Happy New Year!

From the U.S. Botanical Gardens in Washington D.C......

a little bit of spring for the new year...

It won't be long now.

Tucked In

Out past the new bed of comfrey (which is doing very, very well and will be bigger and thicker next spring)...

And past the closed and drained water lines (where the fresh mint is still growing)....

There lies the winter greenhouse door....

Where the temp is still 110 at 2 pm, and the chosen ones have come inside to winter over.

Tansy, salvia, lavender, the sedum that I was suppose to get planted this fall...

Scottish heather, oregano, rosemary and the plants from the water gardens...

Just waiting for this, which is coming soon enough...

Little greenhouse on the frozen tundra.

Help a Damsel in Dis Dress....

Some of my readers are also followers of New Old School by Damsel in Dis Dress - due to a move to a new platform, you may have noticed your feed to her blog has disappeared.

Being that her blog is one of my personal favorites, I missed it immediately (well, immediately for me anyways) and she has just helped me straighten out the feed for it.

You can go here and just follow the instructions under subscribe:

http://damselindisdress.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/feed-me/

or just connect to the latest post and then follow from there:


http://www.mynewoldschool.com/2010/11/17/review-tomorrows-harvest/

Get thee hence and find the Damsel....

Tiding Me Over To Spring

I have spoken to the cats, and they are willing to re-visit the idea of having potted plants inside.Specifically, ones they will refrain from eating down to the ground, as they did during the Great 2005 Boston Fern Incident.

So this is now the view from my office window. There's a suspended shop light with plant bulbs, big saucers under the plants, and we'll see how it goes.

At the moment, I've brought in the two year old Mandeville (the tall one), Cuban oregano (front right), and the sage bush (front left), so I'll have fresh rinse all winter, and have that lovely aroma in my office.

Also rescued this poor recuperating hanging coleus - you can't tell it, but it's on its way back. In it's prime, this was three-foot in diameter, and hung almost three feet down, covered with heart-shaped leaves, all dark red with a light green border. I owe it a second life.

I've hung the Boston Ferns in the livingroom. They are placed away from anything remotely resembling a climbing apparatus.

Not that I don't trust the cats.

Best of all is the wicker stored on the front porch till spring - the epitome of "Southern". All it needs is the sound of the screen porch door, and a glass of ice tea.

That should get me over the winter...

Mildly Magikal and Somewhat Disappointing Bloody Dock

I mean really.

With name like Bloody Dock, I expected high magic of the Dumbledore level.

Perhaps re-animation powers that produces shuffling zombies?

Maybe the secret ingredient for incantations that allow the user to pass through the veil between the worlds?

Apparently my imagination is better than that of the ages, because even its name couldn't save Bloody Dock from being considered a weed (not the fun kind, just a stupid weed).

It is associated with healing, fertility and money (I should mention here that I personally have never noticed any connection between fertility and having money).

The seeds can be used as incense to draw money to the user, or to gain employment (on second thought perhaps this little weed is one of the great well-kept secrets), or, the leaves can be tied to the left arm to help with conception.

This particular little plant loves a wet environment, but will tolerate a dryer planting out in the garden. It thrives sitting directly in water, which is the reason I have it sitting in my fountains.

Just keep those leaves well away from my left arm.

Wolfsbane.... Magickal *and* Poisonous

During this Samhain season, with its full harvest moon, you may run across the occasional werewolf.

If you should choose to run with the werewolves, read no further.

But if you have need of a antidote to lycanthropy, or a protective spell to guard against their nibbles, wolfsbane will suffice.


The ancient Roman physician Dioscorides referred to wolfsbane as lycotonum. Today it is also known as monkshood or aconite. It belongs to the buttercup family, and there are over 250 varieties. The flowers can be blue, purple, pink or white and it grows profusely across the northern hemisphere, particularily in Europe (probably in little remote east European villages, at night and in fog, right next to gypsy women that warn of werewolves...).

Aconite was (is?) known as "the quintessential plant of the occult". It was acknowledged to induce the lycanthropic condition (i.e. the wolfman transformation). Mixed with belladonna, a witch might even create a flying ointment.

At the same time, it was said to be the only antidote that reverses the condition, or outright kills a werewolf.

Fact: The seeds, leaves and roots contain aconitine, a deadly poison that slows the heart rate, decreases blood pressure and creates a numbing pain. It is extremely dangerous if ingested or even with skin contact if there are small cuts. (So don't do it.)

During the 1500-1600's Europe was gripped with a plague of werewolves. Humans accused of being werewolves were hunted down with arrows dipped in acontine, while traps baited with meat laced with the poison. If the acontine didn't kill them, burning at the stake usually did.

A brief recap:

Wolfsbane is beautiful, easy to grow, and really, really poisonous.

Wolfsbane kills werewolves.

But really, why would you want to? Seriously, what'd werewolves ever do to you? Leave 'em alone...

Magick Thyme

And the reason we have fairies in our garden is because I planted three different varieties of thyme...including elfin thyme (so you'd think we'd have elves instead of fairies, but, not so much). Rumor has it fairies love thyme. Recipes with thyme even claim to enable people to see fairies.

Will Shakespeare believed the thyme and fairy connection: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows." (Said by Oberon, the king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, referring to the bed of thyme where Titania (the fairy queen) sleeps.)



All thyme is magical as far as I'm concerned - the ancient Druids used it to ward off depression and erase negative energy. The Egyptians used it in mummification, and during the Middle Ages it was placed in coffins to ease the passage of the soul to the next world.

My own ancestors - the Scottish Highlanders -believed thyme gave them courage.

For your own fairy visions, or courage, thyme can be burned as incense or sprinkled in a bath.

Or you can just gargle with Listerine (the active ingredient is thyme-also known as thymol).

Best of all, especially during this Halloween season, thyme can be tucked into pillows where it will guard against nightmares.

Remember, you can go in the basement, let the weird guy in with the hockey mask (or fangs/cape, or chainsaw), go off to summer camp, and break open that Egyptian tomb, as long as you have a sprig of thyme. Ultimate protection, it is.