New herb bed

Yesterday I did something I’d been wanting to do for a couple of years – I went to one of Jekka’s Open Days. She has five weekends over the year when she opens her farm to visitors, and the September open days are the last ones of the season.

I did some homework and had a little shopping list so that I wouldn’t be completely flummoxed when I got there, but even so it was hard not to be confused by the wealth of plants on display. Especially since they were all laid out on the ground, so you had to bend down to read the labels :(

Although it was sunny when we set off (and when we returned), it was horribly humid at the farm and pretty busy, so we didn’t stay long. I picked up six new herbs in the end, five of which were from my list and one of which was an impulse purchase.

I bought a Buddleia mint (Mentha longifolia), which has lovely flowers that attract bees and hoverflies and which are good for flower arranging – it’s not a culinary herb, but I aleady have several varieties of culinary mint in the garden.

I picked up two wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) – one which bears red fruit and one with white. Wild strawberries spread bu runners (as opposed to the Alpine strawberries that I already have), and so I will be able to pot those up to make more plants or go for the lazy option and let them roam and simply pull them up where they’re not wanted.

A plant I’ve wanted for a while is Siberian chives (Allium nutans), because they have lovely blue flowers, so I added one to my basket.

I also picked up a Stevia Stevia rebaudiana, which was the only plant I bought which is not a hardy perennial – it will have to live indoors over the winter, along with my perennial basil.

And my impulse purchase was a Buckler leaf sorrel. I already have two different sorrels. One (Rumex acetosa) came from the HSL and the humans in the household find it too sharp, although the chickens eat it like there’s no tomorrow. I also have some newly planted blood veined sorrel (R. sanguineus), which is very pretty but we haven’t tried to eat it yet. According to Jekka, Buckler leaf sorrel (R. scutatus) has a flavour like green apples, so I’m hoping we will like it better.

When we got home we planted up some of my new purchases with some of my existing herbs in my new herb bed. There is going to be a second herb bed, slightly higher up the garden, where I will put the herbs that like it drier, so this bed is for herbs that like it slightly wetter. I included French tarragon and feverfew with the new chives, sorrel and wild strawberries. I dithered a bit about the placements, but I can always move things around later if they’re not quite right.