Garlic chives are similar to chives but have flat leaves not round that can be added to stir fries  and other dishes that you need to add a garlic taste.  They have white flowers in August and September.  The seed heads need to be cut vigorously to make sure they do not take over.  I'm going to be spending a lot of my gardening season next year getting rid of my volunteer garlic chives!  Becca and Anonymous, you can plant garlic in about two weeks.  You can buy a bulb in the grocery store and separate the cloves and plant them in the ground.  Supposedly the bulbs in the stores are sprayed so they will not grow, but I have grown garlic from grocery store cloves.  I know Becca is in the south and maybe Anonymous as well, you can actually plant it now, but here in the north we plant it around Columbus Day.  It is usually dug up in mid to late July, depending on the weather. 

Wall Street, the movie was very good.  Great cast, well acted!  Talk to you later!

Herbal Moving Day!

I don't usually move plants around this late in the year.  OK, OK, you know me too well!  When the frost warnings come, we are running around trying to dig up plants to bring in!  So we moved this linear leaf thyme out of its old container.  It was falling apart literally!

Here is the new container and the thyme took up every nook and cranny of it!  I forgot to get a new photo!  I will post it tomorrow!  Hope you had a good day wherever you may be.   I've added a whole bunch of stuff to my blog.  Hope you enjoy it!  Here is the container newly planted!  It is getting a good drink right now from remnants of Nicole!

Never Too Much Tarragon!

A pile of tarragon for use in jelly and vinegar

Spent the afternoon making three recipes of white grape tarragon jelly.  I think it turned out well.  I will share the recipe if I like the end result.  I saw the combination in the Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead book, The Herbal Pantry.  I made up the recipe.  The photo of the book is below.  I did have a bunch of tarragon left and just put it in a sterilized quart jar and filled the jar with white wine vinegar.  Will check it in about two weeks or so.  I learned from Jim Long's Making Herb Vinegars booklet this past weekend that it is better to put vinegar in a cupboard and not on a windowsill in the sun.  Hope you have had a great day wherever you may be!  Talk to you later!

A Box of Good and Plenty Candy!

Oh, I meant to say just like a box of Good and Plenty candy in the title!  As you can see, I'm in my garden trying to tidy up before the big W sets in!  This was last week because this week has been rainy.  This is anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum).  It is one of my favorite edible flowers because it tastes just Good and Plenty candy.  I am sure I'm dating myself now!  I think they must have Good and Plenty in those vintage candy boxes they sell!  You can also use the leaves in tea both fresh and dried.  Some gardeners find this plant invasive, but I have never had too much anise hyssop.  In fact sometimes I wish I had a bit more.  I need to gather some leaves and dry them for my tea blends this fall.  I have not been drying enough.  I have provided a link from The Herb Companion magazine on anise hyssop for you to browse.  Hope you are enjoying your day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

My Mistake Was. . .

Ok, Becca from A Southern Garden by Becca for your birthday, I am going to teach you how to make up a page for your blog.  I was making the mistake of going to Design and clicking on Add Gadget and then adding a page that way.  Maybe you can do it that way, but I found an easier way.  You simply go like you would to do a New Post and just under Settings it says "Edit Pages".  You click that and then it gives you a big blue button that says "New Page".  Click on that and it looks just like when you do a post for your blog.  You can add links and pictures just like in a post.  You can do all kinds of pages, but you can only do ten for the time being.  Hope this has been clear.  If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.  See if my directions help you.  I think you can figure it out.  If not, maybe a trip to Alabama would help!  You all have to go and wish Becca a very happy birthday, because it's tomorrow!  Happy Birthday, Becca!  May you have many more!