Pictures of plants and such

It has recently become warmer again, and the olive oil is no longer frozen whenever I pick it up to cook (I should mention we have no central heating). Still not warm enough to try and make bread, though, which I've been wanting to try again for a while.
The lake had been frozen and there was even a tiny bit of snow a week or two ago, though -- unusual for Georgia.











































As you can see, we have elves in our yard.

I also want to post the pictures of plants I've taken so far.

A wild blackberry cane, in the fall:























And now, a whole field of deadish ones:






















Not so long ago, some of them started looking covered in something odd -- the day before, when it was sunny, I went out and poked one of the odd ones. A piece of it came off and revealed what looks like some disgusting insect nest inside:























Rabbit tobacco in the summer:























Rabbit tobacco has been used in the past for asthma (smoked) and to induce sweat. It tastes nice in tea, and smells sort of spicy and slightly peppery. You collect the leaves after they dry out and turn brown. This is what it looks like now:


















All dry and papery.

And this is poke:























It's easiest to recognize in the fall -- purple-red canes with green leaves and black berries. It's hardly the kind of berry you could eat in jams -- most people who grew up around them were told very sternly not to eat them, or they would die. Technically, you can eat a little without dying -- I've eaten half a berry or so before -- and they've been used in the past for arthritis and more serious things, like cancer -- but you never know how strong the particular plant is, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are very experienced or very very careful. Pokeberries are also great for dyeing -- I've dyed some bits of cloth with it before, which turned out a nice dark pink colour. I have to say, though, the smell it made as it cooked was very... head-whirling. I guess I was ingesting the poison through my nose. Either that, or I hadn't gotten enough sleep that day.

This is Goldenrod:









































That's been used as a dye as well -- I tried to dye some fabric but it doesn't seem to want to stay on without a mordant.

Chickweed:


















Chickweed is supposed to be good for itches and bruises, just like plantain, but for some reason it's never worked for me. On the other hand, it's apparently nice as a salad herb -- I would try that if it weren't so small... each leaf is still smaller than my pinky nail. Seems a bit pointless to eat it. The wild onion (or is it garlic?) on the other hand, it quite nice.

Also, I got Volume 1 of the Modern Herbal (not so modern anymore, but still interesting):


















(and Catherine Called Birdy, as you see)
V

More plant pictures (lots and lots) and a recipe

I finally figured out what the yellow flower was -- it's a relative of ragweed, I believe -- senecio smallii, a.k.a Southern Ragwort. But no matter how much I've looked up, all I've been able to find is that it's possibly poisonous. Meh.
On the bright side, most of the things in my garden (of sorts) are growing well.

Bee balm:



















Mint, Melissa, and Rosemary:












Lobelia, catnip, possibly thyme... as I've said before, I don't remember exactly what I planted there, but I'll see soon enough.














Evening Primrose, getting taller:



















And the prettiness of our backyard:


















with all the honeysuckle in bloom:




































From which I made honeysuckle syrup.




















I am also making plantain oil and a cherry cordial:















































Finally, in order to make this blog useful somehow, I give you a medicinal recipe or sorts that my grandmother used for stuffed noses. It's not the most pleasant thing to walk around with cotton balls up your nose, but it always seemed to work.

Mix garlic -or onion?- juice with honey (I am thinking of just infusing some garlic in honey and using that) and a little aloe juice/gel. Soak cotton balls in this mixture and stick them up your nose. After a while, you will start to taste the garlic-y honey, and that's usually around the time you should take them out.

Herbal salve and flowers

A week ago there was practically nothing in our yard, now there are tons of honeysuckle, blooming privet (?), some tall bundled yellow flowers and more roses. I'm still trying to find out what the yellow flowers are, they might be useful. I see them everywhere -- on the sides of the road, in fields...
Also, I made my first salve -- it's made of dandelion flower infused oil and lavender essential oil (and beeswax, of course). I wasn't sure how the scents would work together, but it smells wonderful, like walking past a flowering tree. I went as far as to decorate the tin (as you can see), because I have been feeling particularly crafty lately.

Hurrah!

Everything is growing!

Pea sprout (so cute!):

















Thyme, possibly:
















I'm not sure what I planted here, honestly, I only remember that it was three different kinds of seeds -- whatever it is, but it's growing.

















Lobelia:














Melissa, Rosemary, and Mint:














Bee Balm:














Evening Primrose (looking a bit white, I hope nothing's wrong with it):














Roses:














And flowering sage, my favourite:














The flowers smell amazing, and if you bite off the bottom there's just a tiny drop of nectar to suck out.

Unexpected

When I cautiously planted some hollyhocks and yarrow, I didn't expect anything to actually come up, but to my surprise, two days ago I saw some little leafy sprouts in the hollyhock area. They don't look like any weeds around here, and they're growing in a straight line, so this means that, despite all past evidence, my presence doesn't kill off plants! I immediately started planting more seeds, and I soon saw what looked like little green worms in the lobelia pot. I'm not sure how I'm going to separate them -- I just dumped seed powder in there without separating the individual seeds (I doubted it would grow, so I was lazy), so now they're all within millimeters of each other. But nevermind, I'll figure it out somehow.
In the past few days, I've planted:
Catnip
Evening Primrose (not from seed -- I got it from my mom the last time I saw her)
Lavender
Basil
Rosemary
Echinacea
Parsley
Dill
Lupines
Foxgloves
Peas
and some other things I can't recall at the moment. I'm also getting some nettle, skullcap, and plantain seeds soon. It may seem ridiculous to plant plantain, since in most places it grows abundantly, but Georgia is an exception. I haven't seen any in our yard since we moved in (in the beginning of last fall, before anything began dying), and I haven't got much left of the ones I picked in Russia, since I used most of it on the sores I got from working.
There are a ton of other things I'd like to plant, but by now it would probably be too late to order anymore seeds, and I don't feel like shoveling red clay anymore. I'd have to wait to plant any berry bushes, anyway, since there's no guarantee we'll stay here for more than a year.
I've also been expanding my small herb collection and trying to find something useful to pick around here. I really don't like buying herb pills and the such -- they always seem sort of like the herbs are stale, and it just doesn't give me the same feeling as working with the plants, so I want to pick or grow everything myself as much as possible.
So far I have a good amount of chamomile, some plantain leaves, Queen Anne's Lace seeds, tons of dried rosemary, dandelion leaves, chickweed oil, lemon balm, stale catnip, a box of motherwort from a little Russian store, and a bit of marshmallow. On my porch, there's a bottle of dandelion flower oil brewing in the sun, and little bunches of sage, bee balm, and periwinkle left out to dry. I can't wait till more plants start growing.