Gardening with chickens - another guide to (decidedly moderate) success

All summer long, the chooks have been cruelly denied access to the kitchen garden. Because stuff was growing there and all that.

Well.  In reality what happened was that the whole achy-breaky-heart thing spiralled me into an abyss of laziness, which in turn spiralled the kitchen garden into an abundance of weeds.  I know it's supposed to be good for you to get off yer bum and do something, especially if you've got a lovely garden to do it in, but I much prefer whining to counting my blessings.

So let's just say that I've been unusually careful with the angling and cropping of the pictures in this post. Keeping up appearances is, as you know, of tremendous importance on this blog.

Anyway, last weekend the time had come to do.something.about it.  So the chooks were let loose, and so was I (and my weed wacker).  They're very skilled at scraping the surface, though not exactly methodical. And they add fertilizer at the same time, so all in all they're a valuable asset when it comes to clearing out the sad remains.

And lookie here, how decorative chooks&flowers are - you can hardly see the weeds!!

It took them no time at all to carve out a tunnel :-)

The saying goes that "the early bird gets the worm".  Round these parts, it's more like "the reckless bird gets the worm".  Signe, the brown hen, knows no fear and digging the earth takes forever when she's around because she likes to sit on top of the shovel to get first picks at whatever crawlies that might appear.  Nevermind that she sometimes topples over when I lift up the shovel...

I feel the earth move under my feet

I feel the sky see the worms tumbling down

(what song is that again??)

Look at my assistants, getting down to work :-)

So. The garden wasn't a tremendous success this year. In fact, only the parsley and lettuce produced bumper crops and even they were bedevilled with weeds.  But that's the wonderful thing about gardening - there's ALWAYS next year. Needless to say, I've got grand schemes and plans, half of which won't come to fruition, but that's beside the point. There's always next year ...

Oh, and the achy-breaky heart? Pretty much done and overwith. Yay!

Gardening with chickens - a beginner's guide to (moderate) success

Spring is here - at long last!!  I'm chitting potatoes in my windowsill (well aware that other gardeners did that months ago and will be eating new potatoes not long after I got mine into the soil) and have spent my pocket money on seed packets.

Today I got the kitchen garden kinda-sort of ready.  It was sloooow work - partly because I twisted my knee the other day and can't really bend it. Or put much weight on it. Or climb stairs. 

But I digress (which is all too easy to do when you're wallowing in self pity). The other reason why it took a bit longer than usual was my feathered assistants.  So here are a few nuggets of wisdom, should you ever decide to employ chickens on your little plot of land.

Go to your kitchen garden and survey your plot. If you're a lazy gardener like me, you mulch your garden in winter - basically this means the soil will be covered with hay from your guinea pigs, whatever grass clippings that haven't rotted away, and perhaps bits and pieces of the Christmas tree.  The bonus is that this has blocked out most of the sunlight so there won't be as many weeds as there might have been.  But now the cover needs to go, so you can get the soil ready for planting.

Remove whatever weeds there are.  This may be a challenge.  You must do your best to be one step ahead of your chickens so they don't get in your way.

You will fail at this.

A chicken on an earthworm mission is basically like you, back when you were 16 and smoking cigarettes and riding in cars with boys: convinced it is immortal and totally unwilling to let anything stand in its way.

But try your very best not to, you know, injure it with a hoe or rake over its little feet.

It also helps if you have eyes at the back of your head (people with small kids might have an advantage here), so you don't accidentally trip over your chickens when you take a step backwards...

Gardening with chickens helps you build up a healthy degree of tolerance and patience. It is not uncommon to rake over the same ground several times because your helpers have a slightly different take on the concept "neat pile".

Now it is time to get firm with them.  If you're planning on actually growing things in your kitchen garden, you'll need to find a way of keeping the chooks out for the next few months.  For me, that means that whatever pocket money I don't spend on seed packets, I spend on fencíng.

Your assistants will not appreciate this. You will be at the receiving end of resentful glares. This is something you'll just have to live with.

With the main kitchen garden done(-ish), fenced in, and ready for planting you can move on to the raised beds, assuming you have some.  I do.

Start by removing the winter duvet on the strawberries.  Feel yourself surrounded by eager little helpers, again. Cruelly restrained from working on the main plot, they happily move on to new pastures. Chickens have short memories, bless 'em.

