Dragonfly

At last, success! A photo of a dragonfly .. maybe not a great photo, but its a start. I think this must be a Common Darter, although the male should be red/orange and the female duller. This one was such a bright yellow.. but the closest match I can find is for an immature male Common Darter. I know you can barely see it, but be happy for me!



Much more exciting, however, were the ones that got away.. a glorious hot sunny afternoon at Arlesford and I was treated to a display of aerial combat and acrobatics! Several very large dragonflies soaring and hunting on the wing .. I was able to watch for a good while and was rewarded with with the occasional 'fly-past' when they came within inches of my head. Quite beautiful to watch.. and then, only a few feet away from me, a mid-air collision. Two large dragonflies flewstraight into one another creating a loud electrical-sounding buzz. Left me with lots of questions and a huge desire to find out more about them.



So many butterflies today that they just fluttered into you .. just a little shot of another type to add to our record this summer, Meadow Brown (I think!)

Tortoiseshell

Me and the little'un had to super-sneak out into the garden in our pyjamas to photograph this one this morning!

BioBlitz

Well we had a go in the garden at the weekend.. I'm still looking up and trying to identify many of the things we found, which is great because I'm learning all the time. The little one loved it, and his determined bug-hunting meant that we were able to identify three different types of woodlouse in our patch, including this rosy-coloured one.. I have to admit that before the BioBlitz a woodlouse was a woodlouse, as far as I was concerned!



A really noticeable thing was that we didn't find a single ladybird. Our garden is usually full of them. I've looked again this week, and have only found one or two tiny creamy-coloured harlequins, no red ones at all.

However, we were blessed with a large red damselfly, basking on a rose leaf in the mid-day sunshine:



And as well as white and blue butterflies, we found this tiny daytime flying moth:



I think it must be pyrasta aurata.. during the week I have noticed masses of them: numbers of them fly up as I walk amongst the plants in my herb garden, and now I know why! They feed on mints, marjoram and lemon balm, so I have provided them with pretty much a perfect place to set up shop.

Wild Herbs

Amazing, amazing experience at the weekend... a 'Wild Herbs for Food and Medicine' walk with no less than Roger Tabor, chairman of British Naturalists Association and former chairman of the Herb Society, who just happens to live in Brightlingsea! Couldn't believe my luck when I saw a poster up in a shop window in the High Street.. the walk was across the countryside and down to the saltmarsh at the tip of Flag Creek out the back of where I live. Down at the very tip of the creek we tasted Marsh Samphire and Sea Purslane and also saw Sea Beet, Sea Aster and Sea Lavender.

Apart from scribbling down a few notes on cooking Sea Purslane, I failed spectacularly to take any notes or photographs during the walk. I just wanted to be in the moment and give it all my fullest attention.. such opportunities do not come along every day of the week!

But the very next morning I went out on my own for a little countryside ramble near home while it was all fresh in my mind to see if I could find any of the new plants I'd been introduced to..

Mugwort

Can't believe this great Anglo-Saxon favourite is just growing everywhere around and I never knew it!

Wild Carrot

Can you see the purple-ish dot in the middle of the flower-head? This is in imitation of an insect feeding, which encourages other insects to land.

It folds up into this distinctive 'birds nest' shape when it forms its seeds.

Woody Nightshade















None of these pictures would win any prizes, but you get the idea! Very inspiring and feel greatly encouraged about going out and about and learning more plants.

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!

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.

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.

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!)

Chive and Marigold Scones

Well its June today, and officially summer! I've never really tried the edible flowers and petals thing before, but this seems as good a time as any to give it a go. And time to do something with the vast quantity of chives I have overflowing the veg patch (standby for more chive recipes to follow!).

A big thank you to Debs at Herbal Haven for this fabby Chive Flower and Marigold Petal Savoury Cheese Scone recipe which me and the little'un donned our aprons to try out this morning.

