 Growing Gardens
with Julia Hancock
Happening Herbfest
The Gardener's Dictionary of Horticultural Terms describes a herb as '(1) Any non-woody vascular plant. (2) A plant valued for its aromatic, savoury or medicinal properties.'
Since the dawn of civilisation Homo sapiens has been spicing up its life by ingesting roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds of infinite variety.
Of course, prehistoric men and women would chew plant material raw, but once fire was discovered, all sorts of possibilities opened up and so started a new era in food processing. Way before Jesus appeared on the scene people all over the world were smoking, eating, drinking and making merry with herbal concoctions, often under the guise of religious or pagan ceremonies.
Medieval monks took herb cultivation seriously – creating wonderfully intricate herb gardens around twelfth century European monasteries. These were the scientific laboratories of their time, funded by pious patrons who enabled those monks who possessed the scholastic wherewithal and desire to pursue intensive and unlimited research in their herbal fields of choice.
On a secular level, since year dot herbal lore has been passed from generation to generation with tried and trusted recipes that cured anything from a septic sore to a broken heart.
Men and women who were highly skilled in the use of herbs were revered until their skills became coveted by a new breed of seventeenth century physicians who recognised the great wealth and power that could be amassed from plants. Today multinational pharmaceutical companies invest billions of dollars in patenting plants that once grew wild for all of humankind to use freely.
Now it's more vital than ever before in history that we all grow herbs in our back yards to preserve them for posterity. They don't take up much space and many are drought and neglect tolerant. Future generations are counting on us.
Lismore Garden Club
 The cushions made by Madze Fisher, was drawn and won by Jan McQueen of Casino. Many thanks to Mrs Fisher. With the big fogs around, violas and pansy bushes will show diseases such as wilt and mould.
One of the best treatments is Manazeb or copper oxychloride. Keep using Thrive or phustegin on your plants, as per the instructions. Joan had her poppies in flower in previous years for 16 weeks. Keep picking off the spent flowers. If you leave your old flower stems, some good goes out of the plant, which should go into the new flowers.
If you have any problems filling in your entry form for the Spring Competition, ring Mary on 6621 5293.
Happy gardening
Don 6624 3855
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