Tarragon or 'Little Dragon'....

The first thing that drew me to Tarragon was its botanical name, Artemisia dracunculus, translating to 'Little Dragon'. With a name like that I figured she must be pretty cool, shallow I know. She is from the same, rather potent, family as Wormwood, Southernwood and Cronewort.

However finding info on her seems tricky. There is some discussions about how to tell French Tarragon from Russian or Spanish. It seems French is the most sought after and difficult to grow, as she rarely flowers and nearly never sets seed, identifier number one. She's grown by dividing rootstock, where as Russian and Spanish flower and set seed. Second identifier seems to be that chewing her leaves numbs the toungue, although I found that with the plant pictured above from my garden and she's flowering away happily. As I havent tasted the French kind to know its apparently 'distinctive' flavour, I can't as yet tell if the aniseedy taste of the plant I have is said plant. They seem also to share the same botanical name at times, which is confusing.

My gut response to Tarragon is that the ability to numb ones mouth suggests a sedative or calming medicine to me, which would make sense considering her family roots. The aniseed flavour a relationship to digestion. Maude Grieves says that Russian Tarragon is eaten in Persia to induce apetite. Infact Tarragon is probably best known for being popped into a bottle of vinegar where its flavours infuse into what can then be used to flavour dressings or pickles. The essential oil it contains, identical to Anise is lost in drying.

With a name like 'Little Dragon' one could easily imagine her having protective qualities, as Scott Cunningham suggests, but also to be earthing or grounding. Being that the symbol of the Dragon as representative of the Earth is a global phenomena. Some folks refer to the grid of energy lines crossing the planet sometimes called Ley Lines, or Song Lines, as 'Dragon Lines'. Certainly the potency of her flavour brings one into body and hence present with earthly realms.

Garden paintings....

I came across this design on a forum and had to make one for our garden it was so very apt. I just used acrylics straight on wood and then sealed it with a varnish afterwards. I enjoyed the process and end result hanging in the garden, so that i followed up with some other designs, including the celtic knotwork piece below. Its a really simple way to create outdoor artworx using recycled timbers.

Garden beds and a back pack full of concrete....

For the last few weeks as I walk to the beach Ive been going past a garden thats getting a serious makeover. Part of the leftovers of which were a large pile of bricks and smashed up concrete that I had my eye on for raising the egdes of my garden beds so I can add more organic matter to the soil. Last night I finally asked the owner if he'd mind me raiding the pile, he replied 'no worries'. So today I did laps with my backpack carrying chunks of concrete and then arranging them in place. On about the 6th lap the owner came out and asked what I needed after this? So I tell him my plan, at which point he directs my attention to several rather lavish piles of soil and mulch. "The job goes another 3 weeks but there should be some left over" he indicates, keeping my cool while my inside goes WOO  HOO, I say well we'll see a bit later then. Joy joy, I then proceeded to begin daydreaming. Ive built two vegie beds and another one out the front and hardly touched the pile! So tommorrow Ill go around and build up the other beds. Its a blessing for this carless chick to have such resources walking distance away, and I can even borrow their wheelbarrow to move stuff. I just love that its all being done with materials that were gonna be chucked. Just like my garden at the flats!

      herb and vegie bed to be

garden beds and steps at flats

The sage smoke twists....

So I am here for another innings. My shack by the wilderness of ocean shore, my suburban hermitage and place for touching poltices to wounds and healing salves to scars. I find new gentler troubles, the daily details that having enough, just enough, clarity of mind allows me to engage with, in their common place natures.

When should I do the dishes, how high will I allow their organically growing mount to reach, Ill sweep today, the ants are moving into the kitchen again I note, cleaning away far more diligently than I.

I stroll through the dappled light of overhanging trees in my garden, trees that drop parts of their branches each time a storm passes through, smothering my lawn thats a tended but wild being. Full of sandy gaps and filled with native groundcovers and creeping things, its hardly manicured, more brushed, like matted hair. Children lived here before we came, my feline companion and I, the paths of their racing play were eroded into the grasses growth, that now with time and rest from tiny feet recuperate and send out new shoots.

