Rosemary and Winter

I was watching TV Sunday night and thinking that I needed to vacuum because the rosemary had lost a lot of leaves and it was all over the carpet.  So yesterday, I decided to prune the shrub since it didn’t look very healthy.  There were a lot of dead leaves but to my surprise there were also some small purple flowers.  I guess it’s not doing that bad after all.  I could not resist taking a couple of pictures and that made me think I could write about keeping an herb garden inside over the winter season. 

So here is the story of our little rosemary tree.

Close up of Rosemary flowers

As you know we have a small garden and in the summer we grow our own vegetables and fine herbs.  One of them is rosemary.  Chris bought it two years ago; it was a small seedling that we planted sometime in June 2010.  In October it had grown quite a bit and we wanted to keep it but were unsure if it would survive winter outside.  So we transplanted it in a large pot and brought it in.  It spent the winter in front of the patio door facing south and did not suffer too much except for some branches that were facing away from the window.  Came summer, we put it back in its spot in the garden and it grew some more.  Now it’s in front of the same door waiting for summer to come.  Seems like it’s doing OK since it's blooming.  We also brought some parsley and chive inside but those guys are not doing so great.  The parsley might survive but I’m not convinced that the chive will.  We certainly won’t be eating fresh parsley and chive this winter unless we buy them at the grocery store.



Close up of Rosemary flowers

Did you know that rosemary is an evergreen shrub and that it can become as tall at 6 ½ feet.  Ours is about 3 ½. It is drought resistant and its name derives from the Latin words ros marinus, which translate into dew of the sea because in many locations it needs no water other than the humidity carried by the sea breeze to live.



Rosemary shrub

I have to admit that this last picture is not the best but I wanted to give you an idea of what the whole thing looked like. 

So next fall if you feel like it, just take a pot, a shovel and some earth and have your own inside winter garden.  Freshness is always good in the middle of winter.

PS: I haven't vacuumed yet.  I'll get to it soon, I promise.