Flowers and Herbs

May 19-20.

Time for a visit to one of my front yard flower gardens!  Oh--but not just flowers!  I've got some herbs growing in here, stuff the critters don't eat, and so far it's all doing fantastic!  Here's a picture of the whole garden:

See that light green bush?  That's oregano.  I'm going to have to harvest it really soon!

Here are three new plants for this garden:  next to my cheap $2 garden gloves (lost one of my awesome pair from last year, grr), you'll see English thyme, pincushion flower, and French sorrel, an edible leaf-herb (more on that below!).

I started with the flower portion of my purchase:  pincushion flower.  It has these bright, deep pink blooms that look like pincushions.  But I bet you figured that out.  They're supposed to bloom all summer with new blossoms popping up continually, so that sounded pretty good to me.  We'll see how it does this year.  I tend to love those flowers that require little maintenance, and which are hardy enough to keep coming back year after year, even with my neglect.  I'm much better with vegetables than with flowers!

There was an open spot by that rock, so that's where this flower would be planted.  Just to the right of that area, there is/was a purple coneflower.  Even now (July), it remains dead; it never came back from last year.  This makes me sad, as it was so very pretty.

On to the herbs!  You can see in the picture below that I've already planted the English thyme and French sorrel (extreme front right, and behind that), but I wanted to show you what I had done in order to do that.  I had to move all those other flowers in the picture.  Those are variegated beard tongue, and bloom the prettiest pinks and purples.  They also proliferate in this garden, which I love.  And not so love, since I have to move them to keep them contained.  But I have also given some to neighbors so they can enjoy them as well.  I really do love their color!

Below you can see the English thyme and French sorrel together.  Two European herbs!  I've snipped a few sprigs of the thyme already, and they've dried, hanging in my basement (you'll see that in an upcoming post, too!).  The French sorrel can be eaten like a leaf lettuce or spinach, chopped up in a salad or eaten with fish.  I thought it had a more bitter taste like arugula does, but when I tried it, it was positively lemony!

French sorrel, there in the bright green.

English thyme, with purple and pink beard tongue beyond.

I thought I'd throw one more picture in, of my sage plant.  This has come back faithfully year after year, but sadly, shortly after I took this picture, it mysteriously died.  I'm still upset about it, as I don't know why it happened.  I was really looking forward to fried sage leaves, which I had done once before the plant died.

Anyway, there's my front yard herb garden, with some flowers thrown in!


Back to life,
Christine

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