Well I was so rushed getting out my post yesterday that I forgot to talk about my rosemary. I have a "hardy" rosemary. The tag says that it is hardy to zone 6. They of course say that to sucker us zone 6ers into buying it and assuming it will actually live over the winter. Many sites say it is only hardy to zone 7. Two years ago I tried to overwinter it in my zone 6b garden. It died of course. Ever the optimist, I bought another one. It grew well enough for its first year, shoved in between the chives, oregano, lemon balm and creeping thyme.
In fact it looked wonderful, so I picked a bunch to dry. Oh how wonderful my kitchen smelled yesterday as the scent wafted through the air. It was heavenly. I was happy to throw out my old dried rosemary. It really didn't smell much of rosemary anymore. That vague green scent could have just as easily been dried parsley. Which reminds me that I really have to go through my spice cabinet and replace the herbs that I don't grow.
Today my garden was a much less happening place. I woke up to the sound of a few drops of rain. The dark sky thought about it, but really didn't do anything. Our forcast is for a few showers on and off all afternoon and evening. I really hope we get more than a vague impression of rain. It hasn't rained in over two weeks. I've watered my vegetable garden in that time, but would love to skip Sunday's watering if I can. Plus I don't water the fruit garden or anywhere else for that matter and they are starting to look dry. It took two weeks to dry out the soil, but we are there. Now we need rain again.
I had a nice little haul of eggplant, yellow squash and beans this morning. The best part though was picking the cucumbers. My late planted ones (the three front plants starting to climb the trellis) finally are putting out their first cukes. The old ones (at the top of the trellis and working their way back down) have lost their lower leaves, but are still producing more leaves and cukes. I'm drowning in cucumbers. But never fear. I make all the ones I can't eat fresh into refridgerator pickles. And I've found a friend that says he will take all the excess pickles I have. Thats good. I have a couple extra jars right now. My pickles are not canned, so only keep about a month and a half in the fridge and I can only eat so many. I need to start canning again.
Rosemary has got to be one of the most wonderful smells on the planet. So refreshing. Can you cover yours with a cloche or cloth in the winter to try to help it survive? I'm in Zone 8 so I don't have to do that, but maybe it would help?? Good luck!
ReplyDelete- Karen
http://greenwalks.wordpress.com
I agree with Karen. I love the smell of rosemary.. We had to pull out our cucumber plants today. All the leaves died and it stopped producing, but we did have a steady supply of cucumbers for two months. So that was nice. My family eats cucumbers like they are potato chips. We eat and eat and there's never a need to can.
ReplyDeleteI've never attempted to grow rosemary but it is very fragrant!
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous of all your cukes! We had a single plant this year and it died! We were getting a ton of cukes from our CSA though so we went through a lot of refigerator pickles ourselves. Two people can only eat so many pickles! I just got a water bath canner and have experimented with it twice, I hope to be able to do canned pickles next summer.
Karen: I might try that this year. I've tried thick mulch, but that doesn't work. Maybe a row cover or other cover will work.
ReplyDeletedp: oh I'm so sorry about your cukes, but two months is pretty good. Usually mine are gone my now too.
Jennifer: Yes you can only eat so many pickles. But that is quite a lot :>