You know how there are some chores you like to do more than others? Raking the leaves in the fall is one on Nick’s ‘like’ list. (My best is emptying the dishwasher. What is yours?)
So since he likes to do the raking and sweeping so much, I just go ahead and let him do it. My job there is to bring him refreshments.
There are also the other tasks to do that are in my bailiwick, involving the caring for the plants. This includes putting in the bulbs we bought (there’s a post about that shopping trip here) that will bloom in the spring, pruning what should be cut back, and transplanting things that have been growing well enough to share around the garden (our Vinca, also charmingly known as Myrtle and seen below in the picture of Stu the cat statue, is always a candidate for that, as are those wild onions I talked about the other day (here).
I also harvest what is left of the herb garden and in the past have made herbal vinegars (here), frozen cubes of herbs using water and olive oil and made savory herbal butters (both seen here).
In past years I’ve also made good used of every lavender bud from our boisterous patch, making lavender body oil (here), and bath salts (here) and scented bath bags (here). One thing I’ve never done is use the lavender in baking, as I know many people like to do. I have tasted lavender cookies and have to say that the flowery flavour is not so much for me. You?
I haven’t undertaken this year’s herb projects yet, but I picked all the lavender over the weekend and have them in a bowl in our room for now, where they smell so good. I have a plan to try something new with them, which you will see here soon.
As for the cooking herbs, we managed to use most of what we grew this summer, with plenty of oregano on a plant that did really nicely this year. I brought it inside to try to get it to live at least until it is all used up. And until the overnight freeze we had last night there was still some parsley that I had been adding as sprigs to our meals.
↑ I’ll leave some rose-hips as they look so pretty when there is snow on the branches and they’re good for the wildlife. (If you’re learning about growing roses, these are the fruit at the end of their cycle, which take energy from the plant, so it’s a good idea to cut most of them off before the first freeze.) ↑
↑ There’s Eddie’s statue friend Stu (also seen here and here.) ↑
Thanks for taking a look,
xo loulou
