Scarlet and Gold

More scarlet and gold highlights from the herb garden .. just starting to flower this last week or so are Tansy and the bronze Fennel..

I'm sure from reading about tansy way back that its supposed to be an insect repellent .. I know it is used dried to put in pet's beds to deter/repel fleas .. but everytime I go to photograph the lovely golden button flowers, they are covered in flies.. hmmmm!

When the great tall (some might say overgrown and out of control!) valerian finished, I left the great tall stems to provide support for the bronze fennel. So glad I did, as the golden flowerheads supported up high are providing a nice extra dimension in the herb garden.











... and on the windowsill soaking up the sunshine, the infused oils I prepared about six weeks ago are nearly ready and have changed colour ...

this golden one is Chamomile

and this gorgeous blood-red one is St John's Wort..

.. you can see the fantastic change in colour by comparing with this photo I took when I prepared it!

This should mean that all the goodness and healing properties from the flowers have now transferred themselves into the oil.












Once I've strained the plant material out, I will be keeping some oil to use as it is (for burns, including sunburn) and thickening a little of it to make into a salve for knife wounds .. I am accident-prone with the kitchen knife when I've not had enough sleep, so this is another helpful standby in our house!

Beautiful Stranger

One of the joys of allowing the herb garden to 'get away from me a bit' (to put it mildly!) is the delight of stumbling across surprises and nature's free gifts.

A week or two back, I pulled up short during my early morning visit to the garden .. at the back of the stand of Evening Primrose something was coming into flower, it was beautiful and it was pinky purple. I had a good look at it - the leaves and habit were so like the Evening Primrose all around it that I hadn't spotted the interloper in its midst - so fair play to it, I say! I just love it when a new plant comes to find me .. a great opportunity to get the old books down, dust them off and learn something new and amazing. So who is this beautiful stranger?

Well, I think, Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) - please lend me a hand here, if you are familiar with this plant? I got the preliminary id from my field guide, Collins' Complete Guide to British Wildlife, the photo looked spot-on and the description 'pinkish-purple flowers.. pale centres... appear July-August' is also spot on. The joy of the internet is that once you get a lead like this, you just type it in and before you will appear hundreds of images .. so you can get to see the plant from every angle and in lots of different situations.

The stems and leaves are supposedly hairy (hence 'hirsutum', presumably!) and this didn't strike me immediately. However there is a certain fluffiness about the leaves in the photo, so I'll be out having a little look for that later this evening.

Mrs Grieve tells us that Evening Primrose is related to the willowherbs, so I don't feel so daft for not spotting it now (!) and also that the willowherbs are rich in tannin.. used in fact as a tea substitute in some times and places .. and so the leaves have often been used as astringents. However, and PLEASE NOTE, there are 'reports of violent poisoning with epileptic-like convulsions' associated with the use of Great Hairy Willow Herb itself, so this is one plant I will just be happy to enjoy seeing in the garden, methinks!

Blush

This week you could really feel the wheel of the year turning.. its like all that thrusting and thriving and green energy burgeoning until it wears itself out .. and the plants are starting to feel a bit knackered and spent (and me along with them!). We are all a little straggly and starting to go to seed.

This, however, is a favourite time for me for I am an autumn girl and the move towards autumn and its resplendant colours is underway. The colour scheme is changing, with gold and crimson coming to the fore.The strawberries and geraniums are starting to blush a deep scarlet...

.. the evening primrose is out..

..and I'm starting to see how the 'rosa rugosa' got its common name of 'tomato rose'...

This week, too, the dusk has been my companion around 9pm when I've been turning in. I don't know why, but I find this a great comfort!

Its a time to relax and enjoy the fruits of all the enthusiasm and energy of spring and midsummer. To reap what we have sown... (what's left after the slugs and snails have had their pick,that is!)

Sunshine

This post is part of the UK Herbarium July blog party hosted this month by Debs Cook at Herbaholics Herbarium

I'm a Leo, this is my time of the year! And I love hot sunshine colours.. they warm and uplift. Bright splashes of bold oranges and yellows about the place declare that it IS summer, whatever the weather has decided to the contary. So I have a sunshine insurance policy .. each year, very very early in the year, I sow my annual seeds. I sow sunflowers, marigolds and nasturtiums.

