Herbal Frogspawn

WALKING home from school one morning after heavy rain, Alexander and I noticed something strange on our morning "snack bush". This is a huge lemon basil plant at the front of a neighbour's garden, which never seems to mind sparing a leaf or two as we breeze past. This day, however, it seemed to have been showered with frog spawn. The strange gelatinous lumps with a black speck in the middle were sprinkled all over the leaves, and piled in masses on the ground beneath the plant. We thought they might be some insect eggs, then on a hunch I checked the basil plants in our garden. Nothing like that to be seen on the regular Italian basil, but yes - the Thai basil and lemon basil both had the same frog spawn. To the internet I went a-running! Turns out the seeds swell with water (rain). In fact, they can be used to make a delicious drink by mixing the seeds with water and sweetening with a little sugar or honey to taste. Naturally we had to try it, and we found it was similar to drinking chia seeds in water, or bubble tea, which uses tapioca. Apparently this drink is common in Thailand, where it is also sold in cans. "Thai basil seed drink" is not especially original, but it does sound more appetizing than "frog spawn drink".

Preserving Herbs

IT'S funny what things we take for granted that children know. A few weeks ago Emma and Alexander helped me harvest mint, rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil and Thai basil in our garden then bundle them and hang them up to dry. Today we were preparing old glass shop-bought herb jars to store them when Emma suddenly looked at me with a mixture of astonishment and revelation: "Mama, you mean herbs in the garden are the same thing as herbs in jars?"

Caterpillar Discoveries

WHAT an amazing diversity of caterpillars we've seen recently! If you ever want to send a family into a frenzy, put an interesting caterpillar close by. Emma goes running for our caterpillar field guide. Alexander runs to investigate, wants to pick it up, squeeze it, check out its underside, put it in his pocket or sometimes make it a bed. I run to gently guide this inquisitiveness into more caterpillar-friendly activities. When reassured that our little friend is safe, I run to get the camera. Come back, take photos, look it up in the book and ... well sometimes find out that the little friend is actually ravishing my vegetables and kinda sorta wish I hadn't got to Alexander in time. Now how to remove the offending creature without sending very confusing messages to the children....?

Shown are a salt marsh caterpillar on ironweed (seen close to river) and a tobacco horn worm on my tomatoes! The size is not due only to perspective; the caterpillar was actually about 4" long. It sat on one tomato plant for about four days before mysteriously disappearing (not by me - it really did disappear). It was so well disguised, it looked exactly like a curled up leaf.

Swamp Hibiscus

LAST year I acquired a swamp hibiscus. Only after I got it home, did I read the label and see that it needs a damp environment. No way would this survive in our dry garden!

So imagine my surprise when the plant not only thrived, but we found a bud on it. Then a few days later, a glorious red bloom! The plant has since flowered three times, each time lasting only two days, but so beautiful!

Snack Garden

OUR vegetable garden has not been prolific, to say the least. And the few vegetables that have grown have not made it to the kitchen. The latest two vegetables - a red pepper and a cucumber - were on their way to the kitchen, via four little hands, when they fell into two little mouths. It's snack time Mama!

Caterpillar Invasion

THERE'S not much left of our lawn. It's patchy parched grass, but still some little moth and her friends thought it would be a great place to lay their eggs. For when we went outside this morning, the lawn, patio and brick wall were covered in little caterpillars. The closest we could find in our field guide was army worm, though this is usually found in agricultural fields. So if anyone knows what this is, please let me know! We collected some in a large plastic jar with some grass, but the caterpillars didn't fare well in the heat so we released them again. They were around for only two days, then vanished again. Could they have all been eaten in this time? Where did they go?

Herbal Delights

WE expect great things from our garden this year! Our vegetable patch is way too full of baby plants: tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, lettuces, kale, summer squash, aubergine and yellow watermelon. I don't know what we'll do if they all grow well. Make a new veggie patch?

Dotted around the back garden we also have garlic and onions, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. All of them are very tiny plants - we are enjoying them more for the experience than the yield at this point.

Most of all we're excited about the new herbs, which we planted among the rockery. Added to the rosemary, marjoram, sage, mint and parsley which survived the winter, we now have cilantro, dill, chervil, sorrel, thyme, fennel and basil. Emma already knows all their names and insists on running out alone to pick a sprig every time I need some for cooking. Sometimes a humdrum plan for dinner turns into an inspiration when she presents me with a surprise crop!

Is It Spring Already?

ON a lovely sunny afternoon, we noticed tiny pieces of evidence of Spring. We went on a 'shoot hunt' in the garden to see how many new shoots we could see, and were amazed.

We found daffodils, tulips, day lilies, garlic/onions, aliums, hostas and some mystery bulbs where I couldn't remember what we'd planted.

A little brown bulb went to sleep in the ground

In his little brown nightie he slept very sound

Old Winter he roared and raged overhead

But the bulb didn't even turn over in bed

When Spring came laughing over the lea

With finger to lip, just as soft as can be

The little brown bulb, he lifted his head

Slipped out of his nightie and sprang out of bed!

New Garden

TIME to say adieu to our first successful little garden plot. The tomato and squash plants returned to the earth by way of the compost heap, which, we were delighted to discover, had actually yielded some useable compost! This we used to prepare the bed for autumn plantings, and Emma and I had lots of fun choosing seedlings and seeds at our favourite gardening shop. We planted dandelion, green and red kale, rainbow chard, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts transplants; then turnip, golden and red beets, rapini and spinach from seed. It has been fun to watch the seeds sprout and produce tiny leaflets just four days after planting (pictured are turnip seedlings); however, something has been gnawing mercilessly with equal speed on the larger plants' leaves. Not sure what kind of animal is responsible, but I dare say a little fence wouldn't go amiss.

Three Weeks of Growth

WE got back to Atlanta after three and a half weeks away in the height of summer, eager to see what had changed in the back garden. Despite exhaustion from the long journey, Emma had to run outside to inspect the vegetable patch as soon as we got home. She delightedly forged a path in the (on her) knee-high meadow of grass and we followed. Alexander took one look at the jungle and abandoned his newly-walking feet for the safety of his knees. The most impressive was the purple hyacinth beans which had shot into flower. Green beans had a handful of beans, which we promptly collected along with a pepper and some tomatoes for lunch. Moving around the garden, the crape myrtle is now in full dark pink bloom, and our yellow lantana takes over half the rockery. It's beautiful! Some other things did not fare so well; I forgot to add the new butterfly bush to the watering list, and sadly it and several annuals didn't survive. But the dry season doesn't seem to have detered the crabgrass and other weeds, which are running rampant in the flower beds.

Several days later we set to work mowing and weeding, and rescuing plants as best we could. This may take a while...