A wander round the garden

ooooooh those lovely herbs, it all looks like a garden that is a wonderful place to spend time in

Thanks Sticki - I probably spend more time there than I should. Well, not really, but the house is always tidier in wet weather!

i dont think you could spend too much time in the garden

Quite right :-))) !

Lovely garden, lots of plants..:)))

Lots of assortment there, well done!

Thanks Michaella and Sheilar :-))

I love growing herbs, but I just smell them in the garden ... we don't like cooking very much.
You've got some pretty flowering plants too :o)

You garden is looking great Melchisedec. I have a camellia which is still flowering too!

What a lovely garden! Everything looks so happy and healthy!

Think your garden looks lovely.

Thanks so much Hywel, Nari and Clarice for your comments. The garden is getting a much needed drink at the moment. I am just looking out at a constant drizzle! But it has been so dry here, although I am really sorry for anyone planning jubilee celebrations, the garden is in need of rain.

Thank you for sharing your walk with us. I love the cosmos and I think you will find they will shoot up after some rain. I have just refurbished my herb bed because it was planted years ago and allowed to get too enthusiastic. I like cooking with herbs from the garden and also enjoy their flowers. My camellias are still flowering too. That is a pretty red one.

Thanks Scotsgran. I really love growing herbs. I use most of them and I also like the fact that they are so attractive to bees and butterflies. I suppose my herb bed could do with a bit of refurbishment as well, but I'm not very good at that! I think the rain is going to do a lot of good - it really has been very dry here. The camellia is quite old - it was planted in the 70s, and wasn't new then. There used to be a single white one as well, which was lovely, but that disappeared long ago.

What a lovely garden! And you're obviously a proper cook, Melchisedec, because you know how to use all those herbs - I shall be picking up hints from you from now on. Although I grow a few, and use thyme and basil occasionally, and mint for Pimm's, I've no idea when to use the marjoram (I wonder why I grow it(?) - perhaps it's for the bees?!). Thanks for the tour. :)

Oh, thank you Sheila! Marjoram is a wonderful herb!!! For a start, bees do love it, so it's well worth growing just for that. For me, I find it great in any Italian dishes. I use it wherever a recipe suggests oregano - it tastes very similar. So it's really good in a bolognese sauce, or if you're making a lasagne dish. And don't forget to put some mint in the water when you boil potatoes - especially new!

Thanks . . . I will take your advice (never make lasagne, but perhaps it will work in moussaka)! :))

:-))) - never make moussaka!!

Some lovely pics here, love your herb garden, some great ideas. Bronze fennel looks lovely, wish I'd saved the seeds from mine ! Thank you :-)))

Thank you! I didn't find the seeds as pungent as I expected, actually. I chop the foliage which is excellent. (I suppose the root is the same as the one I buy and roast, but the plant is far too valuable to me to do that!)

Gorgeous garden. Given me some inspiration for mine. Like you I feel sometimes I should be indoors cleaning out drawers or somesuch, then I feel a bit guilty! Not!! I love getting up early and just wandering around seeing whats opened up today! Even on my days I work I get up an hour earlier to do just that! Not working today and I was in the garden in my dressing gown with my coffee just looking and loving it, at 5.45am!! especially nice today as the sun is shining on the last day of my holiday!!

Glad you finally got some sun! I gaze on the garden while I wash up, and often steal outside just as it's getting dark. Once it gets hold, it's a real compulsion, isn't it?! I don't feel guilty going out when the weather's fine - the chores can be done after dark!! Mind you, I am in the happy situation of being retired - if the sun comes out, so do I!

You're a gardener after my own heart, Melchisedec but I confess that until I checked your profile, I had thought you were a gentleman. Sorry. I love all the herbs and use the ones I grow for cooking too. I have masses of marjoram, golden as well as common. I like to mix grated cheese, carrot, celery and apple(optional) with a little salad cream, light soft cheese, a touch of fruit chutney, then add marjoram leaves for a really tasty sandwich. I also often add it to other salad leaves. I put fresh mint in boiling water and add a slice of lemon for a delicious, cleansing herbal tea first thing in the morning when I'm enjoying my morning potter around the estate - I wish! I grow fennel too but haven't used it in cooking yet. I just love the texture and the movement.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful garden with us.

Thanks Tuesdaybear! Your herbs sound lovely. At the moment, I am looking out on a rainswept and windswept garden - but at least the herbs will be reasonably happy! I shall have to try your sandwich recipe! I don't mind that you thought I was male! It's my own fault for choosing such an odd name!

A lovely, mellifluous name tho'.I like it. My garden too is rain- and windswept but then, I also live in W. Lancs. It has been dreadful, so bad that I've been looking for a gite in Languedoc Rousillon for Summer holiday today and dreaming...you must have your dreams.

I do - but they seem mainly to involve Scotland, holidaywise, which probably wouldn't be ideal at the moment! I am glad that I saw the Torch relay on a good day - apparently, they're running indoors at Blackpool this evening!