And then I can settle back and enjoy the unfolding of spring with lush green foliage, beautiful purple and pink and white flowers.. safe in the knowledge that I'll have my hit of sunshine colour, too. Once we get to the lavender and strawberries and last of the roses, then we're getting warmer.. the St John's Wort at midsummer heralds the start of the bright yellow sunshine colours in my herb garden, which I feel is so appropriate for this celebration of the sun. And then more and more yellows seem to start popping out all over.

But I'm a big cheater! I sow dwarf sunflowers stupidly early, in February, so that they are flowering in May, usually. I harden them off in my little growhouse (you know, the sort which is basically a small shelf unit with a sort of pac-a-mac over the top!) and then I've got instant sunshine to pop into the garden. This year, I had a good little display which flowered on an indoors windowsill.. and if I'm not getting to see those outdoors, I have no compunction about cutting them for a jug on the kitchen table.

I got into dwarf sunflowers when I lived in Tottenham and had my roof garden - there was no way I could grow tall ones up there! Bad weather then meant not visiting or seeing the garden at all, as I had to climb a ladder through a hatch up onto the roof which kind of let the water in! That was when I got into the habit of taking a camera with me and snapping the plants on my brief forays to see what was happening up there.. a habit I still have. The best thing about where we live now is that I can see the garden from our living room anytime I want.. I love to stand at the door looking out watching it all in the rain from the comfort of a nice dry house!

Now marigolds I originially sowed to companion plant with tomatoes, and still do. But I just put them everywhere I can find space now, as they are just such a useful plant and such a hit of hot colour. And the more you pick the heads to use them, the more flowers you are rewarded with, it seems. Last year I grew 'Indian Prince' and was deeply satisfied with the really zingy bright orange ... they flowered into November last year, cheering up the onset of autumn and winter, and a pot of last years marigolds which I took out from the tomato planters once they were over gave me amazing huge almost fluorescent orange flowers from April this year.. WOW! Needless to say I put the pot right by the door so's I could see them from indoors.

I've grown nasturtiums the last couple of years, since we were given some seed for one of the marbled leaf varieties and just loved them. Nasturtiums, too, will also go really late into the year. This year I have hanging baskets about the place with a mix of marbled leaf/yellow flowers and dark foliage with deep red flowers. I had known this was an edible plant, but was delighted last year to find I could make a great vinegar with them (thank you, James Wong). I made it really as a catarrh remedy, but it tastes wonderful on salads.

The greatest thing about planting these annuals is sharing the whole growing process with the little'un who, at 3 this year, has had his own garden for the first time. He planted his own marigold and sunflower seeds in February and was able to plant them out into his own little plot and water them and watch them grow and flower. The sunflower and marigold photographs I've used above actually show his plants. And here he is, carefully picking the petals off some marigolds of his own that he grew and contributing them for making infused oil.

Harvest

Well, I had only got as far as this when lumps of ice started falling out of the sky with some force upon my herbs and my head! I managed to collect enough ladies mantle to try a tincture this year. Its the first time I've had this herb in flower, and there's plenty of it, so I'm excited - I've wanted to use this for a good while now.

I strained my valerian flower tincture at 3 weeks, having watched and tasted it a little.. it has a pleasant appley kind of taste, for some reason I can't quite fathom! I have it bottled on standby and will be interested to see what effect it has. Meanwhile, the valerian has a wealth of fresh new heads, so I had thought to maybe make a second small bottle.

I'm also going to try making yarrow tincture .. in previous years I have made ointment for stopping bleeding. But I've never had much call to use it, and in case of emergency I think you can just use the fresh leaves straight from the plant as needed. And I read that the tincture is a good preventative for colds and flu in the winter and can be used in a spray bottle to repel insects in the summer. If you'd seen the mozzy/gnat bites I've had of late you would understand my eagerness on that score! There's enough in the garden now that I should still have plenty to dry for cold/flu tea (with peppermint and elderflowers).

There's so much happening out there right now, and with the sunshine and showers its a question of just darting out at opportune moments and snatching a few photos or snipping anything that's dry. Still, I'm not having to water, lol!

St John's Wort

I couldn't let midsummer pass by without any mention of Saint John's Wort, one of my favourite herbs. Favourite because it has so many useful applications as a medicinal herb, it is beautiful in the herb garden and I love how it marks the high point of the year.

