Herbs and fungus potato.....

I have a very small amount of herbs this year due to lack of diligence on my part. I had started several from seed back in February and they dutifully got fried in the hot, May sun one day while we were off playing music at an all day festival. When we got back, I had fried dill, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, and one or two others I don't want to think about.

However, the lavender and a small amount of rosemary I had started lucked out and obviously went off sometime during the day to find some shade.

Lemon balm - my first year growing and I've discovered since it's in the mint family, it spreads like mint. Oops...

White sage started with the others back over the winter. This is not used in cooking, but, it is for burning. I'll make smudge sticks with this if I am fortunate enough to have it grow and flourish. I found one great use is that it is aces in keeping bugs away and I enjoy the fragrance of sage a zillion times over citronella.

More rosemary - store bought. I know, shame on me. I couldn't help it. I love rosemary.

Lemon thyme. New herb for me. Hey, what do I have to lose?

So, that's the big tour of the herbs. If I get inspired, I'll probably restart some of the others I lost.

Pictured above is part of a very expensive lesson. I purchased my organic seed potato's from Seed Saver's this year. I splurged and bought four different varieties with the mindset that I have a lot more room for taties now that we've put in the raised bed garden. Oh, and what good Irishwoman wouldn't have taties?

So, after receiving the seed potato's, the well intended gardener dutifully put them out to grow eyes and lovingly returned them inside at night.

On a bright, sunny Saturday morning a couple of weeks later, the well intended gardener sat and cut all the taties up on the above-pictured table and let them sit to "cure" with thoughts of putting them in the garden the next morning.

The well intended gardener went through the day puttering around the yard and gardens, doing chores, talking to the birds and bees and telling all the plants how wonderful they all are. It was indeed a picture, perfect day. But, (enter bad guy music) good ole Mother Nature decided to have a sense of humor and bestow upon us some much needed rain. The well intended gardener quickly gathered all the cut taties and put them back in the mesh bags they were shipped in and brought them inside so they wouldn't get wet and moldy.

Forward two weeks later, taties still inside in mesh bags, gardener no where to be seen.

Finally, the well intended gardener came back to her taties, tells them how sorry she is and that she has just been sooo busy and then happily takes the "taties who forgave her" out to be put in the ground only to discover they had a fungus among us. Quickly, the well intended gardener hits the interenet. Google - planting moldy potato's. Oh, it was ugly. There was no way to resusitate the moldy taties without contaminating the soil in which they were to grow.

So, the well intended gardener now hangs her head in shame at the death of the little taties and consequently will not have them grace her garden. It's a stiff punishement, but, it fits the crime.