This is the point where you decide not to plant out the new strawberry plants until your helpers have gone home for the day.  Their hind legs would mean a miserably short life for any baby plants that got in their way.  Look at these drumsticks at work:

So you move on to the next raised bed. And are immediately joined by the work force who feel that the most interesting bit of soil is the one you're working on at any given time.

You may also want to discard your gardening tools altogether. At the end of the day, tiny rakes are for amateurs. No one can comb your soil more professionally than a motivated chicken.

So if you're wondering what I've been up to since my last post, it's this. Looking after my chickens. (Also I've squeezed in a trip to Hamburg, a long weekend in London, work-work-work, fun nights out, and plenty of Viggo cuddles)

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need" (quote: Cicero). "And if you add chickens, you have endless entertainment" (quote: The Blogless Sister)

A girl's best friend ... might be of the sort that runs on batteries

Jeg læste forleden i et dameblad, at uafsatte damer som jeg selv skal huske selvforkælelse.  Dybest set går det ud på, at eftersom vi ikke har nogen kavaler, som kommer med blomster og gaver, må vi selv sørge for dén side af sagen (og samtidig yde vort til at skubbe forbrugsfesten lidt i gang igen).

Alle ved jo, at står det i et dameblad er det sandt, og jeg har derfor investeret i et batteridrevet uhyre, som jeg allerede er så glad for, at jeg vil vove at påstå, at den vil vække lykke hos enhver kvinde. Specielt dem med have ...

@ N ~ I recently read in a woman's magazine that it is very important for single women like us to spoil ourselves from time to time. Seeing as we do not have a "beau" to shower us with flowers and presents, we must take matters into our own hands (and do our bit for the economy into the bargain I suppose).

Of course, I take the advice of such magazines as gospel so yesterday I invested a decent sum of money in a battery-driven device.  I am very happy with my purchase and recommend it to all da single ladies - especially da single ladies with a garden...

Behold: my new grass trimmer (/destroyer of weeds/noisy piece of machinery)

Bum gardening

Yes. Bum gardening.

My favourite garden discipline. Which basically means you're sitting leisurely on your bum, enjoying the sunshine and the bird song, while you're pulling up weeds.

It beats meditation, hands down, and is also known as "dirt therapy".


I posted about this on facebook earlier today and a bit later it struck me that I haven't really come across this in any of the gardening books I've devoured over the years. Could it be that I am a first-mover here? Should I copyright it, take a year off to write a book about it, and become a millionaire??  (@N ~ we'll split the profits)

...

If you are not the kind of person who enjoys digging the soil, neighbour cat is here to demonstrate other ways of enjoying a garden:

Jeg skrev om "bum gardening" på facebook i dag. Altså - havearbejde som foregår siddende på måsen mens man hiver ukrudt op og - ganske gratis, uden assistance af meditationsguruer eller mindfulness coaches - lader tankerne strømme frit i hovedet.

Hvad skal det mon hedde på dansk?  Jeg kan ikke lige komme på et ord, som falder i min smag. Hjælp søges.

I øvrigt slog det mig, at jeg ikke er stødt på fænomenet i nogen af de havebøger jeg har læst gennem tiden. Og det er jo ellers det vigtigste overhovedet i en have - at hygge sig i den.  Hyggen behøver forresten slet ikke at involvere egentligt arbejde. Se bare nabokat demonstrere ....

Gratis kursus i mindfulness og meditation

I nogle dage har jeg haft sådan en sær fornemmelse i hovedet. Sådan en slags "vægtløshed", hvor man har en følelse af, at lige om lidt bliver alting anderledes ... eller, alternativt, lige om lidt sætter inertien ind, og ingenting forandrer sig i lang tid.  Om det bliver det ene eller det andet, eller ingen af delene, er naturligvis umuligt at forudsige, når man ikke er en ægte heks.  Og skulle der endelig ske noget skelsættende, har man som regel glemt, at man gik rundt med den her sære følelse (med mindre man er en af disse rædsomt selvoptagede personer, der fylder internettet op med blogs om alt deres tilfældige tankespind ...)

(Jeg skyder i øvrigt skylden (for tankespindet; ikke bloggen - der må vel være grænser for min ansvarsfraskrivelse) på de mange år, jeg var i Undervisningsministeriets vold. Selv om det efterhånden er længe siden, jeg gik ud af skolen, kan jeg ikke sige mig fri for at føle, at et eller andet bør ske på denne årstid, lige omkring skolestart. Noget med gamle cirkusheste der lugter savsmuld, eller hvordan det nu er)

Uanset hvad, så kan man godt føle sig en smule rastløs, når den sære fornemmelse huserer på øverste etage. Rastløs, og dog uendelig doven.

