dill and swallowtail caterpillar

Like most of the planet we’ve had one weird Spring season. We’ve had rain followed by really hot sticky weather followed by more rain…and rinse and repeat.  All this wetness while much of the Southwest has become a giant tinderbox. I wish I could send them some rain.

The good news is with all the rain I haven’t had to water anything except container plants on the porch. The bad news…the weeds are taking over.

Before everything reverts to jungle, I thought I’d share a few photos of what’s blooming and thriving in the herb and kitchen gardens with all the rain!

Clematis

Blueberries

Romaine Lettuce and Calendula Seedlings

Pretty Garlic Scapes

Daylilies, Feverfew and Echinacea

So what’s going on in your garden?

Three Hard Shell Gourds Curing

We grow gourds and often pair them up with everlasting herbs in dried arrangements.

Gourds are simple to grow, but they do have a fairly long growing season-so if you live in Alaska and try to grow them, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I usually grow hard shell or Lagenarias, although luffas are pretty entertaining to grow, too.

Fertile soil, plenty of sun, somewhere to sprawl or climb, and enough water are all a gourd plant needs. Ours are usually grown over a cattle panel known hereafter as a trellis.

After the plant is about 6 or 7 feet long I usually take off the growing tips and let the laterals -or side shoots- grow as long as they like. That keeps my vines shorter overall and seems to produce more gourds.

A Small Gourd

OK, so here it is…the botany word of the day:  monoecious

This means a plant has both male and female flowers on the same vine, but they are totally separate flowers.  Boy gourd flowers have just the male flower structure, and girl gourd flowers have a tiny little baby gourd at the base of the flower.

What’s more- gourds are pollinated at night. By moths. Really, I would not make that up.

Flash forward-

All summer long our moth pollinated gourds have grown beautifully. We’ve fended off the cucumber beetles that attack the vines and have some gourds. Now what?

We cure the gourds!

Curing them means cutting them from the vine and letting the shells harden, or cure. Lots of people just skip this step and leave them on the vine all winter.

While the gourds cure they look like mutant zombies. They turn all horrible and moldy looking, they shed, split their skins and flake. All this weird activity causes most people toss them out.

DON’T do it!

Bushel Gourd

Let them cure and be mutants, then scrub off all the flaky stuff with a scrub brush and some bleach water. You’ll do this when the gourd shell is hard and totally dried out- which will be months later.

Broken Gourd- See the Seeds?

You can hear the seeds inside when you shake the dried gourd -sort of like maracas.  OK, not really…they usually just thump around in there en masse.

The Same Three Gourds as Cured Mutants

Once they are scrubbed clean you can make all sorts of fun stuff like bird houses, bowls, dippers, and even ornaments with the little gourds.

Sarah's Fairy Gourd House

This beauty was done by Sarah-daughter # 2. She did it for a 4H project a few many years ago (first prize at county and State thank you), and was adapted from a design by Betsy Williams.  Although it’s dried and the color has faded from the flowers, it was gorgeous when she first did it.

Since she helped grow everything and collected it all from around the property I am never allowed to get rid of it.

Along with her home grown gourd, she also used pine cone scales and everlasting herbs. She used statice, yarrow, globe amaranth and baby’s breath for her flower garden along with some twigs, grape vine and leaves to make the furniture , stairs and clothes line. Pretty cool, huh?

Note-If you decide to drill holes in your gourds for bird houses or fairy houses, be careful! The dust is irritating, so be sure to wear a mask or drill it outside.

Want to learn more about gourds? Visit the American Gourd Society!

It’s all white. I think winter has it’s own special kind of beauty in the garden. To the uninitiated it is boring and not worth mentioning….it’s just white.

I decided it was my duty to look beyond the seemingly peaceful, sleeping herb garden and take marvelous and fascinating (to me) pictures of whatever caught my eye in order to share them. I also want to prove to the naysayers that the winter garden is beautiful at rest. This plan takes full advantage of my short attention span as I tromp around (barring blizzards and ice storms) taking lots of random photos while trying not to freeze, or fall and break a leg on the ice.

