HerbnArts

    ...A warm breeze shuffled dry leaves along the street.  It has been painfully dry here in Ohio.  For all the rain around us, Barberton has remained dry enough to keep all the lawns brown with only weeds flourishing in the heat.  Along with the heat came the brutal humidity for the August in Ohio.  Such conditions seem to be taunting us here in the Magic City.  Even so, I managed to harvest a wooden bowlful of herbs from my container garden.  That is the plus to raising herbs.  Many of them prefer dry conditions.  Having watered them through these dry times they have prepaid me with their green herby fragrance and bountiful leafy harvest.  I never did get the sunflowers to grow this year.  I really miss not having any to harvest for petals and seeds.  This year I will have no flower heads to put out for the squirrels and birds.  And there will be no sunflower potpourri this season.  One thing that has thrived is Sweet Annie.  Le Petit Jardin has produced a bumper crop this year.  It

...Fields of blue flowers covered the devil strips as I drove along local roadways.  July seems to be the month for chicory to grow everywhere with wild abandon. Amazingly I have no chicory growing in Le Petit Jardin, which I shall have to change. Most people have no idea that chicory is an herb that can be used in many ways.  Roots of chicory were once used as a coffee substitute and the blossoms can also be eaten in salads.  I just like the blue flowers.  And then there are are plenty of Bachelor Buttons flowering in local gardens. They are another blue flower of which I am greatly fond.  They aren't an herb, but I just like their blue flowers      While driving to the Boston Mills Artfest I saw a huge hogweed plant growing along the road.  I have always been fond of Queen Anne's lace and was admiring them as they grew along the roads with the chicory.  Lately there has been a lot of concern about the terrible dangers of giant hogweed in the news.  Now I see the main differe

   ...As another of Ohio's glorious grey days reminds us that, yes, it is spring, but yes, you are still in Ohio, and it is not snowing...at least for the moment.  It snowed yesterday, but we have been promised temperatures in the 70's. Really?  I will believe it when I feel it.  But somehow the plants outdoors haven't been fooled whether the weather is cold or warm.  They are on schedule with shy purple blossoms of hyacinths and crocus beginning to show their brave colors. My potted chive plants are undaunted as they flourish in whatever crazy spring weather we have.  I am eager to begin straightening up Le Petit Jardin.  That is what I intend to do during our "heat wave".  Occasionally there is a squirt of sunlight to encourage me to get on with garden prepping.  Here in Ohio we don't really get serious about planting until May. It could snow at any time and there is always the chance of a last frost up until Memorial day.      Though I wrote two blog entri

   ...Blue skies and warm breezes dominated the area as Barberton smiled and breathed a momentary sigh of relief from the wintry conditions that had zapped the county.  Snow flurries and icy roads had been the order of the day only a few days ago.  The temperature now was a balmy 57 degrees that melted all the remnants of snow and ice.  Only yesterday we had experienced freezing rain when the temperature hit 32 degrees.  Driving was treacherous in the morning.  Between all the city crews spreading salt on the roadways and the rising temperature, the roads became ice-free making the afternoon commute much easier to manage.  And now I am staring at the greenish grass that has been living under snow and ice.  It makes me want to garden.  What a cruel trick!  By the weekend we will repeat the snow and ice scenario.  I shouldn't complain.  Here in Barberton we have not been slammed with snow the way the Cleveland and eastern Ohio areas have.  Thank heaven we are not close to Lake Erie!