Hanging Herb Basket

Yesterday Bob and I went to Chanticleer. Bob had never been there and I had been there only the once. We stopped in Wayne at a sweet little coffee shop, Cream and Sugar Café, and had a quick lunch and then on to the garden. We mainly took a over view tour as he hadn’t seen it before and it is pretty special.

I was very interested in seeing the hanging herb baskets in the kitchen garden that I remembered from my previous visit. They were there, smaller than I remembered, but still pretty spectacular with herbs jammed tightly—including growing through the sides of the basket itself.

Well, it’s spring and yesterday we played hooky and made a run to Lancaster, PA to buy plants.

Several weeks ago we cleaned out a large over grown area in our front yard to the left of the walk as you face the house. It was infested with vines and ivy and no matter how we weeded each year it quickly got out of control. So it was dug out, save the rose bushes, and covered with mulch – hence the need for new plants.

We went to Black Creek Gardens, for lots of plants; Briar Rose Greenhouse, for hanging baskets; Sauder’s Nursery, for a plant for cousin Susan; and Hoover’s Farm Market where we bought cookies and shoe fly pie!

I re planted my hanging baskets off the deck with a tight mix of Lettuce, Rosemary, Oregano, Dill, Italian Parsley, Nasturtiums, Coriander, 2 Sages, French Thyme, and 2 Basils. Looking forward to grabbing a few herbs as I’m cooking this summer!

In front, where we dug things up, we have planted, so far, Verbena, Salvia, Coral Bells and Lambs Ears.

Said I’d talk about my hanging plants… Well when we went to Chanticleer earlier this summer, they had the most wonderful hanging planters full of eatable things. So I thought I’d try some on a smaller scale. Off our deck I hung two wire baskets with that fiber stuff garden supply places sell to place in hanging wire baskets. We filled it with dirt and planted an assortment of herbs in them. The ones at Chanticleer were much larger and I think had holes in the sides of the fiber stuff with plants growing out the sides – they also had lettuce etc but I started after lettuce has gone by the way here in the mid Atlantic area! But still it was a terrific thing to be able to just go out on my deck and pick a bit of this and that as I needed it while cooking.

School has started so I’m busy with students. I’m working with my sophomores on lettering with a broad tipped pen. That’s where the oak ink I mentioned comes in. I took a lot of Oak husks from the English oak tree in my back yard and have been soaking them for a long time. They became pretty disgusting with mold etc but that has died down. I put them with water in an old large mayo jar my grandmother got from some place or other and in which I have stored hand spun yarn (another story). Then I read that I am supposed to use oak husks in the fall after they get all black and gooky – but the squirrels never let any last that long so… I’ll see what happens – perhaps this weekend but then Kevan and Erin and Cooper and Fletcher and Max are coming to visit and perhaps go down the shore with us – if its nice and watch the Ohio game on our little TV which they would rather be a larger TV… So it might be next weekend. Perhaps it will be very neat ink and perhaps it will be a big ol’ mess.