rescue operation

I visited my old garden yesterday. My ex's lawn guy is going to raze the garden and turn the soil, after which my nine-year-old wants to plant some of it. I'm giving her packets of seed from the fridge. So we went over to see if there were any volunteer plants worth saving before it gets leveled. I was looking for tomatoes, maybe a pumpkin or zucchini start. But the vast marjority was a thriving tower of weeds. Plantian leaves longer than my forearm. Pokeweed over my head (in a raised bed). We dug up and saved in pots a dozen sad-looking strawberry plants, and I found a few carrots gone wild, blooming in their second year. The only thing really growing well among the weeds were a few herbs- mainly Lemon Balm and Mints. The Oregano grown into a huge thing that I had to chop with a shovel into four pieces just to fit into the biggest pots we had. Also found that one Rhubarb is still alive, though small- pulled weeds from around that and mulched it with dried grass clippings off the lawn, though I doubt it will continue to receive care. It all just reminded me how cultivated our food plants are- without anyone tending them, they quickly succumb to the vigor of weeds.

So after rescuing the handful of herbs and strawberries for my daughter, I put a few plants into pots for myself. I brought home a leggy Spearmint and a Chocolate Mint (on the left here) which I've already taken cuttings from- to reduce the height, encourage branching and create more plants.

The Lemon Balm feels like a useless plant to me- I never did manage to get anything tasty from cooking with it. But it's definitely hardy- it had spread a lot through the old plot, even with the weeds to compete with- and it has a lovely scent. It's kind of pretty too.

I don't have a picture of the Oregano here because it's all just stems. The thing had grown enormously tall and was flowering pretty purple spikes. I had to cut most of it back just to see where to dig to get the root mass out of the ground- I do hope it revives, and won't mind being cut back so severely.

This morning I had fresh Mint tea, first in a long time. That was very nice.