Herb Gardens

Botanical Illustration of Calendula from Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany

Plants to Attract Birds:

Any plants that produce berries, or that have flowers which go to seed, are sure to draw birds to your own personal sanctuary. A few examples that you may want to try to grow include:

• Holly (Ilex aquifolium)
• Bachelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
• Coneflowers (Echinacea spp.)
• Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
• Marigold (Tagetes spp.)
• Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia)
• Mullein (Verbascum spp.)
• Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis)
• Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Additions to Your Garden:

I also have a bird bath and bird feeder placed in my front yard. My husband has built two bird houses for me which we placed on a sturdy but dead tree in our backyard.

Additional Information:

See Ortho’s All About Attracting Birds by Michael McKinley for further details on a variety of ways to attract birds to your yard and garden.

Public Domain Image of Sunflowers from the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Center 

Plants That Attract Butterflies:

Some plants act as a host plant for the butterfly caterpillars while others act as a nectar source for the adult butterflies. Certain plants provide both sources of food and will help to attract all stages of butterflies to your garden. If you are interested in attracting butterflies to your yard, you should think about planting one or more varieties of butterfly plants in your garden.

I have listed some of the butterfly attracting plants that are growing in my zone 10 south Florida garden. If you would like to attract butterflies specific to your part of the country books, such as The Family Butterfly Book by Rick Mikula, will provide additional information.

Plants that provide nectar:

•   Blanket flower (Gaillardia Purcella)
•   Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
•   Flowering sages (Salvia spp.)
•   Gout plant (Jatropha podagrica)
•   Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium fistulous)
•   Lantana (Lantana spp.)
•   Leadwort (Plumbago auriculatus)
•   Mexican sunflowwer (Tithonia rotundifolia)
•   Pincushion flower (Scabiosa spp.)
•   Porter weed (Stachytarpheta jamaicans)
•   Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
•   Zinnia (Zinnia spp.)

Host Plants:

•   Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
•   Dill (Anethum graveolens)
•   Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
•   Leadwort (Plumbago capensis)
•   Porter weed (Stachytarpheta jamaicans)
•   Passion flower (Passiflora spp.)
•   Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
•   Pelican vine (Aristolochia ringens)

ABOVE: Purple Coneflower

“The Sorceress” by John William Waterhouse

Magical Associations of Plants
The magical associations of some of the herbs and spices you may have growing in your garden have been listed for entertainment purposes. Just an interesting bit of folklore to think about while out in your garden, tending your plants.

Allspice - healing, luck, money.
Basil - harmony, love, luck, peace, purification, protection, wealth.
Bay - clairvoyance, divination, glory, healing, love, luck, pride, protection,  purification, resurrection, success.
Borage - courage, happiness.
Calendula - clairvoyance, love.
Caraway - passion, protection.
Cardamon - love, passion.
Chamomile - love, money, purification, sleep
Chervil - happiness, hope, new life.
Chives - protection, purification.
Cilantro/coriander - love, passion.
Cinnamon - beauty, healing, love, money, passion, protection, purification, spirituality.
Clove - dignity, love, memory, money, pain relief, protection, respect.
Cumin - fidelity, protection.
Curry leaf - protection.
Dandelion - divination, wishes.
Dill - love, money, passion, protection.
Fennel - courage, healing, immortality, purification, protection, strength.
Fenugreek - money.
Garlic - courage, healing, protection, strength.
Ginger - love, money, power, success.
Juniper - confidence, ingenuity, initiative, love, protection.
Lavender - cleansing, healing, love, purification, protection, sleep.
Lemon balm - immortality, love, rejuvenation, sympathy.
Lemon grass - psychic ability.
Lovage - love, purification.
Marjoram - comfort, consolation, kindness, love, happiness, honor, protection.
Mint - healing, purification.
Nutmeg/mace - clairvoyance.
Parsley - passion, purification, protection.
Pepper - protection.
Peppermint - energy, healing, purification.
Rose - beauty, clairvoyance, fertility, healing, love, youth.
Rosemary - devotion, energy, friendship, love, loyalty, purification, remembrance.
Saffron - clairvoyance, healing, passion, purification.
Sage - clarity, healing, immortality, purification, prosperity, respect, wisdom.
Savory (summer) - mental powers, passion.
Star anise - clairvoyance, luck.
Thyme - clairvoyance, courage, energy, healing, love, luck, psychic power, purification.
Turmeric - purification, protection.

