Plant Mystery, continued.

I've tried comparing my little sample against the list of weeds offered by the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research, but I haven't found a match. I've done a less comprehensive search on the British site Find Me Plants and the Ladybird Johnson native plant database (Oh, how I miss the wonderful Wildflower Center in Austin!)

I'm inclined to think that it is some kind of herb that I did plant last year, though I still have not a clue which. In part, because it doesn't appear anywhere besides the one spot where it is. It seems very healthy and robust, but it is definitively situated where it is, unlike most weeds that have a tendency to spread all over the damned place, like Creeping Charlie (which covers most of my garden plot, sadly), and Purslane (which likes to hide everywhere else).
Above: Creeping Charlie and Purslane, two of my most pernicious weeds here in Livingston County, Michigan; photos from the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research.

So . . . tonight I planted both my Blue Lake beans and my Japanese eggplants, despite the fact that I was being dive-bombed by mosquitoes, and was half-drunk on beer from my growler from Grizzly Peak. Now I just have a few more veggies to put in the ground. I wish the bugs would go away for long enough. . .

Another beautiful sunset.

Mmm, simple pleasures.

Garden mysteries on early lakeside morning

An early-morning shot of my new herb garden. More to come in evening, in brighter light, with a virtual tour of the varieties of herbs.

The benefits of waking up early are so numerous. Here it is, 10:40, and I've listened to BBC world service streaming for two hours, having already finished planting the mint borders in my garden, transplanted the oregano/marjoram (I still can't tell the difference) and thyme, prepared more than a quart of yogurt (which will incubate and be ready this afternoon), and put another big loaf of quick rye bread into the oven.

Yogurt, so very easy. Just heat the milk, cool it a bit, add a hint of yogurt culture, and cultivate it in containers.

The bread is also a breeze.


Here, a couple shots of the mint I've been planting as a border to the path to the cottage. I've been irritated by the ugly black PVC dividing the sod from the path since I moved in, so my concept is finally to cover it with mint. I hope the walkway will be a lot more attractive as it inevitably fills in.

. . . So now I am puzzling over one plant in my garden. It looks like it could be a variety of thyme, because the placement of the leaves, the color, and the stem formation look very much like thyme. But it doesn't taste like thyme, from the tiny bit I tasted, and the tiny, thin needles don't look much like the leaves of most thyme plants I know.

It also grows in a pattern that is unlike other types of thyme I know -- it grows a bit like a groundcover, very close to the ground, and spreading outward from its central root.

Anyone familiar with it? I'm wondering if it might be summer savory. Or, it may just be a big, hardy weed.

Dawn on the lake

There was a time when I thought there could hardly be anything more beautiful than sunset on my lake. But lately, I have been thinking that dawn is far more magical.