Herb and Garden Mysteries

[Sylvie]

There are some great mysteries centered on herbs and gardening.
The China Bayles Mysteries are books about a woman in Texas who used to be a lawyer but now is an herb store owner, herb authority and amateur detective. Great reading, books on CD. I listen while I weed!

Rosemary and Thyme is a TV series about two British ladies who are professional gardeners. It ran 3 seasons and centered around gardens, mysteries and difficulties middle aged women run up against. There are a few books. The scenery is astounding.

Anyone recommend other gardening mysteries?

 

[Southern Gardener]

My sister and I have all three season on Rosemary and Thyme!!! We absolutely LOVE those showes. The BBC took it off the air and a lot of people were very miffed - as were we! You're right the scenery was astounding.

I'll definitely have to check out China Bayles Mysteries

We also loved Foyles War (not a garden mystery though)- we have all 5 seasons of that one.

 

[Reinbeau]

Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters are an interesting read, there was a series on PBS based on the books. A monk who knows all the herbs and plants and their uses - and can figure out how someone used what kill someone else.

 

[Sylvie]

Thanks Ann, I will look for those books. I have seen a couple on DVD and they were intriguing.

 

[digitS']

Sylvie, just for fun I decided to check Amazon for mysteries using the search term "salvia."

Hey! page after page . . . mystery writers love the term "blood-red salvia" but I had to skip over the excerpts describing ". . . manicured lawns, interspersed with islands of blue ageratum, yellow marigolds, and blood-red salvia" while looking for references to herbs and salvias.

Remarkably, what came up again and again were China Bayles Mysteries! Sylvie, you have found the motherload of herbalism and mystery, I suppose.

I'm not a reader of mysteries but I uncovered the works of another author in a modestly related vein . . . tea! So, I'm a tea drinker . . . and a coffee drinker, a beer drinker, a wine drinker . . . umm, could you pour a little of whatever you've got in that container into my cup ??

Anyway, the name Laura Childs came up with all these "Tea Shop Series" mystery novels. Supposed to have lots of recipes . . .

So, I had fun ! And, I hope you do to, Sylvie.

Steve

edited to say: I was inspired enuf to go in and make myself a cup of anise hyssop & lemon verbena tea - grow those in my garden . DW is watching some horrible thing on the Discovery Channel so I came back to the internet . . . .

 

[Sylvie]

Steve, that's fantastic! Thank you for taking the time to investigate, hahaha (mystery pun).
I just checked and my library has some of the Tea Shop mysteries!!! "Death by Darjeeling" and just out"Oolong Dead" but I'll have to wait until tomorrow, of course.

I drink herbal tea, Lemon Verbena is a favorite of mine, how cool Toasting a teacup to you!

It's not a mystery but the "My Uncle Silas" series on PBS had a tea room episode that was entertaining. He was such a rogue, lol!

 

[digitS']

Don't have any idea it those books will be any good, Sylvie. But, Darjeeling and Oolong are tasty!

I've found that of the tea herbs I can grow, lemon verbena is about the best alone, by itself. However, I really like licorice flavors so the anise hyssop goes well with it. Usually, I've got catnip for variety but had a crop failure last year. Well, it wasn't any fault of the plants. It grows on its own around the edges of the garden, here and there. Unfortunately, I'm out in those areas with the weed whacker - sometimes I get a little overenthusiastic.

Oh, Albert Finney! Yeah, rogue has to be the correct term.

Steve