"Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes" ...although gardening can also drive me nuts because most of the time I don't know what I'm doing! 

So today we have mainly been harvesting! Well, of certain vegetables obviously!  You will be impressed that to accompany our roast lamb I dug or cut the following fresh from the garden:

• potatoes
• runner beans
• French beans
• mint - for sauce

However, the main task was digging up the onions and shallots, and all advice recommends this is done when all the leaves have fallen over naturally.  They then have to be kept in a hot dry place for a few weeks until the skins are also dry and papery. We will then attempt to plait into ropes (very continental!) or hang in net sacks so the air can circulate freely and they will store (hopefully) for a number of months,

As you can see from the photo (below left) Paul painstakingly 'threaded' the onions through the slats in the greenhouse bench so they have a  optimal drying situation.  Whereas I randomly placed the shallots in a vegetable tray, hoping for the best!
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"Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep".

Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967) - American poet.
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I am 5ft 4" - so how tall is this plant?!

We have a number of these mulleins throughout the garden and naturally have no clue as to where they came from.  Indeed, until only a few weeks ago, we had no idea what they were known as other than "that weird yellow one, with the furry leaves". 

However, I have now researched a bit more about the Verbascum [botanical name] and how they are valued for "their tall narrow stature and for flowering over a long period of time, even in dry soils".    

Mulleins have been used in herbal remedies for centuries and even Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656 – 1708) the French botanist who is often credited with being the first to make a clear distinction between genus and species, "devised a recipe for a treatment for dysentery by boiling the plant in water into which a blacksmith has plunged red-hot irons" (Fred Whitsey in The Telegraph).

Old records show that mullein was used by sorcerers, that poachers made fish drunk by feeding them the seeds, and that a concoction from the flowers provided a blond hair-dye.  It is claimed to help with a wide variety of ailments:  ear infections, wounds, haemorrhoids, diarrhoea, coughs, colds and pneumonia, croup, asthma and bronchitis, migraines, gout and tuberculosis.

Mulleins are also known for the softness of their light green “flannel” leaves, and were taken by early settlers to USA and used as toilet paper, and even today is often referred to as ‘cowboy toilet paper’ !

Family: Scrophulariaceae
Botanical Name: Verbascum
Common Names: mullein

It has been a busy few weeks gadding around, and I managed to eke my big birthday out over this period culminating in a small (but select) Garden Party on Saturday.  

I had put down a start time as 2.30pm thinking that nobody would turn up until 3pm.... I was wrong!  Within fifteen minutes a number of friends and family arrived with garden chairs and bottles in hand, and nabbed choice places.  Therefore, I was hot-and-bothered before it had already started trying to locate the practical things like kitchen-foil, ice-bags and serving spoons!  Thank goodness, I have very talented friends who concocted dips and nibbles, and baked fairy-cakes, rice-crispy cakes, Brownies and biscuits.... thank you (and YUMMY!).

Paul and I had spent hours over the previous week cutting the grass, strimming and weeding, watering and dead-heading, so we thought we were pretty organised, but there is always something isn't there?  The weather was good - warm but with some cloud cover, which was actually of benefit because there is no real shade to be had.  Paul had complied a 'play-list' - so the chink of glasses accompanied the strains of Mozart, Vivaldi and Elgar.... you see, we're all "growed-up" now!?!

It was so lovely to have so many guests (35) and to be able to enjoy the garden - which less than 18 months ago was a complete jungle. I have to admit we have been in "show-off" mode as it has definitely come together pretty well since the spring.  Naturally a number of people helpfully informed me of the provenance of quite a few weeds on view - but hey, I can cope with that!

​Needless to say, I started numerous conversations but didn't actually manage to finish many of them; this is the problem of hosting any kind of get-together, but I am very grateful to everyone who came, and a big "thank you" again for the lovely cards and gifts.

​Thank you!!
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