I dont have a lawn mower, my whippersnipper shreds and teases the tips from the greenery and leaves missed stalks swaying rebelliously. The soil here challenges me to nourish it as I learn to do the same for myself, to be kind.

To offer myself a cup of tea, lemon balm from the compostuous balance which is my herb bed, failing that a whiskey. I think of Cailleach when i have a dram, and place a glass upon my altar, hers for the taking, offered to the base of the datura when shes taken her sips. It flourishes under such care, promising trumpets again when the season is right.

I wonder what they would smell like burned as incense, would it send the soul flying? Some times the odours we expect are reversed or refuse oversimplified categorisations. The lemon peel I dried in the oven was citrusy but not as much so as frankincense, predictable and mood lightening in its consistancy of scent. The dried rose petals not sweet as I imagined but woody.

Journeyings bind me to Wolf and Hawk who watch over and guide me in the Otherworlds, as I reconnect to my medicine. Gathering in and growing it up, memories come back and old ways return. Solidifying practices for dealing with, and being in the world. Things that once gave fright become allys in a metamorphosis that keeps me on my toes. The sage smoke twists....

In the oceanside herb garden...

Now that Ive signed another years lease on our home I feel once more connected to it in solidity and inspired to put some lovin into it. After building a higher retaining wall out of some old pavers I spent yesterday emptying out a years worth of broken down compost onto the herb patch, very satisfying. The more organic matter I can add to the sandy soils here the better for growth. Time to utilise the cooler autumn, which is when the herbs and veg that summer sun frys, can have a chance to come into their own.

The Wormwood is looking close to being able to take cuttings, and has grown along the soil. I figured just building the soil up under it there might be roots striking along the layered stems, much like what you can deliberately do with rosemary. Motherwort is sending multiple sprouts up from her base and thickening up. Echinacea is spreading her clump like self happily, the flowerheads have finished and I harevsted the seed. The Evening Primrose hasnt looked back since planted, I know she can become a bit noxious in some areas and can believe it if her growth combined with production of seed.

My rosemary that I bought as tubestock from a wee roadside stall now has multiple stems and new growth. I lost about three other plants, which was odd, as I assumed mediterranean plants would go off here. Havent had much luck with lavendar or sage either.

I thought the 'Banes' would do well here in the shadey parts of the garden but had no joy growing from seed, so that experiment was cut short. Perhaps its time to have another go, i still have some Henbane seeds soaking in a jar of water in the fridge.

As you can see Im still learning the climate and conditions in Suffolk and dont have the dosh for bringing in loads of soil. I did invest in a big bag of Dynamic Lifter which I have periodically sprinkled around. Recently I heard that a couple of handfulls soaked in a bucket of water makes a great liquid fertiliser. Now that Ive seen the soil with the compost spread through it I bodily get the adding organic matter thing, also mulching. I emptied two big pots of soil into the herb bed, one of which had mulch and the other didnt. The difference in moisture and worm content was amazing.

I planted out lettuce and tat soi seedlings. I have a rather unoriginal theory after failed crops that being in the subtropics it makes sense to have a grow at plants from the same zone, tat soi, bok choy, chilli, capsicum, lemongrass, thai basil, purple basil, gingers and such. I also happen to love these kinds of flavours in cooking. That reminds me, round the corner is a ballistic lemongrass plant that I want to take some starter plants from, its growing lushly straight in sandy soil no problems.

This morning i awoke to find that the brush turkeys had scratched their way through the whole bed, decimating the seedlings and damaging some herbs, buggers. Id forgotten about their rather invasive habits. Banshee screams greeted the turkey which was innocently, and rather stupidly, sitting on the fence nearby. It reminded me of the advantages of hanging pots and planters. My last lot were actually designed for shoe storage and the fabric rotted through eventually, but I hear you can now buy official type ones that are probably made of some kind of plasticy materials and therefore last until the next millenium.