After frosty weather into mid-May, we suddenly have hot sunny days. There are so many things to do around the garden and now it’s easy to get overheated. I have been weeding and sorting through the perennial flower beds, watching my raised vegetable beds sprout, and pulling dandelions from the lawn.

Today I decided to reno the herb garden. It’s a small rockery on a steep slope. It’s about an eight foot drop with a two foot depth – so it’s steeper than the picture looks. If I remembered my trigonometry, I could probably tell you the angle of the slope. All I know is that I can only work on the bottom half from the bottom, and the top half by bending down the hill. I feel faint after working with my head down the hill for too long.

Last year the herb garden was a fun project, and we brought lots of herbs inside to winter in the kitchen. We had a slow start cooking with herbs through the winter, but now that we are into our pandemic cooking projects we are completely hooked on fresh herbs. Our huge flat leafed parsley was whittled down to nothing by the time spring rolled around. Fortunately there is plenty of fresh curly leafed parsley now growing in the herb garden already.

It was difficult to tell which plants were herbs and which ones were weeds today. So I spent the day grabbing a leaf, giving it a sniff to see if I recognized it as an herb, and then pulling it if it was absolutely not an herb. I needed to be brutal with the herbs, as this year it’s time to get serious.

Curly leaf parsley, lemon thyme, feverfew and chives came back aggressively. I was hoping that oregano or basil would have self-seeded and popped up in the garden – but no luck. There were so many plants that looked like basil and thyme, but had no scent – so I happily pulled them. I cut the grass back further, and applied fresh earth.

I was surprised to find Tarragon had returned – but in just a few sprigs.

It was also fun to find Strawberry Mint – I had forgotten about it – but it smelled so much like strawberries.

Finally, I rearranged the perennial herbs, and planted some of my herb seedlings – tiny dill sprouts, flat leaf parsley, oregano and basil. There are some mystery herb seedlings as well. I really need to learn to label. I’m still missing rosemary, but I think I will grab some sage and lavender from my flower beds.

Happy May!