Madam Weeds the Strawberry Bed

My mother always turns up to visit with all sorts of odd bits and bobs she has picked up in various places. This last visit she left these vintage haberdashery items - cards of necklace thread.

The one on the left reads: New Improved Pack of Original Article Which Enables Madam to Securely Rethread Her Own Pearls Exactly to Her Requirements.

Good old Mum, she knows I am always obsessing about ways to rethread my pearls.


During the intervals of the day Madam wasn't mentally rearranging her pearl collection, she was weeding the strawberry bed...

... trimming the rosemary hedge by the back steps (so many bees in the blue..)

... and picking orange calendula flowers for drying to make tea.

There are only two herbal teas that I like at all. One is lemon and ginger, and the other is calendula, lemongrass and spearmint. Upon reading the lemon and ginger packet I have discovered that most of the lemon is lemongrass, with just one percent lemon peel. I would love to make my own teas, and it should be doable, because I drink so little herbal tea I won't have to grow much! Lemongrass and ginger are both tropical plants, but Kate seems to think I can grow lemongrass here if I keep it safe and warm in winter, and I was talking to someone the other day who grows ginger in the same way, just taking it inside in winter. I have asked at the nursery, and they will have lemongrass in a couple of weeks. Now I just need spearmint. I think I saw some while I was walking the other day, in a boggy patch on the riverbank. I will have to take wellies and a trowel to investigate. And maybe a field guide.

So herbal tea prep is going well. I have one out of the four ingredients. It shouldn't take more than a year to grow all the rest. Slow food.

 

 

Continuing our mini vegie tour, here is the garlic, growing in a long bed down the side of the house, next to the clothesline. Every day as I hang out the washing, I talk to the garlic. I'm sure it appreciates hearing all the news.

 

 



 





 And last of all, the red chard has finally started to grow. May was way too late to plant anything, and it has sulked all winter. Next year I will be planting all the winter veg in March. However, it is putting on new leaves now, which I am taking right off again to put in salad. Mmm, crunchy, crinkly spring salad leaves.

 

Madam is obviously too distracted by the vegetable kingdom to be bothered with the pearls today. Maybe tomorrow..