herbs

Taking all the little herb plants from their plug trays and potting them up into larger pots full of nutrient rich soil is one of the hundreds of jobs (no wait, thousands of jobs) in the garden right now.  Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.  And Greek Oregano, and Spearmint, Peppermint, Pineapple Mint....Garlic Chives and Regular Chives.......so many lovely culinary herb plants for sale in the garden this year!

Thank goddess that Paulette is helping me with all this endless potting.  Here we are one day this week showing off our little pots of English Thyme after just finishing up 5 trays of Rosemary "Arp".

Here she is nestling all those sweet little rosemaries into their pots.  They're going to be so happy!

We had lots of thyme on our hands last Sunday afternoon. (oops, sorry, couldn't resist)

The thyme almost looks like a succulent of some sort when you look at it really closely.

A wee little rosemary.  Grow baby, grow!

The garden sage is looking really good.  

And so is the greek oregano....I can smell these as I type, even tho' I'm nowhere near them right now.

Friday afternoon was nice and sunny and Paulette was back at it, potting up the mints this time.  I think the smell of spearmint just might be my favourite one of all.

The peppermints are looking really good!...I think they're especially happy that the sun is finally shining on their leaves.

Last fall, in an effort to make things easier on myself, I decided to try ordering a few plug trays from Richter's Herbs....some for me to plant in my garden and some to pot up for plant sales.  A few less plants to start myself, I thought.  So I ordered them for spring delivery and they have arrived...I'm amazed at how beautiful the plants were after being in the mail for a few days.  They come in boxes like this, 3 to a box, each one wrapped in a mesh bag and all 3 layered securely without crushing each other.

These 3 were all in a box together.  Garden Sage, Lemon Carpet Thyme (heavenly scent) and Greek Oregano.  If you're a gardener serious about herbs, you'll probably enjoy visiting their website (even if just to browse the list of herbs!)...they offer plant plug trays and smaller plug packs and a great selection of seeds too.  And it's really helpful when looking for a special or unusual variety of herb that you just can't find anywhere at your local garden centers....or if you need a lot of plants at a wholesale price. 

planting potatoes

It's time to plant some more potatoes so we'll have delicious little new potatoes for end of June and July.

I found this heart potato while I was sorting through my box of French Fingerling seed.  A good omen for April Fool's Day!

These 50lb. boxes are full of Sieglinde and Blue Russian seed potatoes.  I'm unloading them from my truck here after I picked them up in Vancouver this week and  I'm so happy to get to start planting them.  I also have boxes of Chieftain, Yukon Gold, All Red, French Fingerling and Bananas....great selection this year!

These seed potatoes are a nice smallish size and so I've planted 5 in a pot on top of about 4 inches of potting soil, then covered with 1 to 2 inches of the soil....when green shoots emerge, I'll add more soil and straw, covering the shoots.  The greenery will grow up out of the soil and straw and I'll cover it again and it will keep growing up and out and I'll keep covering it 'til the pot's full.  This kind of mimics the hilling of potatoes that gardeners and growers do when growing them in garden beds and fields. My Dad recently told me that where he was born in the "old country" (northern Yugoslavia, sometimes Hungary at the time) there was a saying that went something like this: "Don't plant the potatoes so deep that they can't hear the church bell ring."  They were religious folk and maybe a little bit is lost in translation here but the message is still clear:  Don't plant potatoes too deeply...and hill them later, as they grow.

Lots of potato grow pots.  I'm planning to plant and harvest these twice this season and I'm hoping to produce hundreds of pounds of delicious and beautiful new potatoes.