I was weeding out the big herb garden today, getting ready to add the starts that "followed me home" from a local nursery. I found wonderful things! The flat-leaf Italian parsley had self-seeded, and we have a half-dozen or more small ones growing. Also, the salad burnet that I thought I'd lost to last summer's heat and drought had self-seeded, and I have three or four starts of salad burnet coming up! There are at least two, and perhaps three, fennels. I'll be very careful weeding out the rest of the big herb garden. Who knows what else I'll find!
Weeds, if they look unusual, will get a pass till they are recognized. A 'free pass' tag keeps them from the dead weed pile. Most though, soon show their true colors. I do like the occasional surprise. Especially it it was 'lost'. Salad burnet? I don't know that one. Its name implies used in a salad? Jerry
Jerry, Salad Burnet has an almost clover leaf shape leaf on a stem, with leaves opposite. It has a cucumber taste, which really is very nice for salads when cukes aren't available. It is a culinary herb, but not one you cook with, since it is only used raw. We discovered it when we moved to Texas, and found that cucumbers had a very short garden-life.
Mart, I plant Straight 8s, which are good for both slicing and pickling. Our heat and drought from late June until the fall rains and cooling weather pretty well put paid to our cukes. Wish I could have a longer season, but all the gardeners around here, no matter what variety they plant, know that cucumber season is over for the summer when the heat/lack of rain hits.
