Spent all day in the garden, weeding, cleaning and preparing containers, pricking and repotting and doing this year’s first herb harvest! Due to the mild winter and early spring the green are exploding and everything seems to be one month ahead. Our cherry tree has already flowered, the apple tree is in full bloom as well as the lilac. The meadow is white with daisies and cuckoo flowers and the sweet woodruff is already flowering. The new additions to the garden planted last year are blossoming. But there are also some ‘wild’ additions, such as the common lungwort, which I spotted growing wild now on our meadow and which has been known as a medicinal herb for centuries. Below are some recent impressions of the Green and our garden. You see what has become of the seedlings I had posted a few weeks ago…
Chaos in my seed trays…
…morning glory already wrapping around my datura plants…
The ‘Queen’ to be
Northern Wolfsbane thriving
Valerian, planted out last year
– so big already!
The Poison Hemlock seems to like the moist place in full shade.
Red spots at the base of Conium maculatum plants
The bed in half-shade, which we dug out and manured with fresh compost soil last year – before weed had taken over the whole place, so we removed about half a meter soil, strained it and laid foil around everything.
Above: the bed in half-shade, which we dug out and manured with fresh compost soil last year – before weed had taken over the whole place, so we removed about half a meter soil, strained it and laid foil around everything. Now it’s filled with plants for study and pleasure. I start to worry though it may soon be too packed!
Below: a bed left wild and overgrowing; forget-me-not and hyacinths have found a new place there admidst ground elder unconquered. All attempts to weed it out were futile. Therefore I learned it has also some benific qualities and now would actually be a good time for harvesting and using it fresh in cooking… Besides the sweet woodruff has been expanding not only there but this year it also started taking over the raised bed! As you can see it is overflowing and it was high time to clear it and do a first herb harvest. Lets see what to do with all the woodruff and wormwood! Well, the latter I already know what to use it for… There is also our lilac tree blooming by the compost, spreading its sweet scent.
Ground Elder, Sweet Woodruff, Forget-me-not and Hyacinths
Sweet Woodruff taking over!
The raised bed overflowing – high time for weeding as well as a first harvest!
Lilac in bloom
The lovely lungwort with its multi-colored flowers
And there is also the lungwort, which I look forward to study more…
Tags: belladonna, flowers, garden, ground elder, herbs, lilac, planting, poison hemlock, seasonal, sweet woodruff, valerian, witch garden, wolfsbane, woormwood
Wiebke Rost 