I don't even care...

Yesterday, the turkeys were all over my rock garden & herb garden. That's right, I don't care... I didn't bother to try & scare them away.



Because my rock & herb gardens are pretty much all weeds... weeds, weeds, WEEDS! Like the sign says...



Kathy gave that to me for my birthday in April, and it's so very true. *sigh* Well, there are some herbs in there...



I had hoped this year would be better than the last 3 or so for working in my gardens, but the infection and 2nd surgery to my neck put the ol' damper on that party. Hopefully next year. Sammy & I have a little saying going, though perhaps it's more like a mantra or a prayer...

"Everything'll be fine in 2009!"

Pottery: Pedestal

This is another project I finished recently... a pedestal to hold my rose scented geranium in my herb garden. By far the largest piece I've done. I had to make it in 2 pieces so that it would fit into the kiln. It separates at the 3 bands in the center.



I was a little disappointed in the clear glaze I used. It went on very thickly, and though I put only 1 coat on it... it got "milky" looking, which is not what I was going for. I would have preferred it clear, but once it's glaze fired, that's that. I still like it.



I made it using lengths of coils of clay in a row, smoothing them on what would become the inside, and joining them together. It was pretty difficult... it kept wanting to come apart. It took a very long time to make this piece, mostly because it's so big and has so many parts to it. It was very satisfying. I'm happy with it, & I like how it looks in my herb garden, near the lavender and Lady's Bedstraw.

In my herb garden

Along with everything else popping up green, I noticed a bunch of weeds going gung-ho in and among my flowers and herbs. I pulled some out, but I will have to dedicate some time this weekend to weeding for sure. One more thing on my to do list...

Why is it that the weeds always outpace the plants that are supposed to be growing... In spite of that, my herb garden is sprouting up Big Time.



The big, black wood stove, oddly enough, not only looks just fine there to me, where it took over a good chunk of my garden, but the contrast of the black and the green, green, GREEN of the plants is something I am finding very enjoyable. I suppose my opinion is influenced by the fact that the wood stove is saving us a ton of money, and our house is always warm and toasty in cold weather. On the other side of that black wood stove are stacks of wood, and even though they, too, took space away from my herb garden, I like them. Stacks of firewood are things of beauty.

So what's growing in my herb garden?...

Comfrey


Fennel


Yarrow and Chives


Woolly Lamb's Ear


Sage


Oregano


Mint


Costmary


Feverfew


Lovage


Lady's Mantle


Rue


Wild Rose


Silver King Artemisia


Lady's Bedstraw


Lavender


Just to name a few...

Squeaky clean self-portrait

The other day when I was outside walking and toting my camera along with me, I took this photo of my gazing ball. It's smallish in size; the glass globe is only about 6 or 7 inches in diameter. The term for its color is "soap bubble." It has that iridescent hue of colors from a prism, in soft pastel. It rests on its own copper stand, about 2 feet off the ground. I've had it a long time. When I first bought it, the copper was bright and shiny, but now it's mellowed to a patina that I wanted. Each spring, I place it in the middle of the Lady's Bedstraw in my herb garden... the contrast of the soap bubble gazing ball with the bright green ferny growth is so pretty. Now, in fall, with all around it mostly brown, it glows.



I took probably about a dozen shots of it with my camera. When I looked at the photos later, I noticed I was in them.

More on the "special" fungus...

Couple of things. It's actually quite difficult to identify fungi. The variety is daunting. And, the thing I was 99% sure about... I was totally wrong. I found some growing near my herb garden. They grow like this:


In my herb garden, I have a pretty patch of Lady's Bedstraw, which I thought was a location befitting this one:

Forgotten, but not lost...

Got up early again and did some more work in my poor, old herb garden. Kev was getting his tractor out and getting ready to go out and split the wood from the trees that he & Sammy cut down yesterday. But then he heard me say, "I sure wish I had some help from someone big and strong..."

