Herbs

My foot, with the Henna I got at Megan's wedding:

(Henna is an herb)

(Yes, I have monkey toes.)

Below, my lemon thyme, which is growing like mad, spilling out of the pot. Note that when I bought this it was supposedly English Thyme, but whatever.

Below, a spray of tomatoes-to-be. My three tomato plants are going gangbusters, and I ate 2 from my oldest plant today. I can hardly wait for these, as they are from one of the two plants Rob Weise and his family gave us as a baby gift. Note to the world: organic herbs and veggies make a great baby gift for a gardener. You're all, "who has time to garden with an infant?" But you're wrong. I had time for this, and it's great to watch them grow alongside Iain and to introduce him to them (I crush the herbs and let him smell my fingertips). Plus, it gets me outside every single day, which is important.

Below, my swiss chard. Not big enough to eat (you *could* eat it, but better to wait), but looking mighty tasty already.

The lemon verbena, which I adore, bent over a couple of weeks ago. It's about 2 feet high, on a long slim stalk. I staked it, but only to about 10 inches, so it's still bent over. What I didn't think about was the way roses grow. If you want a rose to grow into a fence, for example, you bend the stalks sideways. A new vertical stalk grows from each "eye" and you get a rose that's growing along the fence and that's full and rich, rather than a spindly thing. Apparently, this works on lemon verbena, too, since the photo below shows how the plant is sending out new growth upward from each eye along the bent part of the stalk.

Greek oregano. So nice. Very different from Italian (which I'm also growing), and so great for eating with mediterranean spices or spinach.

Sage and Italian oregano. I bought two little sage plants and one little oregano and planted them with basil and tomatoes. Everything is growing, growing, growing. I love sage, especially with pig, so this is a good thing.