JUAN'S LOVAGE

 

JUAN'S LOVAGE

(a.k.a. Love Parsley)
Levisticum officinale

A long-lived perennial that 
Juan shared over the years
with several island gardeners.
His plant still grows in his daughter's
garden, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Photo captured by her in 2023.

LOVAGE:

A hardy, herbaceous perennial that is a large, vigorous plant that can reach 8-10 ft in 3 years. Good ornamental value for height at back of the border.

Characteristics: medicinal plant/ tea herb/ culinary herb. All parts are edible. 

Leaves add a strong savory flavor to dishes, use cautiously at first. Pick leaves as needed. Multiple uses.

Root: peel, then cook, or pickle.

Preserving: Freeze or dry leaves. 

Tolerates deer (usually) and likes full sun or part shade.

The flowers are food for honey bees and swallowtail butterflies.

USDA Hardiness zones: 04-8

Soil: dry/lime-loving/ alkaline/ average.

Propagating: Sow fresh ripe seed in late summer. But a Lovage plant self-seeds readily.

Not suitable for growing indoors.

LOVAGE SEEDS
of the above plant,
dried, packed &
shared from Juan's garden.
Photo April 2024.

The seeds are now available at the 
Shaw Island Gatehouse 
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

FOXGLOVES

CAROL'S FOXGLOVES
(Digitalis purpurea, mixed.)
Gatehouse Garden,
Reefnet Cove Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
1 June 2018.
See packets available at the stand.

"Some of the common names of the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, date back to early days when fairies and evil spirits were familiar presences, while others have a Christian character. They are folk's gloves, witches' gloves, fairy gloves, fairy caps, fairy thimbles, dead men's bells, bloody fingers, and gloves of our lady. Because the plants are biennial, in their first year they produce only the basal rosette of leaves. During the second summer stems four feet high [+] appear, bearing a spire two feet long of nodding two-lipped flowers that grow on one side of the stem. The entire plant is softly hairy. When grown in semi-shade or sparse woods, conditions similar to its wild haunts, foxglove will self-sow freely. 

Helen M. Fox, The Years in my Herb Garden©1953 by the Macmillan Co.