Well, this year the two St John's Wort plants I planted carefully in my herb bed are much reduced from last year.. completely because other earlier larger pushier herbs have really taken off all around. I thought I had lost one or both completely, but no, they are still poking their heads up .. only they are late flowering. You will remember from a previous post how I have always been impressed that this plant always flowers within a day to two either side of St John's Day on June 25th (one day after old midsummer on 24th). Not this year, sadly.

This is the stronger of the two plants on June 30th

By the by, if you click and enlarge this photo you can really see the little perforations on the leaves, which give it one of its names.

I was a bit glum because it is my favourite infused oil to make - I love the way the bright yellow flowers create a bright red oil and I was looking forward to making it with the little'un so he could watch it turn to pink and then scarlet and tell me when it was ready. But I also smiled because nature has gifted me two little baby plants, one self-seeded between paving slabs and another in the veg bed. So fingers crosseed I will have four plants to bring on for next summer.

... and that's where this post would have ended, except for **STOP PRESS**! One of those wonderful happenings that renews your faith in life, the universe and everything!

We went to a very special place in Arlesford, close to where we live, on Sunday for a summer morning's ramble and explore.. I'll tell you more about it and show you some pictures soon. The ruined medieval church of St Peter there is in a quiet, peaceful location away from everywhere and nature has been allowed to take over within the roofless walls. And, for the first time, I found St John's Wort growing wild .. and it was everywhere. Actually growing along the walls inside the church, but also as part of an area of long grass and wildflowers left uncut in the graveyard beyond.

A young plant on a west facing wall, in bud but about the same stage as mine (on a west facing fence) at home.

Amongst grass in the meadow immediately north of the church.

But look at this in full sun on the south-facing inner wall of the nave! There was a whole bed of it, in flower.

Its hard to put into words how special it was to step into this deserted peaceful space, all alone and to see it alive with herbs .. there were tansy, plantain and mullein growing out of the tops of the walls! I wasn't greedy .. I took enough flowering tops for a very small jar, but mainly just drank it all in. You can't predict or plan an experience like that.




Update (4th July):

Just goes to show how observant I am (!).... my main Saint John's Wort is still there, tangled amongst the feverfew, ladies mantle and escapee valerian, but I didn't spot it till today when the glorious yellow flowers finally opened. Ta Da!

Midsummer

Just a little trip about the garden at the very end of June ..

strawberries ripening in jam jars to protect them from our birdy friends,

valerian towering high above the fence and everything else,

feverfew in full flower now

and lavender just starting to pop.














Just been looking up 'cuckoo spit' .. you can see some on the lavender in the photo above, but we also have a little on the elder. Will have to look out for the adult froghoppers.. I like learning something new, and I like to have an answer ready when the little'un asks me something!

There's so much doing at this time of year and its such a joy to be out in the fresh air working with the plants and enjoying the sunshine. You can really 'feel' the wheel of the year turning over Midsummer as all the burgeoning and freshness and growing gives way to fullness, culmination, maturity. It happens imperceptibly and overnight, it seems and suddenly its time to be harvesting.

Notes on Valerian

Common Valerian (valeriana officinalis) has been used medicinally since at least medieval times and its common name 'all heal' shows how highly it was regarded. The name valeriana (from the Latin 'valere' - to be in health) first occurs in the ninth or tenth century, clearly equated with the 'Phu' of Dioscorides and Galen, named for its offensive odour!

The whole question of its smell is an interesting one. The root develops a strong unpleasant odour as it dries, yet was used as a spice and a perfume in the Middle Ages. Cats are intoxicated by the musky smell of the plant, especially if bruised, and will roll in it and it seems rats are affected in a similar way - it has even been suggested that the Pied Piper of Hamlin owed his success as a rat-catcher to the valerian he secreted about his person.

It is the root which is now used and referred to in modern herbals, yet the Anglo-Saxons used it as a salad and Culpeper commented that 'the green herb being bruised and applied to the head taketh away pain'.

Its fame as a tranquilizer and sedative has overshadowed a range of other medicinal applications - it was recommended at various times for treating coughs, combatting the plague and curing epilepsy, as well as deterring witches and attracting suitors! Its effectiveness as a reliable, calming sedative has long been recognised: a 14th century recipe recommends the juice to stop men fighting and it was widely used in the First World War to treat shell-shock.