I'm a great cheese scone fan in general (hence the extra bit of grated cheese to top several of the scones!) and love the onion taste of chives, which I use to make Cheese and Chive muffins, but I've never used the actual flowers before. In previous years I've used the stems then let the plants flower and collected the seed to use in future. But since I took to digging up and dividing chive clumps I have achieved a chive forest and the flowers are everywhere, such a shame not to try and use them.

Because they are practically golf-ball sized, I pulled the petals out - this was fiddly until I got the knack of how to hold/pinch/squeeze to remove the green parts of each little floret. Still the marigold petals couldn't be easier - picked a flower straight from the plant by the back door, gave it a good shake and my assistant helped pull the petals out (nice and easy).

Here he is mixing the dough - look at him go, that spoon is just a blur!

And, voila! Savoury Scones.














Its a really good recipe: quick and virtually idiot-proof, but delicious. Although the colour of the chive petals vanished in the oven, you could really get the onion flavour coming through in every bite. We'll definitely make these again and next time use much more herb - the bright colour of the marigold petals looks really attractive, sunshine on a plate.

Share your herby recipes here ... especially chive ones, lol!

Indian Summer

Glorious sunshine, not a cloud in the sky! A good chance to have a look at what's happening in the garden.

Most of the vegetable patch is long over, but it is still home to a bumper patch of rainbow chard and a thriving row of chives. I planted calendula and nasturtium seeds in the little strip of soil between the veg bed and the path and have been pleased with the colourful display.

I have had masses and masses of calendula flowers for making oils, salves and tincture and drying for teas and the more you cut it the more it comes again (everything in my part of the garden has to be useful as well as beautiful and beautiful as well as useful, if you see what I mean!)

Midsummer

Just a little shot of the St Johns Wort bobbing in the breeze! One of my favourite plants.. I have to decide whether I have the heart to cut and use it to make an infused oil, or whether I want to enjoy it in the garden.

The buds were ready to burst at the weekend, but the lovely little yellow flowers always open the week after midsummer - which shows how aptly named it is, as St John's Day is June 25th, I think.

Nature

Nature is a wonderful thing. Visiting my somewhat neglected roof garden, I was amazed at how much was going on up there, mother nature left to her own devices and just doing her thing!

In particular, I got a handful of huge plumptious ripe strawberries to eat still warm from the sunshine...




... these grew from runners which planted themselves into neighbouring pots, giving me a tangle of strawberry plants with lots of luscious berries. Yum!

North London Herb Events

Just to let you know about some exciting herbal events taking place this summer/autumn in North London...

*****************************************************
Paula at Lemon Balm , a lovely new herbal shop and therapy centre in Camden, is conducting a

Special Midsummer Herb Walk and Picnic in Regent’s Park
Tuesday, 23rd June, 7pm
Meet at Lemon Balm, 76 Parkway, London NW1 7AH.
£10 per person (concs £5).
Book now on 020 7267 3334, or via shop@lemonbalmonline.com

"Join Medical Herbalists Paula Grainger MNIMH and Kristine de Block MNIMH as well as the Lemon Balm team to celebrate Midsummer’s Eve with an evening stroll through Regents Park and Canal, discovering all the wonderful herbal plants growing wild in the heart of the city. We’ll talk about the magic and folklore associated with these plants as well as their place in the modern Herbalists’ Apothecary. Please bring a contribution to the picnic."

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The lovely ladies at Sensory Solutions, who travel the country dispensing herbal wisdom from their airstream trailer, run a range of courses, including a

Superfoods Berry Day
Walk 'n' Workshop with The Wild Wicked Witches
Sunday 27th September
10.30am - 5.00pm
Lee Valley Village YHA, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.
£60 / £45 concessions - deposit £20

Fiona: 07830 195 745
Karen: 07865 081927

sensorysolutions@hotmail.co.uk

"Come and experience autumn through our Native Superfoods, the berries and hips that
grow around us. Autumn is the perfect time to gather all the last hips, fruits and berries to preserve them for those valuable vitamins to protect us from colds and flu's over the colder months. You will learn to recognise the plants and also how to make a delicious medicinal tincture. "

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Do let me know if you have details of other courses, workshops or events and I'll update the noticeboard regularly!