Var man nu et moderne menneske, så havde man måske været på et kursus i mindfulness. Lært at være til stede i nu'et og så videre.  Men det er Man ikke.  (Man har jo i øvrigt heller ikke råd, lige pt. - jvf. sidste blogindlæg.)   

Så er det heldigt nok, at man har Ukrudt.

Jeg har således i dag udført min aller-yndlingste (jo-det-ér-et-ord) form for havearbejde, nemlig den form der foregår siddende på bagen, og uden andet udstyr end klør fem og måske en pude til den førnævnte.  Således krumbøjet og skjult bag hækken har jeg stille og roligt arbejdet mig gennem adskillige meter ukrudt, og imens har hovedet på magisk vis tømt sig selv for de fleste af de løsrevne tanker, som har hvirvlet rundt uden overhovedet at få sat ord på sig.

Næsten færdigt arbejde - henne mod

husvæggen anes det sidste ukrudt,

som her har antaget nærmest

busk-agtige proportioner ...

(Before-and-after pic)

Det kan anbefales.   Se bare mine zen-agtige hænder i den klassiske, meditations-agtige "aaaoum" positur:

Skidt under neglene =

dokumentation for at jeg ikke bare har

siddet og læst hele dagen

(Dirty hands = proof of hard,

physical work :-)

Hvis nu du ikke haver en have.  Eller bare afskyr at få jord under neglene. Eller det regner. Så findes der en anden glimrende metode til at få fred for egne tanker: læs en bog!  Og lige nu kan du vinde en rigtig god en af slagsen ovre hos Linda. Klik på linket, og hvis du er heldig bliver det dig, der får fingrene i "Svalens Graf" af Sissel-Jo Gazan - signed by the author!

http://www.blogsbjerg.com/2013/09/vind-svalens-graf.html

deadline mandag 9. september 2013 kl. 20:00

Håber din weekend er lige så god som min.  I dag har jeg - udover at meditere, naturligvis - overværet en kalvefødsel, plukket 2 kilo tomater (*stolt*), og set KORNMOD.

@ N ~ I'm enjoying a quiet weekend at home.

Recently, I've had this strange, restless feeling in my head. A sense of "weightlessness", and a feeling that things are about to change - or, alternatively, inertia is about to set in, and thing will remain the same for a loooong time to come.  I don't know which scenario is preferable, and as I am not a fully fledged witch (not even a quarter fledged, come to think of it), I have no idea if it will be one or the other ...or neither.

I put it down to having spent several years in the education system.  It seems natural, still, that at this time of year, something ought to happen.  New classes, possibly new friends, new books, something.  

Anyways, I decided to do a bit of meditation to slow down my train of thoughts.  The way I meditate is this (and let me add: it definitely works best if the weather is pleasant):  I sit down in my garden.  And pull weeds.

There you have it. Dead simple. Won't cost you a penny.

All thoughts seem to evaporate when I'm sitting there in the grass, with ever dirtier hands. Marvellous, marvellous.

Of course, Mr Head also sometimes goes spinning off in all directions in wintertime, and I'll be the first person to admit that my particular form of meditation is extremely unsuitable when the ground is frozen.

Then, the obvious solution is to lose oneself in a book.  The link above is to a competition where you can win the latest novel by a Danish author- only I don't think you would get much out of it until an English translation comes out....  Instead, you get this quote, which I found recently on http://www.aseaofquotes.com/

"I read because one life isn't enough, 
and in the page of a book I can be anybody;
I read because the words that build the story become mine, to build my life;
I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings;
I'm just beginning myself, and I wouldn't mind a map;
I read because I have friends who don't, and young though they are,
they're beginning to run out of material;
I read because every journey begins at the library,
and it's time for me to start packing;
I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town,
and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody,
and I want to be ready."

- Richard Peck, Anonymously Yours

I quote it here in its entirety, but really my favourite part is that first line. "Because one life isn't enough".

Recently I've been reading a crime novel by an author called Tara French - recommended to me by a friend, and I liked it. I love finding new authors.  

