Saturday morning, I ran out and got some compost mix and tilled it into the areas I had tilled up earlier. I also ran the tiller over an area I am trying to kill the grass in (to eventually become garden) again. I learned that if you let the tiller "buck" forward, it will clean the tines of enough plant matter that you can keep going for a while.
I also bought a lemon thyme and a lavender plant and planted them, and also 36 marigolds and 18 Helichrysum (don't know the species. It's a low, trailing plant with small leave that have the characteristic silvery hairs on them). The thyme and lavender went into my back (herb) garden; the marigolds and Helichrysum went into the front flower garden. I do need to get something taller to go in back of them and as an accent. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm thinking that maybe purple basil - or a mix of purple and the typical green - would look good. Even with the orange marigolds.
(I like flowers but I tend to prefer plants you can eat).
I also have a little side garden, under one of my living room windows. Last year I had zinnias in it, but I'm thinking this year of doing basil, or maybe basil and a couple (will have to LIMIT myself to a couple) of the perennial herbs.
I don't know; I just like herbs. I don't use them all that often in my cooking but I do like the plants.
After the gardening (and a shower), I finished this:
It's the chocolate-brown and pink quilt! I'm really happy with how it turned out. If you look closely, you might be able to tell that a couple of the fabrics I used are literally a chocolate print - two Hoffman prints in slightly different colorways (on one, the chocolates are lighter and have pink "ruffly" cups that hold them, on the other, they are darker and have blue). There's also a Jo-Anns print of hot pink with chocolates on it, which is also going to be the back of the quilt. And there's another fabric printed with old British candy wrappers. And the border - that's the fabric I had bought with no clear idea in mind, till it jumped out at me that it would make a good border on this quilt.
I'm hoping sometime this week to get the time to take it down to the quilt lady to get it quilted.
3 comments:
I always tell people I grow the herbs so that I can pet them.
If I remember correctly, Helichrysum is commonly called Licorice plant, and comes in at least 3 "shades" of green: lime (Limelight), silvery gray and silvery blue. It grows like a weed, and spreads well if it gets enough water. I love it!
Herbs are such fun to grow. If you can find it, grow African Blue Basil. (It always sounds like an illegal substance!) It's the only perennial basil that I know, and it also gets large. The leaves are blue-purple, the flower spikes are lavendar and the scent is heavenly. You might also like heavenly basil, cinnamin basil and licorice basil, just for grins!
BTW, the quilt is lovely!
I think you're right, Diann. I knew other Helichrysum species, but not that one (had to look it up). The ones I knew were strawflower and curry plant/immortelle. I currently have a curry plant and I've grown strawflower in the past.
I think dusty miller is closely related, even though it's in a different genus.
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