Above: Miner’s Lettuce

‘Speak not - whisper not;
Here blowest thyme and bergamot;
Softly on the evening hour,
Sweet herbs in their spices shower.’
- Walter de la Mare, The Sunken Garden, 1917

In addition to growing a variety of herbs and spices in your own garden, you may want to try wild crafting some of the more abundantly available herbs such as purslane, dandelion and chicory. I have purslane growing as a weed all over my garden pathways. I had to purchase seeds from a garden center to establish my patches of perennial dandelion and chicory. When collecting herbs in the wild make sure you know what you are picking, do not harvest any herb if you are uncertain of its identification.

I have three empty lots surrounding my property that produce a variety of weeds such as purslane that I can harvest on a continual basis. This type of plant collecting is sometimes referred to as wild crafting. Use common sense when collecting herbs in the wild. Make sure you have the permission of the land owner, make sure the herbs have not been sprayed with any harmful chemicals or pesticides and make sure the location you are collecting from is away from the contamination of car and vehicle exhaust fumes.

Also, make sure you know the exact identification of the material you are collecting, consult a good field guide on wild plants to make sure of your identification. And finally, many of the more popular herbs such as ginseng, golden seal, trillium and echinacea have been over harvested in recent years. I never harvest any of these endangered species from the wild. I either grow my own, as in the case of echinacea, or I purchase the harvested herb or herbal product from a reputable company that grows their own product and does not harvest from the wild.

Wild Crafting Bookshelf

1. Edible Wild Plants. Peterson Field Guides. Houghton Mifflin Co.
2. Guide to Edible Weeds. James A. Duke. Random House, 1999.
3. Handbook of Edible Weeds. James A. Duke. CRC Press, 2001.
4. Hurley, Judith Benn. The Good Herb; Recipes and Remedies from Nature. William Morrow, 1995.

PHOTO CREDIT: Park Seed Company 1 Parkton Avenue Greenwood, SC 29647-0001 800-845-3369 www.parkseed.com

If you are lucky enough to have space for more than one herb garden, you may decide to plant a themed garden. Themed gardens are a great way to group together certain herb plants in an interesting display.

If you don’t have the space to plant an entire theme garden, try growing a few themed herbs in containers placed around your patio or deck. The containers can also be placed around your front door, in hanging baskets, or even be grown indoors. Here are ideas for a few theme herb gardens that you may want to consider planting.

HERB GARDEN THEMES

• Salad Herb Garden
• Medicinal Herb Garden
• Tea Herb Garden
• Culinary Herb Garden
• Witches’ Herb Garden
• Sun Herb Garden
• Moon Herb Garden
• Butterfly Herb Garden
• Bird Herb Garden
• Aromatic Herb Garden
• Medieval Herb Garden

I’ll be adding details on herbs to plant for each of these theme gardens in future posts.

Tina Sams, editor of The Essential Herbal magazine, has compiled the first five years of the magazine into a new book. Under the Sun; The First Five Years, has just been publishing by the Sibling Group. The paperback book is 224 pages long and includes black & white photographs and illustrations to accompany some of the articles.

Your very own Herb Gardens blogger, Herb Witch - AKA Lynn Smythe, has two of her articles reprinted in this book. My “Magic in the Kitchen” article appears on pages 35-37 and includes 3 recipes for herb infused goodies. The recipes include Cinnamon Almond Drops, Salmon Fiesta with Basil & Thyme and Vegetable Latkes with Garlic Chives. My other article, “Herbal Picnic Basket”, appears on pages 50-52 and includes 11 delicious recipes to serve at your next picnic.

My Chive Dip recipe is reprinted here with permission.

Chive Dip by Lynn Smythe

This dip is a wonderful accompaniment to fresh, raw vegetables such as carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes.

