The first day of fall is Monday, Sept. 22 but you can get an early start on the season Saturday at Point Defiance Park.

The W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory is holding a fall plant sale from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Point Defiance greenhouses at 5402 N. Shirley.

Hardy herbs, garden mums, perennials and houseplants will be on sale.

I talked with conservatory manager Mary Anderson today. She said they'll have a wide variety of quality plants on hand. Most of what is on sale is grown specifically for the fall plant sale.

"We actually grow things for the sale that we know people want," Anderson said. But some are excess that were grown for parks.

Some of the houseplants are grown from cuttings taken at the conservatory.

Generally speaking, 3 1/2-inch pots will sell for $3.50 and gallon sized plants are $5, she said.

Proceeds will benefit the Conservatory.

Call 591-5330 for more info.

I made this salad entirely with ingredients from my garden. Besides lettuce, tomatoes, onionn and basil I added a Freak of Nature Garden newbie, a white carrot.

I bought the seeds from Territorial Seed Co. but didn't have much luck with them thanks to Miss Kitty and her feline friends.

White satin is the name of this variety. It certainly is striking: completely white with a green top. However, it was less sweet than a typical orange carrot. I prefer the purple carrots I grew last year.

This is an Italian Red Torpedo onion I grew from Ed Hume seeds. It's another newbie in the Freak of Nature Garden.

The onion is very strong and white inside. I really like it. It slices very thin, great for a salad. Despite its red exterior I'd liken it more to a strong white onion than a red/purple salad onion.

I was at the University of Washington-Seattle this week and stumbled upon a series of gardens on campus, not far from Pacific Street.

The plants were all labeled, many were from Asia, some were common but I couldn't make sense of why they were grouped together. There wasn't any rhyme or reason to it.

Then finally I found someone working in the garden. He told me I was in the biology department's Medicinal Herb Garden. It, apparently, is one of the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere with over 1,000 species represented.

None of the signs explain what the various plants are used for. That makes sense. There might be a whole bunch of people in the gardens every day trying to medicate themselves if there were.

If you're up at UW during the growing season you might want to check it out. Consult this map to find the string of gardens. Here are some photos and finds I made there:

I've never seen or heard of this plant but its name, Fremontodendron californicum, suggests it's native to California and was named for or by the 1800's explorer Captain John Fremont. It's common name is Fremontia or flannel bush. It was a low shrub with sparse branches and had grey-green, maple-like leaves and apricot colored blossoms. I definitely want one of these for my garden.

I named this hops plant "Cousin It." It made me want to have a beer.

I don't know what purpose other than "pretty" this peony has but I'd have it in my garden.

This is the biggest hedge of tea (Camellia sinensis) that I've seen since I was in Japan.

I'm on fire.

OK...it's my Chilean fire tree that's on fire. I've had two growing for several years (one in Tacoma, the other at Willapa Bay) and they've had good years and so-so ones but this is the best ever.

This evergreen tree (Embothrium coccineum) is lighting up my garden right now. A word of warning: Both of my trees seem to have poor root systems. Both are listing after storms.

This delicate horizontal stem belongs to a solomon's seal. This perennial snakes out from a mass of shrubs and plants in my shade garden every spring with its delicate branches of leaves and blossoms.

Finally, I bring you these onion flavored pom poms:

Yes, flavored. Whether you grow them for food or for flowers no garden should be without chives. Most folks think of chives as those small segments of green tubes on their baked potatoes. But the flowers are just as edible and zingy.

You can harvest the buds or tear apart the flowers and sprinkle them on a salad. I like to pick a nice little bouquet of them for my nieces and then devour the whole thing just before I hand it over. I have some mighty onion breath after that but they never get tired of that routine. Anything for a laugh.

Yesterday I came home to find my roommate cooking up a whole bunch of vegetables from his girlfriend's garden.

Both of them hail from Japan and I'm used to finding all sorts of unusual food products in the fridge.

But yesterday I found something new. They're called Nira, also known as Chinese chives. When the roomie wasn't looking I popped a few in my mouth. They were wonderful little bursts of garlic.

Later, roomie-san cooked them up in sesame oil with salt and pepper. They were fantastic.

The comprehensive Japanese cookbook, "The Japanese Kitchen" by Hiroko Shimbo says Nira is full of vitamins A, B and C as well as minerals like calcium. Shimbo says they are used in miso soup, dressings and stir-fry.

Next Spring I'll definitely be looking for seeds. I found some listed at Seeds of Change:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=S17175

The leafy herb in this photo is Shiso. At least that's what the Japanese call it. Like most herbs, it shows up in multiple cultures.

Also known as Perilla and Beafsteak plant, it's used in Korean, Vietnamese and Indian cooking among others. I'm growing it in my garden from some seeds a friend in Japan sent me. The undersides of the leaf are red.

I first tasted the strongly flavored herb 20 years ago at a San Francisco sushi bar when a chef wrapped it around a piece of squid. I've been hooked ever since.

Cheryl the Pig Lady has been selling starts at the Tacoma Farmers Market where she patiently explains what it is to anyone who asks.

So, what does it taste like you ask? I wish I could tell you. Every comparison I've heard doesn't come close. All I will say is that it has a basil-like intensity.

If you know what to look for you'll find many shiso-flavored products in Japanese food stores. I use it to flavor salads, chicken and seafood.

Wikipedia has this to say about it: It is considered rich in minerals and vitamins, has anti-inflammatory properties and is thought to help preserve and sterilize other foods.

It contains several compounds, the most prevalent being perillaldehyde. Perillaldehyde, or volatile oils from perilla that are rich in perillaldehyde, are used as food additives for flavoring and in perfumery to add spiciness

If you are looking for a herb like no other give this one a try.

Way back in Spring Sue and I visited Paldo World, the huge Asian supermarket on South Tacoma Way. We went there for lunch but on the way in found a friendly but English-challenged woman selling starts.

I bought several even though I wasn't sure what they were. Eventually, I discovered they were squash, tomato, cucumber, pepper, sesame and beans.

I put several in a pot (above). Here's what happened to them:

Bean: A bush variety that grew two beautiful red streaked green beans before being eaten by deer.

Tomato: Red cherry variety. Pruned by deer on a nightly basis.

Cucumber: Died.

Pepper: Stunted growth, a few flowers. Growing next to the tomato isn't helping, I'm sure. Or maybe it smokes when I'm not looking.

Sesame: I used the leaves in salads for a while. They were OK but can't compare to Shiso (I'll blog on that in the future.)

Squash: I planted it near my corn. It's leaves look like zucchini but as you can see from the photo (below) it's definitely different. Any of you out there know what it is or what I should do with it?

While working in the garden this past weekend, the kids wanted to know which plants were edible.

It's a big question for little kids who still put marbles in their mouths. My answer: Only things I tell you to eat. Don't eat anything unless I say you can. Some plants can make you very, very sick.

After the warning, we walked around and talked about what they could eat. We found chives left from last year. Dandelions, but only from our yard where we don't use pesticides or other chemicals. We tried violets in our front border garden. We picked a few small lettuce leaves that were starting to sprout.

But that wasn't enough for them. We ended up driving to Tacoma Boys to buy peppermint, spearmint, rosemary and oregano. Now they can stroll the backyard for a snack – as long as I am out there with them.

I had a suggestion recently to grow Asian vegetables. I love Asian flavors, but was unsure what to grow -- or what I can grow in this climate.

Then I found this how-to for growing lemongrass from "starts" found in the produce aisle.

I'm hesitant to fill the garden with already-grown plants that I'm just keeping on life support, but fresh-from-the-garden lemongrass tea does sound delicious.