continuing from the previous posting and where we have been posting lots of butterfly photos...
tour of my herb garden
coneflower and bee
calendula
comfrey in black and white
Goldenseal
barnyard beds
some of the backyard
Abraham Darby rose
Oh boy are you in trouble now Ms Herbalbetty! We got you hooked... afraid your lovely gardens will be neglected. (( evil grin ))
Why "barnyard" beds? I grew up on a farm and never saw barnyards that lovely... lol
Scutellaria blooms ~ Baicalensis or Altissima or Altissima Violet. Take your pick. I planted all three and would defy you to tell them apart... : )) pod
Barnyard beds cause they are close to our "barn". Now, actually my husband's workshop. You are evil Podster....here's a pic of my Baical skullcap. I also grow Mad dog skullcap, but not Altissima, so I will have to guess yours is Altissima!
WOW! Your gardens are just glorious!
I have to admit, much as I admired all those nicely bordered raised beds, I had to wonder.... who trims the grass around all of those?? I've been trying to incorporate mowing strips or even a little ditch around the rim of the beds so that less trimming is needed... I hate trimming! DH is "lawn," and I am "garden," but I think he's decided that trimming around the edges of the beds is a "garden" task.
Please tell me you have a secret for keeping up with the trimming... preferably something other than "just suck it up and do it!" LOL
Altissima it probably is... Odd tho, I purchased all three different seeds from a company. Perhaps they were planted too closely and the pollinators took care of it...
I love the skullcaps, do you grow any others?
I am growing a variety of them. This little Scutellaria Onrateri is beautiful. Supposed to be French and I can find no references. This plant has the most delicate foliage ~ just beautiful and miniscule pastel blue blooms.
Critter, we have lots of raised beds (74 or so I think) because I have rheumatoid arthritis. I can't squat down to weed. But, if the beds are raised even 6 inches, I can sit on my garden cart and weed and tend and harvest plants. My DH does the trimming (yes, I know what a treasure I have). Eventually, we will put mulch or gravel or something between the rows. We have lived at this place for just 5 1/2 years and it seems something else is always drawing our attention away from that! Like finally succumbing and putting up deer fencing around the entire 3 acres. (See reference to DH and what a great guy he is.)
Podster, I only have the scutellaria laterifolia and baicalensis. Love that Onrateri though. Great, get me obsessed about more plants why don't ya?
If I can't provide seed ~ I should be able to deliver plants. : )) This little gem is starting plants from roots, even thru the drain holes. Invasive? Could be...
I suspect it will be winter sensitive tho and will provide protection this first winter here. Look out ~ I am not the only temptor here... pod
Raised beds definitely make things easier even for those of us who can kneel down! (But I've had mobility issues in the past, so I get it.) I'm sorry about your RA -- that's a tough one.
Your DH is a gem! It might not be necessary to mulch everything between the rows -- even a 6 inch edge of gravel around the outside of those boards would make a "mowing strip" so he could put one wheel of the lawnmower up on the strip and catch all the grass with the blade. I did that along my front bed (with mulch), and it's not perfect (some weeds and grass pop through now and again), but it definitely helped.
I had a little scutellaria plant back in my iris bed, but it may have succumbed to the hot/dry weather this summer.... I'm hoping it'll come back, but we'll see. I thought the species was something like "orientalis," but according to PF that one has fuzzy leaves (mine didn't). Now y'all have me curious about these plants!
Was the S. orientalis a low grower? It is a trailing variety. I have a couple different ones but no blooms yet. They like drier usually and we were soooo wet early this summer. I am finding I like the upright varieties better as they like this climate and my care better. IOW ~ takes less effort. : ) The skullcaps are not showy but I find them charming.
More herb garden tours coming up? We hope...
Yes, it is/was low and somewhat trailing in its habit (hadn't spread much before the weather started taking a toll on it). I was hoping it would spread itself into a nice little patch of groundcover among the irises... Maybe I just need to keep propagating my creeping thymes! (Some creeping thymes might be a little dense for that purpose -- not good to have a groundcover that might hold moisture in over the rhizomes -- but others that I picked up this year seem to have a more open habit.)
Right about now, moisture retention would be wonderful! We have seen and have a string of 100 + temps in store. Way too dry and it is sucking the moisture out of everything. The rain barrels are soon to be empty and no change in sight. Oh well, we normally endure more of this in other summers. This weather separates the men from the boys in my plant kingdom.