Beautiful Roses, still in bloom and edible if unsprayed and growing in clean locations, here in Amsterdam.
Next is Russian Comfrey (NL: Smeerwortel, Symphytum uplandicum x) which I picked a leaf from today. Am currently brewing a tea from it ready to feed to my houseplants.
And lastly, the Park Warden blowing leaves from beneath the Lime tree avenue (NL:Linden, Tilia sp.) in Park Frankendael. Today seems to be Amsterdam leaf drop day, they are thick along the pavements and streets. Time to make the most of the beautiful autumn colours.
Urban Herbology 
When we lived in Western Australia we didn’t see many deciduous trees but since we moved to Tasmania we not only see them, we actively delight in them. Not just for their delightful autumnal colours but for their amazing nitrogenous harvest of fallen leaves each year. We hoard the oak leaves from a massive great oak that our elderly neighbour gives us free reign to collect from her lawn and pile them up high to rot down over the winter and turn into the next years amazing oak leaf mould. gorgeous friable heavenly soily stuff that our microbugs go nuts over. I see the council men blowing leaves and want to bring the trailer in and get them all! I can’t help it. Natures free bounty that upsets so many pristine gardeners is my amazing free bonus. I risk turning into “that crazy woman who rakes up the verges”…oh well… at least our garden will thank us for our efforts :). I actually tried a rose hip last year and they don’t taste bad (once you sieve the seeds out of your teeth…) and could be made into a very tasty sort of dried fruity butter for storage. I am going to have to dig up some comfrey from our home in town where my daughters live to grow on Serendipity Farm as its amazing stuff. Thank you for another amazing and very interesting post 🙂
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