Seedpods are ripening fast
Gathering Tomorrow’s Garden
My grandkids and I love to harvest seeds of all sort of flowers, with the mantra, “pods that rattle are ripe!” Once dried and cleaned, as use the seeds in various mixtures for our guerilla gardening practice. Seeds of sun lovers go in one container, shade lovers in another, while a third is a random go-anywhere mix (especially beloved of very young people. We each take a lump of clay soil, blend in our seeds, then roll little balls suitable for flinging. Our target are unkempt public areas, from street islands and odd parking lot corners to sidewalk tree plots and unmaintained paths. When we go on our rambling walks, we toss a few seed bombs into whatever site seems to need a boost of bloom. So far, we have managed to infiltrate calendulas and California poppies, feverfew and foxglove, oregano and lemon balm into many places in their home town as well as mine. None are invasive, all are pollinator friendly and cheerful self-sowers to boot.
Cretan spearmint in the garden
Steaming With Magic Mint
This summer has been challenging in many ways but one remarkable herb is contributing helpfully to my family’s daily happiness. While I grow several forms of mint, I generally prefer spearmint for its warmth and aromatic sweetness. This year I’ve been experimenting with a new-to-me spearmint native to Crete. WOW, this mint is so amazing! Naturally sweet, spunky without bite, aromatic and fragrant, with a complex flavor profile that lends itself to almost anything culinary, it’s a fantastic addition to the kitchen garden.
So far, I’ve used this absolutely delicious herb in fruit salads, in iced or hot tea, in sorbet, and as part of a spunky fresh herb mix for fresh tomatoes. Mince together some Cretan spearmint, oregano, lemon balm, thyme, and fennel foliage and sprinkle it over sliced tomatoes; wow, right? Who needs salt?
Spearmint Sorbet
1 quart water
1 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup fresh minced spearmint
1 cup coconut milk (optional)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fresh mint sprigs
Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add mint, cover pan and let steep 10 minutes, then strain (a tea strainer works great) and add coconut milk if using and vanilla. Chill, then freeze in an ice cream maker. Scoop into a glass container and freeze until firm, then serve, garnished with mint sprigs. Serves 4-6.
Breath Mint Magic
This Cretan spearmint also offers a wonderful way to promote better breathing, simply by steeping some in steaming water. I recently woke up with what’s called an allergic shiner, a black eye that shows up like a dark band that curves between the nose and the eye (usually just on one side) due to pressure on sinus cavities. Weirdly, the exact same thing happened last year right about this time, making me suspect that something special is shedding pollen right now. Or maybe it’s just the culmination of grass pollen season overlapping with the beginning of ragweed season?
In any case, the answer is to breathe in steam. “For ten minutes with a towel over your head; three songs worth,” says my dear clever kind doctor. She said adding herbs was fine so I put in a sprig of rosemary and a few snippets of Cretan mint. It smelled so amazing that after I was done breathing in the beneficent steam, I strained the mixture and drank it hot. Soothing, refreshing and utterly delicious; it’s my new morning pick-me-up. Onward, right?
Good fresh or dried!
“Beautiful photos and excellent tips! I’m planning to redesign my flower garden and these ideas are just what I needed. Mixing perennials and annuals sounds like a great way to keep the garden lively throughout the seasons. Do you have any recommendations for shade-loving flowers?”
Elin, hardy fuchsias thrive in light and filtered shade as do hydrangeas, many true lilies, toad lilies (Tricyrtis) and hostas, plus native shrubs like oceanspray, Indian plum and wild roses.
Native coral bells, Vancouveria, and Tiarella all bloom in shade too, as does salal, western mock orange,
native crab apple, and of course salmonberry and huckleberries.
Hi Ann,
Enjoyed your column about the Cretin mint! I enjoy mint in my iced tea and would definitely try it on tomatoes!
I’m wondering where I can purchase it?
It looks like you went to Greece, love that country!
Thanks,
Ann
Wish I was in Greece but I’m just there by proxy (via images).
Check local nurseries that carry Log House Plants and ask them to get
you some Cretan mint. Even just the fragrance is delicious!
I so love hearing about you and your grandchildren flinging seed bombs throughout your neighborhood! In the early 90’s, I worked at Sur la Table, when there was still only ONE store; the one in Pike Place Market. At that time, there was a mysterious group of gardening renegades who wandered about ‘The Market’ scattering random wildflower seeds, planting what they called, The Crack Garden. : > I’m certain the dual meaning of their rascally incognito garden project was not lost on them.
What it meant for us at Sur la Table, is that wildflowers would SPROUT RIGHT OUT OF THE SIDEWALK CRACKS around the north door of Sur la Table! RIGHT OUT OF THE CRACK BETWEEN THE SIDEWALK AND THE SIDE OF THE BUILDING. There was no soil to be seen, but those hell-bent-on-sprouting-right-there-right-then-seeds, found just enough of a purchase on some grains of something like soil, to COME TO LIFE.
To me, who at the time was more clueless than not, about the power of seeds and their miraculous will to grow in ANY conditions if the time is right, I absolutely could not believe these plants were actually growing…THRIVING! I remember California Poppies sprouting and also maybe blue Flax, and more for sure that I can see vaguely in my mind’s eye…but can’t quite identify.
Their presence was a miracle and a salve for we who worked in that wild and wonderful store; for all the folks who scrimped and scrounged and somehow lived another day…whose lives were incredibly challenging; as well as for the crush of tourists who moved through the area, every.single.day.
It cracked my whole sense of what was possible, wide open. I learned to observe just how the plants themselves move about; how they spread their seeds, and their beauty in the most remarkable, and triumphant ways. Oh, they are profound teachers. !!!
Lauren, yes! The amazing resilience of plants is so heartening. I remember working on a gardening in an older Seattle neighborhood and taking up a very old concrete pathway. As soon as we pried off the concrete seeds that had been buried for decades-maybe even a century-started sprouting. Columbines and poppies, feverfew and forget-me-nots, all sorts of herbs, it was such a beautiful array. Long after we humans are gone the plants will prevail.