Rose Cottage

 An Herb Spiral is a common feature in permaculture gardens. Several herb plants have been in pots for quite awhile,  and I'd already planted some herbs in the bed to the left of my door, so decided that was a good place to add a spiral!  New Herb Spiral In her Lovely Greens blog ,  Tanya Anderson of wrote, "One of the smartest ways to grow herbs is in an herb spiral. Situated in a sunny location close to your home, they create micro-climates that allow you to grow many herbs within the same small space.  Typically made of bricks or stone, it winds up from the ground in a small spiral mound. Herbs that like more sun and drier feet get planted at the top. Plants that like moister soil and a little shade go towards the bottom. The sun also heats it through the day, releasing that warmth through the night." Rock pile under Elder The flat bed 'before' had the topset leeks, parsley, Chives, Rue, pansy, (Good King Henry - a perennial spinach) and celery Parsley, Alliu...

 I'm excited about the newest additions to the garden bookshelf!  The first is Edible - illustrated by our local artist/ author and farmer Katie Kulla, with writers Kevin Hobbs (England) and Artur Cisar-Erlach (Austria). We're invited to journey into the world's Botanical larder, and hope for a  sustainable future!  Edible - 70 sustainable plants Katie gave a wonderful talk yesterday on the inspiration and creation of this work at our library, co-sponsored by the wonderful Third Street Books. "More than half of most folks' diet is made up of three grains and a bean (wheat, maize (corn), rice and soy)"  - but there are thousands more that we can use to craft a healthier and more sustainable future.'  Edible highlights 70 of these - from all 7 continents (including seaweed from Antarctica) from baobab and carob to sweet potato leaves and Yangmei (Asian bayberry) Katie and her husband Casey offered produce and meat from their CSA for over a decade, and her ...

 Several years ago, my friend Nikki invited me over for a  tea party , both teaching me how to process the leaves, and sharing cups of her beautiful tea and simple snacks.  After tea, went out to pick another flush from her 9 shrubs, and she sent me home with a basket of fresh leaves, which I augmented with leaves from my own tea camellia, making a batch at home the following day.  Camellia sinensis Sochi Nikki and I both grow the variety from Sochi Russia, which is on the Black Sea, and the "most Northern tea," which is very aromatic and frost Hardy. Sochi is especially suited to  our PNW zone 8b gardens.   While the flowers are small (about the size of a strawberry flower!) Sochi's leaves are about the size of those on our common ornamental Camellias.  The flowers can also be used for a light and fragrant tea, which i first tasted at the Dao of Tea in Portland.  Tea camellia in center of the Tea Garden High in antioxidants, especially catec...

 Our Edible landscape festival mid May was a lovely, well attended event, and we gave away most of the 3000+ starts we brought! It was Hot - I was so glad we had an event tent 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...