Tea garden update
Edible Landscaping booth
A few weeks before, we weeded our beds along Alpine, and covered each with compost from EL founder, Ramsey McPhillips. He also had a booth at the festival, and was giving out coffee sacks with some of his black gold - I was tickled to take one home for my own poteger.
Garden gold - compost
We volunteers took home our own curated caches of starts, and I planted some of mine in a galvanized trough I'd picked up from the feed store. I also got a Rosemary and several raspberry starts, which were donated by a local nursery. We intend to set up a new raspberry patch in the back garden, so this gives us a start.
Salad garden and herbs in pots
This week I headed back to the Tea Garden I'm tending on Alpine with a couple of watering cans - and it's growing beautifully! There were several requests for mint at the festival - next year I'll pot up some starts!
There are 2 clumps of the dark peppermint (chocolate or black English peppermint), and I'll likely pare one down. I've already pruned runners that stayed into other areas, and brought a bunch of those home!
Tea garden
Barberry, Mint, Camellia, Chamomile
Tisane - Rosemary, Borage, Lemon Balm
I was even able to harvest a handful of Tea camellia leaves to process!
I met my garden box neighbor Josie who was also out watering - shes planted several peppers, tomatoes and a squash in her bed which already had the Pansies and day lily.
Veggie and pansy bed next door
On the weekend, I painted rocks to place as Plant lables, which I'll take on my next visit.
Plant lables
Last week I picked up a few herbs from Thomas at the Van Hevlingen booth at the Farmers Market - including Yerba Buena or Oregon Tea - a lovely PNW native! I've tucked a trailing stem into another pot to take a cutting of the Oregon Tea for the Tea garden.
My tea friend Nikki gave me starts of its European relative, Nepetella, several years ago, and I love it. Described as minty-oregano in flavor, it is a lovely salad addition. Yerba Buena has stiffer leaves, and it's own unique woodsy-minty flavor. Both of these mint family plants have relativity small, pale flowers.
Oregon Tea - Clinopodium Douglasii
Nepetella - Clinopodium nepeta
The other recent additions to my home garden are a melodious chime, and a sweet rose bedecked bistro set, with a blue and white striped sun umbrella. This adds much needed shade which I'll appreciate all summer! The fence is due to be replaced soon, so I'm keeping plants in pots, and will likely need to move the bistro aside.
Rose Cottage Bistro 🌹
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