Randy Buresh (Registered Nurse and Herbalist), is the co-owner and founder of Oregon’s Wild Harvest. Oregon’s Wild Harvest grows, harvests and produces their own medicinal herbal products, many of which use the herbs grown on their certified Biodynamic® and Organic farm in Sandy, Oregon. www.oregonswildharvest.com

If you’ve ever woken up at three in the morning, unable to get back to sleep, or laid awake at night, well after midnight, waiting for Mr. Sandman to arrive in the first place, you are all too familiar with the frustrating, and often debilitating, aspects of an increasingly common condition: insomnia. Insomnia affects about 15 to 20 percent of the population at any one time. The causes are many, and range from temporary stress and anxiety to ongoing chronic problems, or a bad mattress or uncomfortable bedroom.

Insomnia can manifest itself in three ways: difficulty falling asleep, inability to stay asleep, and waking too early.

Chamomile is a traditional herb used to treat insomnia.
Photo by Randy Buresh

Herbal remedies are ideal for many, because few of them interfere with medications. The following supplements have been known to assist in relaxation and the ability to sleep soundly. They should be taken about 45 minutes before bedtime:  

Valerian: Valerian is used as an effective and gentle sleep aid for the relief of occasional sleeplessness. Take 900 mg of the dried herb prior to bedtime. Start with a low dosage and build up over a couple of weeks.

Chamomile: Chamomile has traditionally been used in herbal medicine as a calmative and/or sleep aid. Take two teaspoons of the dried herb in tea, one to three times daily. Take the herbs together for an increased effect of relaxation. 

Skullcap: Skullcap is a traditional nervine, or an herb that has a relaxing effect on the central nervous system. Skullcap is also a complementary herb that works very well with other herbs.  Take 1200 mg 45 minutes before bedtime.

Ashwagandha : Ashwagandha is a traditional Ayurvedic (Indian) herb used for calming the mind and promoting regular sleep patterns. Take 1200 mg daily before bedtime. Take with milk for improved absorption.

A lack of nutrients can sometimes cause insomnia. Nutrients often needed are calcium, magnesium and vitamin B6 and vitamin B1 (niacin).

Calcium: Take 500 mg with food before going to bed.

Magnesium: Take 250 mg with food before going to bed. Take the calcium and magnesium together; they are sometimes sold as a single supplement.

Vitamins B6 and B1: Take 50 mg B6 and 500 mg niacin taken together before going to bed.

Photo by Randy Buresh

What Else Can You Do?

• Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at the same time, regardless of the day of the week or whether you've slept.

• Avoid alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.

• Have a leisurely bath with several drops of lavender oil before going to bed. (Check out this recipe for a Relaxing Lavender Bath.)

• Put a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow. (Make Jim Long's sleep pillow.)

• Have a bedtime drink of hot milk and honey.

• Do not take commercial sleeping remedies at the same time as herbal remedies.

• Exercise regularly—try forty minutes walking four times a week.

Insomnia can be a temporary but troubling problem; but remember that it can also be a symptom of a medical condition requiring treatment. If insomnia persists for more than a few weeks, be sure to consult your health care provider.

With the help of valerian, chamomile, ashwagandha or skullcap and a relaxing bedtime ritual, sleep should come more easily. When it does, a rested, replenished, restored sense of being can return. Sweet dreams.

*Statements herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and are not intended to treat or diagnose any disease or health condition. It is also recommended that patients check with their doctors before taking herbs, to ensure that there are no contraindications with prescription medications.

Ramona Werst has a love for growing and cooking with basil. Currently, she mas more than 30 varieties in her collection, and she is adding to it all the time. She creates basil-infused and would love to teach you how to Love Your Basil! Visit her blog (www.ramonasbasilgarden.com) to download her free e-book, Love Your Basil.

There are hundreds of different basil varieties. I have come to love the common Ocimum basilicum 'Sweet' as well as the exotic and incredibly useful Ocimum basilicum 'Lang', which is only grown in the Lang area of Vietnam. Most basils can be used in the kitchen, medicinally, as a pest repellent and as your garden's plant companions. Other basils are known for their beautiful flowers and their multi-colored leaves. In the late summer, Ocimum basilicum 'Thai' bares beautiful red or deep purple blooms.

