Thursday Tea In The Garden ~ Blue Bottle Herb Garden



Summer is here and it appears the extreme heat we're experiencing is here to stay until fall. I have been out working in my gardens early in the morning . I did not have tea in the garden, instead I had my morning coffee loaded with real cream. I remembered my garden hat too. I have suffered heat sickness far too many times in my life to risk being miserable simply because I forgot my hat.

 The morning is a good time in the herb garden. I have a bright blue umbrella to shade me and so much to watch as I sip coffee, tea, or cold beverages. My husband & I often read there together in the early evenings.

 I hung a little pocket of sedums on one of the blue bottle trees.

 The sage , lovage, and oregano are growing and ready to pick for yummy summer meals.

 My chives , transplants from my husband's father's garden many years ago, needed pruning. I've cleaned and chopped the prunings up for the freezer to plop into stews and soups later. The chives will grow up again soon for more fresh cuttings.

 This old chair sits at one of the gates to the garden and opens up into wet land where wildlife seems to thrive. Coyotes and raccoons also love to use this area as access to our poultry and livestock.

 Red squirrel helping herself to the sunflower seeds from the feeder we keep full. She appears to be a nursing mama and was not at all afraid of me. She ate seeds as I watered my herbs within a few feet of her.

 A little brown bunny ate herbs and fallen birdseed while I sipped my coffee. She was not afraid of me either.

" I myself have a coffee memory . It works best when fed large quantities of freshly roasted and ground caffeine. Early in the morning it's the only way it works at all. " A.J. Orde
 You might enjoy sipping your tea or coffee while visiting Judith *'s  Lavender Cottage Garden and for an enchanting armchair trip to England check out Nib's End *. 

Work & Rest ~True Gifts

 Sun dial in our Blue Bottle Garden. We bought it many years ago especially for this garden and placed it in the bed of thyme. It is surprisingly accurate if you situate it according to the compass direction of north to south and it is a sunny day.

 The garden really does look sparse after severe weeding and culling of plants, but the bare bones of the garden are pleasing to me. The white-framed window to the middle right of the photo was once our living room picture window. It was cracked from side to side after a very big earthquake we had in this area a few years ago.  After removing and replacing it into our herb garden I am still happy with it there and have my plans for it later.

 Bright green plant in the bottom center is a lilac bush.

 Blue bottle tree , blue bottle markers, blue bottles. ( I see a theme here .)

 Sage

 Lovage

 Oregano

 Bronze fennel

 Chives

 I ran out of scalloped bricks to line the herb bed, but the herbs in this bed ( shown above ) were all transplanted from the old beds. I did not buy any new pots of herbs because the herbs I have are doing very well, they just needed a good weeding and placing into different spots of the garden that will benefit them.

 This shows where the herb garden ( Blue Bottle Garden) is in proximity to our house. I can look out of our bedroom window and see my herb garden , a delight for me every morning.

On the other side of the hedges out of view of Blue Bottle Garden,but in full view from our living room, is the fountain with the two doves my husband & I bought to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. How appropriate for us to watch hummingbirds court and bathe in this fountain, and swallows and  sparrows check out the birdhouse above the fountain as a possible new home for them and their young. Our Blue Bottle Garden brings us much joy. We sit together in the garden and watch the parakeets in the aviary, the hummingbirds at the feeders there, enjoy the herbs in our cooking, and from our living room watch the drama of bird life . We truly believe if everyone had a small patch of land to garden and a small window to observe the everyday blessings of their endeavors, this world would be a better place. A little bit of work that satisfies the soul and also gives a weary body the need for rest and a true deep and restful sleep . Blessed and peaceful sleep , a true gift from God.

Blue-Bottle Herb Garden

 The dovecote my husband built me for my herb garden makes me happy . I especially love the detailing in the roof ridge that mirrors the roof ridges he put into our larger dovecote , the goat house, and also the grape & kiwi arbors.

 I keep only 2 doves in my herb garden, my Blue Bottle Herb Garden. You can see how we decided on the name...

 ...there are blue bottles everywhere in this garden.

 These blue bottles are holding the prongs of upside down tomato cages together to form supports for my comfrey . Comfrey loves to get big and floppy , and does so very quickly, often taking over this shady corner of my herb garden if left unattended too long. I use a lot of comfrey for my livestock, poultry, and also make poultices out of it for my feet which have a tendency to get very dry and crack & bleed. Comfrey poultices are great for this. ( I will do another post on this later.)

 Our dog Hawk keeps me company as I weed the garden.

 This old bike holds an old milk crate stuffed with blue bottles and flowers. It is leaning up against a picture window we had to replace after a big earthquake here a few years ago caused the window to split & crack. I like the window in this garden and it helps  keep the woods on the other side of the garden fence at bay.