It is now valued as a safe effective sedative that does not react with alcohol, create dependency or creat 'hangover' type after-effects. It is most commonly taken as an infusion of the crushed root (1 tspn to 1 cup of boiling water steeped for 20mins) 2 to 3 times daily. Alternatively, a tablespoon steeped for 8hours in a glass of tepid water is taken as a bedtime drink. The tincture can be used in place of an infusion, a teaspoon taken on a sugar lump 2 to 3 times daily, though the effects and dosage can vary markedly: some people may require up to 5ml while in others this much could cause headaches. For this reason, a low dose of 1 to 2ml is recommended at least to begin with.

It is as a powerful nervine that Valerian is nowadays applied medicinally, taken internally to treat hysteria, hyperactivity, anxiety, nervous tension, insomnia, nervous indigestion/ stomach and intestine problems, headaches, IBS and eczema. It is also used internally for painful menstruation and migraine. Externally, it encourages healing in wounds and ulcers and is effective topically for muscle cramps (a pad soaked in tincture is used).

CAUTION: High doses or continued use can lead to headaches and palpitations, so a break is recommended after 2 to 3 weeks. Valerian is contra-indicated for other sedative or anti-depressant drugs.


















A bitter, sedative, stimulant, warming herb.

It calms nerves, relaxes spasms, improves digestion, relieves pain and lowers blood pressure. It is expectorant and diuretic.

Its flowers, which are pale pink to white, can be found from May to September.
A late medieval direction says that the roots are collected in August.

A note on Red Valerian
The true medicinal valerian is commonly confused with Red Valerian (centranthus rubra), a decorative plant introduced from the Mediterranean but now naturalised in southern England. This plant is edible, both leaves and roots being used as food in parts of Europe, and has crimson, pink or rarely white flowers from June to September. It was once known as 'valerian rubra' but it does not have the medicinal qualities of common valerian described above.


















PLEASE NOTE: These notes on the history and use of herbs have been compiled for general interest and are not intended as medical advice, for which you should consult a professional herbalist.

BIBLIOGRAPY:
'Herbs and Healing Plants of Britain and Europe' Dieter Podlech, trans.Martin Walters (1996)
'Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing' Stephen Pollington (2000)
'A Modern Herbal' Mrs M. Grieve FRHS ed. Mrs C. F. Leyel (1973)
'The Herb Society's Complete Medicinal Herbal' Penelope Ody MNIMH (1993)
'RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses' Deni Brown (2002)

Rose Oil

I tried last summer for the first time to make a rose oil. I knew it would be very small, as I didn't have many fragrant roses to use.. I had two stupendously large and fragrant and velvety blooms from my Etoile de Holland, which had only been a cutting six months earlier and I had the flowers from my wild rose - it would put one out for me every couple of days, but it was still getting its feet in, having been transplanted to the new garden fairly recently too.

Well, this year I have an abundance of roses, hurrah! You know, though, I couldn't pick the Etoile de Holland blooms, about 10 this year. It flowered early while we were enjoying warm weather (seems like a while ago now, huh?) and I enjoyed seeing it from the house so much and smelling its fragrance filling the warm still air out in the garden that I couldn't do it. Mum-in-law tells me that I may be able to get it to do a second flowering later in the year .. I shall feed it and talk to it and see.

However, my old friend the wild rose is now a veritable bush .. this summer it is just flowering and flowering and there are always more buds coming, it seems. And the flowers are sweetly fragrant. The only problem with picking them is that they always have a bee or hoverfly inside... and I should point out here that I always leave plenty of flowers for the bees when I gather them to use.

So how do you make rose oil.. well you just stick the (dry) petals in a little jar, cover them with oil and sit the jar in the sun. I use sunflower oil, as it doesn't have much smell and the rose fragrance can be easily overpowered by stronger smelling oils. Put your jar on some kitchen roll because it will ooze however careful you are. The idea is that you leave the petals in the oil to infuse in the sun. When all the colour has gone from the petals you can carefully strain the oil, ringing all the oil from the spent petals using a muslin or coffee filter paper, then return to the jar with new petals. I just keep adding petals to the jar each day till its full then wait. The main problem is getting enough sunshine! I have a very sunny southfacing windowsill (which happily grows tomatoes and sunflowers) so I am hoping for the best, but the weather will have to start playing ball at some point if it is to work! It will take months and months, but I think it will be worth it.

