More About Herbs

Hello Friends,

Let's talk some more about herbs, shall we? My current read is The Herbal Apothecary by 

JJ Pursell. Although I am only part way through the book, I find it well written and easy to understand. It covers 100 medicinal herbs with helpful color photographs. She describes the attributes of each plant, including instructions on how to make teas, tinctures, salves, and syrups, plus dosing and recipes.

There are sections on the systems of the body: cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine. These give detailed information on how our bodies work, and how herbal medicine can play a part in keeping us healthy.

At this point, my herb garden contains mostly culinary herbs, and even that got away from me and bloomed before I decided to harvest. Yesterday I picked some German thyme and Italian oregano. I had previously trimmed a new rosemary plant that had gotten leggy.

I'll continue to build my herb garden to hopefully include more medicinal herbs and have enough culinary herbs to harvest at the proper time and still have fresh when I want them.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that when using herbs in your dishes, one tablespoon dried herbs = three tablespoons fresh herbs. Just remember to triple the amount of fresh herbs if your recipe calls for dried, and always use fresh in salads and salsas and as garnish in finishing off your dish. When putting fresh herbs into a cooked dish, add near the end of cooking to retain color and flavor. I'll update on the rest of the garden later.

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.

Eyes On The Garden, Folks!

Hello Friends,

Garden news: Each of my pepper plants are producing and the cherry tomato is loaded. The Better Boy probably has a baker's dozen and the Celebrity is bringing up the rear.

Sadly, the squash are not squashing yet. Had a few small ones on the zucchini, but they never developed. Also, the cukes are not as tasty as I'd hoped. Here is a picture of the one I picked today. I spotted it Friday and said it would be ready to pick in a couple of days. It is now Monday and it has tripled in size since then. This is the Straight Eight variety. 

I had eagerly awaited the first ripe tomato and remarked to hubby that it would be ready soon. Today was the day. I reached in and plucked out a small but otherwise ripe and ready tomato. 

Alas, I turned it over and this is what I saw.

The cardinal rule of gardening is that you must keep eyes on everything every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. It is however hard to see what is happening on the bottom of every tomato. In my defense, they grow in clumps in the center of the plant inside a four-foot tall cage. I must reach inside a 2" by 4" opening the welded wire fence to harvest or prune away dead leaves, the latter involving getting scissors in as well. I may need to rethink some things next year. 

I have some organic fertilizer to put out and that might help. I think I also have some calcium spray I can use. Blossom end rot results in two things, both involving calcium. Either there is not enough in the soil, or there is insufficient uptake.

The storm that came up through SC dumping copious amounts of rain in some areas only gave us 0.4" of rain, so back to watering this evening. Sigh!

I had planned to do a roundup of all the good news on the national and political fronts back before the holiday, but that, as they say, is old news now. Maybe I'll do a post with my take on some of the highlights...we'll see.

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.

First Summer Garden Update

Hello friends,

I have a garden update for you today. The tomatoes (Better Boy and Celebrity) have nearly topped their cages and have little green maters on them. Everything is showing promise, even the zucchini, which up until a few days ago only had male flowers.

We had been getting regular thundershowers with enough rain to keep things going with out watering. Cue the arrival of a major heat wave with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the mid to upper 90s. I had to put shade cloth over the poor cukes yesterday, and 15 minutes later they were in the shade. Don't worry, it's not climate change, just summer.

I'm not a real morning person, so watering happens later than I'd like, but I do try to keep most of it off the foliage. My straw was not what I normally get and it molded, so some of my plants do not have mulch yet. Lesson learned...don't get that again. Only got it because it was all they had and I needed straw. Argh, still need more straw or something. Never use the colored mulch in the garden. I haven't looked for data on that, but the dye stains clothing, so I can't think it is good for plants.

I have been enjoying my expanded herb garden, and hubby has been getting some in his nightly salad. Maybe I need to do a post on just herbs and include a favorite recipe. You will be surprised.

At this moment in time, the temperature in our neck of the woods is 94° with a heat index of 109 reported from a nearby weather station.

Wherever you are, I hope you are staying cool and hydrated. Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.

Update, I noticed after putting this post together that I had gotten my finger in two of the pics. Too hot to do a retake!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 Hello Friends,

It's been a few days so I thought I'd check in and give the first garden update of the year. Since it rained a lot during the time I would be putting the garden in, I had to wait. I only managed to get it tilled once and had to spread the amendments on the top and dig them in by hand as needed. Ugh! 

Finally I bought plants and slowly introduced them to the garden with all the usual things like fertilizer and for the three tomato plants, a bit of epsom salts in the hole and some baking soda sprinkled around. Straw was applied liberally.

Then came one zucchini, one sweet banana pepper, one jalapeno, and two cucumbers. All got their own bed of straw as well. Now we wait. Well we had some nice warm, sunny days, and then the rains and cool temps

came back. The garden appeared to be at a standstill for what seems like forever, but I am seeing runners on the cukes and buds on them and the squash. I even have blooms and one small pepper on the itty bitty jalapeno. Now I have heard people say that they pluck off the early fruit so the plant will put more energy into growth. I've never done that and still had success. 

The last time I planted jalapenos, they got eaten off and what grew back didn't produce well. So now we have our garden fenced in against at least the larger critters.

What a difference a couple weeks make. The first picture above was taken May 20 and the second was taken June 2.

Here is my jalapeno, up close and personal. 

My herb garden is doing nicely, too.

So there you have it. A sample of my 2025 garden.  

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.