And when I haven't been solving murder mysteries, I have been discovering some of the old classics. I've had a Jane Austen novel ("Persuasion") sitting on my book shelf for years - I never really could get into the story. Then, the other day, I just picked it up - and, suddenly, loved it.  And the bonus is that because of the archaic language, I cannot just plough through it like I do with most books. It actually takes time to read :-)   So I checked out Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" from the library and loved it, too.  Now I've moved on to "Wuthering Heights" which I don't find as appetising as the other two, but I'll give it a go - and if I get stuck, I'll move on to "Pride and Prejudice".

...

Hm. Now, where was I going with all this? Can't remember (perhaps should do more meditating tomorrow?).  Anyways.  I saw a calf being born this morning (yes!).  And I picked 4 lbs of tomatoes. And the weather is lovely.

Have a great weekend!! :-)

Rød front

Indre Erna rapporterer, at frilandstomaterne trives noget bedre i år!

Ferieblog V - and the prize for freakiest broad bean 2013 goes to Tine, spinster of this parish

Hvis man synes, verden af i dag går for stærkt, kan jeg anbefale at bælge hestebønner. Jeg følte mig nærmest hensat til mellemkrigsårene som jeg sad der i skyggen og bælgede og bælgede. Og bælgede. 

Heldigvis havde de fleste af dem ikke nået at antage helt så groteske proportioner. Nu skal de blancheres og fryses, og så afvente at A's mor kommer herop fra Iran og laver livretter :-)

Pral

I skal ikke snydes for et billede af køkkenhaven. Det er et godt kartoffel-år, og det bliver vist også et godt hestebønne-år. 

Og georgine-år. 

Bemærk den snedige kameravinkel, som stort set slører det faktum, at det også er et ræddi godt ukrudts-år ...

Hmmm

Min ribsbusk, som iflg etiketten er hvide ribs, har vist sig at have en slags defekt ...

Lidt dum, måske

Min far siger, at de dummeste bønder avler de største kartofler. 

STOLT er jeg :-)

Men min mor ...

Glædelig Mors Dag!  Min egen har været bortrejst på dagen, men vi har købt en blomst til hun kommer hjem i aften. 

Min mor er skyld i meget godt. Det er fra hende jeg har mine grønne øjne, mit sprogøre, min glæde ved at være alene hjemme og min forkærlighed for landkort. Hun er min fars største fan og søsterboblens grundpille, og uden hende ville ingen af os være helt rigtige. 

Personligt er jeg ikke mor til nogen.  Men jeg er Hittetante!  Og i dag har jeg haft besøg af Hitteniecen og hendes mor, og ganz ehrlich, hun (niecen, altså) er simpelthen bare så vel-indoktrineret, at jeg smelter helt og aldeles.  Hun er fan af både cookies, blomster og bøger, og meget mere forlanger jeg sådan set ikke af min yngste veninde.

Arveligt belastet er hun også, og i hendes tilfælde giver det sig udtryk i en udpræget grad af selskabspapegøjethed.  Hun er sådan set en tro kopi af sine forældre, om end hun nok er mere til mælk end til vin.  Men ellers er det M & M om igen.

Vi spiste frokost, og så havde vi sofahygge med milk & cookies, drengesnak, og film. Bagefter gik vi ud og druknede krydderurterne vandede blomster, og til sidst udvalgte Hitteniecen med sikker smag en stak bøger, hun gerne vil have læst højt næste gang, hun kommer på besøg.

Anyways, eftersom mit facebook newsfeed dagen lang har været proppet med billeder af Mors Dags-gaver og yndigt afkom, så tager jeg herved revanche med en smule billedspam.


@N ~ today is Mother's Day here in Denmark (also in the US, I think?). 

I haven't acquired a toddler since we last spoke; this is my "niece" (the daughter of some of my best friends) who brought her mom along for a visit today.  She shares my love for flowers, books, and cookies - and since my facebook feed is jam-packed with pictures of Mother's Days presents today, I thought a little picture spam from my side would be appropriate.

This couch is made for jumping

And that's just what I'll do

and then I'll sit right down

and munch a chocolate chip cookie

-or two

Showering the herbal garden

with love and water

Handling her snappy-happy

surroundings with grace

Selecting literature

Girl's got taste -

Baldacci and Higgins Clark (crime

novels), and the wonderful

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

and Through the Looking Glass

And the pièce de réstistance -

I'm not saying I'm broody, but

who can resist a two-year-old who

picks out Stephen Chbosky's

The Perks of being a Wallflower?

If I ever have a kid, I'd like to order

this model, please.

