Herbs and Vegetables

Yawn.

The Viking decided to give war practice a miss -- sorry if folk were disappointed not to see us there -- and we spent the weekend on some much needed yard work instead.

Yesterday we cruised down to Homestead for the herb and vegetable week, where we actually bought a few herbs and vegetables. I picked up horehound, thyme, French sorrel, and actual honest-to-goddess St John's Wort, Hypericum perforatum, not some stupid garden hybrid. The Viking went for the hot peppers, which was hardly a shock.

We also stopped by Bittersweet Hill, which is one of those nurseries where you have to know where it is to get there, and they always have odd, fun things growing. We were a bit baffled by the maypops for sale -- you charge money for those? Guess we should truck down into our woods with a shovel, then.

Today we took advantage of the overcast skies to plant the herbs and veggies, mow the non-lawn and beat out a few other little projects. The Viking knocked together a compost bin out of some scrap lumber and chicken wire, then filled it with shredded leaves and clippings from the mower bag. I dug up some catmint and moved it back to Artemis' garden.

The 'Ruby Spice' summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) that I planted last summer has finally started to leaf out, much to my relief. I was afraid the fool thing had died. Several of the inherited irises are showing buds, so I will finally get to see what colour they are. When we bought this house there was a small patch of irises on the edge of the bed of lilies of the valley. They were too crowded and too shaded ever to bloom there, so in the first summer we were in the house, I dug some of them up and moved them, not knowing what they'd actually look like. At last I will find out. I have a bad feeling that they will turn out to be something appalling, like sulfur yellow. (There are a lot of yellow irises in the neighbourhood). If so, I may be offering bearded irises free to good homes. Watch this space.

Now the Viking's at work grilling dinner, and I'd better go do something about side dishes before I get too sleepy.

verso - recto