Rosemary is For… Um… What Was It…

Oh, yeah… Rosemary is for remembrance.

Rosemary has been used through the ages to remember quite a few things. The dead, those in love, answers to tests, domineering women, Mother of Christ, satan’s offspring… Just a wide variety things.

I personally just like the way it smells, though I have to admit, it does remind me of my wedding day. Yes, even I get foolishly sappy sometimes and there was rosemary on the tables at my wedding reception.

Rosemary normally does not grow well in my yard. The first reason being that I am just a shade outside of its zones. My mother in Cincy grows it from year to year, but here in Cleveland, the winter cold is just too much for it.

The second reason is that my back yard tends to stay just a little to wet. Rosemary loves dry soil and damp soil encourages mildew on it.

In the past, I have tried to bring it in for the winter, but I have yet to have a rosemary plant survive the winter.

This year, I have found a cure for the damp back yard. The rosemary I planted this year went into a chimney tile that I put in the herb bed. It helps to keep the rosemary lifted out of the damp soil and gives it the extra drainage it needs to be happy.

I am glad to report that this has done the trick and my rosemary this year is the largest I have ever grown. This is particularly impressive when you consider that my yard has been repeatedly flooded (just a few inches) in the past few weeks.

I am not quite sure what I will do with it once the weather gets cold. But I have a feeling that I will just have to hold this year’s plant in my memories.