Photo by bourgeoisbee/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourgeoisbee/  

'Thai' is one basil that is a little fussy to grow. It doesn’t like to be too wet and it will wilt quickly if it gets too dry. When it's planted from seed it takes approximately 5 to 7 days to sprout, depending on how warm the soil is. It can be started indoors and transplanted into gardens or into container pots. When I harvest mine, I wash it, pinch the leaves from the stems, chop it, place it in labeled zip lock bags and freeze. Anytime I want to use fresh 'Thai', all I have to do is reach into my freezer to cook with it any time of the year.

Photo by David Werst

Here in Real Texas, we like our food just a little spicy; 'Thai' adds a little kick when you cook with it. 'Thai', which is also used in Asian cooking, is an herb of many names, depending on which culture is using it. There is 'Siam Thai', 'Queen of Sheba Thai', 'Red Stem Thai', and the list goes on. It has a licorice flavor and is actually used more by the Vietnamese and in India with their Curry dishes, than in Thai cuisine.

I use 'Thai' in a lot of different recipes, from my Real Texas Recipes to my Cooking Vietnamese Food recipes. 

Chicken and Dumplings with 'Thai' and 'Lettuce Leaf' Basil

• 1/8 cup fresh 'Thai' basil leaves, chopped
• 1/8 cup fresh 'Lettuce Leaf' basil leaves, chopped (you can also use Ocimum basilicum 'Sweet' leaves)
• 1 to 2 small sprigs fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
• 4 chicken legs, quartered, or 2 chicken breasts
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 fresh jalapenos, minced (if you are using hot jalapenos, only use one)
• 1 small bunch of scallions or little green onions, sliced into rings (using white and some of the green part)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 can Cream of Celery Soup
• 1 package small butter tortillas, sliced or torn into 1/2-inch thick strips (you may not use the whole package, depends on how thick you want the mixture to be)

1. Rinse the freshly gathered herbs with cool water; it will help liven up the leaves a bit. Pat the leaves dry with a paper towel.

2. Peel off the leaves from the branches and chop them with kitchen utility scissors. Make sure you are not adding any stems to the recipe; the stem is coarse and always has a stronger flavor than the leaves. Separate the herbs into separate bowls.

3. Place the chicken legs in a large pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Make sure that that the chicken pieces are completely covered by water.

4. Add the minced garlic, jalapenos, herbs and scallions to the chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Allow the tasty broth to come to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the chicken becomes real tender.

6. When the chicken is completely cooked, take it out and cut it up into smaller pieces. Strain the chicken broth, then put it back in the pot. Add the cans of chicken and celery soup to the broth and bring it back to a boil.

7. Once the mixture comes to a boil, add the sliced tortilla pieces (one at a time) to the mixture. The more tortillas you add; the thicker it will be, so add the tortillas accordingly.

8. Now add the chicken pieces back in to the broth again. Taste the chicken broth to see if you need to add more salt and pepper. Cook the mixture so that it thickens up.

9. This easy and tasty chicken and dumplings with basil is now ready to be enjoyed. Be prepared to overeat. This recipe is a family favorite.

Don't forget: You can watch the videos on how I prepare this recipe on my blog.

I’m Ramona Werst, teaching you to Love Your Basil. Please visit my Facebook Fan Page.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

Hort Couture is a company that offers "the most sought after new plants and genetics from the world's best breeders and plants people," according to their website. One of their more popular plant collections is Culinary Couture, a line of fashionable heirloom vegetables and herbs. 

So far, I've grown the following plants with panache this summer: Salvia officinalis 'La Crema', 'Black Krim' (an heirloom tomato) and the worldwide hit ' Tomaccio' (a new dried snack tomato). I'll share the results of my tomatoes later this year. (It will be more than a month before I'll have dried tomatoes and a final report.)

One of my favorite herbs from Culinary Couture is ‘La Crema’, a fragrant, variegated sage that is currently thriving in my Zone 6 garden. Reminiscent of the familiar common garden sage, 'La Crema' is aromatic and beautiful enough to be in the flower garden. 

