The herb garden on the plot is going crazy!

Sage is enormous, thyme flowing everywhere, chives have seeded all over the place and the applemint that we thought had been dug up is also popping up where it shouldn’t!

This is great, but we need to find a way to use or preserve them asap…

The most popular, and possibly easiest, way to preserve herbs seems to be to dry them, so that’ll do for us to start with!  First one we’re trying out is sage… we’ll let you know how it all goes

We’ve also had some tips on oven-drying and freezing which we will certainly try out in the coming weeks.

Please let us know how you like to preserve your herbs… we have never done this before so need all the help we get!

We also harvested three sticks of rhubarb and a test onion! Oh, and some sage… it is going mad so need to find a good way to dry it or freeze it – any tips?

Hopping around us for much of the morning was the friendly robin, loving the fact that we were unearthing a lot of worms for him… greedy little thing!

Today we almost cleared the area where Marjory used to live, levelling out and digging out the blasted dandelions…

New canes for the raspberries has tidied up that section very well and they’re looking very healthy, so here’s hoping for a good crop

The herbs are coming back strong, they always look a bit pathetic after the winter months, but the sage, thyme and chives are looking fabulous. The lavender isn’t looking quite so good and we have lost one of them – we shall replace it as we found it great for attracting bees.
 

Planted in an old drawer (recycling as well!) we have sowed Sweet Marjoram, Parsley, Sage, Thyme and Basil (Sweet Genovese and Red Bordeaux).

With a bit of luck they’ll be springing into life and we can transplant them into the main plot

Also today we purchased some asparagus crowns and Maris Piper seed potatoes from Wilko – not sure where to put them yet though!

Very tasty indeed – boiled them and mixed them up with some olive oil, black pepper and allotment thyme and sage

It was only a short row, but we’re pleased given the disastrous chitting and stupid planting! Oh, and the weeds that started to grown into some!!

We cut the sage, thyme and chives for a lovely bread and the mint for a tasty salsa and a delicious pudding – all of which we shared with The Gang on Saturday evening.

Lisa is wearing the allotmentgirls t-shirt in pink from our merchandise shop

The Bay is doing extremely well, it has more than doubled in size since we bought it… we could do with some recipes that use it though!! This chilli plant has also surprised us, we thought we’d lost all of out chilli plants to the rain and weeds, but we found this one still alive n the undergrowth! It’s flowering well so we hope we may get some fruit from it.

Lisa came up with a very unusual way of creating paths between the rows through the development of the ‘wiggle walk’. Looks a bit strange but is very effective – we are sure everyone will be doing it soon.

Planted today:
Lavender (4 types)
Thyme (2 types)
Tarragon
Parsley (well – we moved it!)
Coriander
Sage
Chives
Onions
Leeks
Courgettes
Bay

We have decided what we’ll be growing though!

In no particular order:
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Radish
Lettuce
Endive
French Beans
Courgette
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cabbage
Potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Beetroot
Asparagus

and herbs…

Salvia (sage)
Bay
Basil
Peppermint
Coriander
Thyme
Chives
Parsley
Tarragon
and some Lavender, Calendula and Camomile (because we like them!)