Herbaria (September 14, 2012)

I took a break from posting the Herbaria recently. I did continue shooting the photos so I am resuming where I left off a few weeks back. This week marks more tomatoes. All varieties have come in and many were already starting to wane at the time of this photo a few weeks back. It’s

Herbaria (September 3, 2012)

Again you are looking at last week’s photo, shot just before I took off for a road trip to teach a workshop at Margaret Roach’s garden in the Berkshires. The garden was fairly unruly and overgrown before I left, but nothing like it is right now. Total mayhem! I’m not exaggerating. Even the dog doesn’t

Herbaria (August 31, 2012)

The hot peppers are in their prime, the late season tomatoes are ripening faster than I can use them, the sun is setting earlier in the evening (no more gardening until 10pm) and even the tomatillos are not far now. All of the hallmarks of the September garden have arrived. I am trying my best

Herbaria (August 22, 2012)

This week (now catching up on last week) I’ve focussed on Zonal Geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum). Zonals are the colorfully patterned, but stinky cousins of the wonderfully scented pelargoniums aka Scented Geraniums. I’m a scented geranium fan and always grow several each year (I will feature those soon), but I have never been into the

Herbaria (August 17, 2012): The All Tomato Edition

This week’s Herbaria, which you will notice is (once again) last week’s Herbaria, is all about tomatoes. Several varieties ripened at once this week and canning has begun. I am writing this at the airport while I wait for a flight and unfortunately there is one new variety in this batch whose name I can

Herbaria (August 10, 2012)

Again I am posting last week’s herbaria late. Tomatoes made their mark for a second week, especially since I am now bringing in harvests that are large enough to be preserved. For the first year ever we have had overlap and are still eating jars from last year’s mega crop! Zucchinis are the other standout

Herbaria (August 3, 2012)

The week was marked by the first serious spurt of larger tomatoes. I have started weighing them now as I generally don’t weigh the cherry or currant varieties unless I am bringing in a big glut all at once. It looks like it will be a good year, but I don’t expect to beat 2011’s

Herbaria (July 27, 2012)

The theme for this week, Purple/Red/Burgundy, is an intentional one. It started when I chose a few plants that were all the same hue and then I figured, Why not? Let’s go with a theme. Turns out I could do this theme for weeks. It’s a popular colour in my garden.

Herbaria (July 20, 2012)

The theme for this week is fruit. Fruit as a plant part as opposed to fruits such as strawberries and bananas, although you’ll notice some of those, too. It seems that fruit — some edible and some not — is forming in every corner of the garden. Flower diversity is still high, it’s just that

Herbaria (July 13, 2012)

Once again work deadlines have pushed last week’s Herbaria into this week. Still, I was sure to take the photograph last week — it just took me until this week to do the write-up. This collection marks the 8th box that I have done so far. I figured it was high time to write up

Herbaria (July 6, 2012)

As you can see from the photo, this week’s garden was dominated by the invasion of the pom-pom flowers. The other major development is the heat. It is absolutely blazing out right now. In fact was already so hot by noon (when I took this photo) that I had to switch out one of my