Look for 'La Crema' in independent garden centers next spring.
It is thriving in my humid, Zone 6 garden.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

What I'm most excited about is using this flavorful herb in my family's cornbread and sage dressing this Thanksgiving. I suggest that you use this sage as you would any other garden sage. Low-growing sage can grow as a border plant in a perennial garden. In spring, blue sage flowers appear about the time chives have blossomed. The flowers also make a pretty bouquet or can be used as an edible garnish.

  
Photos by Patsy Bell Hobson

Hort Couture is the fastest growing plant brand in North America. Their plant collections include Avant Garde Annuals, Prêt a Porter Perennials, Tres Chic Tropicals, Culinary Couture and Sunny Succulents. 'La Crema' is from C. Raker & Sons, a wholesale plant propagation specialist based in Litchfield, Michigan. C. Raker & Sons is in partnership with Hort Couture, the fashionistas of the plant world.

Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Have you ever bought herbs from Hort Couture? What do you think of their products?

Since my first blog on fighting aphids almost two years ago (When Aphids Attack) I have received dozens of questions on how to kill the critters when nothing else works.

So, if you’re suffering from an infestation, you’re not alone!

In May, one of our readers, Janie Iglesia, of Fisher Island, Florida, wrote:

"I have a young plant of 'Ají cachucha' (also known as sweet pepper) that was given to me to grow and to use for condiments. I got the plant in great condition free of any bugs, so I bought two bags of dirt to be used for vegetables at a local Home Depot. I planted my 10-inch tall plant in a big pot.

"A few days later, I noticed millions of white little bugs that will not go away. I was told to spray the plant with a water previously prepared using 1 gallon of water and 1 tap of Clorox—this did not help. I also sprayed the plant with Sevin ready-to-use, and still nothing. I was reading your article about using rubbing alcohol, which I will try today, but I wonder if these are in fact aphid pests?"

BEFORE: Reader Janie Iglesia noticed millions of white little bugs on her sweet pepper.
Photo by Janie Iglesia

Janie included this picture and, as you can see, this plant is, in fact, infested with aphids. The white “bugs” are actually skin casts from the growing creature. Creature is too nice of a word—these bugs are a nightmare!

Because she wasn’t having luck with any chemical solutions, I suggested that instead of using the rubbing alcohol mixture, which I usually suggest for small infestations, Janie experiment with ladybugs—the most natural and effective means of aphid, scale, mealybug and mite termination. After almost three months she reports that her plant has been saved!

AFTER: After three months of experimenting with ladybugs, Janie's plant was saved.
Photo by Janie Iglesia

In an effort to secure the ladybugs on the plant and prevent them from flying away, Janie created a net using tulle and two metal hangers opened up to create two arches that poke into the soil.

Ladybugs are cheap, effective and better for the environment than pesticides.

You can buy 1,500 live ladybugs for under $15 on Amazon. (Check out The Lost Ladybug Project.) You must release them at night at the base of your plant. If there is ample food, they will stay and even lay eggs killing every bug in sight. Genuine ladybugs will not harm your plants; however, you should always wash leaves any insect touches before consuming.

Lastly, if you are currently suffering from an aphid infestation, you may appreciate this bit of information I just found online: “A [ladybug] larva uses its sharp jaws to crush an aphid's body and sucks out the aphid's juices.”

Wicked, but somehow pleasant. Good luck!

Drying herbs in your car is one of the easiest ways to prevent them from molding in the process. You can lay them out on newspapers, or put them in a paper bag on the front seat. The sun will cook them in a few hours and your car will smell wonderful. (However, now that I've moved to Texas, I’m slowly learning that it might be closer to a few minutes in this Texas heat!)

A simple way to replicate that fresh scent of herbs without butchering your entire plant is to crush a few leaves, stick them in a tea infuser and hang from your rearview mirror. You have a simple air freshener that smells better and is cheaper than those clunky cardboard ones; one that is greener for the environment and looks pretty cool, too.

