The Herbs are Smoking!
The best way to describe recent weather in Rio would be ‘changeable’. Yesterday was blisteringly hot, then last night there was a torrential downpour (just after got home – yes!). This morning I woke to a rather tedious drizzle which reminded me of England.
A day or two of rain doesn’t really bother me (well, unless those two days are Saturday and Sunday!) – I actually rather like a bit of mixed weather. And it seems that I’m not the only one!
This Basil ain’t Fawlty! In fact it is getting a little bit too successful.
That’s right, we have a herb problem. It seems that Rio’s mix of sunshine and showers is working wonders on all our plants. I had to hack out all that basil (manjericão in Portuguese) in the photo above just to keep things under control in the window-box you last saw back in October.
And a few weeks ago I planted thyme (tomilho) and Habanero Chillies in another window box. Look at them now!
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| How are you with herbal recognition? That is thyme starting to get unruly in the foreground. And one of three Habanero Chilli plants looking very advanced for it’s age at the back. |
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| Ranking somewhere around 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale, these innocent looking flower buds will go on to pack one hell of a punch. |
Those little buds remind of sleeping mogwai – just waiting to unleash evil! And with that image herb-and-spice-fans, I will leave you for another day.
I wouldn't worry about your precocious herb garden. If they are growing at this pace without additives then I'm sure everything is happening in due thyme.
I must say that I am curious regarding those monkees you mentioned in a previous post: won't they end up taking from your garden?
Hmmm, hopefully they'll try the Habaneros first – I'm guessing they'd work as a great deterrent.
Tom, I'm sure Brazilian monkeys are every bit as canny as African ones – probably more given that they can even use their tails. I tried to trick some thieving Vervets in Malawi once, by making a small incision into some chips (French Fries) and inserting birds-eye chilli slivers into the soft potato centre. The first one worked a treat – outraged chatter, presumably the simian equivalent of cursing and quite a lot of spitting. After that they looked at and smelled each one carefully so it did not "teach them a lesson" to stop thieving just made them more circumspect. Survival of the fittest. Consider growing cat-mint amongst your herbs.
If it has the same effect on monkeys as it has on cats that could be *very* entertaining!