Courtesy Sarah Gregg / Flickr
There are worse places to expend a 16 - time of day layover than Madrid , Spain , in the springiness . After two weeks in Morocco , I was quick to happen a cozy tapas restaurant and break away my pork tight , and there was plenty of day left to explore the city ’s famous parks . One modest plaza featured four true laurel laurels growing in as many pots , each nearly as large as a VW Beetle . Each Laurus nobilis laurel was as erect as an Italian cypress tree and as improbable as a three - story construction .
In the tummy nearest the bus halt , the trunk of the original tree had rotted forth . A circle of leafy trunks had grown up from the survive roots result a obscure , out of sight grotto the sizing of a phone booth . climb into this hollow with a colleague , we spied on the tourists andMadrileñosthrough the cover of evergreen plant leaves . hide from thepolicia , we break away open a few leaves for the fragrance : a broth of cloves , gamboge , nutmeg tree , vanilla extract and cinnamon . We looked up through the tunnel of branch at a rich , blue sky and , sagely I guess , make up one’s mind not to climb our direction up . Now , I take care at the 5 - foot - tall bay laurel ( Laurus nobilis ) in my lilliputian front yard , and I ’m glad to know it will never get that big .
Bay laurels are native to the Mediterranean , so they grow very well in dry climates along parts of the West Coast . If you think of those Spanish alcove laurels in their huge pots , you ’ll have an approximation of what they like : well - drained soil , fiddling H2O and quite a little of sun . They ’re also content with lean , alkaline soil with a pH of 6.5 to 8 . They do n’t get nearly as big in other parts of the United States . They survive in zone 7 or warmer . In cold parts of the country , you may be able-bodied to keep one going through wintertime in a green goddess if you have a greenhouse or indoors in a very sunny windowpane .
For cooking , dismal , mature bay laurel leaves have stronger smell than young leaves . Drop three or four of them in a tomato sauce , stew or soup to enhance the meaty flavors . Remove them before service , as they are n’t toothsome . Dried leave-taking have an even stronger flavour and can be saved for a yr if kept in a cool , ironic container . Occasionally , I snap off a leafy twig for garden visitant on their way home .
Some wintertime , I cut back the young , flexible branch and wrap them around the metal chassis from last yr ’s Christmas wreath . ( It ’s easy enough to burn off the dried conifer branches in the fire pit and reuse the round alloy skeleton . ) I decorate the bay wreath with a obeisance and sprigs of Charles Hardin Holley berries and hang it on the front door .
Bay laurels take pruning very well . An ancient bay laurel in Old Salem , N.C. , is pruned into a fat standard candle - flaming Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe , and at the gardens in Moore Farms , S.C. , they tightly shear a hedge of bay laurel — just imagine what that smells like — to line walk path and freestanding gardens . Perhaps one sidereal day , I can talk them into grow a bay Stan Laurel grot for me .
