24 Carat Star Time

(Lemon Verbena or Verbena citriodora Cav.)

I finally got out into the garden again today with my camera. Anyone interested in knowing what things looked like a few months ago, click here.

For some reason, almost everything we have is some shade of purple.

Here’s what I saw today:

We originally bought three passion flower plants; two small and one large. In their first wild summer the pups demolished the large plant, so I thought out chance at any real coverage was meager. How wrong I was! The small plant in the front is slowly taking over – everything. I hope the roses don’t mind having their space invaded. I’ll have to go down and save the khaki (persimmon) tree soon, too, because a couple of vines already spread into it!

We have a so-called butterfly bush just in front of the 2nd (back) border.

As well as some type of honeysuckle

Although we must have a total of six hibiscus trees, this is the only one that get enoughs sunlight, I guess, so it’s also the only one in bloom.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see the physallis do so well! Last year ChessMan accidently lopped off a piece while mowing. Now, though, there are at least three small bushes – each bearing fruit.

The herbs are doing well, too, though I’ve decided to take out all the peppermint and lemon balm next year and only grow it in pots. Otherwise it takes over the whole darn wheel!

I let the marjoram and and oregano flower, and they are very popular with the bees in the neighborhood. One neighbor has his own bees (I have no idea how you describe that in English), and I hope he knows how much he owes us in terms of the flavor and quality of his honey! As you can see at the bottom of that picture, the forest strawberries have spread out just a bit, too.

I don’t know whether is is Thai or African basil, but it is doing very well. I can’t say the same for the normal stuff, which has suffered greatly because of the snails.

Although you can’t use normal verbena in the kitchen (I think), it certainly adds a nice splash of color in the garden!

The rosemary (both the standing and the creeping varieties) is doing just fine, thank you very much! I got the lemon verbena (which you can see just behind the rosemary, and a real favorite of mine) a little later in the season, so it came up a bit later.

I have two type of sage as well. This is the pineapple variety with the pointier leaves.

This is the normal stuff. The leaves are more rounded and paler.

We got three echinacea plants, and when they first bloomed last year, we thought it would be enough. In the meantime, though, they spread very nicely and added another bright flash of color.

ChessMan loves these so-called ‘pineapple plants’. Though the snails do get to them, they are still holding their own quite well.

Now if I could only get myself motivated enough to tackle all those pesky weeds again!