Åndenød

Jeg vandrede omkring i min have her til aften, aldeles fordybet i konversation med underholdende, interessant person.  Og midt i det hele - undskyld, hvis du var ved at sige noget vigtigt! - fik jeg øje på noget, der afsporede samtalen totalt.  Og jeg tror måske, jeg kom til at gispe højt, hvorefter jeg fremkom med nogle lettere usammenhængende fryde-lyde.

Jamen, hvad skete der dog? tænker læseren nok.  Og var det mon noget frækt???

Well.

Måske ikke ligefrem frækt. Men så afgjort betagende.

Mine kartofler er spiret.  Og hestebønnerne ligeså.  Det er STORT!!!!

----

Hallo?    *taptaptap*  er I her endnu?

Hm. Nå. En og anden skal nok hænge på endnu (hej Lena!!). Og de(n) tilbageværende skal absolut ikke snydes for fotografiske beviser.  Beklager hvis billederne er lidt mørke; jeg kunne ikke vente til i morgen med forevigelsen.

Pomme de Tine

Hestebønne! Dette er, I kid you not, det

pureste guld at have i sin have.

For man kan (næsten) ikke købe dem friske 

(undtagen når Årstiderne smider dem i en af deres

kasser, og det nyder jeg aldrig godt af; primært

fordi jeg ikke er kunde der).  Jeg har fundet dem

nogle få gange i Bazar Vest, men det var nogle små gnallinger.

Ergo: Guld

Og for at det ikke skal være løgn, så har jeg et par seje overlevere fra fjorårets krukkehave.

Den største overraskelse er en ribsbusk, med hvide ribs sågar.  Jeg erhvervede den for en tier i fakta (eller noget i den stil), og må skamfuldt tilstå, at den omsorg jeg gav den stod nogenlunde i forhold til indkøbsprisen.  Ikke desto mindre ser det ud til, at jeg (eller fuglene) får 4-5 klaser ribs i år. Fantastisk.

Mynte - en ikke særligt overraskende overlever.

(I krukke, må jeg hellere tilføje. Med min track

record med hidsige selvsåere, skal jeg IKKE have

mynte ud på friland)

Jeg kalder denne krukke for "Mojitos in progress".

Indre Lecia ser meget frem til lange aftener på terassen,

i selskab med produktionen fra netop denne plante ...

- Og telefonsamtalen?  Jeg måtte lægge røret på. Men har lovet at ringe tilbage senere i aften.

@ N ~ My cup runneth over. My heart leaps with joy.  

The potatoes and the broad beans that went into the ground one week ago have sprouted!!  I am aware that this is the general idea with planting things, but it never ceases to amaze me. Joy, joy, joy.  Especially the broad beans which are devilishly difficult to buy fresh in the shops here in Denmark.  

If all the potatoes are a success (I have 3 different varieties), I will not be going on a low-carb diet this year.  Neither will my neighbours and friends for that matter.  We'll see.  Last year, I planted 6 tomatoes, but the weather was so bad that the bumper crop I'd anticipated never really materialized.  Fingers crossed that the summer of 2013 will be the perfect one- long, warm, sunny days, and a light drizzle every night.  Surely that's not too much to hope for?

Last year's container garden boasts a couple of survivors.  The biggest surprise is a white currant bush I bought for about a dollar and a half and shamefully neglected.  The smallest surprise (but by no means un-welcome) is the mint - or as I (and my sister) have dubbed it: "Mojitos in progress".

That's your gardening update for the day.   Take care :-)

Lys og kvas

Jeg elsker at sætte lys i vinduerne i mit gamle hus - egentlig ikke kun 4. maj, men da ganske særligt i aften.

Jeg har nydt dagen i fulde drag - og er nu et kvashegn rigere.

Oui, kvashegn.  Her illustreret fra begyndelsen til næsten færdigt (jeg skal lige have trimmet det en anelse):

Hvis nogen synes, det ser en anelse have-u-ordentligt ud, så har de ganske ret. Men nu er jeg jo heller ikke nogen vanvittigt ordentlig person - så det passer fint til mig.

Kvashegn er smart på mange måder. Dette her har i kroner og ører kostet ca. 150 kroner (til pæle).  Hertil kommer: min faders blod og sved (det er ham, der har banket pælene i jorden - og i den forbindelse, tak til Ivan og John for lån af pælebor!).  Vistnok en flaske brændevin til Niels, der fældede træerne - men de skulle fældes alliwl, så den udgift tæller ikke med hér. Og en håndfuld cookies til bidragyderne - igen, primært min far. (De er i ovnen even as we speak write).   

