I've gone, shuffled off to share the Tart's blog - you'll find me there now, when she lets me near the computer...

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Part ll -





Some herby views here, to start with. The healthy bits...
As to slugs, Lindsay has only read about using sawdust to keep the critters off but she has been out today putting mounds of very coarse shavings round the tenderest of the plants. The shavings are sold as horse bedding and we usually use them for the hens if we don't have any straw for their houses and nest boxes. This year, though, the slugs that are doing the damage are titchy teeny wee things which are difficult to spot. So we'll just have to see whether the sawdust idea works or whether they are so wee they just squirm underneath or through the soil. Coffee grounds worked for a while last year but you have to drink a mountain of coffee and also every time you water the plants you wash some more grounds away.
An admission about fennel tea - Lindsay loves its light aniseedy taste but it comes in a paper sachet that you drop straight in the cup! So this was (is?) to be the year when she grows her own and gathers the seeds, dries them and uses them to make her own tea. No research has been done by her ladyship - typical, really - and she's out of Dr Stuart's Wild Fennel Teabags at the moment so she cannot even dissect a teabag to examine the contents. However, this will be remedied and you'll get the full saga before long!

3 comments:

Suzi-k said...

I used to grow fennel, both wild and cultivated varieties, on our smallholding, and collected vast amounts of seed which took years to use up. It self seeded and generally grew like a weed here! i adore the taste, but never thought of making tea with it. It adds a spectacular flovour to raisin loaf, and seafood dishes.

tlchang said...

Can't wait to hear more. Every part of the golden fennel I grow tastes of anise - so I imagine one could probably brew any of it and it would probably taste good.

I need to learn more applications for the copious amount of seeds I harvest...

tlchang said...

Your herbs look lovely. I don't recognize the plants in the bottom two photos however. (Do you *like* herbs, Ash? Jack mostly ignores mine. Except for the lemon grass. He LOVES lemon grass... I have to practically plant him his own pot of that..)