Tisane Time

I'm writing this little blog entry as I sip the Stash brand green/white tea blend. Even though I have these herbal tea concoctions sitting right here. Guess I'm feeling lazy today.

In my inbox arrived a few articles on growing "tea herbs" - just in time as I'm planning garden beds for the BCC garden and Swansons Nursery has a perennial/herb sale August 17-Sep 3. The mint planted next to the house is doing alright (of course it is) but I'm moving out of here in 20 days. Once the tomatoes and corn get harvested in the community garden there's going to be a lot of space to work with. We currently have oregano, sage, curry and rosemary in the garden. There are also four round containers filled with strawberries that would perhaps be better suited to herbs.



But the question is what herbs can be planted now that will be hardy to overwinter? I won't be growing anything indoors. Don't really have space for that, or don't want to bother, or something. Tilth's Maritime Guide doesn't list anything except cilantro. An article from 2006 in Seattle Times recommends bay, rosemary and parsley. Swanson's recommends veggies, cilantro and garlic. Perhaps I should focus on the "Top Ten Herb" list designed by Herb Society of America. If the plant is a perennial, it's worth a try, I guess. Not that I would drink those regularly for tea.

Perhaps each container can have a theme... Hmm... Tisane's gonna be one of them.

"The Gardeners" Take "The Garden"

At BCC, we now have an official "special interest group" to last us through the rest of the school year in the form of a garden club. On Tuesday we met, and the winner of the rock paper scissors contest decided our club is called "The Gardeners" and the name of the garden is "The Garden". The way he put it was, "it's just really simple, and really good". I couldn't agree more. On Friday, we passed notes in the back of the room while Dr Suess was airing on the TV and came up with a flyer for The Garden. I said I would pull it together on my computer at home and have it ready for the next Tuesday meeting. Check out the logo below! The kids love making flyers for various clubs and activities, they typicaly handwrite them with pencil. This will be the first computer generated flyer (mostly) designed by the kids since I've worked here, and it will be interesting to observe what the response is.

But I really don't appreciate this computer-generated logo. I like what the kids designed by hand. So maybe the lettering on the flyer should be typed and leave a blank circle for them to draw the logo.

Purchased Commitment

The group seed order was cancelled last Thursday in lieu of being coordinated on google document. I'm taking it as a sign that my real desire not to order through Territorial is simply manifesting itself. Just ordered seeds online from Abundant Life. The final selection is (in addition to Aslan's sunflower and snap pea):

Ura pole bean, Major bush bean, Rote Kugel beet, Spring Mix greens, Sora radish, French sorrel, German chamomile, Mammoth dill - the beans, beet and radish are biodynamic seed

The final draft bed plan is here:

The bed plan

So first of all here's a rough sketch of where each family will be planted. Those highlighted green represent beds undergoing change. The beds previously occupied with beans, peas and sunflowers are being rotated. I'm removing some of the strawberries on the edge that didn't grow well and planting beans/peas. Not sure if that will shade out the producing strawberry plants but at least they are partial to shade. When Dita sees this she will immediately see some of the beds have been resized - there are numerous beds that have been broken down into smaller sizes. I did that back in the fall. It adds a little character I guess. And walk space. A permaculture enthusiast wouldn't be that impressed since there aren't any curves.

On another note I've been keeping that Best Garden Blogs book in the back of my mind. I googled that and came across a couple websites. Will continue to check that out and follow what I can. It only makes sense.

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