An Abundance of Nasturtiums!

My Herb Garden is Full of Nasturtiums!

Simple  Flowers and White Wine Vinegar, Two Weeks! Done!

Trying to make this quick.  You see The Herbal Husband gets home tonight and not too soon!  The slacking can begin tomorrow.  He really does the lion's share around the garden and I know that!  Just have to tell him a bit more!  Not too much!  Just enough!

The nasturtiums have been crazy.  With the weather just warm enough and not too hot, they flourish.  If you want a more complex nasturtium vinegar recipe, it's in my last post called Getting To Do What I Want, Herbally Speaking!  I'll get around to putting the other ingredients into this jar.  Maybe tomorrow.  So I'll talk to you Wednesday.  Big day Wednesday.  I celebrate another milestone in my blog history and a giveaway is in order.  So stay tuned.  Talk to you later.

Getting To Do What I Want, Herbally Speaking!

Trimming the Lavender!

Harvesting More Nasturtium Flowers!

Controlling the Chives!

Like a Badly Wrapped Christmas Present!

Well, it's the first full day without The Herbal Husband and I've been working in my herb garden most of the day!  I have been clipping back the lavenders, dead parts, dead flowers, etc.  I have been harvesting nasturtium flowers and will be using them in one of my favorite recipes this time of year for Nasturtium Peppercorn Vinegar from my dear herbal friend, Kathleen Gips.  Then there are the chives which have a lot of dead parts and have just flopped over.  So in the spirit of sticks and strings, I sort of divided them and tied them up like Christmas presents.  In doing so, I exposed the lavenders that didn't like such closeness.  When I get a chance, I will cut them down, chop them up, divide the chopped chives into plastic containers or bags and freeze them.  They are great in the middle of winter to use on baked potatoes, in eggs and in soups and stews.  So I'm going to making jelly tomorrow.  Hopefully, three different kinds.  It was a beautiful day in the garden.  Supposed to rain tomorrow.  Have a great weekend everyone.  Talk to you later.   

Took The Slow Train to NYC!

Dinner at the Turkish Kitchen with Friends

One World Trade Center

The Survivor Tree-A Callery Pear

The Memorial North Pool

Finally I Get to See The Herb Garden at the BBG!

Afternoon Tea at Bosie Tea Parlor!

Dancing with Maks and Karina at "Forever Tango"!  Ole!

One of Many Containers Making NYC a Greener Place!

Times Square

When in NYC, A Corned Beef and Swiss Sandwich on Rye

Looks Like the Cheesecake was Trying to Escape the Forks!

Let It Be!  From the Sgt. Pepper's Time!  Copyright 2013 Nancy Heraud

View from the Rooftop Bar at the Refinery Hotel

I know I have been highly invisible, but I had an excuse.  The Herbal Husband and I took the slow train (It takes 9 hours!) to NYC for a long weekend.  The photos are a very brief record of our visit.  I do want to say that the Let It Be photo was taken with my camera without a flash.  They didn't announce anything about not taking photos or audio.  I have a story about that with Phantom of the Opera that I will share some day, but please if you copy that particular photo, if you would give me credit I would appreciate it.   I'm getting ready for The Herbal Husband to go to California for a family celebration.  I'll stay home and make jelly and take care of the garden.  We are having beautiful weather here.  So I'll do a more descriptive post later tomorrow or when I get a chance.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Wild and Crazy in the Back Garden Too!

We Do Like Sunflowers in This House!

Don't Know Exactly Which Variety This May Be!  A Volunteer Maybe!

Yes, Paths Have Narrowed and Plants Have Grown!

Well, we just keep getting rain.  Our gardens are VERY overgrown or growing VERY well.  I will leave the decision up to you.  I used to say it was controlled chaos, but now it's just chaos!  I just took a walk around and it is wild and wacky in the back garden!  Thanks to The Herbal Husband it has some control to it, but not much.  We are supposed to have some days with cooler and DRIER weather.  The plants will like that.  We found we have a leafhopper problem (Thanks Shelley!) and the sparrows are taking care of some of those.  Now it looks like some kind of borer is killing my scented geraniums.  Grr!  Going to move them over to the herb garden and see if that helps.  Sometimes it gets them out of the direct path of the predator.  Will talk about that in a future post.  A very busy season this year in the herb garden.  Enjoy your time in your garden.  Talk to you later. 

Closeup Flowers and Seeds in the Garden!

Bumble Bee on Teasel!

Volunteer Sunflowers are the Best This Season!

The White Feverfew Manages to Sneak into the Coreopsis Photo!

Angelica in Seed!

Spent Butterfly Bush Flower

Really This is Only One Nasturtium Flower!

