European immigrants

I've got a lot of things going on in the garden. There are the flowers:

The vegetables:

And some herbs: (thanks for the oregano, D. - it's settling in nicely)

But this plant defies labels. A friend asked about this beautiful plant the other day.

It's an herb, a vegetable, and a flower. With all those wonderful attributes it must be hard to grow, right? That's one of the beautiful things about this gem - it's easy.

In case you want some of these rare beauties, they come from Europe originally but they've done very well here, even with our long winters and late springs. Mine have thrived in both sun and shade, in the vegetable garden, flowers and grass. If I can grow them, I'm sure you can too. I don't grow anything that isn't hardy to Zone 3 or 4.

And if that wasn't enough to sell you on these flowers, they naturalize in your lawn just beautifully.

I mean, who really thinks a large golf-green expanse of grass is beautiful? It needs some colour to liven it up. This is a mature patch, but it didn't take long at all to get there, even with the kids constantly trampling them. And they get accidently hit by the Weed-and-Feed killer regularly and still survive.

You won't find the seeds or plants in your local nursery, but just ask your neighbour's kids. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to blow some seeds over your fence for you to enjoy.