"You will find herbs easy to grow, delightful to have in the kitchen, and thought-provoking as well—taking you through history, around the world, and into many of the world's cuisines."
– Pam Peirce, Golden Gate Gardening
10/13/16:
The old wooden planters around my yard are gradually falling apart. Eventually I'll invest in new ones. But in the meantime I've been repairing them with duct tape and staples, enough that they'll still hold plants and soil, even if looking a bit "ghetto". One of my favorite fuchsias is in a hanging planter with a bottom panel that has rotted completely, however, so I've gotten inventive and re-built the bottom of it, attaching strips of scrap wood with Gorilla Glue.
This resourcefulness is in line with the "Creative October Challenge" initiated by Veronica Setterhall who writes the Hyperbrain lifestyle magazine/blog. I'm enjoying this idea of spending a month concentrating more than usual on making things, using supplies I already have instead of buying more gardening or art stuff. So far, art-wise, I've revisited my garden petunias watercolor painting from last year, adding more rich color and detail. Once this is truly finished, I'm going to devote time to figuring out how to utilize the website coding and design resources I've acquired recently, to improve this blog and the AdvencherUs site in general.
And in the spirit of spending less while enjoying what I have more, I'm going through the largest closet in our house. It contains lots of random objects that I'm not sure what to do with, but also useful craft supplies, gardening stuff and seeds. I found some forgotten flowerpots that I'd like to decorate. The older seeds might not germinate, but I'll plant some that could do okay in fall/winter, and see what happens!
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Closet finds.
Oregano, thyme, petunias, Arragon.
Tall year-old mums, short new ones.
Out in the garden, things are more orderly and sorted than inside the house these days. Last Saturday, I concentrated on giving proper space to well-growing plants: separating out tangles of nasturtium vines and securing tomato stems to even-taller bamboo stakes, then transplanting petunias to larger pots with richer soil. They're still blooming a little, while rapidly growing longer stems and fuller clusters of leaves.
The fall color in my yard is mainly from fuchsias, snapdragons and chrysanthemums at the moment. The orange honeysuckle and hydrangea have a few blooms, the miniature rose is budding, and the white, purple and pink cyclamen are still producing some flowers. Roses have just concluded a nice bloom cycle, and I expect to see them pick up again before long, unless it gets really cold and rainy. I have gathered lots of flower petals from all these plants over the past couple of months for making potpourri, so I hope to find my essential oils while rummaging in the closet.
I've trimmed the basil, oregano, sage and thyme back. Most of my herbs are blooming and going to seed at this time of year. The little flowers of basil are as tasty to use in a salad as the leaves are. Blooms from stronger herbs such as sage are being added to our pasta sauces and seasoning blends for roasted meat: these hearty fall and winter dishes are some of my favorites!
