WINTER IN THE HERB GARDEN

Most days I go out into the herb garden to pick herbs for the kitchen. At this time of the year there is parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, the ever abundant garlic chives and rosemary, which are all good herbs for winter cooking.

Parsley has done a magnificent job of reseeding itself. It is even growing in the pathway cracks. You can never have too much parsley.

Oregano gets cut back several times a year to make sure it stays round and bushy with fresh leaves. Most of my kitchen uses are for dried oregano which I make from the fresh young leaves but I also use fresh oregano chopped with parsley and thyme in herbed polenta. A little goes a long way.

Dried oregano is wonderful when roasting butternut squash. Drizzle the cut side of the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a couple of pinches of the dried crushed oregano.
 

Sage also was trimmed back this winter so has plenty of fresh new growth. I love to use the fried leaves on top of risotto. This one is the common culinary sage, Salvia officinalis.

It has the added bonus of beautiful sprays of blue flowers in the spring.

S.officinalis flowers. Late March

This one is Salvia officinalis "Berggarten" which has the more rounded leaves. It can also be used in the kitchen although it has a stronger flavor. I use it mainly to add leaf interest to the garden.

I also have a very compact cultivar S. officinalis "minimus" which I have used at the front of the beds.

There is a small thyme bed at the base of the pillar planter. I try to grow a variety of thymes including lemon, variegated silver and German thyme.I shall have to replenish some of these thymes this spring. They get very woody with age.

Alyssum brings some welcome color into the winter garden as well as a sweet fragrance on warm sunny days.

Rosemary is just beginning to flower. For some unknown reason we lost most of our rosemary during the summer. I need to take cuttings this year to replace them.

This week was a tough week for me. Blood work, infusions, met with radiologist, a nuclear injection, followed by surgery on Thursday to remove the cancer and the sentinel nodes. Things are looking good and the preliminary biopsy on the lymph nodes showed the cancer had not spread. I await confirmation of this and the findings on the biopsy of the lumpectomy. Clear margins mean I will move on to the next phase-30 days of radiation! I started the weekend with a much lighter heart and really ready to get back out in the garden. It is perfect timing for the spring garden.

HERALDING IN A NEW YEAR AND A NEW DECADE

In the words of Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" That sums up my feelings about 2019. We had exciting travel, wonderful visits with family and friends but a ghastly 4 months of chemotherapy. Then on December 17th my final round of Big Chemo. It can only get better from now on and into 2020.

I even managed to do a little gardening on my good days. I have a good winter vegetable garden with lots of broccoli, chard, kale and pak choi. The broccoli is almost ready to pick-a lot earlier this year than other years.

The pak choi is full and juicy and was often on the menu over the holidays.

The red cabbage are starting to form heads,

The cardoon that grew in one of the beds last year is back again. It will take up the whole of this one bed but worth it for the striking flower heads.

I am not without having made a New Year resolution for 2020. I will keep the pathways clear in the vegetable garden. It won't be easy as already hundreds of Ca poppies are sprouting, along with blanket flowers and feather grasses. Well! maybe just one or two will get to stay!
Next week begins part two of my treatment as I head to surgery. Fingers crossed.