whb: harvesting marjoram, a study in pictures

 

I see in the gloaming that dusk is once again summoning the fog. This is my cue to get out in the garden with my pruners and get to cutting. The herbs are all huge with summer growth and ready to be harvested and dried for winter use. Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Daily unadventures in Cooking this week so get yourself over there to check out the roundup. By harvesting now, while I still have at least six weeks before we can expect any sort of freeze, I am giving plants a chance to recover a bit before the harsh weather sets in and freezes the new growth.

Moving here three years ago, I brought one tiny handful of a lovely variegated marjoram with us. I knew from experience that it would happily colonize any area I let it loose in and it proved me right. In fact, this marjoram had been one of the more prolific plants this year as it has crept beyond the edges of the bed onto the sidewalk where it forms a thick mat with runners forever seeking ground in which to take root. Now marjoram stalks, heavy with flowers and eager bees, tumble across the walkway and present a serious obstacle to a barefooted mage.