This garden is as "organic" as possible. I do not willingly introduce plastics, petrochemicals and other poisons into my garden however I have little control over the initial quality of the water and windborn pollutants.
I have always condsidered that food plants can be as visually exciting as any decorative cultivar, let us say a rose. (Roses are an elegant useful plant but that is not as a decorative cultivar tortured into shape in the centre of a lawn). For me a garden is a place where we nourish our heart, body and mind .. and we get some excercise and sunshine,and perspective, always perspective.
On Borage http://www.gardenate.com/plant/Borage?zone=2 This is one of my favourite websites and there is a climate zone drop down, along with succinct information. I see there is a comment on its capacity to soothe overich soils and provide a recycling capacity- brilliant! this little plant may solve my nitrogen and acidity problems! Roll on mediterranean conditions..ill have oranges olives and grapes in before i know it..oh hang on its only 10 foot square..I wonder if Olives with do OK in a pot....I know Oranges will
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| My Oddly Oriented Borage. software fail - I can't tip the image. A beautiful herb, I think I have planted these barely in time, they are undernourished from sitting too long in seed raising mix. Storms and viruses have caused my garden schedule to fall over, however the first set of true leaves are already significantly improved, and this spot is manure rich and damp - so hopefully this trio will thrive. Borage is an amazing culinary herb with the capacity to cool, I cannot wait to photograph and eat its superb blue flowers. This plant is also known as bee-bread, it is a favourite of our busy friends (who are more than welcome in my garden), I do hope they enjoy it. An easily grown herb, it will do well in most gardens, like most herbs this plant responds well to tip pruning/light harvest. As a companion plant to strawberries it brings their pollinators close to hand and has similar cultivation preferences. Borage likes to wander and is unruly in habit, but a delight to set loose |
| http://herbgardening.com/growingchamomile.htm Basic cultivation notes for growing Chamomile  | |
| A tiny mound of true german chamomile, a herb of peace and grace. I hope these tiny seedlings enjoy their new placement. Should any of my herbs head off in a particular direction one can only assume it is chasing more light or differing soil conditions and try to accomodate the requirement. An appointment with the gum leaves that have been hailing down is in order, also a mission to the remove weeds escaping a nearby neglected garden. I await a clearing sky and warmer day to take effective action... |
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| This oregano is a gift from my dear brother Peter who has taught me so much about gardens. It has been in for roughly 10 months now and was just a few tiny leaves looking out of the ground. It is a taller golden variety, I have a suspiscion it may even be a marjoram but my botany is poor so I need to research to confirm its classification....anyway it gets quite tall and golden unlike the other oregano I have, its has a slightly softer and finer leaf, I look forward to its first harvest and prune which is immanent. |
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| sage camparison | These two plants are from the same source, the in ground plant was container grown until late summer when it was moved into this semi shaded, well manured spot. the container plant has always been kept well watered and liquid fed, but is more compact in habit, this is its first flowering. both plants have been heavily harvested for 2 seasons. I wanted to see if sage would do well with the lesser light, I had always condsidered them a full sun herb, and it may indeed be imperative to the oil production of this plant, I note thar the leaf size is greater and there is more prolific softwood growth. I intend to study variations in the two with a view to uses and properties as well as cultivation. I also rather fancy a decent gnocchi |