 Fennel has a lovely licorice scent and thrives in my garden. The fennel has seeded itself in other parts of the herb garden too. It is like growing feathers ! You can see some of the sage and Lady's Mantle growing at the foot of the fennel.

 Lovage also thrives here. I have metal cages and stakes around and through the lovage to keep it from bending and breaking. I love this herb. It tastes like celery, the leaves are yummy chopped up and used in salads, eggs, soups. Anything celery adds flavor to would benefit from lovage. It has a little stronger celery taste, so not too much is needed. The stems grow up to 6 feet in my garden and are hollow so if you strip them of leaves ( or not ) you can use the stems as straws in any drink you might garnish with celery such as tomato juice, delicious!

 My rosemary grows quickly in this garden, and thrives all year, even in the coldest winters. Since my older rosemary plants are now unruly bushes I decided to start 2 new rosemary bushes and encourage them to be more orderly and well-behaved. I placed a large tomato cage upside down over rosemary planted in a large pot. The blue bottle holds the prongs of the cage together. I like the touch of blue it adds.

My blue bird bath sits in the thyme portion of the garden, along with a sun-dial ( not shown here). There are several varieties of thyme in this garden and when they bloom it looks like the bird-bath is perched on a beautiful carpet of color. Our honeybees love the thyme garden especially. My Blue Bottle Garden is a source of herbs my husband and I use for cooking . Some of the herbs are especially beneficial to our health. The garden is also a place of delight on sunny days to soak up the sights, sounds, and scents of Cedar Pond . God is so good and we are truly blessed !

I am joining the Thursday Farm Blog-Hop*. Please check out all the blogs offering useful and inspirational information regarding all things farm,gardening, crops, food preservation keeping poultry & livestock...decorating too. You don't need to have a farm to appreciate all you can learn as you visit these blogs !*

Spot on Laughing Dove Cafe ( Herb Garden )

~~Detail on my dove pen in the herb garden. We call our herb garden Laughing Dove Cafe. ~~ ~~~Autumn is here, my herb garden is covered in leaves and I have just now begun to harvest herbs I should have attended to a month or so ago. Here ( below ) is a front view of the dove pen my Hubby made me for my birthday a few years ago. Every day now I find there are wild doves in the herb garden, they seem to be seeking the company of my penned doves. They also eat the seed my doves scatter and spill outside their pen.

~~~"See how that pair of billing doves with open murmurs own their love and heedless of censorious eyes , pursue unpolluted joys ; no fears of future want molest the downy quiet of their nest." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

~~~One of the bottle trees my Hubby made me. I collect blue bottles.~~~

~~~The other blue bottle tree in my herb garden.~~~

~~~I have a variety of herbs and really, if I pay attention to the weather and remember to harvest my herbs BEFORE frost sets in, why...I would have no need to buy most of the herbs and seasonings called for in many recipes. Here I have cut some Rosemary and 2 varieties of oregano. Hmmm....spaghetti sounds yummy right now. ~~~Lady's Mantle :"A hardy perennial that grows in Northern temperate climes, lady's mantle grows no higher than 12 ". "....Early in the morning , what appears to be drops of dew collect in the furrows of the leaves. Horses and sheep are said to find the plant tasty but they will not touch it until these "dew drops" have disappeared. Resembling minute crystal balls the sparkling drops of moisture are produced by the plant itself and were thought to have magical powers in the Middle Ages. Known as 'water from heaven' the drops would be carefully collected and used by an alchemist in his search for the philosopher's stone. Hence this dainty little plant bears the Latin name Alchemilla which is derived from the word alchemy.The common name , lady's mantle, has it's origins in the Middle Ages when it was one of the many plants dedicated to the Virgin Mary." from THE COUNTRY DIARY HERBAL , by Sarah Hollis ~~~Here is some of my Lady's Mantle. It thrives here and when I have to clear out a lot of it I toss it to my sheep who eat it like it is candy. My chickens eat it too. I once followed the recipe for Lady's Mantle tea which is supposed to help alleviate ,ahem...ladies' problems.....anyway, the tea smelled so foul and was so repulsive, I decided I was fine and dandy and did not need any remedy for what ailed me after all..thank-you very much !

~~~Here is my sage bed, in front of my pink chair.~~~

~~~The sundial in our herb garden. I am sure glad we do not have to rely on sun dials to tell time or season. Here in Washington you really can't count on the sun making an appearance to help you schedule any appointments or even tell when it is lunch time. ~~~"Herbs can be tucked into existing flower borders, vegetable beds or decorative pots. As adaptable plants, many will grow happily on a balcony or patio, or even indoors. When more space is available , a separate area set aside for herbs often becomes a special place for peace and enchantment." The Complete Book Of Herbs by Leslie Bremness