Herbs in the Garden

Posts Tagged ‘Herbs’

I really love reading old herbals and books about plant lore.

Some of it is really fascinating from an herbalists view point, and some is wildly funny reading by today’s standards.

Here’s one from an 1884 Plant Lore book:

The Herb of Oblivion, or Herb of Forgetfulness.

It was rumored to be found in parts of Switzerland, France and other areas  in Europe.

If you stepped on it, your memory would be lost immediately.

If you had the misfortune to be traveling at the time, you would be lost and would wander about…even if you knew the road well  only a moment before.

About now I was really getting into the tale.

I wanted to know the name of the mysterious herb.

Sadly, the story ended rather abruptly.

The final sentence-

The author reported that no one could remember the name of the herb!

And that completely broke  me up

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Wow, these are good!

A really excellent herb-snack, these Rosemary glazed nuts are beautiful and simple to make.

Six ingredients is all it takes. Mixed nuts (or just your favorites) fresh Rosemary, Cayenne pepper, butter, brown sugar, and sea or Kosher salt. You can find Nigella’s recipe here.

You can tweak the recipe and add a bit more cayenne for those that prefer the spicier stuff.

Me? I’ll add more Rosemary next time since I love the stuff.

Either way, it’s all really good!

Yes, you can and it  lives to tell the tale.

Although freezing fresh sage is possible, it’s not the usual was to preserve it.

I have been known to grab some frosted or frozen sage from the garden in a pinch and I am happy to report that the flavor was still fine for cooking.

I dry my herbs, then pop them in the freezer to kill off any lingering insect eggs that may have hitched a ride on the undersides of leaves. Sage is not much bothered by pests, but by habit, the dried herb still goes into the freezer for a few weeks.

This photo shows some potted sage in the snow.

Potted Sage in the Snow

No, it’s not dead, although I admit it doesn’t look terribly healthy at this point.

The good news?

As a perennial herb it will come back in the spring, or when I bring it inside…whichever comes first.

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Weeding…

You either love it and find it relaxing or you hate it and would rather be tied naked to an anthill.

Regardless of your feelings weeding still needs to be done.

 
Weeds not only look messy in the garden and in pots, they also crowd out your herbs and will cheerfully rob your plants of much needed  nutrients.

Whether you garden in containers, or in the garden, various weed seeds can be present in your soil.

It’s true that weeds are a problem in the garden, but they are actually a bigger problem when you grow in pots and containers!

Why?

You spend time watering and feeding your herbs, but when weeds are present the darned things repay your kindness and generosity by growing at ridiculous rates and sucking the life out of the plants you wanted.

Do your herbs a  great big favor and yank the weeds.

I know first hand that if the weeds get too bad you’ll want to throw up your hands and give up, and sometimes that is advisable.

I have been there and have the overgrown garden pictures on this blog to prove it…and I am blushing as I write that admission.

Weeds Growing With Herbs

Even if you really hate weeding, just take a few minutes a day and pull a few weeds. Unless you have a huge garden planted, a few minutes is all it takes to keep your herbs growing well and looking good!

Do you know how to read a seed packet?

There are lots of companies out there, and each will list different information on their seed packages. In this video I explain a few of the things you might find on a seed packet and what they mean.

I mention plant hardiness zones in the video.  If you aren’t sure what that is, learn more here about that topic!

I am a bonehead.

I mentioned back a few months ago that the new online herb growing video courses were in the works, but  I never really posted any information or a real link to them on this blog. I did mention the holiday craft classes, but that was as far as I got…

So here goes:

Growing Herbs For Beginners- This is the description/sign up page for the classes. It’s 8 weeks of simple and fun videos complete with class handouts and extra goodies!

You can also sign up for a short and sweet weekly newsletter here:

http://www.growingherbsforbeginners.com

It started snowing earlier so I took a few shots of these Echinacea (or Purple Cone Flower) seeds heads before the snow got heavy.

I like to leave the seed heads on a lot of my flowers and herbs out in the garden. Birds and other creatures eat the seeds during the winter and then in the spring I always find lots of these little starts under my pine trees.  Why?

The birds nest in the pines! After the birds have eaten the Echinacea seeds, they get “gift wrapped” in bird poop and deposited beneath the trees.  It’s a sort of  messy little fertilizer package !

Since Echinacea won’t thrive on the heavy shade of the pine trees I end up yanking most of the volunteer starts, but occasionally I’ll replant some of them into a new herb bed. When the Echinacea plants are three years old I dig up the roots for tincture making. These plants will be dug up next fall.