Dreaming the Herbal Garden

In anticipation of four inches of snow overnight, I had Farmer Tom lined up to come early to plow the driveway so that my "Garden Dreamers" could get to class this morning, no matter what the weather!! A severe case of cabin fever suddenly feels terminal under a brand new blanket of white stuff. This class would NOT be canceled. Fortunately, to everyone's surprise we got nary a flake and woke to a brilliant 42 degree morning. The perfect antidote to spring fever is workable dirt!
We pulled out inspirational gardening books and seed catalogs, began to mold and define our herbal wish lists and reviewed growing habits for a large variety of herbs and edible flowers. Even threw in a garden slide show for colorful visual identification.
We dreamed of damask roses and rose petal jam, anise hyssop flowers tossed into heirloom tomato salad, pesto (always pesto) , and goat cheese rolled in chives and chive blossoms. I have a distinct feeling that we will be eating really well at class this year. The photo recipes we looked at were so enticingly beautiful...
We talked about documenting everything in a garden journal from the size of the tiny seeds to the finished purpose of growing the plant. Today I accidentally said the "life style" of a plant, when I meant to say "life cycle". In retrospect, I feel alright with my faux' pas du jour. Successfully 'dreaming the herbal garden' is truly about getting in touch with our own natural life styles as much as that of the plants we wish to know and grow. The proper nurturing and cultivation of the two, make for a happy creative gardener and a happy fruitful garden...and that's what it's all about.