The first snowdrops poked their heads above the ground a good three weeks ago. Mark's office is nearing completion. The not-so-free masons finally came back to powerwash the brick patios and haul away the rest of the brick bits littering our back yard. This all means that I have a lot of work to do making the garden portion of our house look as nice as the rest of it is beginning to look. Our old sagging garage (soon to be Mark's office) now has a lovely cedar facade in front, a new door and window, and will soon have a new deck. How can I compete?
I spent the evening researching plants and herbs that do well in this area - plants that do well in the summer and plants that I can put in the ground in the late summer and which are winter hardy. Not surprisingly, we can put greens in the ground in the fall and harvest them for months as they appear not to die even during the occasional frost. I ran across a variety of spinach today which claims it tastes better after a frost or two...
I also looked for ground-covering herbs. I fight a neverending battle against various weeds here and I'd like to replace them with ground cover and border plants I can actually use in salads, for tea, or to make into ointment (calendula).
We continue to strive to eat locally, though we've caved the past few weeks and have been enjoying California broccoli, green beans, oranges, and even a few Mexican avocados and mangoes. Better luck next year, I guess.
2 comments:
If you are looking for something to completely take over, I suggest mint. Most varieties will do this, but my personal experience was with spearmint. Unfortunately, it was in a garden i wanted it to share, not conquer. The mint grows about a foot high and looks pretty. It's useful as well but like I said, forget about planting anything else with it. It likes to be the king of the world. Oh, and oregano also goes nuts, but is more bushy.
creeping thyme or any thyme really will spread out and smell wonderful oh and *totally* invasive and useful - motherwort
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