HerbnArts

      At last it is Memorial Day, and the weather is hot and humid in Ohio.  As I have worked on cleaning up my garden and the flower beds my memories drift back to all the smells and sounds of summer.  I'm remembering Great Grandma Annie because of her birthday which usually fell on Decoration Day.  Setting off small fire crackers in her front yard, and playing with sparklers as the sun set were some of the activities of the day.  But the day usually began with my family of grandparents, cousins and assorted friends all walking uptown from Great Grandma's house to attend the town parade.  It was a very small town, and the parade was not as spectacular as some I have attended, but when you're a kid, every parade is a big deal.  Especially one that you can walk to from a grandma's house.  And sometimes that meant that we could all have a lemonade from the local stand in town.  Ice cream came later!  Of course there was wonderful food at the picnic meal.  There were more

     Lemon balm...ah, my favorite!  I was thrilled to see how huge my lemon balm plant was getting with all the rain we have had.  One treat I have not had in a long time is that of lemon balm tea.  With that thought I immediately stepped outside and snipped off a large handful of lemon balm to begin brewing up some tea.  Such an easy tea to make, too.  Just fill a teapot with the fragrant leaves and cover with cold water.  I did the microwave thing, but if I was doing this the right way I would have boiled water in a kettle then poured the water over the leaves, allowing it to steep for about 15 minutes.  Guilty as charged, I am part of the hurry-up-microwave generation.  But the tea steeped just fine in spite of my impatience.  Add a bit of honey and voila, lemon balm tea.  Yes, it was all I had remembered.  A bit of a vacation to one of my herbie heaven happy places.  Lemon balm was the first herb I remember encountering.  Once I experienced that light lemony scent, I was hooke

        And so, which shade of wet green would you like today?  Yes, it's raining again here in Ohio.  After being sunny (dare we hope) and nearly 80's over the weekend, we have returned to our wet chilly weather.  This soppy drenching is having a terrible effect on the gardens.  I am getting tired of dragging my potted herbs in and out of the studio.  One thing it is good for is helping to age terracotta pottery.  As the mold and mosses flourish the pots take on that green gray patina of age.  Somehow that is interpreted as character when it come to pottery.  With anything else it reads as grunge.  Oh well, it is what it is!          As for keeping up with just mowing chores, that's a wash, literally.  Every year I seem to have a beginning catastrophe with my tractor mower.  One year the cardigan sweater I was wearing slipped from my shoulders onto the ground and immediately ended up wrapped around the mower blades before I could stop the mower in time.  The day had start

HerbnArts: In spurts there is a bit of sunshine today... : " In spurts there is a bit of sunshine today. I say that cautiously as there is more rain predicted for later in the day. Even so, t..."

     In spurts there is a bit of sunshine today.  I say that cautiously as there is more rain predicted for later in the day.  Even so, the lily-of-the-valley seem to be undauntedly pushing out their wonderful little blossoms.  Is it any wonder that gardeners think of the fairies in the garden when they look at the little flowers that look so much like a little lady's bonnet.  And the aroma is the essence of spring itself.  It is my gift to everyone at work to take in small bouquets of lily-of-the-valley to share with everyone.  I am greatly blessed with enough to usually harvest about a half dozen or so of generous bouquets.  One day I saw one of my co-workers sitting at a table in our lounge holding one of the little bottles that held a bouquet of the fragrant flowers.  She sat with her eyes closed as she inhaled the intoxicating aroma.  "You're really enjoying those little gems, aren't you?" I said to her.  "Oh, you have no idea what this means to me,&q

     ...It is very green and very wet here at Johnson House.  Once again the weather has turned cold, and even if it isn't raining constantly, we have dreary wetness to deal with.  My yard and gardens are beginning to look a bit like Jurassic Park.  The ferns are huge and so are all the weeds.  It's too wet to run the riding        mower just yet.  So, I just inspect the plants while measuring their growth and am biding my time until it       warms up a bit.  I don't mind the wetness, but the cold chills me through and through.  It takes a lot of hot tea to keep me going on days like these.                                                                                                                  Last Saturday I attended the Herb and Craft Fair in downtown Wadsworth.  As some of you may     know, I have been allowing myself small outings as my artist date days.  The adventure was to see if I could find the things I consider fun amidst the crafts and junk peddlers.  I

    ...Well, it finally hit the 82 degree mark here in the Akron area.  That's how May goes for us.  One day we are a chilly 40 degrees, the next we hit the 80's.  I'm not quite ready for it to be that hot, but I'm not going to complain.  And at least it isn't raining.  Now the riding mower won't leave rut marks whenever I mow.  The irony of it is that I woke up to my neighbor mowing my yard at 7AM.  Thanks...I think...   Guess I didn't get to it fast enough to suit him.  But  now the lawn is mowed and things are looking a bit better around here.  To my great delight I was finally able to drag the last of my herbs out of the studio.  Yea! No more potted plants inside the house.  We all know how much I hate taking care of indoor plants.  But I'm still not in the gardening groove yet.  The potted plants that were already outside were so badly wilted from the heat I had to hurry up and water everybody before I lost them.  No more ignoring the plants.       

      The fiddleheads are here!  Even with all the rain and cold temps here in Ohio the fiddlehead ferns have virtually shot out of the ground.  Catching them early enough before their fronds open fully is the trick.  Though I have seen a recipe or two for sauteing them in orange juice I admit to not having tried this spring treat as of yet.  Hmm...could this be the year...I'll get back to you on that one.  In the meantime I can see the money plant blossoming here and there.  Those blossoms used to be purple, but now all of them are coming in white. It may be time to add a bit of diluted pickle juice to my soil to add a bit of acid to my limey soil.  Even the bleeding hearts that are blooming no longer come in pink.  They, too, are white.  It is always fun to see the blue forget-me-nots fade into mauve as spring progresses.  The lungwort has those same two-toned blossoms along with its spotted leaves.  I can remember when I first heard about pouring pickle juice onto hydrangeas