Arrrgh!!!

Beautiful!! You have a lot of area to work with. I think you'll sleep like a baby once your head hits the pillow. Sweet dreams....

Nice picture Buffy. I too grow lambs ears and am now facing the problem of them escaping their home and heading off to the rest of the garden. I assume your crab grass is like my couch grass? If so, well yopu know all the work I've been doung on them. I too have a spearming in my collection of herbs. In my case it's in a terracotta pot immediately outside the back door, where I can take some for cooking and where John can pick some whenever he fancies a Pimms.

The neighbor's lamb's ear, from his backyard, has made it onto our land. It is in the yard and in flower beds (how can it move so fast? I just saw my first invader last year as we were taking down the fruit trees).

I can't get lavender to over-winter for me. The last two years I have bought plants to put in the flower bed. This year, I started some from seed - maybe it will do better.

how lovely buffy, ive got the beginnings of a nice herb garden going. just need some sage and a bay tree.

Joy, There are times when all that space to work with is just overwhelming, but I'm trying to learn gardening in moderation, just as with everything else in life. We went to exercise this morning, and I discovered my hamstrings were really tight, and that I have a few muscles I didn't remember having! *G* Gardening is great for the tush!

Thanks, Adele. Lamb's ears are goofy little plants, but I love the way they contrast the rest of the garden. It must be in their nature to be "escapees."

I love the scent of the spearmint! I'll have to go surf to find out about "Pimm's." I've heard the name, but know nothing about it. Herb gardens are at their best when you can just step out the door to collect a few things to season your meals.

Bogie, those little suckers are FAST when they like the soil they're traveling through. *G*

It's possible that you are giving the lavender too much food, or soil that has too much compost. They really thrive in sandy, rocky soil. You might consider sinking pots into the ground with rougher soil for them.

I've NEVER grown lavender from seed. You must really have a green thumb, Bogie!

Bod, I envy you the bay tree. I'd have to try to winter it over indoors, and I haven't had a lot of success with that kind of thing. I can't winter over rosemary, either.

I'm going to grow lemon verbena again, and that's another warm zone plant that we have to grow as an annual.

Good luck with your herbs. Gardening can really soothe the soul on tough days. You get a bit of aromatherapy from just brushing against the leaves.

"It's possible that you are giving the lavender too much food, or soil that has too much compost."

Bwahahahahahah! I don't feed the stuff (or most of the plants), nor does it get compost (that only goes in the vegetable garden). It thrives in the summer, just doesn't like the winters.

That's okay, I can't overwinter a bunch of things that are zone 5, so I don't get too upset.

Sorry about my spelling Buffy. I winced just now when I reread what I originally wrote.

I am fascinated that lavender doesn't overwinter for you as over here it's known as completely hardy AND great in dry hot summer conditions too. Just how cold does it get in winter where you are?

Bay has a reputation of being a bit tender in the cold of winter but it grows for me... at least so far. I bought a baby plant down the market and for about 6 years it sat on my kitchen windowsill (fortunately it's slow growing).About 3-4 years ago I repotted it into a nice terracotta pot and now it sits outside our back door, close enough to the house automatically to get a little protection on very cold nights. And it looks really healthy.

Pimms is a traditional and popular alcoholic drink over here. To quote Wikipedia "Pimm's is especially popular in some parts of Britain, particularly Southern England, where it has an important place in popular drinking culture. It is normally regarded as a summer drink, ideal for picnics, garden parties, or for spending an afternoon in the pub. It is also popular for serving at summer sporting events, such as rowing regattas, tennis tournaments or cricket matches, and is one of the two staple drinks at the Henley Royal Regatta and the Glyndebourne opera festival, the other being champagne.
Pimm's №1 is also the essential ingredient in the Pimm's Cup, which mixes one part Pimm's №1 with two parts lemonade or lemon soda (sometimes ginger ale or Indian tonic water), ice cubes, borage leaves (nowadays a wedge of cucumber is usually substituted for this ingredient), mint leaves and slices of lemon, orange and apple." It's lovely and refreshing in warm weather served with ginger ale and it's essential to serve lots and lots of mint with it.

Bogie, it's amazing what you accomplish in your gardens given that you don't feed or compost. I know it's pretty cold there, so I'm not surprised that lavender is cranky. I guess I'll have to quit complaining about the heat here, since it makes the lavender happy!

Adele, lavender will over-winter in parts of zone 5, but apparently not all. The largest of my plants are along a brick sidewalk, and I suspect the heat the bricks absorb during the day, helps to mitigate the cold at night. I recall the gardeners at AnHerbGarden talking about lavender shrubs that were three or more feet tall, and was astonished to know that they could get that tall. I've had reasonably good luck with "Hidecote" and "Munstead," but other varieties have been more finicky.

I winter some things over in the unheated garage, up off the floor, and somethings are left outside, but wrapped. Some things are left in the ground, but trimmed back and mulched over, and others are just left to deal with the cold on their own. Serious gardeners figure out what it takes to grow and keep plants they really love. I use a lot of plants native to this area, and throw in a few that need to be babied.

Adele, the Pimm's Cup sounds fascinating. I've grown borage, and I suspect that I'd prefer the cucumber rather than a wet leaf. It almost sounds like a sangria drink.

Looking good. It's still up in the air where I'm going to spend the summer. I really want to get going with this high altitude gardening, but I thing it risky with my parents situation right now.
Things dry up in hours around here. Except when it snows 12+ inches. Were you around to see my surprise from mother nature.
Most is gone now. If the amount of moisture we've gotten in the last 6 months is any indication of what's go come it may be a great growing season!

Janet, don't you know that we only get that kind of precipitation when we don't need it!??

Yeah....it's gotta be hard trying to get a garden going when you have to spend your time between two places. Look at it this way....you can use this time while you care for your mother to bone up on xerascaping, and find the natural plants for your area.

I'm sure that we would have minimal gardens here if Elegante Mother didn't live with us. It's only because I don't have to travel to care for her that I have time to garden, and precious little of that.

I'll put my wish for adequate rain in with the Wish Fairy, for you, too!