Herbs, ugh.

[conuly]

Our comfrey was thriving on Monday - about as tall as Evangeline, almost as tall as Ana. Tuesday it was about as tall as Jenn - and while Jenn is short, she's just not that short. Today it's tall enough to fall over and collapse on the ground and block the path - and that's just one of our comfrey plants.

I don't care what my mother says, we have yet to have the disaster that requires the use of the comfrey that ate New York. (Besides, if we do it'll probably because we're cut up from fending off the rosebush that ate New York. There's something about our soil, I swear.)

So I'm going to trim it this weekend. Now, I know comfrey is good for the compost, so some of it will go in there, but I'd like to save some for human use as well. You know, in case of zombie apocalypse and all the drugstores are closed. What's the best way to go about this?

Similarly, we only need one rosemary, not three. I like rosemary as much as the next girl, but seriously, I've never used more than half an acre in my pasta. And the chamomile - who thought we needed that much chamomile??? It's approaching the height of our crape myrtle, and that's just not cool. Perhaps the pending zombie apocalypse will bring about epidemic levels of insomnia, but in that case I don't think we'll exactly want to fall asleep.

So I want to save these herbs, and I want to see if I can transplant some of them someplace less in my garden... maybe I can move some into Lenore's yard next door, she won't mind, or I can donate some to the school...? (If they take, of course.) Then I want to encourage that chickweed to grow. It's doing a fine job of preventing erosion and more annoying weeds in the places we haven't tended yet. I like our chickweed!

And finally, remind me this weekend to stop by the Farmer's Market and pick up some nettle. If I should happen to plant that in the tulips and by our fence, and if garden thieves and trespassers should happen to get stung, that's hardly my fault, is it? Pretty funny if they do, though. My mother nixed this plan two years running, of course. Better warn the neighborhood kids, though - despite having some four different kinds of mint in our yard (pepper, apple, spear, lemon) you'll note I haven't said a word about mint overtaking our garden. Thanks to the kids on the block we're actually in the novel position of having to plant more this year, and I don't want one of them going for nettles by accident - ouch!

Comments

[ncp.livejournal.com]

I'm commenting only to display my envy of your garden. Actually I'm envious of the fact that you HAVE a garden. I live in a second-story apartment with an east-facing balcony blocked by a big tree. No gardens for me :-(

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

You could make a batch of comfrey salve (http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/comfreysalve.html), and add an ounce of fresh rosemary to the recipe.

There's no such thing as 'too much chamomile' - stitch up some cheesecloth pouches and use it in the bath; it's lovely for the skin. Some of that extra rosemary could go in the pouches too.

LOL, it's kind of odd to think of someone having to plant nettles and encourage chickweed. When my daughter was around kindergarten age, an older girl taught her how to eat nettles raw by only touching the top of the leaf while carefully folding all the stinging surfaces inward, then pinching the little folded 'packet' hard to break all the little hairs before chewing it up. Nettles are one of my favorite Spring vegetables, partly because of the fun of foraging them.

Swordfern spores or curly dock leaf will take the ouch right out of a nettle-sting. However, you probably don't have either of those growing wild there, and I'd hardly suggest you should plant them for the benefit of garden thieves. People who steal from others often encounter painful consequences; they're actually pretty lucky if the worst they get is a few nettle-stings.

You could always plant Virginia rose (http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/virginia_rose.htm) along your fence instead. :)

[conuly]

We've always had patches of chickweed here and there, but it's taken over huge swaths of our yard this year. And I wouldn't think anything of it except that I notice that where the (low-growing) chickweed is growing, the tall weeds that grow like... like weeds and that *usually* try to take over the garden? Yeah, they can't poke through chickweed. And that, I like.

Nettles aren't native to the US at all, and as far as I know have never established themselves here either. I'm reluctant to plant them at all, to be honest, no matter *how* useful because I know they spread like mint, but we do what we do. One year ought to be enough. (And I'll spend five years trying to eradicate the leftovers, I know.)

As far as the chamomile goes, this is enough chamomile to build a bed out of, much less make some sleepytime tea. I'm trimmin' it down!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Yes, stinging nettles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle) are native to the US, and both native and introduced species are widespread in every state but Hawaii. So don't worry about introducing them; they're already practically everywhere. Out here in the summer, the damp forest trails are full of them, growing shoulder-high in a solid green sea.

[conuly]

Well, who the heck told me they're not, then?