Photo by Taylor Cole Miller

Infusers are cheap, and come in a variety of shapes. I recommend this heart-shaped tea infuser (pictured at right) from Frontier Natural Products Co-op—it's under $4!

Here are some combinations I have found to be quite successful at freshening up my car without being overpowering:

Rosemary leaves: By themselves, rosemary leaves have a much fresher and more realistic smell than the pine trees you see in every truck on the highway.

Rosemary, cloves and cinnamon sticks: A nice, fresh, Christmas-y scent that packs a little more punch than just rosemary alone. (It was perfect for my Texan Christmas-in-July.)

Lavender: Crush both the flowers and the leaves and fill up the infuser for a relaxing and pretty purple air freshener. This is good for the commuter!

Spearmint: In the process of drying, the mint had a very faint scent but was fresh all the same.

Sage and citrus: A mixture of sage leaves and either lemon or orange peels is my absolute favorite! To strengthen the aroma, just mix a couple drops of your favorite essential oil with the leaves and hang from your rearview mirror.

Have an idea for your own flavorful mix? Share it in the comments section below.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

My garden is bursting with the main ingredients for Ratatouille, a chunky French stew. While you may not be thinking of stew in the heat of the summer, this rich vegetable stew will warm your soul this winter.

Ratatouille is a delicious way to preserve a lot of produce fast. It is even more flavorful reheated the next day. Use the following herbs and vegetables.

Herbs: rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, bay, garlic

Vegetables: onions, bell peppers zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes

Herbs are a must for Ratatouille, especially French thyme.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Basic Ratatouille

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large bell pepper
• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 or 3 large tomatoes
• 2 zucchinis

1. Coursley chop vegetables into bite-size portions.

2. Saute onions in a little olive oil, then add garlic.

3. Add bell pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Cook for 15 minutes.

5. To preserve, divide the remainder of the stew into quart freezer containers, label, cool and freeze.

Tips For Cooking Ratatouille

+ I have plenty of fresh herbs at the peak of summer so I like to add a few herb sprigs to the dish early. Just remember to remove them before serving.

+ Add zucchini or another summer squash to your stew for something a little different.

+ Cook covered over medium heat for about 10 more minutes, or until vegetables are done to your taste. Remove from heat, salt and pepper, and add fresh chopped herbs.

+ On the first snow day of the winter, put a quart of frozen ratatouille in the crockpot on low. By dinner time, your house will smell like a French restaurant. Being snowed in with a big bowl of rich, summery Ratatouille is a privilege for any home gardener.

+ My basic Ratatouille recipe is under-seasoned. To spice it up, season it with Herbs de Provence or add a combination of rosemary, parsley, thyme and, maybe, a cube of your frozen homemade pesto.

+ In my basic recipe, I add several whole cloves of garlic, which is different than the traditional French version. If this isn't your cup of tea, add a variety of squash, peppers or eggplants instead.

+ Serve as a stew with crusty bread, or, for a hardier meal, serve over rice, egg noodles, pasta or a baked potato.

+ I like to make a large batch of this stew and turn off the heat when the Ratatouille is slightly under cooked. Then I add fresh herbs, stir and cover it for 10 minutes.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

I'm excited to announce another give away: Renee's Garden is giving away French thyme seed packets to three lucky Herb Companion readers. Winners will be chosen at random. Details below.

HOW TO ENTER:

• Post a comment below: Tell us how you use thyme. Do you grow it? Do you cook with it? What's your favorite thyme-infused recipe?

•End Date: August 20, 2010 (12:00 AM, Central Time) Courtesy Renee's Garden.

Yet another of America’s summertime insects started to drastically disappear in the past years—the honey bee. According to CNN, a new study shows that radiation from cell phones may be disrupting a bee’s natural ability to navigate.

The study consisted of one particular experiment held at the Panjab University in northern India. The scientists attached cell phones to bee hives that were activated for 15 minutes, twice a day. After about three month, they discovered that the bees no longer produced honey, the hive decreased in size and the Queen’s egg production also decreased in numbers. The researchers now believe cell phone radiation negatively affects the bee's ability to navigate back to their hives.

