An edible garden

What a glorious weekend! As so many in Blogland seems to be posting about the beautiful blooms in their gardens, I feel obliged to show a bit of our garden.

The combination of sunny weather and Grandma here to play with the girls gave me, finally, some time to catch up and clear up in the back garden. Just when I was about to campaign to make Ground Elder a garden feature, the temperature and sunshine cooperated to allow me to weed it out!

Growing up in a distinctly non-gardening family, I have no experience with plants and flowers. I was eager to learn, but overwhelmed by the information, resources and choices available to the keen gardener. Where to begin?

So I decided the best way to start, and stay interested, was to be able to eat my garden! I focused on herbs, which fascinate me with their vast culinary uses and histories, and I transformed the raised border around our patio into a kitchen herb garden.

Chives about to burst into bloom

One of my great pleasures in life is to be cooking dinner and just pop out the back door to snip a few herbs to toss into the pot.

Robust bay in the sunshine

The raised border has a bushy bay at one end and some rosemary shrubs that are getting a bit out of hand and need a good haircut



Trailing rosemary peeking out of the shade

I use so many of these herbs year round, only a few actually die out in the winter.

Thyme in flower behind the chives

Thyme is my favourite herb. It is so versatile, I add it to everything – veg, meat, fish, chicken...I even have a recipe for sweet thyme cookies – and I have at least five varieties in the border. But at this point I’m not sure which thyme is which (“What thyme is it?” har dee har har), but they each flower at a different time, giving me a blooming season well into summer.

The raised border also houses oregano, savoury, sage...Sweet Woodruff in the shady bit

Sweet Woodruff with rosemary popping over from next door

This herb dries beautifully and makes a super natural closet freshener – it smells like fresh hay and lends a sweet, summery outdoor scent to dark closets.

And we have sweet wild strawberries that flower and ripen a few times a year

Next to the strawberries, and yet to pop up, is sorrel, Bunny’s favourite. It tastes like Granny Smith apples and is great in salads. Bunny loves the tart fresh flavour and nibbles it like...a bunny.

(Note that all my garden plantings are perennial – my life isn’t conducive to annual spring planting season and digging-up time in the autumn!)

Running parallel to the raised border, in the garden beyond the patio, is a second herb border. Here I have larger plants, like the frothy bronze fennel

Bronze fennel, which will grow to about five feet tall, with oregano plants to the left

Sweet cicely looks similar to cow parsley but has a light aniseed flavour. It is a terrific addition to cut down on sugar in certain recipes, like stewed fruits and crumbles.

Sweet cicely, and just peeping up at the left are leaves of marsh mallow

There’s also lavender, dwarf oregano, yarrow, marsh mallow, bee’s balm...and who could call themselves a herb gardener without those invasive, gorgeous mints and lemon balms?

Can you tell which is which?

These brazen, heady herbs make the most novice of gardeners feel like they have great green thumbs, it is impossible to kill them! And nothing is as lovely as a tea made from freshly-picked leaves...

So there you have it, a peek into my edible garden. There are some lovely “weeds” blooming in the lawn, too

 

Bunny picked a buttercup and held it under my chin, checking to see if I liked butter. Little Flower, who had never seen this age-old game before, picked this...

...held it under my chin, and said, “Mummy, let’s see if you like chicken pie.”

Now that it is raining again, we’re all indoors and my WIPs are calling to me...which first? I’d love to make progress on my first quilt, but the Dr. Seuss stitching is so fun...

Happy crafting!

Chrissie x