My Garden Cures

   For the past couple of weeks, some sort of illness settled in as a resident of the Little Bayou House.  It started with Mark and spread on to Son.  Each of them had full blown cold symptoms with sore throat, fever, congestion and a general bit of just feeling blah.  That mess hung around in each of them for nigh on a week or better.  Son is still congested.  There has to be something "going around" because my sweet sister-in-law had it the same time that Mark did and now Darling Daughter has it (and she lives several towns over).  When Mark first said he did not feel well, I was determined not to catch the mess.  Exposure to him meant it was likely but then exposure to his sister and Son put my chance of avoiding coming down sick to slim or none.  Three exposures to any contagious illness is not very good.  Still, I was determined so I headed to the garden.  I gathered herbs and went back to the kitchen to "stir up" a brew.  I am a firm believer that boosting the immune system can do wonders so most of the herbs were chosen because of that.  To the sage, rosemary and ginger, I added my standby of crape myrtle blossoms. (Those I had dehydrated last July.)  Steeping this in a base of fruit juice for Vitamin C gave me just what I needed.  My favorite juice to use was home-canned blueberry.  Crazy enough, the blueberry, sage and rosemary blended well!

  While some ridiculed me about drinking so much of the tisane, I never gave up hope.  For three weeks now, I downed this brew!  I went through several pots a day for the first ten days then eased off to just one pot per day.  Several times during those weeks, I thought sure I was coming down ill.  NOPE!  Not happening!  I made more tisane.  Now, both Mark and Son are mostly well.  Son still has a lingering cough but feels back to his old self.  Mark is doing fine.  My sister-in-law sounds much better and Darling Daughter is on her way to being well again.  Me?  Well, I am still as healthy as I was before all this started.  Perhaps, my garden "teas" are the answer.  I don't have time for that mess!  

Lacy Silhouettes!

   Earlier this week, I was out harvesting some crape myrtle leaves to make powder for tonics.  The trees need to be cut back anyway as they bloom much better after being pruned.  Long branches were cut and then the leaves stripped for drying.  Afterward, the leaves were ground to fine powder for storage.  This is all part of a foraging for tisanes for the winter months.

  It was while snipping the branches that I began to notice that I was not alone in my work.  Another harvester was busy at the same trees!  A Leafcutter Bee was working her way from leaf to leaf cutting the most perfectly round holes in each one.  As soon as she cut a circle, she was off to the "bee hotel" hanging on the arbor.  I had to stop and admire her work!  Once she moved on to another branch, I pruned the one she left and took photos.  

  As I was laying the branch on a board, I noticed the interesting silhouettes the sun was creating with the leaves.  The shadows had such an interesting pattern!  I was photographing the branch to show the bee's precision in cutting circles but her handiwork was better seen through the silhouettes.  I only wish I had the camera while the bee was in action.

  The Leafcutter Bee is a solitary bee that is non-aggressive and is about the size of a honeybee.  The female cuts circles from leaves to line her nest and then packs it full of pollen before laying a single egg in each "cell".  She will create another cell in front of the first and so on...sometimes up to a dozen cells.  There is some thought that the leaf-wrapping protects the pollen until the egg hatches.  Then larvae hatch and feed upon the pollen.  They do not eat the leaves, however.

  The holes in leaves bother some folks but to me, it shows that the garden is actually healthy.  If bees are busying themselves in the plants, they are pollinating each and every one as they go.  Besides!  All of those lacy leaves are sort of pretty, in their own right, and the plants are none the worse for wear. Let the bees enjoy the garden and their efforts do nothing but help us.  Save the bees!