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 !*
~~~He started re-building the dove pen this summer. Yes, I said re-building. He had built me a wonderful dove pen about 7 or 8 years ago. The pen was built around a big fir tree, and had a huge Hemlock and two other fir trees around it. During the winter storm of 2006 though, the hemlock tree and the biggest fir tree , the tree the dove pen was built around, why, those two huge trees came down, and INTO our home , through the roof and walls. This was the beginning of the worst two years of my life, and the trees through the house were nowhere near the worst part ! But that is not what this post is about, so back to the dove pen, or dovecote.
~~~My husband worked on this, when it was very, very hot outside and he was in a lot of pain. He also is not too excited about me taking his picture when he is so hot and in pain, but he stood still for me. Hubby, our son (in-law) Tom, and our #1 grandson helped clear out the rocks, and tree stumps and level the area for the new pen.
~~~You can see (above) the pen sits in front of the house. I can hear the doves from inside the house, even with the windows closed and storms howling. The doves are such a peaceful, comforting presence. "When you love someone, all your saved up wishes start coming out." Elizabeth Bowen
~~~Didn't my husband make me a lovely dovecote ? Look at the carved doves in the roof ridge. There are lights inside the pen, and we will landscape the area around it next spring. Actually, our son Tom is a talented landscape artist ( among so many other talents he has ) and he will design and help landscape this area for me at my request, as a birthday and Christmas present.
~~~I put 4 doves into the pen today, and already they are cooing. Did you know that when the doves fly they make a soft whirring noise ? Just thought that was interesting.