First Fruits

Its late summer and its lovely feeling the season slowly change. I'm looking forward to autumn - my favourite time of the year.

Honesty seedpods:




Looking forward to blackberrying:

Chicory

Continuing the 'blue skies' theme, the first chicory flowers opened yesterday.. I haven't grown this herb before (you may remember I bought one from Herbal Haven at the Capel Manor show) so it was with great delight that I found it in all its glory.

Dave from Osage and Orange posted a beautiful piece in defense of chicory a while ago, in which he mentioned that the flowers only open for a day. So I grabbed the camera immediately! The plant has thrown up a very tall spike which has many many buds, so although the two blooms from yesterday may not last, I am hoping for more to come.

Blue Skies

We've had fair weather and blue skies this week and I'm reminded how soothing it is just to look at the sky and the clouds drifting by. I've been in need of calm and fresh air .. so here is a little post dedicated to cool, blue, fresh air and calming skies.



Vervain just coming into flower, silhouetted against the summer sky.



Sky-blue borage blooms against slate roof tiles.

Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere .. the longest day. The day when the sun which warms and energises us reaches its finest hour in our part of the world. Many cultures have revered the sun, often as a powerful 'Father' figure.. and it feels appropriate that we celebrated Fathers' Day last Sunday, in the same week. And many religions have some kind of festivity or celebration around this time towards the end of June.

I am in the habit of having a little barbecue in the roof garden one evening around the time of the longest day, and hope (weather permitting!) I might be able to do this over the weekend. Usually a very simple affair using one of those little disposable barbecue trays. I just enjoy being able to sit and eat outside in the evening, and stay for a while enjoying the light and warmth. Its a great opportunity to appreciate the garden in its full flower and be grateful for the sun's energy which brought it all to life.



Astronomical explanation of the summer solstice

Twenty facts you didn't know about the summer solstice

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

The name ‘salvia’ comes from the Latin ‘salvere’ (to save) and indicates the many curative properties of this herb, also giving rise to the well-known saying ‘why should a man die when sage grows in his garden’. The Romans used sage to increase fertility and Italian peasant custom was to eat sage to preserve health –many country people eat the leaves with bread and butter.

A cup of strong infusion should relieve a nervous headache and can be applied to the scalp to darken the hair. Fresh leaves rubbed on the teeth will cleanse and strengthen the gums and dried leaves smoked in pipes have been used as a remedy for asthma. A home remedy for sprains is to bruise a handful of leaves and boil in vinegar for 5 minutes, before applying in a folded napkin as hot as can be bourne.

Sage is good for the mouth and throat – an infusion used as a gargle is especially useful for an ulcerated throat and used as a mouthwash for bleeding gums. It is used for delirium in fevers and for nervous excitement accompanying brain and nervous diseases. It is helpful for women, taken internally for night sweats in menopause and excessive lactation, and is also used in anxiety and depression. It can be used externally for insect bites, as well as the mouth and throat problems cited above.

A pungent, bitter, cool and drying herb with many properties: stimulant, astringent, tonic, carminative, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, oestrogenic.

CAUTION: Toxic in excess; Do not use if pregnant or epileptic

Leaves are picked before flowering and dried for infusions and tinctures.
Harvested May-Sept (leaves picked at midsummer considered the best).




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:
'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)

Buds

There's a lot of budding going on in the Hedgewitch herb garden right now! And as we go from May to June (and from Spring-ish to Summer-ish) it feels as though we are also changing colours: in May the garden hosted purple blooms, the sage flowers and chives, then more white appearing with the elderflowers and valerian. The thyme is currently in flower with pretty pinky-white blooms and the yarrow is fit to burst, too.





Now, as the daylight hours approach their maximum the yellow flowers are opening to greet the sun: the calendula blooms are opening, the rue buds are turning from green to yellow, and it won't be long before the St John's wort flowers to mark the longest day.