Last year I only achieved a very slightly scented oil, due to a lack of sufficient roses over the whole season. I made it into little pots of rose lipbalm, and the rose fragrance was so ephemeral as to barely be there .. sometimes I thought I was just remembering it or smelling it with the 'nose of faith'! But it so much better than using essential oil, which is desperately expensive in any case. Will let you know how this year's turns out.

I have read about making rose oil in a number of different places, all outlining the same basic method, but it is included in 'Herbal Remedies: A practical beginner's guide fo making effective remedies in the kitchen' by Christopher Hedley and Non Shaw, which I can't recommend highly enough if you want a good guide to making infused oils and salves at home. Its what I used when I started on my herbal adventures and has good clear instructions with plenty of photos.

Or, if you love all things historical, like me, you might like to read the Anglo-Saxon version, (translated) from the Lacnunga manuscript dating to around 1000AD:

'For rose oil, make it thus: one pound of oil, one ounce of mature rose flower; mix together in a glass jar under gypsum and hang in the sun for 40 days so its power may be styptic and cooling; use it for many illnesses, mostly for pain in the head ... that is emigraneum'

This is taken from 'Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing' by Stephen Pollington, which I was thumbing through researching for something else entirely when this rose oil entry jumped out and took me by surprise. Imagine my delight (especially as a migraine sufferer!)

Valerian Flower Tincture

I had something of a valerian-related Eureka moment last night! I finished typing the previous post yesterday evening and thought I'd just have a quick check of my email before signing off the computer. And there in my inbox was Susun Weed's weekly ezine, and one of the things she talks about this week is ... drum roll, wait for it ... using the flowers instead of the root for making valerian tincture!

How's about that for 'coincidence'? For me, personally, there's no such thing as coincidence on this scale - I truly believe (and have always found) that if you put stuff out there in the Universe, it will respond .. you will recieve what you need. So all those years I was letting valerian happily set up shop in the garden and thinking hmmmm, I'm not sure why I'm giving it space because I can't use it, and now I can keep it and love it and use it.

If you're interested you should go read Susun's information for yourself but the upshot is that tincture made from valerian root, which is probably the strongest and best known herbal sedative, unfortunately has the opposite effect in a certain proportion of the people who try taking it, stimulating rather than sedating them. I've seen that proportion given as anything from a tenth to a third - so its significant, and I guess you don't know if that's you until you give it a go. Apparently, the flowers give a much gentler effect and have been used successfully by people who were stimulated by the root.

So there I was this morning, snippers in hand, trug at the ready, harvesting those sweet-scented blooms to make my own tincture. I find there is nothing quite like picking and processing a herb to really get to know it. You get the feel and fragrance of the plant as you handle it, and really see the little details closeup. You get to see what the flowers look like just before and just after their best and learn how to tell when they're coming or going. You get to see what busy little creatures like to live, work and play in the plant. I met some rather impressive tiny spiders this morning, so completely green as to be invisible when sat on a floret. And a couple of ants farming aphids and a teensy tiny little beetley thing. By-the-by, with chives it was earwigs (be warned, potential scone-makers!!). So anyway, its not something to do if you've got a bus to catch, but though it took a while to pick the flowers from the heads it felt like time well spent.

Making the tincture is easy, you just fill the jar up to the top with herb and then fill it up to the top (again) with vodka. Then you label it and leave it for six weeks before straining it. Just one thing to mention, a tip which I wished I worked out a bit sooner(!) .. you can't tell really how much herb you're going to end up with, and you do need to fill the jar right to the top with herb. So collect glass jars of all sizes, not just jam jars - its a good idea to keep pesto jars, dried herb and spice jars etc and even those little mini individual portion jam jars that everyone buys each other in gift sets at Christmas. That way you won't kill yourself trying to collect enough plant and also, for general home use, how much of the medicine will you actually need in a year?

