Part two of the ‘green campaign’ involved rosemary, the plant, the herb. Previously my appreciation of rosemary was two-fold: the herb, bought in small packets from the supermarket, and thrown into baking trays of roasting vegetables. And a sad leggy shrub in our English garden, planted in soil it doesn’t like. 
In Spain, rosemary is another beast altogether. We cook with it all the time and even put it in cakes and drinks. And it smells heavenly. It is one of those plants that gives you so much mileage: it’s evergreen, it needs nothing doing to it, bees and butterflies love it, it is covered in delicate pale blue flowers and has a pleasing gnarled quality to its bark. Once we realised its other quality – it is hardy in the tough climate of our valley, surviving +40° summer and deep frost in the winter – we planted hundreds. And I do mean hundreds. Now, we are reaping the dividends.
In 2010, the planting had a sad sparse quality about it [below]. 
Now, the romero is getting a little older [below], a little woodier, and is settling into its surroundings. 
And everywhere, it is totally green and healthy. 
To read part one of the ‘green campaign’, click here.
5 to remember
el romero – the rosemary [the herb]
la campaña – the campaign
los dividendos – the dividends
escaso/a – sparse
leñoso/a – woody
It’s fascinating seeing these plants in their natural environment, isn’t it? My mum always used to grow Alpines in a rockery in her greenhouse and I love spotting the same plants growing wild in the Pyrenees.
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Yes, especially in springtime some of the wildflowers here look very familiar! SD
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Rosemary is wonderful and we have plenty of it in our garden in Greece. Rosemary being a Mediterranean plant, it thrives in our place as well. Apparently, there are many different types of rosemary but they all smell heavenly. We usually add ours to stews with potatoes. I loved your Spanish garden. Perhaps you should try other aromatics as well, like oregano, thyme, marjoram, lavender and so many others. Well done, it looks great! Keep writing!
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Hi Nicholas, I’m pleased you like our garden though to be honest it is more ‘tamed hillside’ than proper garden. We grow a lot of woody herbs here, thyme and lavender in particular do well. SD
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