The revenge of the herbs

I have always been a fun of nature. Natural beauty, authentic chaotic untidiness with all kind of plants and life everywhere around to be discovered, noticed, smelled and felt with all the senses. Many times, when walking in nature, I focus on a smaller part of it, I zoom-in, get closer to it, and enjoy the detail that unfolds in front of my eyes in a smaller but still infinite scale. During those moments I feel my link with it becoming stronger, humanly created surroundings disappear and I become a bug moving among the small leaves , searching for the appropriate flower to land and taste and living with no worries, no thoughts.

People, try to re-create nature but most of the time they have a strange need to incorporate order into their copies and thus they build gardens with trees placed in specific sequences and pruned to geometrical forms easily recognized by human eye, flowers forming various shapes, pathways easy to follow and look at. Even this “nature” if left unattended for a while will spread and cover everything in its own way.

Our small garden follows a somehow chaotic pattern that invites you to discover its new entries and secrets that pop-up here and there; different ones for every season, diverse colors and fragrances every day. In this small garden, there are nests of herbs that do not blossom with many colors, they do not come into sight as decorative elements but they contribute in the variety of the environment.

Although I love nature, I was never good in the theory of it, the names the categories of plants the way to take care of them. That is why I tried to “put an order” and at least learn some basics of the herbs; first of all how to recognize each of them and then when the time comes how to collect, and use them. I came up with the idea to prepare small labels, place them on sticks and put them by each herb to recognize it each time I was moving around in the garden. The result was coming out to be very nice. Yellow, laminated (to protect from rain) labels with the common name of each herb in Greek and the scientific one in Latin were prepared. Wooden sticks carved by me on the spot would be prepared and used to wedge the labels.

The operation started and the first labels were placed. But nature and destiny didn’t like my project. A severe cut on a finger while preparing a stick stopped me that sunny Sunday I started my project. Weather change came to ensure that I wouldn’t continue my work. Heavy rain, and wind knocked down in the mud most of the already placed labels. It was like the garden had called the elements of nature to ally with them and stop me; or it might have been that I went against my beliefs – read again the first paragraph - trying to introduce a kind of order; or simply it might have been my clumsiness with gardening…

Anyway, the process of preparation made me to get to know and identify the herbs. Currently, I wonder what might happen when I try to use some of them… If they do not like labels, would they be offered to be cut and dried and boiled and provide their healing power?

Well, when we offer to nature – not labels – we will be offered back… That is my hope.

Below some photos with and without labels.

Oregano (origanum vulgare)

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Lavender (Lavandula)