Ingredients for the Chive Dip

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup fresh chives - snipped with scissors
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage - minced
• 2 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt

Directions for the Chive Dip

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well.
2. Place in a small storage container with a tight fitting lid.
3. Let chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator before using to allow all the flavors to meld together.

Here’s information on the book from the Essential Herbal website:

We are in the 7th year of publication here at The Essential Herbal Magazine. The first several years were filled with wonderful stuff, but the audience was very limited. Most of those issues sold out long ago. So we took the 15 spring and summer issues from those 5 years (Mar/Apr, May/June, and July/Aug), and put them together into a truly fabulous book. Over 200 pages, sized 8.5 x 11, filled with all the things readers have come to expect from The Essential Herbal. Internal pages are black and white, and the book is paperback bound.

We reworked some of the early stuff, combined things into reasonable chapters - like “The Stillroom”, “The Kitchen”, “Just Weeds”, and “Herbal First Aid”, and added a few surprises. There are articles on gardening, favorite backyard remedies, wild eats, and tons of crafting ideas.If you are a beginner, you need this book. If you’ve been an herbie for a while, you’ll love this book!

Price: $24.95. Order online from the Essential Herbal .

Above: Botanical illustration of nutmeg, first published in 1887 by Franz Eugen Köhler, in Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen

Overview: Evergreen tree which has glossy, dark green leaves. The nutmeg tree actually produces two distinct spices. The fruit of the nutmeg tree looks a bit like a yellowish-green apricot.

Harvesting Methods: The actual fruit of the nutmeg tree is a bit sour and not used too often. It is the inside of this fruit, the seed, which yields the spices mace and nutmeg. The nutmeg is the interior nut of the fruit while mace is the lacy aril covering the outside of the nutmeg. Mace, which becomes a dull, rusty orange color when dried, is bright red and shiny when the fruit is first opened. The mace is removed from the outside and left to dry.

The nuts are left to dry for approximately 6 to 8 weeks. When thoroughly dried, the nutmeg can be heard rattling around inside the shell. The shells are cracked open, and discarded, releasing the nutmegs.

Common Name: Nutmeg and Mace

Latin Name: Myristica fragrans

Alternate Varieties:
M. argentea
M. fatua
M. malabarica

Zone: Hardy to USDA Zone 10.

Sun: Does best grown in a sunny location with high humidity.

Soil: Rich, sandy, moist soil.

Mature Size: Twenty to forty feet tall and up to twenty feet wide.

Propagating: Nutmeg trees can be started from seed. Or start new plants from hardwood cuttings taken at the end of summer. It can take up to 15 years to start bearing fruit. In order to set fruit, plant approximately one male tree for every ten female trees. Once a tree starts to bear fruit, it will continue to do so for 50 years or more.

Growing Tips: Unless you live in the tropics or subtropics, consider growing nutmeg as a large container plant. The container can be brought to a sheltered location, indoors, during the cooler months.

Culinary Uses: Pieces of whole mace, called blades, can be added directly to dishes. The pieces need to be removed before serving. Mace is also available as a ground powder. Mace is more expensive than nutmeg. Each fruit of the nutmeg tree yields approximately ten times more nutmeg than mace. Mace can be used to flavor cream sauces, soups, fish, cheese dishes, vegetables and desserts. Mace has a more delicate flavor than nutmeg.

Although nutmeg can be purchased already ground, a better flavor is obtained from the whole nutmeg. Purchase a few whole nutmegs along with a nutmeg grater. Grind the nutmeg, as needed, directly into your recipes. Nutmeg is used widely in both sweet and savory dishes. Nutmeg works well with spinach, squash, cauliflower, puddings, cakes, cookies and cream sauces. It is an essential flavoring to add to Swedish meatballs.

Aromatherapy Uses: The essential oil is sometimes used to scent perfumes, soaps and lotions.

Medicinal Uses: Nutmeg has hallucinogenic properties. In excessive quantity, nutmeg can become toxic. A little bit of this spice goes a long way. Nutmeg is also a carminative, meaning that it helps to expel excess gas from the intestines. Nutmeg has also been used to treat diarrhea, insomnia and toothache.