Garden Wander

I have a rare quiet day today to enjoy the garden and catch up on some chores. The sun is bright, but not hot, and it feels so good to be outside. The gardens are almost in full bloom, and I'm starting to harvest herbs for locally grown Half Wild products. Look for some new salves and toners coming later in the summer, and for now, enjoy this wander through the garden.

The bearded irises are luminous in the afternoon sunshine today.

The flush of roses has begun! Rosa rugosa blooms all season, until the first frost, but for a few weeks in June, the volume of blooms is much greater. Each day, I handpick rose chafer pests from the plants, then harvest the rose petals, and finally prune off yesterday’s spent blossoms to encourage more blooms. These rose petals are the star of Half Wild Rosewater Toner, leaving skin soft and silky.

Pineapple weed volunteers in the most difficult of places — the driveway! This local relative of chamomile smells delicious and always makes me smile when I step out of my car.

The yarrow is getting ready to bloom. Soon, I will be harvesting for Green Wonder Salve and Herbal Bug Spray.

The comfrey is gorgeous and in full bloom — feeding pollinators and my soul. I will soon be harvesting the first stalks for Green Wonder Salve and other new salves making their debut this year.

The valerian is reaching for the sun today. Tall and stately, these plants pop up all over the garden — even right out of the lawn! A strong medicine, in more ways than one.

This Siberian iris has a visitor.

Some of the Siberian irises have been popping up white with yellow highlights. The surprises never cease when Mother Nature is at the wheel.

A patch of daisies volunteering in the lawn. Who has the heart to mow these days?

White bedstraw in full bloom and carpeting some of the nearby fields.

The peonies are blooming! The peonies are blooming!

And one more peony on its way.

Quincy Bog Wander

The Quincy Bog walk is a wonderful respite on a hot and humid day, winding through wetland and woodland and everything in between. 

First glimpse of the bog through the trees.

A large broadleaf plantain plant thriving near the path. This plant, harvested closer to home, features heavily in Half Wild products to sooth your skin, like Green Wonder Salve and Herbal Itch Relief.

This unexpected beauty adds a lot of character to the summer greens.

A perfectly inviting understory.

One last lady slipper orchid in bloom. I almost walked right by this one; they blend in to the forest floor so perfectly.

The blueberries are coming! Wild blueberries are one of my favorites things to harvest — and so much tastier than cultivated berries.

Thanks to the excellent signage at this nature preserve, I learned a new fern today: Royal Fern. It really stands apart from the other native ferns.

I’ve been taught that rock tripe is edible, though I have never tried to cook it. It’s always a delight to find a large colony of this lichen. One of these days I will have to try it.

New growth on a small hemlock.

Understory of witch hazel trees. I use twigs from trees similar to these to make Half Wild Traditional Witch Hazel and Rosewater Toner. We couldn’t ask for a more beautiful and useful tree!

Close up of witch hazel branch. Notice how the base of the leaf is asymmetrical?

This is not a witch hazel — likely a hobblebush viburnum. Many of the understory trees look similar in the White Mountains.

Here’s another understory tree growing nearby: moose maple.

This is a lichen that can be confused with usnea. However, it looks less like “hair” and lacks a stretchy white core.

Usnea lichen, or Old Man’s Beard, which has a long history of use for wounds and bacterial infections. We are fortunate to live where the air is clean enough to support usnea growth.

Iris Garden Wander

The irises are almost in full bloom, and we have lots of them!

purple and white bearded iris

yellow bearded iris

First bloom on the comfrey, with first harvest coming on Monday. Comfrey is a wonderful, healing herb for your skin and features in Half Wild Green Wonder Salve - perfect for working hands and troubled skin.

This volunteer pink columbine comes up each spring out of the middle of a rock wall, between the horseradish and the comfrey, and well shaded by an ancient hawthorn tree. Herbs always find a way.

The chives are blooming! I used to harvest the blossoms for chive blossom vinegar, but now I leave them for the bees.

The grapes are blooming! I rarely catch a glimpse of them this time of year, among the explosion of greenery that signals a North Country June.

We have lots and lots of Siberian irises. I wish they bloomed all year!

The lupines are just starting to bloom.

Here’s one of the few lupine spikes that have bloomed already.

Thanks for wandering with me!