He helped me in that garden for about 2 hours. Kev can get more done in 2 hours than most people get done all day. So I totally forgive him for calling my herb garden "a fuckin' eyesore." We could have debated the degree of eyesoreness between my weedy herb garden and his huge pile of sand next to it... but I'd rather just take advantage of his big, strong muscles and keep my mouth shut, if y'know what I mean...

I found a Jacob's Ladder that I didn't know I still had, as well as a Horehound. My hands ache from pulling out tons of Silver King Artemisia. Ugh. Anyone want some oregano? I am fixin' to destroy a ton of that, too. I also found a well-established chive plant smack dab in the middle of my Yarrow. Grrr...

Haven't touched my rock garden yet... that'll have to wait until next weekend. I'm looking forward to eradicating most of the silly ajuga I planted. It was beautiful this spring when it all flowered purple... but all succumbs to the ajuga; it's a tyrant. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to pull out.

I should have taken "before" pictures, but I didn't. So you'll have to make do with these "after-so-far" pictures.

That's the way I like it

This morning we were up and at 'em around 7am. Kev wanted to get going on cutting wood, and I wanted to do some weeding in my long-neglected herb garden. It is supposed to be another extremely hot & muggy day... too hot to work outside after, oh, about 10am.

We got the kids up, and Sammy is helping Kev while Joycie helped me. (Kev and Sammy are still out there working.)

Right next to my herb garden is my rock garden. Only it's so covered in ajuga, you can't really tell it's a rock garden. Also, years ago, a woman gave me a red clover that she said would bloom beautifully yellow and go real nice with the purple ajuga. I've been pulling out clover ever since.

The oregano, chives (3 varieties) and feverfew are prolific travelers. I'm pulling those out all over, too. One thing about working in the my herb garden... it smells so good when yanking all those runaway herbs out.

I also planted a wild black-eyed susan in one corner, and that sucker multiplied like crazy. I pulled it all out. I found 2 queen anne's lace plants growing, and I'm leaving those. They will expand their territory, too, so I plan to watch for babies and drastically cut short their life span.

My lady's bedstraw is going great guns. I've had that plant for years, and it never really amounted to much. This year, it's ten times the size it was last year, and it's choking out the lady's mantle and some lavender plants. I'm having mixed feelings about it, though... I really like lady's bedstraw. It's a beautiful shade of green, and it has lovely little yellow flower stems. It smells so good. It's also known as Our Lady's Bedstraw. Old lore is that Mary used it for Jesus' bed, which at that time, the plant flowered white, but after being used for Jesus' bed, it flowers golden. Magical lore is that lady's bedstraw will bring you love if you carry some of it with you, such as in a locket. Mostly it was used, in ye olden tymes, for mattress stuffing. When it's dried, it smells like sweet hay. I think I just talk myself into leaving it as is.

I have a split rail fence around my herb garden, and parts of it are starting to rot, so they're not something you'd like to lean against... A couple of years ago a large oak fell on part of it, taking some of the fence out. And last fall, we placed our outdoor wood stove unit out there, taking up a back corner. I was fine with this, because I don't mind having a smaller herb garden anyway... less to weed.

This morning, Joycie was making comments about how weedy it was and how overgrown and how neglected... I explained to her the point was just basically to keep it going until I retire, when I can spend more time in it. I do want to keep my herb garden, even though Kevin has suggested wiping it out and planting grass. I enjoy it, even though it doesn't look like a well-tended plot with specimen plants. I like sitting out there and smelling all the wonderful smells. Anyway, I like disorganization in my gardens. So there.

More flowers...

This is why I love my new Sony tonight way more than my old Olympus. I can get really nice close-up shots with my Sony.







This last photo is comfrey in my herb garden. I've read that you shouldn't let it bloom, because it'll get scraggly... but I like the hanging blossoms. I just cut the plant right off at the dirt and it grows all over again; I do this a couple of times through the summer.