A small outing

Last week I had a lovely day out with an old friend. It was a beautiful sunny day (though chilly) and we went to my favourite nursery (Poynton’s Nursery in Essendon).  We bought a few plants, ate a very nice lunch at the on-site cafe, then drove to a pot place I wanted to explore, where I bought some lovely glazed pots for a good price — some were seconds, mainly for small inconsistencies in the glaze, like a dribble or something. 

I’ve decided to have a collection of glazed pots on the back deck and grow the herbs I use most in them. See pic on the right. I can never resist those blues and greens and acquas. I was also eyeing off a gorgeous blue bird bath, but resisted. . . for the moment.

In the background you can also see some empty bonsai pots, which were my dad’s. To my shame, they’ve been sitting there since I moved here (just over 3 years.) I’ve always been a bit nervous of bonsai — they can dry out and die so quickly — but I’m going to try to grow some again. 

So in the carboard box are two little plants destined to become bonsai (I hope) and the bigger pots are for more herbs, of the sort I use all the time. I already have thyme flourishing in a sage green pot—you can see it at the back behind the small black plastic pots — and it’s so convenient when I’m cooking mushrooms or making soup or whatever, just to nip out onto the deck and grab a couple of sprigs. That’s what inspired this new collection — it’s winter and I don’t want to head out in the dark and cold to grab herbs from the vegie boxes out the front. Yes, lazy, I know.

I also planted some red sorrel, which as well as being pretty, is useful in soup, salads, drinks, fish and all sorts of dishes. It’s not exactly red — only the veins are red, but it’s called red sorrel to distinguish it from ordinary sorrel, which is all green.

It’s very pretty, don’t you think? The flavor is bright and citrussy and what I thought was one small bushy plant turned out to be a bunch of small seedlings. So I separated them and planted them in the same pot and hope they’ll flourish there. I might have to separate them in spring, but for the moment they’re fine there.

In the tall blue pot is a small lemon verbena plant. I love the fragrance of lemon verbena, and had hoped to buy a much bigger plant — I love that when you brush against a lemon verbena you get a lovely burst of scent. But alas, this small straggly plant was all I could find — and the previous two nurseries I visited in the last few weeks had none, so poor little straggly came home with me.

Basil and coriander (cilatro) are the two herbs I use most, but we’re now in winter which isn’t the best time to plant them, even though our winters are relatively mild. In any case, I generally use them to make pesto, and for that, buying a couple of bunches are the supermarket is most convenient.

I already have some herbs. I grow oregano and mint and sage in one of the vegie boxes in the front yard, and I have a large rosemary plant in a huge pot, also out the front. It was there when I moved in and is too big to move.  I brought my little potted bay tree from my old house, and that’s growing well. And I have lots of self-sown parsely growing, so there’s no need to plant any more. 

So I’m still deciding what to plant in the bigger pots on the deck. I only rarely use Vietnamese mint, so don’t want that. Same with lemon grass, which I just buy fresh from the market whenever I want some. So chives or dill, maybe, or lemon balm, or tarragon, which I like but don’t use much in my cooking. Or maybe I’ll try growing ginger — if that works at least it’ll look pretty, even if I continue buying ginger at the market. We’ll see.

Do you grow or use fresh herbs much? What are your favorites?