Herb Hill

Wrote this one last night, but our internet provider has been on the blink. . .

We’ve had a busy weekend, with an herb focus to our gardening. On Saturday, James and I went to the National Arboretum to see the azaleas blooming. We picked up a few fun plants like ruffled purple basil, holy basil, black cohosh, anise, angelica, dill, and a tri-color sage. I talked James into planting mints in pots and burying the pots on the hill, so we picked up two small mint plants also. On the way home we stopped at Homestead Gardens and did a bit more shopping. James’s particular target was a variety of coleus plants, so we picked up one each of five different varieties. Then a few different kinds of thyme (silver-edged, wooly and creeping), and a couple more mints went onto the cart. Two cilantro plants seemed like a good idea. They didn’t have the ever-blooming wisteria we saw there last year, but the pink-lemonade honeysuckle looks good to go on the trellis out back. James added a flat of marigolds to add a bit of color in the front. And I’m making another attempt to grow lavender. Since it likes sun, Mt. Leahi East is the only possible location for it. Hopefully one of the four varieties will be happy enough to establish itself there. They’re all up on the edge of the hill, so drainage shouldn’t be a problem this time.

James was up early this morning. He planted most of the herbs directly into herb hill, where we’d placed them yesterday when we got home. Then he made a run to Home Depot for potting mix to put in the pots for the mint and coleus plants. While I finished up the bulletin board for Samuel’s Scout Troop, James planted marigolds around the yard.

The Herb Hill tally now:

Fifteen small rosemary plants of one variety, and one large one of another nearby

Five different varieties of thyme-one creeping, one wooly, one silver-edged, lots of variegated and several plain green plants

Two oregano spots (5-6 plants) from our friend Ann’s garden

Two cilantro plants

Two parsley plants that survived the winter in a small window-box planter, and look much happier now that they have a hill to grow on

One lone dill, because we don’t use it much, and don’t want to be overrun next year

One anise hyssop plant

One licorice plant

One angelica plant

Four varieties of mint (one blue balsam, two spearmints, one chocolate mint, one orange mint)

Two varieties of basil-holy & ruffled purple, with two more coming up in the perennial bed (purple opal and sweet), and another (Italian basil) that I’m going to start in peat pots tomorrow. We’re thinking we’ll plant basil in each of the spaces between the hostas at the top of the hill. James is sure he can use all we can grow, so I’m going to give him a bit of a challenge there.

We only have one small tri-color sage on the hill at this point, but I’m going to start some purple sage from my neighbor’s plant this week.

Even if we don’t eat all this, it smells good and looks pretty. I figure it will be a fun touch-taste-smell garden tour for my young neighbors, nieces and nephews when they visit. (Their parents can play, too!)

The black cohosh went up in the hosta and bulb bed under the poplar tree in the back yard, and as I said, the lavender went onto Mt. Leahi.

The yard is really taking shape!

James has already laid out the meandering path through the side yard, so I can get started on planting wildflowers there.

Our list of yard projects is shorter than the list of herbs on Herb Hill. Guess it’s time to get the finances in order to buy a bigger property to keep us busy next year!