August; It looks like spring...

Seethe much Rosemary, and bathe therein

 to make thee lusty, lively,joyful, likeing and youngly.

William Langham, The garden of Health 1597

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Tibouchina is a genus of about 350 species of neotropical plants in the family Melastomataceae. They are trees, shrubs or subshrubs growing 0.5–25 m tall, and are known as glory bushes or glory trees.

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Mugwort  Artemisia vulgaris;

If this herbe be within a house there shal no wycked spyryte abyde.

The Grete Herball, 1526

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Nasturtium Tropaeolum major

I sowed a seede thei brought me from Peru. More to see his fairnesse than for any medicinall vertues thst it hath. It is a flower very beautiful. which doeth adornate the gardens. 

Nicholas Monardes, Joyful Newes out of  the New Founde worlde, 1577

Self seeded pink Penta; favourites in the garden, easy to grow easy to keep and easily propagated from fresh cuttings.

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Mint

A pleasant hearb this is, and delectable to smell onto, insomuch as you shall not see a  husbandmans bourd in the countrey, but all the meats from one end to the other be seasoned with Mints. If it be once set or sowne, and have taken to the ground, it will continue there a long time.

Pliny, Natural Historie, 77 AD (trans Holland 1601)

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Red leaves always add interest between the green plants.

Marigold Calendula officinalis

Marygoldes floures dronken, drawe downe wymens siknes and so doth the iuice of the herbe, whyche is a present remedy for the toothe ake, if the mouthe be wasshed with it. Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure  of this herbe, not beyng content with the natural colour which god hath given them.

William Turner, A New Herball, 1551

Spring is heralded with the beautiful Rock Orchid Dendrobium speciosum.  Its fragrance is dusty, different but not unpleasant.

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The smell of Basill is good for the heart and for the head, it taketh away sorrowfulnesse, which commeth of melancholie and maketh a man merrie and glad. 

John Gerard,The Herball, 1597

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First Wisteria flowers;

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Thyme boyled in water and hony and dronken is good against a hard and painful cough and shortnesse of breath. Thyme eaten in the morning fasting and in the evening before supper is good for bleared and watering eyes and the paine in the same and it is also good for the same purpose to be often used in meates.

Rembert Dodoens. A Niewe Herball (trans. Lyte, 1578

Herbals available in England at this time were mainly available in Latin and French.
Henry Lyte translated  the books into English, so that the common people who could read were able to use the herbal at home.
 Lyte's first and most important work was his translation of the Cruydeboeck of Rembert Dodoens (Antwerp, 1564) by way of the 1577 French translation of Charles de L'Ecluse (Histoire des Plantes). His copy of the French edition endorsed on the title page "Henry Lyte taught me to speake English" is now in the British Museum. It bears numerous annotations in Latin and English in his neat handwriting, including references to the works of Matthias de Lobel and William Turner. The first edition of the translation was printed in folio at Antwerp, in order to secure the woodcuts of the original; the blocks being too heavy and valuable to transport. It has 779 pages and 870 cuts, about thirty of which are original, and is mostly in blackletter. It bears the title, A niewe Herball or Historie of Plantes. . . .

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Delightful Imortelles and pink Daisies, spring fragrances and colours.

Bridal Veil,  Tea tree  flowers swarming with butterflies and bees.

Fresh green ferns, joy of spring;

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Chamomile 'the appell of an eye', to comfort the braine smel to camomill, eate sage, wash measurably, sleep reasonably, delight to hear melody and singing.
Ram's Little Dodoen, 1606


Believe it or not:

That Salad is not good nor fair, 
If Pimpinella is not there.
Italian Proverb

(Pimpinella =Salad Burnet Sanguisorba  minor.


©Photos My Garden Ts

August impressions;

(From "Under a hotter Sun"  © Ts 1974)

Planting a vegetable garden, one is very much in the hands of the gods!

In autumn when the sun retreats its fierceness and spreads out a golden mellow light, is the time for new plantings.

Most vegetables do very well over winter. Some have a standstill in the coldest month like July and August. All year round vegetables are growing; harvested and planted again, it is an ongoing job.

Herbs do well, mostly all of them all year round. Basil seeds itself. Lavender and Rosemary bushes are planted in the vegetable garden for use and for beauty Italian and curly Parsley and in autumn Coriander self seeds. A big bush of Lemongrass its long sharp leaves gracefully weeping waiting to be used in cooking and for cool drinks

I had a very hard job to prepare the garden beds for my autumn and winter plantings. The soil had become hard and compact over the hottest summer month from the rain pelting down, compacting the soil. The unrelenting heat of the sun baked my poor garden beds so hard, it was ready to cut clay bricks from it.
After a lot of sweat and hard work the soil became crumbly again and spread with my coveted cow pads I had collected. Then came the easy and nice task of planting the tiny vegetable seedlings.
Lettuce, the snails liked the tender leaves just as much as we did. Cabbages and Broccoli, the beloved food of the larvae of the white butterfly. Beans were most of the time trouble free, if the weather was not to wet. Actually with everything I planted I was challenged by a myriad of insects, birds, possums everybody wanted a slice of my plantings.

Ready for action...

 Bell tower;

Hey. hang on I wanted to say, you are as busy as a bee...

Kurume azalea;

"Gardens... should be like lovely, well-shaped girls: all curves, secret corners, unexpected deviations, seductive surprises and then still more curves." - H.E. Bates,  'A Love of Flowers'

A quiet moment  in the garden;

A new addition, Zingiber peninsularis;

The old chook yard comes nicely along with the new plantings I did last autumn.

"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon
(Are you absolutely sure about it Mr. Bacon?)Ts

The beautifully pleated leaf of the giant Heliconia.

 Flowering peach tree.

 Grevillia Caloundra Gem; great food plant for honey birds.

 "The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before." - Vita Sackville-West,1892-1962

Camellias, winter's delights 

 Free sculpture; leaf of the huge Cuban Royal Palm.

"How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence." - Benjamin Disraeli

 Azalea Rhodo X Dreamtime, a freely flowering bush.

Baskets, preferable to plastic ones.

Grevillia Sandra Gordon grows to medium shrub, great nectar provider.



Believe it or not:
"Nothing is more the child of art than a garden." - Sir Walter Scott

© Photos my garden/Text Ts  2013