Herb Gardens

Hi! I bought a book yesterday on herb garden design... even though I already have too many books on herbs. This one is different because it talks about, and has pictures of, gardening with herbs that are more medicinal than culinary.

What sort of herb gardening do you do? Did you know that many flowers are considered herbs? Some of which are: peony, violets, yarrow, calendula, roses, nasturtium, monarda. If you grow these you are herb gardening :-)

I have a fairly small culinary herb garden (11'x11') - herbs don't take much room. My first was an old wheelbarrow that was rusting out on the bottom. It already had drainage, so it was perfect. I filled it with garden soil amended with some sand and fine gravel and grew hyssop, dill, lemon thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, and chives. I set it on a patch of lawn in front of the house and it looked so cute! Those herbs grew, though, and so did my interest, and I quickly outgrew the wheelbarrow. I still have the original thyme, oregano, and chives and they even survived being transplanted out here at the farm.

In my garden I love weedy and wild things! I am currently in search of milk thistle and teasel to add to my collection of weedy type tall flowers. Thus expanding the berbs even more into the flowers and vegetables. They'll soon be all jumbled together!

Alison

Hi Alison,
My interest is gaining with the use of herbs. I also found a little herb book which has pictures and crafts ideas with herbs. Since spearmint overran a part of my garden last year, I thought about having a raised bed area of more herbs (and I use a lot of them for cooking!). I am almost finished building a rectangular raised herb bed for culinary herbs along the sunny East side of my house. It is a small contained area, about 3 feet deep by 10 feet long. I saw the neatest thing and thought about doing it this way, but I decided to make my own wooden bed. You can use an old wooden ladder, lay it on top of the soil, fill in soil to the edges and..you have a raised herb bed, where the rungs on the ladder are dividers between your varieties!
Trish :)

Wow... I love that ladder idea! Hmmm... wonder if my dad will miss his 10 foot ladder...

- Amanda

Yeah, I've seen the ladder idea. Almost bought an old wagon wheel at a flea market ($10 - I should have! See me kick myself!) for the same purpose. But I already had my garden in place.
But Trish, you might think about planting your mint in another planter or bed altogether. Or maybe in a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out and sunk in the bed. Mine's in a sunken coffee can right now but it's definitely not big enough. It kept putting above ground roots out and I kept pulling them out. A constant fight!

I've actually used the ladder thing...

I have an old wooden ladder that was unstable and not being used. I filled in the ladder rungs and planted mint. But I've been told that it will expand way beyond the ladder and that my whole garden will be mint. But that's o.k., I love the way it looks, the ladder is a good and easy project.

~RaeBuckner~

Last year I grew two varieties of parsley, lemon basil, sweet basil, spearmint, peppermint, oregano, chives, dill, pumpkin, cayennye peppers, cucumbers and cilantro, lots of cilantro.

In the flower class I have meadowsweet, sweet woodruf, columbine, feverfew, loads of dandelions, lol!, marigold, and sunflowers.

Seed new to me this year via the trade circuit include: several varieties of hollyhock, 7 new varieties of columbine, calendula, catmint, mother of tyme, mallow, goldenrod, nasturtium, love-lies-bleeding, purple and white coneflower, foxglove, monarda, and St. John's Wort,

I have part of an old packet of pennyroyal to try again (well, it grew in 1995), I really want to pick up some lemon mint again - it has the coolest purple flowers. And, I am going to get some horseradish.

I mainly use the herbs in cooking and I love to watch them flower out. I make loads of salsa each summer and use up the cilantro as fast as I can grow it. I've made teas from the mints, but I really just like to crush a few leaves and smell them when I am playing out in the garden :)

Last year I grew basils, thyme, oregano, calendula, different sages, wormwood, cayenne peppers (vegetable, but used in herbal remedies), sunflowers, amaranths (both the ones I planted and the nasty wild variety that I had no choice over), lots and lots of different thistles (haha), lots and lots of stinging nettle. :( We have cattail which are not herbal, but can be eaten. I also planted jerusalem artichoke, many different mints, dill, coneflowers, roses, onions, chives, garlic, and many many more.

RiseAnn, your garden sounds like mine. We're even in similar zones.

I also grew lots of cilantro. I put a bunch in the food processor at the end of the season and froze in ice cube trays with water. I've been using it through the winter. I love to make a soup of dried beans (grew these too!) with onion, garlic, chicken bouillon, and cilantro. Can add some chicken if you want meat. Called white chili.

Love the tip about lemon mint - I do want to try more mints like apple...and the lemon sounds good...love purple flowers and lemony herbs.

