Tag Archives: Herbs

In a Vase on Monday: From the Edge of the Meadow

by

There are areas in the garden that don’t get mown, including up against the fence….

Or this lovely slope next to the garage…

But the idea of flattening this ‘meadow’ if I walk through has put me off picking any flowers…. until now, as there are some Queen Ann’s Lace flowers and some moon daisies open near the edges! So on a perfect summer’s day (Sunday) I selected a mix of what I could reach, and a few other things from the edges of the garden. 😃

Some of the flowers are: Moon daisies, Fleabane, Harebells, Red and Yellow Clovers, St John’s Wort, Knapweed, Yarrow, Bedstraw and Bugle.

 

I love finding a bit of pink yarrow, which occasionally turns up amongst the white…

The St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is actually from my Herb Bed, but we do have some flowering around the garden too. I hope to find enough to pick and dry for tea in winter. 😃

Is anything growing wild in your gardens this week? 😉

I am participating in ‘In a Vase on Monday’, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. Why not visit her blog to see other vases from far and wide… 😃

Happy gardening!

In a Vase on Monday: Silvery Sage

by

I have been getting to know more and more varieties of Salvia over the past couple of years, and one I am completely in love with at the moment is the Salvia sclarea, or Clary Sage. I sowed some seed and planted out a few small plants into the Herb Bed last spring, having no idea how big these plants become!

 

 I also had no idea how lovely they are. So one has been cut for the centre piece of my vase this week.

What better companions for it than some of my other sages. The strong purple in front is Salvia viridis, also sown and planted out last spring with little idea of what it will look like. 😃

The white salvia is growing in the Moon Bed: Salvia nemorosa ‘Schneehügel’. This one has the slightly bitter smell that I don’t like much. The culinary sages smell wonderful though and I added a pink and lilac one to the vase.

And then finally I added two sprigs of my ornamental salvias ‘Nachtvlinder’ and ‘Aromax Blue’. Hard to see on the photos, but they will no doubt feature again here soon!

Do you grow salvias? Which are your favourites?

I am linking to Cathy’s Monday meme inviting us to share a vase of flowers etc from our gardens. Do visit her at Rambling in the Garden to see her lovely British vase today as well as to see who else is picking and plonking/elegantly arranging flowers this week!

Happy gardening!

Salvia sclarea

In a Vase on Monday: Mostly Herbs

by

I have been harvesting some herbs recently. Last week it was parsley, sage and chives; the parsley and sage are cut into small pieces and dried in our food dehydrator until dry enough to crumble, and the chives are snipped and simply frozen in tiny containers, ready to sprinkle over/in hot food. I also made some parsley and garlic paste (that was strong!) and some parsley ice cubes.

But today the mint was due to be picked and, as always, I got distracted and started picking things for a Monday vase!

The photos are taken on the steps next to my Herb Bed, which is also ‘mostly herbs’. There is a Viburnum in the middle, a few antirrhinums, a Geum, a Euphorbia and some spring bulbs. But I think everything else could be classified as a herb or medicinal plant (German has one word for this: Heilkräuter).

The first Hypericum flower of the season on my dark-leafed Hypericum shrub was the prompt for my vase, as this shrub looks so pretty growing near the Antirrhinums and I had already decided I wanted to use a couple of those today.  Some blue borage set them off nicely.

The pink sage flowers also look nice with the dark foliage. I have several sages, including some ornamental ones. To my surprise, a couple overwintered from last year, including this purple one: Nachtvlinder.

Other green foliage is mint(!), lemon balm and more Hypericum. Somewhere at the back there is even a sprig of parsley! 😉

I am now going to chop up all this mint for the dehydrator and will remember this warm sunny June day while sipping some mint tea on a winter’s day. 😃

Thanks to Cathy from Rambling in the Garden for keeping this idea alive every week, where we share things plucked from our gardens or neighbourhoods and show them off in a vase of some sort.

Have a lovely Monday and a great week.

Happy gardening!

The First Garden Projects of 2022

by

We have finally had some sunshine and milder days recently, albeit with a chilly wind and snow flurries in between. But the blue sky has enticed me outdoors to start my first gardening project of the year: widening the Herb Bed.

Well, actually two projects: the grass that I am removing is going into the bottom of the two new raised planters which were assembled last week. 👍

These will be permanent fixtures on the patio for salad crops and vegetables, safe from the hares. (And slugs!)😃

I put some larger garden debris right at the base, then a layer of sods, and next week I shall find some twiggy stuff before another layer of soil and then compost finishes it off. Some of the soil I need has kindly been provided by my industrious little garden helpers. 😂😂😂

Each morning we awaken to a few more molehills, and it has been too wet to remove them yet. The (mostly) nocturnal culprits are advancing towards my flower beds…. 😯

Back to the Herb Bed. Nearly done in this photo, where you can see some large pieces of old paving slabs I had to dig out. A sprinkling of snow delayed progress today, but work will be resumed in a day or two.

 Can’t wait to get sowing. The new space will be filled with dill, parsley, chives, artemisia annua, nigella sativa, borage, coriander, and perhaps a few decorative salvias. 😃

Have you got any new projects coming up? Do share!

Happy gardening!

🌷🌷🌷

In a Vase on Monday: Dilly Dallying

by

Sunday was a lazy day, rather too hot and humid to do much. But with rain and thunderstorms forecast for today I decided to cut flowers for my Monday vase nonetheless.

Notiice my new Tree of Life garden ornament in the Herb Bed. 😉

The dill has been amazing this year and I realize now it has been grateful for extra water, being planted in the Veg Bed as well as the dry Herb Bed. Before it goes to seed I wanted to use the flowers in a vase, so that was the starting point.

Another success this summer is the Cosmos ‘Fizzy White’ in the Moon Bed. I got tired of getting so much foliage and so few flowers on Cosmos Purity, so grew this one instead this year – a winner! There are plenty to spare for cutting. 😃

While moving slowly around the garden (it was REALLY hot!) I noticed the grasses are now starting to make a statement. The one in my vase is Calamagrostis Karl Foerster. I love its rapid growth in spring and the deep golden seedheads in summer and autumn.

Then I added a Sanguisorba seedhead and some white Borage (which seems less attractive to the bees than the blue). But the arrangement needed something to pep it up…. ah yes, Tithonia!

 

These have been wonderful this summer too, reaching a grand 1.8m and flowering like mad.

So that is my contriibution to Cathy’s meme – do visit her at Rambling in the Garden to see her vase and catch all the other links to vases this week. 😃

 

Wishing you a sunny (but not too hot!) week in your gardens. 😃🌻🐝