Tarragon etc.

Given that I have no prior knowledge of gardening beyond the long list of pot plants which I have killed over the years, I thought I'd pay attention and try and observer what is happening out there…

1. If you cut the woody stem of French Taragon artemisia dracunculus it grows a fork (like a tuning fork).
2. While growing Common Basil ocimum basilicum outside in a London garden seems largely pointless, some plants do seem to soldier on towards winter, getting thicker-skinned and darker as the season progresses. Even in this ‘hardened' state, the leaves still make a mean salad (see previous post).
3. I still don't know how to appropriately describe the soil in my herb garden (shitty, urban, doesn't seem very helpful) but the Prezzemolo Gigante di Napoli that Clem and I sowed outside at the beginning of August is going strong.
4. The RHS Plant Finder (surprisingly) isn't very good if you're looking for a predictable, uniform listing of varieties for the purposes of keeping a gardening diary…
5. Aloe Vera is a cactus (ok, you can stop laughing now, but I really didn't know that). You can actually break a ‘leaf' off and crack it open to get the goo out, just like the cosmetic stuff—I'm amazed by the simplest things:-)