My kitchen window is looking pretty naked, right now. It has gone from this:
To this:
It’s all crispy and I’m picking the leave off the stems to get them jarred up.
There is thyme and Italian oregano
And sage
Dried, ready to store basil and fresh basil ready to string up.
Using herbs I’ve dried through the winter makes me feel very competent.
Here is a link to my How To Dry Herbs post that I wrote for a friend.
The bog didn’t survive the winter completely intact. The yellow pitcher didn’t make it and the Venus Fly Trap has been slow to come back. The parrot pitcher is thriving, now. But, had to be treated for aphids in the spring.
I was advised by a Redditor to “drown it” and I did. They came back beautifully.
I may not have been as stingy with the nutritious soil as I should have been. The pitchers aren’t opening much which is probably a sign that they don’t need much nutrients from insects.
The hole in the arrangement where the yellow pitcher died has bothered me. And my friend, Nick, lives near a garden center that carries water plants. He sent me some pictures of what they had in stock and picked one up for me. I showed it to you when he brought it to me at work on Saturday.
Today, I got it in the bog with the rest of the family. That’s sphagnum moss on top helping to hold in moisture.
Here are some close ups:
My kitchen smells really good.
I’m going to tell a story on my friend. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this. So, I’m safe to not spoil a surprise.
Several years ago, my friend bought a condominium townhouse in Durham. It had a tiny little bit of dirt between the front of the building and the sidewalk that was maintained by a company paid for by the HOA. There were a couple of foundation plantings there. But, it wasn’t particularly ornamental.
We planted a ‘Don Juan’ climbing rose behind those and it flourished. And she got some cobalt blue flower pots to plant annuals to liven up the front porch.
One day, she asked me if I would come help her put a rosemary in one of the larger of the blue pots. So, I grabbed my trowel, a bag of dirt and some newspaper for the bottom of the pot and head over there.
When I got there, she said, “I bought this a few weeks ago and I don’t know what I need to do. Everything else has just been put in the pot without transplanting it. But, I think this needs more room than that.”
So, we pulled the pot out; I put a couple of layers of newspaper in over the drainage hole and reached for the rosemary to see how much soil I needed to put in the bottom.
And it wouldn’t lift up.
The pot had been there so long that the roots had grown through the drainage holes on THAT pot and firmly attached it to the ground. So, we left it there and it became a HUGE part of the foundation hedge.
She sold that condo 2 or 3 years ago to move into a rental house with her mother. Her mother died last year and she decided to buy another townhouse condominium, this time, in Apex.
I have bought her a rosemary plant as a housewarming gift. And it already had roots growing out of the drainage holes.
I was going to get a blue pot for it. But, I’m not sure she doesn’t still have one the correct size. So, I transplanted it into a nursery pot that I had in the shed for it to live in until I have a chance to give it to her. IF she has a pot the correct size, she can just drop it in. If she doesn’t, I will get one for it.
…and Chuck enabled me. I got another 100 gallon water trough and this time it’s going to hold water.
As a water garden.
And I found 2 varieties of waterlily (‘Madame Wilfron Gonnere’ and ‘Almost Black’) and a spiral reed at Southern States.
I haven’t finished putting it all together to be lovely. But, they are in the trough with enough water to stay healthy until we decide how to arrange things.
We’re debating adding fish.
I am the Audience 