Saturday’s Child

Today is a work day for me, but I got up early this morning and went out for a quick shopping trip, stopping by the farmer’s market before coming home. 

I bought two German Johnson heirloom tomato plants and two cherry tomato plants.  I also got a little pot of marjoram and a little cardinal (or hummingbird) vine.

A tiny little spider sits on a dandelion stem.

A tiny little green bug lands on my jumper.

This wild grape has never produced, though every year it looks like it will.  This plant is a volunteer and I believe it’s a situation of either a female plant needing a male or vice versa.  I don’t know enough about grapes to know which situation it is, but we keep thinking we’ll figure it out, and in the meantime we let this pretty plant grow.

Pretty spider in a web that sparkles in the morning sun.

The lavender thinks about blooming.

My Van Houtte spirea is huge and covered in white blooms this year. 

I wander outside of the garden’s border to admire broadleaf plantain, Plantago major, one of my favorite herbs.  It’s a native of Europe and was called white man’s footprint by Native Americans because the white man seemed to leave it behind everywhere he’d been.  

It’s been used as a nice, antibacterial dressing for wounds in the field.  It has mucilaginous properties.  I like to use the leaves in my infusions to help with bronchitis, cough, or just any kind of sinus or nasal congestion.  The seeds have a laxative effects and it is a relative of the type of plantain that provides the psyllium in store-bought laxative preparations.   Just check out the ingredient label next time you buy something like Metamucil.   

Have a beautiful Saturday.  I’m off to type, cup of Bengal Spice tea in hand.  The pump in the goldfish pond is running so that I can look out my office window and see flowing water and a bit of the garden.

Lynn