THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504280250
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
One of my favorite herbs in the garden is fennel and I don't even like its licorice flavor.
However I love its bright spring green color and its graceful, tall feathery stems. Fennel is especially appealing to me because it is a ``host'' plant for the beautiful black swallowtail butterfly's caterpillar.
Every summer the yellow, black and green caterpillars feast away on my fennel, growing big and plump before they spin their cocoons. Consequently, every summer I have black swallowtails flying around the yard.
Thanks to fennel (and also to parsley, another host plant for the caterpillar), my garden has a living dimension in addition to herbs, flowers and trees. Although butterflies are often fleeting in their appearances, I can pretty well count on the presence of black swallowtails in my garden in much the same way you rely on perennial plants to grow back year after year.
The caterpillars have never destroyed the fennel (though I must admit that I have worried about that on occasion). In fact, my fennel is very hardy . Planted in a protected spot on the south side of the house, it survives our winters and comes back every spring, no matter how scrawny its condition was in the fall, as a result of the caterpillars' feasting.
This year fennel is the official plant for National Herb Week May 8-14. And you can purchase several varieties of fennel at Linda's Garden down at 1436 Campbells Landing Road. This is the second year for Linda Xenakis' herb garden and she sells an amazing variety of herbs, the largest collection in the area, I dare say. Linda's Garden is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
ALONG WITH PLANTING SOME FENNEL, there are a couple of other ways to usher in National Herb Week in style next weekend. St. Martha's Herb Garden Circle at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church will be sponsoring a herb sale from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the church, 2020 Laskin Road. The circle will be selling plants that were grown at Linda's Garden.
Herb varieties will be primarily easy-to-grow culinary herbs, like tarragon, cilantro, thyme and basil - ``ones that even beginners can grow and ones that will do well in this area,'' said circle president Maria Graham. Other Mother's Day gifts will include items such as herb aprons and gift packs of herbs for the garden
St. Martha's Herb Garden Circle began two years ago to focus on a pretty herb garden on the church grounds. The women dry herbs and made herbal vinegars for the church's annual bazaar in the fall. They also make herb centerpieces for church dinners and of course, the herbs are there to flavor those dinners, too.
St. Martha was the patron saint of cooks and housewives. Her symbol was the mortar and pestle, Graham explained.
``We did not take our name from Martha Stewart!'' she said.
YOU CAN LEARN ALL ABOUT HERBS in depth at the Tidewater Unit of the Herb Society of America's Herb Education Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., also on Saturday at the Chesapeake Campus of Tidewater Community College on Cedar Road.
Lectures on herbs will take place throughout the day. A free lecture on ``Growing Herbs in Tidewater'' is at 12:30 p.m. Other lectures have registration fees of $10 except for herbal wreath making workshops at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and each is $25.
Lectures start with ``Rare and Unusual Salvias'' and ``A Witch and Her Garden,'' both at 10 a.m. ``Culinary Delights From Your Herb Garden'' is at 11:30 a.m.; ``Herbal Decorations: Faux Topiaries and Candlestick Adapter'' is at 1:30 p.m. and ``Thyme for a Picnic,'' complete with a tasting, is at 2:30.
Throughout the day, Herb Society members will be on hand to answer questions and help you plan your garden. There also will be exhibits, a herbal marketplace, featuring gift items such as books, and of course, a herb plant sale, many of the plants from members' gardens.
Herbs for sale include hot peppers, scented geraniums, unusual salvias, Mexican bush sage, Spanish lavender, Aztec sweet herb and licorice verbena. Familiar garden herbs also will be among the more than 150 varieties for sale.
For registration information, call Barbara Brawley at 481-2041.
P.S. NATIVE AND NATURALIZED FLOWERS of Back Bay is the topic of a Back Bay Restoration Foundation meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Princess Anne Recreation Center. Master Gardener Holly Cruser will speak and the meeting is open to the public. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)@infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Bob and Ruth Hunter work with Marie Graham, left, president of St.
Martha's Herb Garden Circle at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal
Church, which is sponsoring an herb sale from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday. The plants were grown at Linda's Garden.
by CNB