The garden then and now

It is always so nice to see progress, isn't it? I thought it might be nice to see how things have changed around here.

First up is the herb garden. What a sad little thing that started out as! First just holes cut out in the weed paper and now totally uncovered and beginning to take shape with some bricks. I still need to dig out a leveled trench for the bricks and place them permanently, but what a change, right? We have Sorrel, dill, nasturtiums, lavender, fennel, rosemary, basil, carnations, chamomile, thyme, lemon balm, sage, chives, tarragon, and bachelor's button growing here now.

Next up is the basic view of the garden. Here it is shortly after planting on March 21st, looking quite small and bare. Then, pow!

Just over a month has passed and things are really getting taller. The Sunflowers are halfway up the garden wall, the scarlet runner beans have reached the second string of the bean teepee, and the tomatoes are past the third rung of their cages. I have already had to rearrange the tomatoes in their cages several times due to their eager growth. I hope your gardens are growing, too, and loving the warm spring weather!

Yesterday's Garden Salad

I finally got my salad ready in time for a late dinner, but it was worth the wait! Just being in the garden in the cool of the evening cutting my own food for dinner was so pleasant. Represented here are oak leaf lettuce, romaine, arugula, sorrel, thyme, chives, sage, basil, dill, carnations, and a pansy. The flowers that look like daisies are Chamomile flowers, and they weren't part of the salad, but are now hanging in the kitchen to dry so that I can make some tea.

I washed everything and picked out the older, tougher lettuces and tossed them. After a really good wash, I spun them in the salad spinner to dry and set them aside. I washed and finely chopped all of the herbs and put them in a bowl. To the bowl I added some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, the juice of one lemon, and salt and pepper. After whisking, I tossed it with the lettuce and then added chopped pansies and carnations to the top along with an avocado given to me by a neighbor. Yum!!

Thyme for a recipe

My thyme needed to be cut back so I brought some into the house to put in vases and then I also decided to use it for dinner. What a delightful smell! I grabbed a big handful and washed it under the sink before tucking it in (flowers, stems, and all!) between some frozen chicken breasts that had been seasoned with salt and pepper. I put a little lemon zest on each one and then squeezed the juice from the lemon over the whole thing. About 2 tbs. of olive oil drizzled over the top finished it off and then I baked it uncovered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Because I put them in the oven frozen, it was so easy! I served it with the harvest grains from Trader Joe's, which is a mix of baby garbanzo beans, red quinoa, and risotto and then we had a side of steamed asparagus topped with a citrus vinaigrette. Yum!

A 3x10 raised bed, or front-of-house planter

In response to a few requests for specific garden plans, I put together some ideas for a raised bed. Finally I had a few minutes to totally think out my plan and get some notes written. I'll list below my plant suggestions, locations, and purposes. I hope you like this! A couple of notes before we get started...

1. This plan assumes the planter receives full sun.
2. I live in Southern California, but ask your local garden center for specifics on when to plant if you are far away or in a much different climate.
3. This particular color scheme is in the white/blue/purple range (as opposed to red/yellow/orange).
4. Last, this is going to be what I call a "baby" garden. It won't have big immediate impact because you'll buy all little 4" pots or seeds, which are far less expensive. But by mid-summer and next Spring, your plants will be all grown up.

I love to plant herbs and edibles, and this year I am particularly focused on getting the herb garden really packed with edible flowers so that I can have a flower party in mid-summer. Here is a list of great plants, followed by a planting chart.

Spanish Lavender. Perhaps in the future we can discuss more specifics about the varieties, but to keep it easy, I would just head off to Home Depot or Armstrong and pick up a 4" pot of whatever looks nice and smells good to you.

Rosemary. Cut it and toss it in with your roasted meats, chop it up for use in breads, and sometime this summer I'll write out a recipe for delicious rosemary vanilla ice cream. Rosemary has lovely little flowers that can also be used for your culinary delight. Rosemary will grow into a very big bush, so be sure to harvest regularly to keep the shape the way you like!

Thyme is grows in a lovely mound and can be used in the kitchen for just about anything. This is one of my favorite little plants to add to herbal flower arrangements.

Common Sage has a light purple to blue flower and grows perennially for me.

Purple Sage has green foliage with a purple tinge, which adds a nice interest to the greens.

Carnations, Bachelor buttons, chives, nasturtiums, and pansies. These plants I would buy as seeds or in six-packs, keeping in mind the blue/purple/white color theme. All of their flowers are edible and would look lovely in a salad…just look at the cover of Sunset Magazine!

So the goal here is to use the perennial lavender and rosemary as the background, and Thyme and Sage in the foreground. The back row will have alternating lavender and rosemary with carnations in between. The front row will have alternating thyme, purple sage, and common sage with nasturtium seeds, pansies, chives, and bachelor buttons in between.

I am currently re-planting some things in the vegetable garden so that I can have a nice little herb border like this. Did I miss things you like planting in this color range? Let me know - I'd love suggestions!

Herbal Arrangement

This afternoon I was cutting back some of the herbs to help keep them nice and bushy and I thought I'd use my cuttings to make an herbal arrangement to bring inside. The cute little metal container is from a plant purchased at Trader Joe's last year, and the herbs are Thyme, French Lavender, and Lemon Balm. This may come with me to MOPS tomorrow to decorate my table.