Here are a few of this week’s pics-

Rambler Rose

Echinacea in the Snow

Hops Vine

Herbs Encased in Ice

Icicle Herbs...Herbcicles?

See? The sleepy old winter garden can be gorgeous all decked out in winter white!

Texas How- Do

My gardening pal Pammy grows her herb garden in Texas.

She can even grow Rosemary year round OUTDOORS!

I know, right?

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but for those of us in the Midwest and North Eastern parts of the country, this seems like magic! Shoot, by this time of year all my non-hardy and tender herbs are already safely tucked indoors.

Pammy has kindly agreed to be our hostess of herb blogging this weekend, and she’s sharing some of her rosemary growing tips over at her blog with us.

Now y’all go check out her Texas style gardening!

Growing Herbs In Containers

I love growing herbs in pots and containers.

For me they are handy, and right outside the back door which means I don’t have to work to get at them. Lazy? Nope. Just getting smarter in my old age!

Container or potted herbs are certainly easy enough to keep up, but watering in the summer can be an issue- which is why self watering pots are terrific! The only time they are a problem is when it rains too much. Then you may need to go dump some of the water out of the pot bases to prevent root disease and rot.

Some of the easier herbs to grow in pots and containers are the mints.

They like lots of water anyway, but you really have to keep them hydrated when they are in pots. The other issue with mints is that they grow out of their pots quickly and will stop producing leaves as they become root bound. Re-pot or root prune them often!

Another easy container herb is Rosemary.

Potted Rosemary plants kept outdoors should not be allowed to dry out completely. You will want to keep rosemary watered, but don’t go overboard or you may have problems with rotting roots.

When you water your rosemary check to make sure the leaves look plump, and watch for yellowing or browning on the tips. Over watering or standing water produces droopy, limp, yellow leaves. Many people see this as a sign that the plant needs water.

Guess what happens next?

Yep, you got it. They water the plant some more and it dies. An easy fix is to simply poke the soil. If it’s wet an inch or more down into the pot, allow the plant to dry out. Moist soil is what you want, just like a wrung out sponge.

Rosemary that has dried out can die without so much as a gasp. This is one plant that can’t produce new leaves fast enough to make a fast come back- particularly if you toast it.

In the heat of summer I give all of my potted rosemary herbs some light afternoon shade and they seem very happy!

Rosemary in Pot

Chives.  ‘The Super Easy No-Brainer, Nearly Carefree Wherever You Grow Them’ herb.

Potted chives will need a weak fertilizer once every 4-6 weeks (I use an organic compost tea) and occasional re-potting to be happiest. If possible, they also like a chilling period, so you can leave potted chives outdoors all winter.

Just make sure they aren’t in one of your beautiful ceramic or terra cotta pots that will weaken and shatter in the ice and snow.

Chives

Chives will spread quickly become root bound in small pots.

You can pull the roots apart and  divide them when re-potting to make more room for yours, and you’ll have extra to share with a friend!

I love bringing pots of herbs indoors for the winter

In the late summer and early Autumn I start getting pots of herbs ready for the house. This includes re-potting, clipping back and setting them in a partly shaded area for a few weeks. This allows them to adjust to the lower light in the house. Do not just bring your herbs (especially Rosemary) indoors without having either acclimated them first or having bright supplemental lighting available. Rosemary has a tendency to drop all it’s leaves when going from a high light to a low light situation. It often doesn’t recover.

Let There Be Supplemental Light!

On dark winter days all the herbs indoors get supplemental light, but even grow lights can’t compete with  full summer sun!  Here in Illinois a minimum of 8 -10 hours under grow lights will give most herbs enough light to keep them producing leaves.

Some herbs just seem to barely hold on through the winter, and that’s about all you can ask of them. If they survive, they are likely to come back better than ever when you set them out in the Springtime.

Re-potting, clipping back and lowering light is a good idea for any herbs that you plan to bring inside for winter or at any other time of the year.

While you’re at it, check for insect infestations and eggs. That way you can take care of any big problems before you move them indoors!

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Did you like this post? Then come and join the Free herb class at Growing Herbs For Beginners!