The bumblebee’s are very happy at the moment, the chives are in full bloom and are getting a lot of bummbles. I love to see that.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND !!!
HAPPY BUMBLE BEE’S
GROWING HERBS IN THE GARDEN
Herbs are so easy to grow in the garden or even on a balcony, they do really well in a pot, most of the herbs go underground for Winter but they come back in Spring.
One of the earliest herbs is the wild garlic, you can use the leafs and the flowers in a salad. Once you have it in your garden it will come back every year. When the flowers set seed it will disappear soon after and they go underground until next year in early Spring. They selfseed so you’ll have more every year. They do like a moist soil and a place in the shade, but actually they grow everywhere I think.
This one is chives, also good to use in salads, it gets lovely little pink flowers later on. Also a good grower, in my garden it has a place in the sun and it grows like mad.
This herb has the prettiest blue flowers, you can use them in drinks or salads, they tast a bit like cucumber. People also use them in ice cubes. It is one of the easiest to grow, they too selfseed but they are easy to remove if you have too many of them.
I have more herbs in the garden but I’ll talk about them some other time. I love it when I can go to the garden and pluck them to add to a salad or others you can use in soup, or make tea of it.
You really don’t need a green thumb to grow a few herbs, you don’t even need to have a garden as they will also be happy on a balcony.
Have a great weekend all !
RECENT PICTURES FROM THE GARDEN.
As we had warm and sunny weather lately, the garden came to live again, earlier than usual, it was unusually warm for March. But the good weather is about to end and Mr Frost will be back. We urgently need rain as everything is bone dry, despite all the rain we had during Winter. I have sandy soil in my garden so it rapidly dries when we get sun and wind.
The bees are having a ball in my skimmia bush, I love the sound of the bees buzzing. And the flowers smell so nice. This small bush is planted next to our terrace so it is nice sitting on our terrace with a coffee or a drink at the moment.
And my chives is on the grow again.
Have a great week all !
JULY FLOWERS
We have a very odd Summer this year, cool and wet so I haven’t as many flowers as usually. Last year it was so hot I spent hours in front of the fan. This year we got airco and voila, we haven’t used it even once 😀 But hey, I am not complaining, I like this cooler weather.
I just love the blue flowers of this herb. The plant is not really prettty but the flowers are. And it attracts a lot of bee’s.
I hope you are all well and happy. Take care and thanks for visiting.
HAPPY 4 TH OF JULY
I want to wish you all a Happy 4yh of July, I know how important this day is for you in the USA.
CHIVES IN BLOOM
As we had a soft Spring the herbs in the garden were early, so at the moment the chives is in bloom. From chives you can eat the leafs but also the flowers, they look pretty in a salad. But I prefer the flowers on the plant as they are in bloom for a long time and the bees love them, so in my garden the flowers are all for the bees.
CHIVES IN BLOOM (allium schoenoprasum)
Have a great day !
IF YOU LIKE TO MAKE SOUP
If you like to make your own soup there is one ingredient you really need to give your soup a taste boost and that is LOVAGE (levisticum officinale), by preference fresh lovage but you can dry it too for Winter as it disappears in late Autumn with the first frost. It is a tall herb, grows up to 2 meters high but you can keep it small by cutting off the highest stalks, new shoots keep comming up and they are the ones you use. When you buy it in Spring in a plantshop it looks like nothing and it is small, you can never guess it will grow 2 meters (6 to 7 feet)in a short time. You don’t need much of it, best is you do some experimenting and see what amount of it you like. I use a leaf about 25 cm ( about 10 inches) for 2 liters (half a gallon) of soup.
When I was working in the garden this afternoon I saw my lovage was comming up, the first thing I did was cutting the biggest piece for my stew, you can use it for all sorts of recipe’s of course but using it in soup is magic for your soup. It does get flowers, yellow flowers on a huge stalk but I always cut them cos they take a lot of power from the plant.
Have a great weekend and enjoy yourselves in the garden if it is warm enough for you !
Look what is growing in my garden.
We had lots of storms and huge amounts of rain and hail, thunder and lightening lately but once in a while for a short time the sun comes out and the sky is blue so when I went to the garden in a sunny spell I found that my herb garden was on the grow again and already useable. Yes !!!
ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUMÂ (chives)
Chives also gets eddible flowers.
PETROSELINEUM CRISPUM (parsley)
ALLIUM URSINUM (ramson)
This herb gives pretty white eddible flowers who stay on the plant for a long time, the leafs are used in salads, soups and on sandwiches. After flowering it disappears underground until next Spring.
MELISSA OFFICINALIS (lemon balm)
You can make a nice tea with the leafs only and it really tastes like lemon tea, it also has a calming effect. You can use it also in black or green tea when you are out of lemons to use. It gives cute little white flowers but the plant loves to take over your garden, to avoid that you’ll have to cut the flowers before they’ll drop their seeds. But the plant can be easily removed where it is not wanted.
Have a great weekend all.
FIRST HERBS OF THIS YEAR
The first herb in my garden in Spring is Allium ursinum, also known as wild garlic, ramsons, bear leek and many more. Once you have it in your garden you’ll never get rid of it, in my part of the world that is. It is healty, tastes good and gives lovely edible flowers , not that I eat flowers, I can’t bring myself to it. If you don’t eat or pluck the flowers they will flower for a long time so you can plant them between other plants, once the flowers are done and have spread their seeds, the plant goes underground till next Spring. I have a part in my garden where they can go mad but I planted some in a pot.
ALLIUM URSINUM, certainly worth having in your garden, if not for eating then for the beautifull white flowers.
Have a great day !!
GWENNIESGARDENWORLD 
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