Restoring my Herb Garden - part one

 The first thing I had to do today was to lop off that palm branch that has been bashing the top of my greenhouse in this weeks gales .

                             Done !

 Then my thoughts turn to what was my lovely herb garden ...now choked with grass and weeds . 

 The herbs are still in there ....somewhere  !

I am leaving the Bluebells and the Cowslips , rescuing others if I can .

  Lemon Balm , Sweet Woodruff , Thyme , Marjoram , Rosemary , beautiful Lemon Verbena and Rosa gallica mundi versicolour (probably spelt wrong !) 🌿

 

    A few Cowslips that I will replant somewhere else ...and Sweet Woodruff. 

I love Sweet Woodruff the best , it smells so sweet as it dries....mmm heavenly !

    

 ✨   Dried Sweet Woodruff under your pillow for sweet dreams .✨

 There is one nice clump of Foxgloves , I will leave that for the bees . 🐝🐝🐝

Made a good start . I filled the wheelbarrow then just threw the weeds onto the path to collect up later .   😜

The Rose is in the foreground . 

Between the rose and the Phoenix canariensis palm , is one very out of control Artemisia vulgaris /variegated Mugwort .  This is one herb I can do without .

  

Just putting a sprig of this under your pillow will induce horrendous nightmares ! 

 Growing ten feet tall and it's roots spreading to take over the planet ...Out ! Out ! Out !   

 

 Oh ! Maybe I'll put it into a tub of it's own . You never know when I might need it for some magic spell  ✨✨✨

    

 I couldn't move the wheelbarrow it was SO heavy . So I filled up three sacks to take to the tip and will do some more weeding when I have rested and recovered .

   The ground is starting to dry out and becoming hard to dig , so I may wait until we get some rain to make it easier to dig and finish the job .

  

 I will do a quick sweep up tomorrow morning . ....honest I will !  😜               

                                         Bye fer now !    

                               Love and Peace 💛Debbie x

Tackling the overgrown Herb Garden

Finally I am getting stuck in and sorting out my overgrown herb garden . Those sweet little pots of herbs they sell at the garden centre,  soon turn into thugs if left to their own devices for a year and a half !  ( due to illness )
 I dont mind the Spearmint spreading , as we love that with hot buttered potatoes and in our salads ....but the Artimesia vulgaris " Oriental Limelight "  ( the cutting of which I  had been so delighted to have snitched from somewhere  ) has turned into a monster !
Santolina  , instead of being a tidy  tight mound , has branches now beginning to collapse under it's own weight . Oregano  , Thyme , precious Cowslips are being fast surrounded and choked by the Sweet Woodruff  ....and why did I plant a Phoenix canariensis in the middle of it all ? Can you see the one in the background ? They get seriously big !
 There is Lavender , Curry bush , Tea Tree Bush , Lemon Balm and a fast spreading Rosa mundi galica versicolour , Docks , nettles ouch ! and brambles aagh !

                        There is also a half barrel pond in there somewhere !

 There is something going on with my camera , so I may not be able to blog for a little while , I think it's something going on with the lens , not focusing automatically .
                                     So please forgive  my blurred photos .

 I filled two wheelbarrows and they were so heavy that my husband had to wheel them away . Except I saved those palm leaves to weave into the pigwire fence as a windbreak to the Veg Garden .

 The whole Herb Garden needs  totally restructuring ..things have got to be taken out and put somewhere else ...I think this is going to be quite a long term project .

 I hate wearing gloves whilst gardening but those Stinging Nettles were evil ..they still stung me and my arms are still tingling..not to mention the blooming gnat bites !

                                                          The pile of weeds !
                           The Hay meadow is almost ready to be cut . We didn't mow a path through it this time , because Ted said he was going to get two cuts from it .
  That is why I haven't shown any pictures of the lovely meadow flowers .

 So here you can see the Herb Garden is only a small area really , between the path and the greenhouse .

 The rope is there to remind me not to run ,but walk carefully up this slope after having slipped and broken my arm falling down the steep flight of slippery Serpentine steps in a Cornish hedge that used to be the only way up to my greenhouse .
 I dash about way too fast all the time ......so I,m told ..... whistling as I go .

  I love my herb garden so much and it makes me very sad to see it all gone like this .
   If anyone local wants any cuttings from my herb garden , please let me know and I can put some aside for you . I will post an update .... when the camera is fixed.
  Have a great week ! Daisy Debs x

...another

Here's a better photo ....it is also known as Soapwort . Yesterdays photo captured our  misty  Cornish atmosphere better , I thought .
                                       Mmmm ....breathe in that fragrance !
Lovely ancient wild flower ... can be found growing above Polurrian Cove here ....and in the hedgerows ... but you really have to look for it .

Saponaria officinalis

A favourite wild flower of mine and rarely seen , grows on my Cornish hedge . It has been used through ancient times , swished with warm water to make a gentle soapy wash .
 On this warm , misty , mizzly day , her soft and heady fragrance is of cloves  .