Mick: did you like the jerusalem artichoke? I tried some once and liked it. Failed to save any tubers for planting, silly me. Has it become invasive yet? Wish you could send me some nettle, we don't seem to have any around here. I'd like to cook it up in soups. Great vitamin source! We do have some wild sorrel, it grows ALL over the yard. Like to pick the leaves and munch. I think I'll try sorrel soup this spring, it's supposed to be good.

Alison

Alison, I only planted the jerusalem artichokes last year. I got them in a trade. I hope they do ok. You tell me when to harvest and how to do it and I will send you some nettles. I have heard that also, but never tried it. I think that we could live off of the plants on my land. We have several acres of cat tails. You are supposed to be able to eat the young shoots, young cattails and make a flour. We have acres of the stinging nettles which you cook for greens(?) I think. Several wild sunflowers plants. And wild roses everywhere. Not to mention, wild asparagus that we seemed to miss this last spring until it was too late.

Mick, here's a link that you might enjoy: http://www.ediblewild.com/a_index.html
I've belonged to this group for about three years. They have some very knowledgeable members if you want to learn more about what is called foraging. Beware, if you join their e-mail group, they generate a LOT of mail.

Since I became aware of how many "weeds" are edible I look at nature in a whole new way! I've bought some really great books. One I left out and a friend of my husbands (an avid outdoorsman, unlike my DH) was so fascinated with it that I made him a gift of it on his birthday. It was called Billy Joe Tatum's Wild Foods Cookbook and Field Guide and it was my favorite. Check it out here: http://www.hallcooking.com/vegetables_vegetarian/344.shtml It's great for someone with a mild interest in foraging and a greater interest in cooking.

I'm thinking that nettles would have to be dug up and sent as a plant. The smaller the better, put roots and dirt in a little baggie and then pack in a little box. Lots of trouble and it's a tender plant that may not survive. But...I could trade you some horseradish roots in April in exchange for some if you want to try. Lets think about it, there's lots of time.

Mmmm, I hope you noted the placement of that wild asparagus. I can't wait for ours (not wild!) to be harvestable. How I love asparagus!

Regards,
Alison

I had such a lovely experience with stinging nettle as a child in Oregon...dragged through a large patch of them wearing shorts with my foot stuck in the stirrup of the sadle on my cantankerous shetland pony (she scraped me off on a tree first). Its funny how vividly you can recall these kinds of things, ouch!!

Alison - I would really like a recipe with some estimated measurements for the white chili - I am not the best at a pinch of this and a pinch of that, lol! Last year I blended all the extra jalapenos and froze them in ice cube trays, but hadn't thought about that for the cilantro - I've just been paying 69 cents a bunch all winter - hehe.

My herb garden is so disorganized - its kind of like every herb for itself. I am always throwing seeds in the bare spots. I have to whack the oregano back severely or it hogs the whole bed. The parsley was getting that way too, but I think its toast this winter. I like using the oregano as greenery in cut flower arrangements because it stays alive and even starts to root. Then I can give away the plants.

Mick - your garden sounds so fantastic. I love the pictures you have in your journal. I get those huge cat spiders in my garden too, do you notice all the bug husks beneath their webs? I think they are so pretty, but they still scare me sometimes, even though I know they are there. Seems as though thistles and nettles can be just as annoying as dandelions. Can't wait to get started this spring!

Although I grow some strictly culinary herbs, most of ours are medicinals. Some are in tubs, some are in beds, and some get interplanted with veggies.

Can't even begin to list them all. Everytime I find a new remedy that works for us it usually means another new herb---some of which are a real bear to grow. One of these years I will get dong quai to work here.

BTW, many of the medicinals are beautiful flowers in their own right, and fit right in with borders and flower beds. Echinecea comes to mind (purple coneflower), as does calendula, bergamot (bee balm), and feverfew, to name just a few.

spring is a coming. i saw some bare ground by the south side of the house.
Jerusalum artichoke will be fine. They say once you have it you will always have it
I love planting food around..and finding the patches of wild food around. My husband calls it siege mentality..but he likes the food. Last yr i met someone very knowlegable on wild mushrooms. I check everything out with her and a ton of books. last yr i found chantrells, and some oyster mushrooms and something else(i can't remember with out looking it up) Just keep thinking spring...oh i have a pond which i put cattails in 2 yrs ago, I am watching them spread, I literally throw the mint on the edges (they take)
I tried watercress (no luck it disappeared) if anyone has any I would love a piece..we can work on a trade or something. that is all i have to get back to life..emily