So the little bottle in the middle is the Valerian Flower Tincture made this morning, to the left is a little pot of rose petals in oil (will post about that soon) and to the right the Chive Blossom Vinegar I was telling you about the other day here. So now we wait .. I will be really interested to see how effective it is. Sleeping has never been a problem for me thus far in life, I'm one of those lucky souls who falls asleep the instant my head hits the pillow. And any slight excitement before bedtime can easily be sorted out with a mug of Ovaltine and ten minutes engrossed in a novel to switch my brain off from the day and any outstanding mental to-do list. But I've noticed of late a few nights around the same time each month I am lying there unable to sleep for some reason. This is highly annoying if its actually a night where the little'un sleeps through, as you can well imagine! Its always when I'm experiencing other symptoms of hormonal upheaval, so perhaps is a sign of things to come given my age.. so what a helpful thing to have in the cupboard. I'll keep you posted!

I know you guys that visit Earth and Tree often will already know this, but I just want to remind anyone interested in these posts to:

Please be sure you have the right plant before you use it

Consult a professional herbalist and/or doctor for health problems

Find books giving full instructions for making and taking home remedies safely

** I'm not a qualified herbalist .. what I do here is share my enthusiasm and experiences in the hope that others might get excited too and find resources for learning more and getting started**

Valerian

In the herb garden at the moment, the highlight (with the emphasis on 'high'!)is definitely the valerian which is in beautiful full bloom. The whole plant just took off this year and now towers high above the fence and after last weeks stormy weather I've had to tie it in a bit, but I find it rather glorious. The blossoms are white tinged beautifully with pink and give off a heady scent. The tiny little flowerlets shower all over the plants and paving below like stardust, a white sprinkling making everything around it slightly magical. The air is full of the sound of bees, which can't get enough of it. It wasn't so much an attempt to photograph a bee on a valerian head, as that you can't take a photo of a valerian head without a bee getting into the shot!

Now valerian was really a bit of a mistake for me. Back when I was starting out I read about it and its properties and got excited and wanted to have some to grow .. before I read further and realised that you would only want to use the root, and even that only dug at the right time of year in the right year of its growth. As I have always had such a small garden (only a collection of window boxes when I was beginning) it was important that each plant earn its place - beautiful, useful and preferably multi-purpose. So it doesn't really qualify.

But the thing about valerian is, it doesn't give up. I think it might be one of those plants that once you've got it, you've got it forever! One of the limitations and joys of my rooftop garden in Tottenham was that it just got left from October to March each year. During this time, I handed the baton over to mother nature who would handle the gardening for me till the next spring. She taught me all the most important lessons I have learned about plants and gardening and she always left me lots of little baby plantlets for the following year. Most of these would be valerian - it seeds itself all over the place. All these little valerians taught me something, because the colour of the leaves would be completely different in different parts of the garden - so it was showing me how conditions varied, the conditions it liked and how they affected its growth.

Think its probably safe to say its got the right conditions in the new herb garden! I saw earlier in the year that it was bullying other plants out of the bed, but I've let it flower. It has such thick tall strong stems that it supports other herbs around it - in particular a beautiful bronze fennel that grows up through it. And later in the year, once its heyday is done, its tall skeleton will be handy for tying in the evening primrose next to it which doesn't take off until much later.

Herb Garden

Can you spot Elsie, tucked away in the middle of the photo? She got into all the pictures I took yesterday, without me noticing until I looked through on the computer! There are more photos on the Hedgewitch blog, if you're interested - I'll not to replicate those here, but just do a little gallery of things miscellaneous at the end of May. Previous years I always wished I'd taken a decent set of photos late spring before everything starts bursting out all over (and exhausting itself in the process) so I made a point of it this year. In case you were wondering, the unattractive plastic bucket is my noxious nettle brew (hence the heavy rock on top, to keep inquisitive little ones out).

Scent

Hello all! I've been blown away these last few days by scent.. and I've been thinking about it a lot. You know, essential oils are great and everything, but its not the same. So what triggered all this? Well several things simultaneously: the boys came back from Nanny's house with a bunch of lily of the valley for me - what a treat! It has been scenting the bedroom, so that when you open the door you get a great waft of aroma .. and if you lie down and relax and breath it in can transport you to paradise.

Then, yesterday, at the end of a tired and rather fraught day with the little'un, when he'd finally been beaten by bedtime, and mummy still had the chore of heading back out into the garden and righting the havoc he'd been wreaking all afternoon, an amazing gift - opening the shed door and so creating a slight breeze, the wisteria sang to me. It just kind of rustled its leaves in the breeze and a shower of lilac petals spiralled down onto the grass around me and it enveloped me in perfume. I knew it smelt good, as you can smell it during the daytime, but I don't usually venture outside in the evening and was totally unprepared for its heady power. It just took every ounce of tension and stress right out of my body and blew it away on the breeze. Wow. Embraced by a plant!

