Arrrgh!!!

I used a watering wand in the herb garden tonight. It's time consuming to do the job right, but it gives me the time to see things up close.

The volunteer day lilies are blooming. When I looked out the window this evening five small birds were resting on one of the stalks, waiting for their turn at the bird feeder.

In early May, I severely trimmed one half of my sage plants. I wasn't sure that I wanted to prune them that early, so I stopped halfway through. It's been interesting to see the results. The unpruned half is quite large, and bloomed early in June. The leaves are a rather sickly yellowish green, with spots that could be insect damage. The pruned half is more compact (and pleasing to the eye), the leaves are healthy, and the color is the true sage green. SO...a note for my garden journal: prune the sage!

I have one cherry tomato plant and one miniature yellow pear tomato plant in the herb garden. I've had the first fruit of each, and I'm eager for the rest to ripen. There's nothing like a homegrown tomato!

At the north end of the herb garden I've planted several lavender plants. Imagine my surprise when garlic appeared next to them. I thought I had harvested all the garlic last year, but I have a good stand of it. The garlic has gone to bloom. It won't be long before I can try, once more, to dig it out.

The yarrow blooms have all begun to turn brown. I never remember to deadhead to keep the plant blooming through the summer. The clematis that climbs the trellis just behind the yarrow may be dying. I've talked with the county extension master gardener without getting a definitive answer on what's happening. From what I've read, this could be a fungus, and the solution is to cut the infected canes at the ground. Unfortunately, I think all of the canes are infected. I'll cut them back to the ground this fall, but I don't expect to see new growth next spring. Too bad....it's been a lovely plant.

The mat of thyme is growing back nicely. The lemon balm is very fragrant, as is the scented geranium. The new apricot-colored small rose is not doing as well as I had hoped. The Scottish spearmint needs to have the flowers pinched off, to reshape the plant. The silver and gold thyme at the south end of that section have grown nicely this year.

The winter savory is beautiful! The plants are nicely shaped and healthy. I'm SO glad Nan questioned my instructions to dig it up last year! Thank you, sis!
The oregano got leggy, and I let her have her way with it again this year. This time she surprised me by trimming it back less than last year! *G* I know....I'm never satisfied! If you haven't seen my sister's blog entries about her garden efforts this year, be sure to go visit and see what she's been up to.

The chives are healthy, as usual, the basil seems to be going great guns. The Italian parsley tried to set blooms, and I trimmed the bloom stalks back. The rosemary plants are still tiny. I don't know why. The dill needs to be ripped out. It's going to seed, and we don't need any more volunteers. The purple coneflower is thick, and lovely. I hope the stand of yellow coneflower in the front gardens will be as vigorous.

And that's the herb garden news that's fit to print.