More garden events

[lolaraincoat]

So far this year nearly everything seems to have survived that difficult winter except for the one hapless peach tree, and some things are thriving that never, ever thrive.

Comments

[contrary_wise]

More garden porn, hooray! I would also like to put a good word in for excess mint and chamomile and lemon balm as tisane. Do Canadians outside Quebec say tisane for herbal tea?

My fantasy is to use large quantities of lemon balm in a hot bath. Very soothing, so I've been told. That might be another good take on garden porn ;)

[lolaraincoat]

I've heard tisane used, yeah, but then I hang around with francophones.

And - huh. Lemon balm in the bath, you say? Dried or fresh? and how much would large quantities be, do you suppose? I mean, by mid-summer I'll be able to fill the whole frigging tub with fresh lemon balm leaves, and it's quite a big tub too. But I suppose you'd have to leave some room for the water ...

[contrary_wise]

I have a very soothing lemon balm (melissa) bath oil made by Kneipp. It's hard to find though, so I keep thinking it would be nice to grow some of my own lemon balm for the bath. This site has nice easy directions for using the fresh stuff in the bath. Though filling the whole tub sounds decadently fun too!

[lolaraincoat]

Now, that's interesting - the site there uses bee balm (which is bergamot, the stuff in Earl Grey tea that isn't the tea) and lemon balm (a member of the mint family, unrelated as far as I know to bergamot) interchangably. Maybe they mean both?

Filling the whole tub with the leaves would be decadent, but annoying to clean up. So this is a much better idea!

[stillwell]

It's so great reading about your garden! It sounds gorgeous *

[lolaraincoat]

Well, it's a mess - actually, two messes if you count the front and back separately - but it's a green, fragrant mess. And very different from how it looked when you were last here (the lawn is half the size it was and there are a lot more flowers in front, also trees and bushes) so you should come back soon and take a look!

[aloyssius80]

Much appreciated

[twotoedsloth]

Is linden the same as basswood? I've been confused on this point for some time now. I've come to really love basswood over the past few years. Your garden sounds so lovely. I wonder if I can sneak away for a weekend in September of something. Next spring, when you're all depressed and overwintering, you guys should try to sneak in a road trip to Philly. The spring here has been spectacular. I mean really spectacular. And mint? It's taken over the piece of vacant lot on the corner where I catch the bus. I would hesistate to eat that particular mint, but it's so dark green and pretty. And bumblebees! The bumblebees! I really had no idea that Philadelphia spring was such a thing. At least in my nabe.

[lolaraincoat]

September would be great! We may have apricots and we will definitely have rasberries and tomatoes. There are super-cheap flights from NYC at the moment, don't know about Philly.

And Philly has a nice spring? Who knew? It's very pretty here too, but not until mid-May really. This has been a wet cold spring, too, which is great for the garden by hard on the spirits.