P.S. Things aren't so quiet here, even with less planes in the air! I live right under the path of LAX's incoming flights. I have a plane going over about every 5 mins, depending on the time of day! Some of them are quite low. I am about 30 miles east of the airport, but they fly right over my house on the way in!

cynergy wrote:


Hi Cyn!

Wow thats sounds like a great plant. Have u used it in teas n such? Its hard on my end here to get my hands on these herbs. Had a pineapple sage many years ago. Nice plant but can one really use it in cooking n teas?

Cheers and Imaginary/Real Chocolate for All

LG

cynergy wrote:


Hey Cynthia.

What u just said reminds me of an episode from the Simpsons where the planes were directed to fly over the Simpsons residence. :laugh:

Cheers and Imaginary/Real Chocolate For All

LG

Hi All

All this talk of beautiful plants makes me quite jealous. We have mint, rosemary, thyme, peppermint, all the basic usuals, but I also like basil, coriander, and the sort of herbs that grow around the Med, and they just aren't hardy here. They have to be windowsill herbs during the summer. Coriander on salad with smoked salmon remains a summer treat!!!

Cyn, your work sounds so interesting, work with fulfillment, and I'd love to see any photos you post.
Shame you didn't get a bit of peace from air traffic, I would think the people who live under the flight path to Heathrow had a very welcome period of quiet. I didn't notice any difference because all planes that go over here are already too high to hear.
The news reports now are filled with squabbling over should they or shouldn't they, have closed airspace, seems that some people value money over safety - sigh!!
Between disgruntled air passengers and a general election there is no news, so I listen to even less than I did before.

Anyone seen Ladyb?

Love, Max

Hi Sky! The NZ spinach grows wild in the coastal areas here. When I lived on the Calif. central coast, it was growing wild in my yard, and I didn't know what it was. I looked it up and found out that it was edible. I used it in some stir fry, and it was delicious. I live inland now, and don't have as much acsess to it. Good stuff! I'm amazed that it isn't sold in markets, at least not here.

Hi Deb, the wooly blue curls can take the heat, but doesn't tolerate summer moisture very well. It does really well in drought prone areas. The chocolate mint would do well, with a little part shade in summer. This is what it looks like.


Hi LG, yes the wooly blue curls makes very nice tea, good for colds or flu, but it would be very difficult to find outside of Calif. Even here, You pretty much have to go out and pick your own! The pineapple sage is more available. It is also good for colds and flu, it is related to the wooly blue curls, both being members of the mint-sage family, along with rosemary! Mint is great for stomach problems and headaches. The sages (Salvias), are good for headaches and sweating fevers. There are a couple of Salvias to be careful of, though most are completely safe. There are lots of recipes on-line for chocolate mint and pineapple sage. Think of them as cousins!

Hi Max, Glad you enjoy the pics, I love sharing my plant friends with my people friends! I love working with the plants, but getting paid for it is pretty sporadic at this point. It's mostly volunteer work for now, so I pet sit to supplement my income. I'm working on marketing my native plant landscaping and restoration guides, and have a really good feeling about it! I also lead nature walks, and I spend a lot of time at the conservancy greenhouse planting, transplanting, pruning, and weeding. I give occasional plants talks and demonstrations too. I don't know where that little gad-about Ladybird went! Yesterday, at the drug store, I found a Russell Stover chocolate covered marshmallow egg for 75% off. The best part was, the marshmallow part was chocolate too! It was the best one I ever had, and I thought of Ladybird while enjoying it. I'll have to stock up on those next year!
Cheers, Cyn

Hello, Kittycats.

Cyn, the woolly blue curls do look beautiful. I may have to track some down. If I can't find it, I know the answer to whether it will survive our humidity. I have a big dry area that is mostly sand (where the false rosemary grows). There are even prickly pear cacti growing wild there. I'm always looking for things I don't have to water constantly.

If pineapple sage doesn't survive dry climates, it explains why it does so well in my boggy back yard. It's growing and multiplying there. It doesn't seem to mind the heat of our summers either.

Max, that's pretty funny to me that you would be yearning for things you can't grow in your area. To me, the UK is the Mecca of gardening--the Gold Standard. I tried to emulate an English Garden here, and it all wilted in the heat of our endless summer. I actually caught the gardening bug when I lived in England. Everyone had such nice gardens (in the US they were still doing the fifties' perfect-lawn-with-geometric-shrubbery thing). I was clueless about gardening, and had the saddest English garden you'd ever seen. But, I caught the bug. So I'm always looking for heat-tolerant things to plant. I even found a French lavender that claims to survive our brutal summers. I can grow coriander in the spring, but it fades away by the time summer rolls around.

I'm glad you never hear the planes, Max. Cyn, I don't envy you being in the flight path of LAX. I'm closer to our airport, but not nearly as many planes fly into Pensacola.

I'm sure Sylvia is tending her koi pond right now, but where is our Ladybird?

Later, Kitties.

Deb ~ FMcT