And today, a moment of unalloyed bliss. My absolute top favourite all-time obsessive plant love is a rose which my mum-in-law (the same lovely lady who sends back bunches of lily of the valley, aren't I lucky?) grows. The perfume is exotic and heavy and druglike (ie. addictive!) She used to always send me back a bloom or two when we lived in Tottenham, and once we landed in Essex she gave me the gift of a cutting for my new herb garden. It thrives there, and in its first year, last year, it had two phenomenal blooms. It has grown massively in the year since and is all set to do its thing now .. today the first of 7 or 8 burgeoning buds burst into full bloom. I knew it was there, I watched it start to unfurl yesterday evening and open up gradually all morning out the window, and when I got back from dropping little'un at nursery for the afternoon the first thing I did was to head over and i.n.h.a.l.e... exquisite, just a personal moment of bliss.

It will be gone tomorrow, as its so hot out there this afternoon that the show will be over and it will drop its petals (I will be standing by to catch them). But its moments like that which sustain you through all the ordinary, uncomfortable or just less-than-satisfactory parts of life, don't you think?

Now that's aromatherapy!

Spring

Its official .. spring is in the air!

Venturing out today, we gave our lady elder a libation of nettle infusion to wish her well for the coming season. She is just starting to sprout buds into leaflets, so magical to see.

Pleased to see big fat healthy looking ladybirds all over the garden, particularly as the new growth on the elder was covered in aphids last year all spring/summer (I hosed them off each morning with a high power jet had a little chat and a stroke while I was at it .. nice to have that daily contact, but nicer to see hoardes of ladybirdies munching away instead!)

Which reminds me, I took a photo last autumn which I didn't get around to posting.. I had gone outside to have a little tidy up and was tying up all my tall-stemmed seed headed herbs into the fence, when I found this little ladybird party, all huddled inside an evening primrose leaf.

It made me really careful about not disturbing any of the big overgrown plants and aside from just securing things to the fence against the wind, I left everything be. So glad I did! Today I found my little ladybird friends still intact inside their (now dried out) leafy home. In fact, several little huddles on the evening primrose and one on a sage leaf. Think because the shape of these long leaves is such that they naturally curl, providing a little handy crevice for hibernating creatures. Hurray!

Evergreen

I love the tradition of bringing greenery into the house during the darkest part of the year.. a reminder that the earth is only sleeping and will burst into life once more once she has shed her old layers, rested and renewed herself.

I made this little wreath for the front door from the evergreens in the herb garden, its just bay and rosemary. They both smelled divine while I worked with them. Had intended (indeed, still intend!) weaving a scarlet ribbon and adding pine cones, berries and other decorative bits later this week.. but it just looked so simple and fresh and green that I couldn't bring myself to do it yet.

This year we finally have an eco christmas tree which is actually growing in its pot and will live beyond the Christmas festivities. Yes, before you ask, it drops needles.. but I don't see that as a problem. I hoover them up. I like the ritual of watering it a little every day. Its nice to have something to nurture at a time when we are no longer out working daily in the garden.

Yesterday, driving through the winter countryside I saw mistletoe growing high up in trees for the first time.. a magical sight and it made me determined to look up some of the folklore surrounding this and other plants associated with this time of the year. I filled the hanging baskets by the front door with lovely variegated ivy which, like mistletoe, had its use banned by the church for its strong pagan (ie pre-Christian) associations.. yet they are still widely used, along with holly, though I am sure not many folks would now know why.

Share with me anything that you know .. and I'll add links or a new post if I find anything interesting?

UPDATE (Dec 30th 2011):

Found this wonderful Susun Weed article about Rosemary which includes the following:

"Old herbals hint that rosemary exerts its influence magically as well as physically. Burned as an incense, twined into a wreath, or grown in a pot, rosemary protects the house and those who live in it, especially the women..

Rosemary is a traditional Christmas decoration – partly because it smells good, and partly because pruning rosemary back mid-winter makes it stronger and healthier. So don’t hesitate to cut bunches of it for beauty."