Så altså en billig fornøjelse, og man sparer tilmed en tur på genbrugspladsen med alle de grene.  Og bedst af alt: jeg har hørt, at havens dyreliv er glad for det. Altså, ikke lige naboens kat, men hvis der flytter en fugl eller et pindsvin ind, så bliver jeg den lykkelige Tine!

@ N ~ on the evening of 4th of May, we traditionally put candles in our windows to commemorate the end of WWII.  

Earlier today, I made a twig fence - I wonder if that's the right word?  You can see the pics, so tell me if it has a different name.

I'm ever so pleased with how it turned out.  It's not a particularly "neat" fence; quite the opposite, so it's perfectly suited to the gardener (= me :-)    

I'd been wondering what kind of partitioning to put up at the western end of the garden, which is completely open. Then, a few weeks ago, my mom had 2-3 trees in her garden cut down, and the idea of using them to make a twig fence jumped into my mind.  It's really cheap, quite simple to make (especially if you have someone to help you dig the post holes - thanks, Dad!!!), and is an easy way to get "rid" of all the twigs and branches from the trees that were felled.  And best of all: it might attract birds and, dare I hope for it, hedgehogs.  Win!! 

SÅ, Faster Aspargestyv!

Her på matriklen roser vi os selv for 2 ting (mindst):  Vi tænker langsigtet, og vi tager hensyn til familiemedlemmers kleptoman-kulinariske tendenser.

Således har jeg i dag lavet et aspargesbed og plantet 10 aspargeskroner - det hedder de, og de er lige så fornemme som navnet antyder. Min far mener dog, de mest af alt ligner skægget på ham der fra Pirates of the Caribbean. Jeg er rimelig sikker på, at det ikke er Johnny Depp, han har i tankerne ...

Anyways, asparges er plantet og nu genstår så bare at nurse, håndluge, forkæle med gødning (ja, jeg er sådan en, der har tang med hjem fra stranden), og ikke mindst VENTE. For der går 2-3 år, før man sådan virkelig må frådse i dem.

Jeg væbner mig med tålmodighed - og måske en stok så jeg kan holde Faster Aspargestyv lidt på afstand af bedet de kommende 2 somre .... 

(må hellere tilføje, at jeg også lavede aspargesbed dengang jeg boede i Århus. Og at ingen fastre kom til skade dengang, så I behøver ikke at frygte for liv og lemmer :-)

@ N ~ asparagus bed - check!

All that remains now is waiting 2-3 years before they're "mature" enough to start eating. *sigh*

Citronverbena

En af mine yndlings-krydderurter er citronverbena. Den dufter ganske fantastisk - som med de fleste krydderurter skal man bare gnide den let mellem fingrene, og straks kan man mærke duften. Der skal ikke et geni til at regne ud, at denne her dufter af citron, og jeg synes den er bedre og dejligere end citronmelisse.

Lige nu bruger jeg den kun til 2 ting. Den ene er at sniffe (altså, bare når jeg går forbi. Jeg ruller ikke 500kr-sedler og retter hakkede krydderurter an i en fin lille bane). Det andet er te. Den er ikke vanvittig kraftig, men skøn og dejlig sammen med honning. Jeg har læst, den også er god sammen med mynte, men det har jeg ikke prøvet.

Citronverbena kan absolut ikke tåle frost, og jeg har aldrig fået den til at overleve en vinter indendørs, så her er det en et-årig fornøjelse (hvis du bor i Californien burde du have en bedre chance). Den synger med andre ord på sidste vers nu, så jeg er begyndt at pelse den for at tørre bladene.

I tørret tilstand ser de keeeedelige ud - men de er stadig skønne!

@ N ~another favourite herb, lemon verbena. Which around here is mostly used for sniffing (it's divine, actually it does lemon scent better than real lemon) and for tea. Lemon verbena will not survive frost and I've never managed to nurse it through a winter indoors, so around this time of year I strip off most of the leaves and dry them.

This year, I'm going to be adventurous and try making herbal salt and herbal sugar with it, too. I also read somewhere that it's good for infusing cooking oils (a neutral one, obvs.,such as canola) but I don't know if I've got enough for that. Would be nice though  -  lemon verbena is something you can never get enough of.