[Gpdd] Re Food - herbs and geranium

[Penny Charlesworth]

Any chance of sending me a photo of these plants, Ellen? I am a
professional gardener and might be able to identify them. I may not have
seen plants that grow in Hawaii but I grow a lot of tropicals in my
greenhouse and have lots of gardening books.

In chilly England, nasturtiums grow in the summer ( the first frost kills
them off ) and the leaves and flowers can be used in a salad. I board a
couple of tortoises when their owner goes away and they love nasturtium
leaves. Although the tortoises live in the piggies' summer run, the piggies
never touch the nasturtium leaves. Maybe they are too peppery for their
taste. I don't like them for the same reason.

You are right not feed the piggies anything with which you are unfamiliar
as many garden plants are poisonous.

Geraniums ( also called pelargoniums ) come in many types, most with big
showy flowers. We grow them in pots here as they are frost tender There are
also perennial geraniums also called cranesbills here on account of the
shape of their seedheads but they all have flowers - mostly blue, pink,
magenta or white.

There are scented leaved geraniums, the leaves of which are sometimes baked
into a cake here but they do have flowers - mostly quite small and coloured
in the pink/red/mauve area of the spectrum and some are white. I grow many
of these in my greenhouse as they would not survive the cold outside.

I have never offered geraniums or rosemary to my herd but I have a huge
variety of herbs and other forage in my garden, which they eat in season.

Try and take a picture.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.