As promised, a green-and-growing-things update. ( I use the terms 'green' and 'growing' loosely.)
The heat is making differences apparent. The dill is just plain weird. It wants to take over the world. I keep cutting it back, it keeps reaching for the sky (and the other herbs--like menacing leafy little hands, creepy). Then bits turn brown, then it recovers and goes back to green. At the end of summer, I'll harvest it and distribute to neighbours and friends. I won't grow it again. As for the parsley, it's temperamental: a high maintenance diva. I might not bother with this again, either. The mint, eh, I've nothing against it but it's the wrong kind. So, ditto. But, oh, the marjoram and the thyme and sage, those are delicious, even-tempered, and very possibly Seattle-winter-resistant. So I'll be trying to find room to transplant those sometime next month. (The sage goes brilliantly with roast pork. I might try it with fried pork and grilled pork in the next few weeks.) The basil is indescribably tasty--but I know it won't last beyond the next few weeks. I think I'll cut the lot for Kelley's birthday and make something luscious.
Here are the front herbs: the not-particularly-tasty variety of sage (hardy, though) and the don't-know-how-we-'d-get-along-without-it rosemary. The rosemary nearly died a year or so ago; apparently there was some kind of blight in Seattle and the rosemary of everyone we know died. Anyway, the reason it's a bit of an odd shape is that to save it we had to perform radical surgery and it's taking its time to recover.
The front, by the driveway. The grass is getting very brown because we always feel guilty when we water it, so we don't. Much. It always comes back in October, though.
This is the wee border by the front porch: roses, Japanese maple, and so on. The roses are doing better this year--they keep blooming and dying back and blooming again: months and months of flowers. Lovely.
Here's a close-up of some yellow flower I don't have a name for. (Some kind of lily?) I like it.
This is some kind of herby thing, too, I think. I just keep forgetting what. Anyone have any notions?
The green should start greening soon. Apparently we can expect a 20-degree drop in temperature by tomorrow, and rain on and off for a few days. It's been a confusing summer, even for Seattle.
