2009-04-25

Life in the Garden Part 15: Fake Herbs

This year my garden is growing.

Okay, well, I guess every garden grows. Unless it's dead. Then it's just dirt. Or it's a Bosch painting.

But I'm not demonstrating the descent into Hell. My garden is all about herbs.

And it's growing bigger -- taking up more space, more pots, and more herb names.

I decided to try Tarragon. I have my bean seeds, basil seeds, zuccinni seeds, strawberry seeds, three kinds of tomato seeds, tyme seeds, sage seeds, rosemary seeds, leek seeds, seeds of revolution, scallion seeds, mint seeds, and seeds of an idea.

Tarragon seeds, however, alluded me.

The nursery? No.
Wal*Mart? No.
Target? No.
Lowes? No.
QFC? No.

Finally, after scouring seed racks from Lynnwood to Tukwilla -- I found them.

There they were with the rest of the herbs -- waiting for me at a Home Depot I rarely visits. Of course I picked up two packs of the Start Smart Tarragon (Artemisia Redowski).

I went home and planted them in my little peet pots of bloom. The seeds quickly sprouted. Soon I had healthy leaves and had to thin all my sprouts.

Tonight it was time to move them into their permanent pots. I pulled out the book to check how far apart they should be planted, dropped the book on my foot, picked it up, and flipped to Tarragon.

Uh oh.

Did you know there are two types of Tarragon? French Tarragon is a wonderful culinary herb that provides a rich flavor to chicken.

Russian Tarragon is a weed.

Well, maybe not quite a weed. It's is a hardy, tough plant with relatively little flavor. It doesn't bing much to the table.

Guess which one I hunted, stalked, captured, planted, and tended?

Yeah.

It turns out Russian Tarragon has very little to do with French Tarragon. In fact, French Tarragon doesn't even produce seeds.

We've got hundreds of thousands of words in the English language. The 26 letters give us a mind numbingly broad selection of potential new words.

And yet someone needs to reuse the word Tarragon? They couldn't come up with something else? You know, if they are out of words, and it's time to start reusing them, how about using them someplace?

1 Plant named Tarragon and 1 Car model named Tarragon = Good

1 Plant named Tarragon and another Plant named Tarragon = Stupid

So this weekend, it's off to the nursery for some Tarragon starter plants.

Anyone want some Russian Tarragon seeds? Or plants?

3 comments:

brokenteepee said...

So sorry...it will be worth it in the end though.
Get a goat. It will eat your tarragon weeds.

Daisy said...

Oh noes! Who knew there is a good kind of tarragon and a bad kind? Rats!

Cromely said...

@Pricilla: You know, I would love the see the look on my land lord face when she find a goat in my apartment. That would be so awesome.

@Daisy: I'm hoping it's at least pretty. It's already growing and I hate to kill it.