PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, & THYME
When we bought our house a couple of years ago, we couldn't wait to fill the property with garden beds. Our goal is two major transformations a year, one in Spring and one in Fall. For our first foray, we put in a sweet little kitchen herb garden. For other beds since then, we've covered the grass with biodegradable brown paper, compost, and mulch, and then waited the requisite season before planting. This was our first, however, and we were new homeowners just bursting with excitement, so we pried the grass layer out with a floral shovel and shook off as much of the topsoil as we could. It was hard work but so worth it! Then a nice layer of compost and some aged wood chips for mulch and we were ready to plant.
We went a little nuts at the nursery and bought tons of perennials--three types of sage, three thymes, chives, lavender, bay, yarrow, eucalyptus, rosemary, savory, and tarragon. Voracious mint and oregano went in the cedar planters so I can keep them under my thumb. And then we filled in the open space with basil. A veritable feast!
This was a year ago. I'm not going to show you what it looks like after the wretched Winter we've had--less like the Swiss Family Robinson and more like the Addams Family, but the herbs have paid off big time! We still have jars and jars of pesto in our freezer and we've used the sage, thyme, rosemary, and savory in countless dishes during these past few Winter months. The Season of Soup.
And you know what we've been doing while we make that soup? Totally nerding out over Paul Simon. Eric and I both grew up on his records, and I can't tell you how satisfying it is to put on an album we've never listened to together and both belt out every single line. Hence, a new design is born, featuring parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Paul Simon, you have both our hearts forever.
We printed up this little beauty in two limited edition runs: first, it went on both ends of a long cotton scarf in a subtle celery green color, and second, as an all-over print on a robin's egg blue infinity style. I love the creamy ink colors and the simplicity of the design. All the herb silhouettes are pretty true to life size, accidentally making me hungry as I did the printing.
I know we're all pretty much over the moon that the weather has finally warmed and that our gardens are showing signs of life--what have you got cooking?
Also in Recently...
HOW TO CHOOSE HOUSEPLANTS
If you want to buy your first few plants and don't know where to start, or if you have had a string of plants that just didn't do well, I hope this will help.
AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MAKERY
A few weeks ago, I was lucky to spend an afternoon with Joan and Krista Anne from The Makery, and the blog post they wrote has restored some much-needed perspective to my pre-holiday chaos!
