The Flower I’ve Been Waiting For
I have been patiently waiting and watching for this flower since I started the seed last summer. It was supposed to bloom last summer but didn’t. I thought it would bloom earlier this spring and was beginning to wonder if it every was going to bloom. I never did the see the buds emerge, I noticed them last night and they were blooming this morning.
This is the beautiful pink bloom of the ‘Tarpan’ Strawberry. I purchased a packet of 15 seeds from Johnny’s last spring. Only 3 or 4 of the seeds germinated and grew into plants. That doesn’t matter too much because those plants are producing runners like crazy. Each mother plant has produced 3 to 5 daughter plants and they’re still producing runners.
I need to decide where I’m going to be putting these. Maybe a few of those yellow strawberries will be removed in the front flowerbed to make way for these beauties. These are ever bearing strawberries and will produce strawberries from mid-summer to frost. That’s perfect since my June-bearing strawberries just quit producing for the year.
These really are quite different than other strawberry blooms I’ve seen. I’m interested to see what the berries taste like.
Have you ever waited patiently for something to bloom? How long did you wait?
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The Preservation Has Begun
Last week I harvested the first items for the pantry: herbs. Each year I harvest herbs and dry them in the attic to add to our meals and to enjoy as tea. I grow a wide variety of herbs in the garden some perennial, some annual. I won’t list all the herbs I have in the garden as there are quite a few. Each year I try to add a few more and learn how to use them both for culinary and medicinal purposes.
You’re supposed to harvest herbs right before them bloom; in the morning after the dew has dried, but before it gets too sunny and warm. At least that’s what I read you should do to get the best flavored herbs for your pantry. I’ve never done any experiments to see if it matters or not, but it makes sense to me that the plants would have more oils in the morning before they it gets too warm.
What made it into my harvest basket?
Peppermint – (Mentha x piperita piperita) Peppermint tea is a refreshing alternative to coffee and regular tea. Excellent for stomach indigestion. Lends its spiciness to many dishes. Don’t be fooled by seeds labelled as ‘peppermint’, peppermint can’t produce seeds because its flowers are sterile. (source of plants: Richter’s)
Sage – (Salvia officinalis) The main culinary varieties popular with onions for poultry stuffing and for flavouring rich meats like pork or duck. Also in homemade sausage, omelettes, cheese and bean dishes. Sage tea gargle is valuable for sore throat. It has highly aromatic leaves and along soft spikes of blooms that invite hummingbirds to the garden. (source: Renee’s Garden)
Mountain Mint – (Pycnanthemum pilosum) Hardy U.S. native. Leaves possess a wonderful menthol fragrance; may be used just like peppermint. Excellent beeplant. (source of seeds: Richter’s)
Greek Oregano – (Origanum vulgare hirtum) This is the true oregano collected wild in the mountains of Greece. White flowers; very hardy. Excellent flavour. (source: seeds from Richter’s)
Bodegold Chamomile – (Matricaria recutita ‘Bodegold’) Improved strain of German chamomile for commercial production. Erect, sturdy growth habit and larger flowers containing up 0.7% essential oil high in bisabolol and other medicinal compounds. (source: Renee’s Garden)
I’ve read that you shouldn’t fertilize your herbs too much or it will lessen the amount of oils in them, which will make them less potent. In my experience I have found that herbs are carefree and don’t really mind lean dry conditions. Once established, perennial herbs can take a good amount of neglect if they’re well suited to your climate and soil. Annual herbs can be a whole different ball game. I find some annual herbs to be picky and difficult to grow – at least here in my soil conditions. I have trouble growing cilantro, which is quite a shame because I enjoy it so much. Growing it in a container seems to be the best option for me.
It certainly looks like it will be a savory winter here at Chiot’s Run. I’ll be so glad I took the time to harvest these herbs and others while I’m enjoying sage stuffing at Thanksgiving or sipping a cup of hot peppermint tea on a chilly evening in January.
Do you harvest and dry herbs for winter use? What’s your favorite herb to grow in the garden?
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Quote of the Day: Mark Twain
The difference between the almost right word
and the right word is really a large matter.
It’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
– Mark Twain in a letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888
Kind of like snapping a photo at just the right time! I love it when the lightning bugs are out and about. Earlier this week I started to see them in the front yard, too bad they’re spraying for mosquitos in our development next week so that will kill a good number of them.
Do you have lightning bugs in your area?
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Fleeting Beauty
Last year I added 6 new peonies to the garden. They didn’t bloom last year, but this year they all provided me with at least one blossom each, some with many. Peonies are lovely flowers, you’d never know how tough the plants were by looking at the flowers. They’re wonderfully hardy plants, taking just about anything you throw at them after they’re established. The blooms on the other hand are delicate. They don’t last long in the garden, especially if the weather turns hot.
Right about the time the peonies started to bloom here in NE Ohio the the temperature climbed into the 90’s. As a result the peonies lasted only a few days. I was hoping to take a photo of the first bloom on the heirloom peony I got from my grandma’s house. I spotted it late one afternoon and by the next morning it was already past prime so I missed it. At least I got a few photos of the many of the other peonies in the garden, save a white one. Here are a few of the fleeting beauties in my garden from this spring.
A few weeks ago I added four more peonies to the garden. They were growing in an area of my mom’s garden that became shady because of the growth of other plants so she gave them to me. I can’t remember what the blooms will look like, but they’ll be beautiful whatever they turn out to be. It’s always nice to get peonies for free!
Do you grow peonies in your garden?
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Friday Favorite: American Apparel
I’m a huge fan of American Apparel t-shirts. Why? For one, they’re made in the USA – no sweat shops here. They have 100% organic cotton shirts and they use as much organic cotton as possible in their non-organic shirts. That means no GMO’s, which is a big deal to me.
Of course all the above things are fine and dandy – but if the product isn’t good quality or comfortable it doesn’t matter. The main reason I love their shirts is because they’re super comfortable. We’ve all had that perfectly comfortable shirt: it’s old, it’s soft and you find yourself wearing it whenever it’s clean (and sometimes when it’s not). That’s how American Apparel shirts feel from day one! I also appreciate that they line dry beautifully. No crispiness here, they come off the line just like they come out of the dryer, soft and ready to wear.
If you peeked in my shirt drawer, you would find the majority of shirts in my drawer with their label. The ones that don’t are older shirts that will be replaced with American Apparel shirts when the time comes. I’ll warn you though, they are cut on the small and slim side, so if you come across a site that sells their stuff order a size up. You can guarantee if I ever have Chiot’s Run shirts made the’ll have the American Apparel label!
This is my newest addition to my collection, I purchased this lovely shirt from Wire & Twine, a small design shop in SE Ohio. It’s my current favorite shirt to wear. I’ve always been the type of person that has a favorite item of clothing and I’ll wear it all the time for a spell. I can distinctly remember specific dresses and shirts from my childhood that I loved and wore so much that my mom would have to pry me out of them to wash them. I have especially fond memories of a t-shirt with a mouse on it.
Do you have a favorite article of clothing?
