We’ve finally got some rain in the past week or two, which the plants really appreciate. Yesterday and today, we had showers on and off – here’s a big fat rain droplet, caught momentarily in a brussels sprout leaf.
Every day of spring rain has added 2-3 inches to the seedlings – the tomatoes are now nearly a foot high, the beans seedlings are crowned with their characteristic heart-shaped leaves, and the basil has perked up, nice and fluffy, if only momentarily. I’m beginning to suspect that basil is a perenially teenage herb – unless it gets rain, sun, etc exactly the way it wants, it sulks as morosely and defiantly as Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club.
Marjoram leaves just after a spring rain
Marjoram, on the other hand, is more like Molly Ringwald. It’s cute AND sociable – its delicate flavor plays nicely with others. It hasn’t suffered a bad hair day yet – carrying itself proudly through both the sweltering July heat and three feet of February snow.
Last year, I bought the marjoram on a whim, wondering how much different it was from oregano. The flavor is milder but the plant itself is much hardier – excess cold or rain or complete lack of rain had obvious effects on the oregano (the cold ultimately killing it in December) but absolutely none on the marjoram. I’d never used it before last year but now I use it all the time, routinely substituting it for oregano in recipes.
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