Check garden update #1 for all of the photo descriptions.

A garden update and some examples of overwintered plants and how different types of soil and environments influence plants. Slides 11 to 18 are in a separate post. Slide 1 plants are in my homemade supersoil. Spearmint is from @herbalemily. DM me or email [email protected] for the recipe. Slide 2 are @nocturnusart (Tom's) seeds and mine from plants we grew. Slide 3 plants overwintered well. The basil plants were planted before hot and cold spells and they are stressed. Slides 4, 5, and 6 plants were planted after weather stabilized. Slide 7 kiwi from @herbalemily overwintered well. Slides 8 and 9 plants in topsoil were stressed from temperature extremes and are stabilizing. The plantain is a most welcome volunteer. There's also 1 volunteer spearmint plant, also welcome. Slide 10 is healthy overwintered catnip. Slide 11 are volunteer mullein plants that are carefully monitored so they don't spread. They grow for two years. The 2nd year they flower. These are 2nd year plants. They are easy to pull out of the ground. Slide 12 is a peppermint plant I purposely transplanted with the valerian I brought from our other garden. Slide 13 shows an overwintered surprise " red bergamot" from an online order gone wrong last year 😂 We shall see what this plant really is when it flowers. Slide 14 are seeds from @herbalemily planted a week ago! Hearty. Slide 15 is nettle that has showed up in all of the City of Saskatoon compost. Be aware if it pops up. Some people have a prickly skin reaction to it. Very nutritious and very drying for inside the body. Slide 16 shows volunteer alfalfa. We are in a new neighborhood that was farmland. Cows eat a lot of alfalfa. I keep one plant as it's prolific. I will use it for nutrients and a liver tonic. Slide 17 shows cilantro seeds that I shook off the dead stems from last year for the new crop this year. Slide 18 is my plants that enjoy drier soil. I don't water them as much as the rest of the garden. I pruned the flowers and stems of the lavender so that I enjoy lots of greenery and flowers. The valerian has shot up in height within a few days! I love the sweet scent of its umbrella- shaped blooms.

When plants are plentiful, I get excited to gather them. If you picked a lot, there are many ways to use these herbs. Three of us picked 112 g of plantain yesterday from a "small" patch. It is plentiful with all the rain we've had. I'm making a big jar of glycerite and I decided to store some chopped, leftover plantain in the fridge in some reverse osmosis water to keep fresh for a few days. I'm adding it to tea and whatever is left after a few days will be made into pesto and stored in containers in the freezer. Fresh plantain is one of my favorites because it is dry where we live. My skin and digestion feel this dryness. Plantain is here to provide much needed mucilage (moisture) for our body. I can ingest some glycerite or add glycerite to my lotions.