I have been really trying to practice my closeup shots with my new camera.  In England I wasted a good many shots trying to get the perfect closeup.  It is very irritating!  I think with some advice from our friends in California, I have gotten the hang of it.  Now if I have the patience to do it consistently!  That's the key.  Time is flying by and harvesting time has started.  Yesterday I calculated empty jars and how much Certo I would need to make my jelly for this season.  So I'm ready to start the process.  You can find all of my jelly recipes and the ones that aren't mine as well under the label, Herbal Jelly Recipes.

We somehow still have the ickies and stickies.  Can't seem to shake them.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

Wild and Wacky Spearmint and Other Thoughts!

A Happy Clump of Spearmint!

 

You can't ignore this spearmint.  It is filled with bees and it is very happy along the street in our front garden. Probably keeps the dog walkers on the other side of the street.  I would not advice you to grow your mint like this.  More like these.

Plant mint in containers!

I was just outside and to tell you the truth, we still have the ickies and stickies.  It is cooler than 90, but the humidity is a killer for me.  The garden is growing very well.  (Translation is that is an overgrown, wild and crazy mess!)

It Has Gotten Way Out of Control!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Lemon Verbena Dip Recipe With Permission!

I worked in a law firm for almost 17 years.  The Herbal Husband says, "I'm by the book."  So in my ongoing effort to come up with recipes that use lemon verbena, here is a sweet recipe (most of them are) using lemon verbena leaves.  It is from The Herb Society of America's Essential Guide to Growing and Cooking with Herbs on page 118 if you have this cookbook in your herbal library.  This book is a combination reference book on herbs and cookbook.  It has some fantastic recipes using herbs.  As you know, The Herbal Husband does most of our cooking and I'm the baker and canner.  That sounds a bit bad!  My notes on what I used is in parenthesis.

So with permission from the Herb Society of America's Executive Director is:

LEMON VERBENA DIP
Marilyn Rhinehalt, Western Reserve Unit

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used the tub of Philadelphia low fat cream cheese.)
8 oz. lemon yogurt (I used low fat and just used the 8 oz. tub as my measurement.)
1/4 cup lemon verbena leaves, very finely minced (use tender leaves)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

I used my food processor to mix the cream cheese and lemon verbena leaves and then added everything else.  You could use a blender or mixer.  Just so the cream cheese is incorporated with the yogurt well.  Cover and refrigerate overnight. 

Serve with fresh fruit or plain cookies.  (It was very delicious especially with Nilla wafers!)

Thanks Marilyn.  It is a very delicious recipe and thanks to the Herb Society for letting me share it with you.  Great for those hot summertime get togethers.  If you go on to share it, please give the Herb Society and Marilyn Rhinehalt from the Western Reserve Unit credit!

It is just ridiculously hot and humid!  Relief coming and I hope the air stays until we get it on Sunday!  Hope you are staying cool wherever you may be.  Have a great weekend.  Talk to you later.

Something Weird Going On, Herbally Speaking!

My Beloved Lemon Verbena in Miniature!

This One is on the Opposite Side of the Miniature!

I Think Drainage Has Become a Factor!

Really it has been a very strange year in the herb garden.  Besides not getting the herb plants I normally get, the ones I did get have been dying.  The third photo shows the worst area.  I have lost (or killed) two lavenders, the two nasturtiums (They may have just died because of too much water and early blooming at the greenhouse!)  The echinacea 'Primadonna' is going well and the pineapple sage towards the back near the wall is going well too.  The green bit in the front is a feverfew volunteer.  The rest is a mess.  Now I heard we got 1.2" of rain yesterday and maybe more today.  I think I'm going to get a bag of compost and manure and dig this area up and replant the lemon verbena and small lavender in the front and see if that helps.  If not, I'll get a soil test and really try to find out what's going on.  It has been 8 years since this garden was designed.  I have added new soil every so often, but I think I might need an major infusion of good soil.

Hot and very humid here.  Tropical like it gets in DC.  Hope you are having a great day.  I will be doing more posts of my England adventures soon.  Talk to you later.

A Visitor of the Beneficial Kind!

Egg Case of the Preying Mantis!

A Bit Bigger Than the Last Time We Saw It!

It Turned Its Head to Watch Me!  Yikes!

Well, we almost pulled the egg case out in the spring.  Earlier in the summer, we spotted a tiny one on our fence.  This morning the praying mantis had made its way into the herb garden!  Yippee!  It was trying to look like the chives, but slipped on to the oregano!  Hopefully it will get all of the bad bugs and leave the good ones behind.  They tend to be nonspecific when eating (They eat their own as they are coming out of the egg case.  Survival of the fastest out!), but hopefully, they will take care of the stink bug nymphs!

It is hotter than heck outside!  Either we have rain and humidity or hot and humidity!  We had a brief bit of nice summer, but it didn't last.  Hopefully you are having a great day.  I'll talk to you later.