Today is Monarda fistulosa & Hypericum perforatum! Woohoo!
This morning I dragged my sleepy butt outside to water the north side of a patch of plants I keep. The ground is really hard and there are some weeds I need to pull in that section. Actually the plants are mostly old enough to be okay even in a weeklong stretch of hell ... I mean very hot weather. Which is good, because we have to pay for water use now.

Anyway I watered, and that woke me up because I always get wet. Someday I will figure out that sprinkler ... shni! (which means "not!")

I went out to the monarda, which had started blooming at the beginning of the heat wave, and are now half gone. Let me clarify: there is a HUGE patch of monarda fistulosa (wild bee balm) (the Omaha call it horsemint) where I watered. It was waterlogged. There's a patch of it by our metal rake wheels, which is the original patch, and there's a patch in the driveway that got established when we parked a small plow out there and left it several months.

So I raided the monarda by the wheels and the in the driveway. The bees were a little concerned, so I circled around them while I harvested. I got some nice pics of them, both bumble and honey, and some various unknown flies and other bees, including sweat bees. I only took pics of bumble and honeybees, and I'll have to crop in close for you to see them later.

I'm very very VERY happy to see the bees. They spray for mosquitoes in this town and I go for weeks without seeing them. *tiny mouth*

And where I was watering there's a patch of St. John's Wort as near to the driveway as it can get, blooming up a storm. So I also took some of it.

Topically, it's also good for wounds, so I'll wilt it up and throw it in the herb oil to stew. ... Kindof like refrigerator stew, yaknow? If it's out there and it will be good in the salve, in it goes!

... By the way, this is a wicker paper plate supporter for picnics. They make good herb dryers for small amounts of herb. ...

The need for (flat) wicker baskets

I have a favorite wicker basket, shown here, and all through the Red Clover post. It's 20 inches across and an inch deep, excellent for drying bulkier herbs. It has a tight weave, so bits don't fall out of it, but plenty loose enough for air to circulate. It's beautiful, stained with elderberry juice, and I love it. Check out that braided edge. MMmm-mmm!

Today I wanted to harvest monarda/bee balm, but realized I had nowhere for them to dry if I did harvest because the red clover is drying in that basket.

So here goes the herbal shuffling: Clean and do something (what?) with the red clover so that later (when it's not so hot) I can harvest bee balm and dry it in the same basket.

I do lust after nice baskets, but don't get me wrong: I don't pay good money for baskets. I garage sale and thrift shop my baskets. So I go in streaks where I have enough, then I don't have enough. A harvest-ful time like July (usually this happens in late July, but what are you going to do?) is a time of basket scarcity. November? Basket plethora, but with the same number of baskets.

Recently a tragedy (okay, not really) happened to me when my favorite willow basket for laundry finally broke apart enough that I could no longer use it. A lot of it was my fault for not finding a better location to store it. I stored it atop my stacking washer/dryer, and when the washer went into spin, about a quarter of the time, the basket would fall off the top. We would turn to the dog and say "Zi! What did YOU DO?" and she looked guilty and we told her we loved her and it was funny. I'd try to get her  to help pick up the scattered clothespins, but the best she would do is take one and run off with it. Poor dog.

Anyway, if you find yourself asking: "Why do I have so many baskets?" either remember that you need them in a different season or send them to me!