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Ilona's Garden Journal




growing herbs

Herb Plant Information

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Are you growing herbs or planning to? You might need a little guide to find all my written articles on the topic. (I have over 1000 posts here, and it is high time to organize it for ease in finding just the ones you need, quickly).

LAVENDER

pretty foliage
Lavender has been one of my favorites from very early in my gardening career. It became a feature in my garden once I made the Lavender hedge to line the fieldstone walk.
How to Grow Lavender

Do You Like Lavender?

Making New Plants of Lavender

Lavender, Where Art Thou?

The Lavender Walk

Lavender Winter Damage

HERBS

thymeblossom
I no longer have a special herb garden, but incorporate herbs throughout the different planting beds. Sage, hyssop, and thyme find a place beside the back walk. Within the vegetable gardens is where I grow most of my herbs today.
10 Reasons To Love Herbs

Helping Your Honeybees

Scented Garden

Rue

Help Your Honeybees

 

Considered Easy

Herbs are considered some of the easiest, or at least non-demanding plants to grow. They generally desire full sun and good drainage with average moisture.

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

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thyme
Thyme in flower

There are so many ways to enjoy herb plants, that they are not for herb gardens only. Think about tucking them into the landscape, into containers or into your home.

I do I enjoy thee? Oh, Herb, Let me count the ways!

10 Ways I Enjoy Herbs (and you can, too!)

  1. In companion plantings, herbs often repel harmful organisms through their volatile oils.
  2. Delicious when culinary herb choices are grown in the garden.
  3. Herbs make delightful bouquets, either alone or mixed into your favorite flowers. Tussie Mussie, anyone?
  4. They are usually easy to grow.
  5. Their soft coloring, whether in foliage or flower, make garden color harmony.
  6. Herbs smell heavenly.
  7. You can make crafts out of them.
  8. You can grow them on your windowsill.
  9. Herbs may improve your health.
  10. People have grown herbs for ages. They are historically important plants.

What are some ways of growing herbs in the garden?

Of course, the garden dedicated to them, the herb garden, sometimes laid out in rows, or in a Colonial manner of blocks -either in raised bed or simply planted along a path or fence. Since some of them run at the root, people do like to keep them contained, either in the raised bed or container pots. The only one that gives everyone a bit of trouble with running through the garden is the Mints, but who doesn’t love a spot of mint tea? And added to meats or chopped into salads, mint makes everything so refreshing.

As part of a kitchen garden, herbs are traditional companions to tomatoes, whether you want parsley or basil, and that is the natural place for your kitchen herbs. I have dill that comes up every year in my vegetable garden. I just pull it up where it isn’t wanted; not deeply rooted and easy to remove, the seedling s are also distinctive and easy to weed out.

Tucked into nooks and crannies inside a Cottage garden is the perfect way to include them in a garden “plan” for a very sweet smelling and lovely medley of plantings. Thyme running along cracks in the pathway, a purple blooming stand of sage as a full stop, there are so many beautiful ways to incorporate herbs in such a place.

If you want lots of herbs for crafts they are easily grown out in rows in a cutting garden. I loved marjoram wreaths for my kitchen. Try making potpourris and include Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua), which can also be used for informal wreaths or a wreath base for other flowers.

Are you tempted to find a place for an herb or two ( or more!)in your life? It is one romance to share with friends and one that might grow into a life-long relationship. Herbs are like that- a perennial favorite to enjoy in many ways.

 

Eparé Herb Mill and Grinder - Great for Shredding and Chopping Parsley and Greens

Binding Kitchen
Brand eparé
Color Green
Department Kitchen
EAN 0854767005309
Label eparé
Manufacturer eparé
Model EPHT03
MPN EPHT03
Package Quantity 1
Part Number EPHT03
Product Group Kitchen
Product Type Name KITCHEN
Publisher eparé
Studio eparé
Title Eparé Herb Mill and Grinder - Great for Shredding and Chopping Parsley and Greens
UPC 854767005309
Price Disclaimer

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© 2013 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.

You’ll Rue The Day…

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Rue with no view of the flagstone path

Ever heard that saying? It might become all too meaningful if you are working on a hot summer day, especially while trimming back the “Herb of Grace” Ruta graveolens, AKA “Rue”. The sap from cut or bruised plants can be very irritating. Some people actually blister from it.

 I was doing just such a task today, and noticed my skin feeling prickly and irritated. The plant is amenable to hedging , and was used in old knot gardens.

The smell, sometime after the first acrid whiff when the plant is injured in some way, is pleasant… and it would be my guess that this contributes to its nickname ‘Herb of Grace’.

The historically given reason for the nickname is that the Roman Catholic Church used sprigs to administer Holy Water long ago.

Indigenous to Europe, it grows very well here in Central Ohio. In fact, it seeds itself very readily and while somewhat dying back in winter, a good trimming rejuvenates the small shrubby plants for the coming season. Chemical analysis has unlocked the dominant properties of Ruta graveolens. It has alkaloids which are poisons, and a goodly amount of Coumarin, that sweet smell of cut hay- like the sweeter herb, Sweet Woodruff.

As an ancient herb, quite a few myths and rumored uses have attached themselves to its reputed qualities. I would be skeptical of many of them. Remember that lead was once used as a physic and cosmetic. Not all lore is reliable.

I’ve had rue in my garden since I started my first herb garden long ago. That garden is gone now, and rue shares the lavender walk with plantings of lavender, iberis sempervirens, white Geranium sanguineum ‘Alba’. and Lambs Ear. I like its umbrellas of chartreuse flowers and blue-bloomed foliage.

…but I do have to be a bit careful in handling it.