Almost 35 percent of the honeybee population disappeared in the United States from October 2009 to April 2010, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services. But, radiation from cell phones isn’t the only thing hurting the bees. You can also blame pesticides and climate change. Some even believe that a new parasite or virus may be attacking the bees. But no one really knows the true reason as to why these bees are vanishing from their hives.

The bee hive is starting to become more empty as the years go on.
Photo by Max xx/ Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/

Scientists coined the term “Colony Collapse Disorder” to describe this phenomena. But, the disappearance of bees is not the problem only at hand. According to the USDA, bees pollinate about $15 billion worth of crops a year, especially almond plants and other berries, nuts and fruits. So without honeybees, the economy, and the ecosystem, may suffer even more.

Thanks to certain companies, the bees have hope for the future. You can even help by simply eating ice cream. Haagen-Dazs, a company whose natural flavors contain more than 40 percent “bee-built flavors,” says every time you buy a carton of a “bee-built flavor” (there are more than 40 flavors) a portion of the money goes to Haagen Dazs’ Help the Honey Bees organization. The organization devotes itself to understanding CCD and, if possible, learning how to stop it. You can also go to the make a direct donation online.

Burt’s Bees partnered with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign to help promote more research and awareness concerning CCD through the Honeybee Health and Improvement Project. The two organizations have passed out 95,000 packets of wildflower seeds that resulted in thousands of planted flowers around the country. This act also helped thousands of people learn about the importance of honeybees in nature.

Now that you’ve learned about CCD and all its affects on both the economy and ecosystem, here are few things you can do to your garden to make it bee-friendly.

According to Ecosalon, you should choose plants that bloom at different stages to help provide a more constant source of food for honeybees. Also, only plant native flowers and avoid using pesticides and insecticides. Instead, you should use more organic insect repellants in your garden so you don't harm honey bees. (Learn more about bee-friendly gardening techniques.)

Randy Buresh (Registered Nurse and Herbalist), is the co-owner and founder of Oregon’s Wild Harvest. Oregon’s Wild Harvest grows, harvests and produces their own medicinal herbal products, many of which use the herbs grown on their certified Biodynamic® and Organic farm in Sandy, Oregon. www.oregonswildharvest.com

If there is a word that describes the average person in today’s busy, multi-tasking world, that word would be “stressed.”  It is nearly impossible to live without stress.  Stress comes to us in many ways, not only on an emotional level, but on a physical level, through our environment and exposure to pathological invasions, pollutants, and germs. 

While it’s probably impossible to avoid all the forms of stress responsible for our physiological responses, it’s quite possible to support the body’s biological reaction to stress. In addition to getting adequate sleep and exercise, and maintaining a healthy diet, all of which go a long way to reducing the impact of stress, there are herbs which can help. Yes, thankfully, there are ways to reduce the impact stress has on our bodies that do not involve alcohol, cigarettes or other common methods of dealing with stress:

• Skullcap is well known among the Cherokee and other Native American tribes as a strong medicinal herb. It is used to support healthy sleep patterns and feelings of well-being, and to reduce anxious feelings.

Native Americans used sullcap for mental health support.
Photo by Randy Buresh

• Kava is an herb that has been widely used for hundreds of years by native South Pacific Islanders. People who use kava on a semi-regular basis (2 to 3 times per week) report feeling a nearly immediate feeling of relaxation, without feeling drugged. Muscle tension melts away, and a state of peacefulness and contentment takes its place. Kava has been known to produce a feeling of mild euphoria in some people, and a more sociable disposition in others. Mental alertness is usually not affected by kava consumption, except when taken in high doses. However, drowsiness will often occur a few hours after kava is in the system, so it is best to take it in the evening a few hours before bedtime.

• St. John’s wort has been used for centuries to support mental health, in addition to other reasons. Today, St. John’s wort is generally used to support healthy sleep patterns, feelings of well-being and to reduce anxious feelings. Preliminary studies suggest that St. John’s wort might work by preventing nerve cells in the brain from reabsorbing the chemical messenger serotonin. An analysis of the results of 37 clinical trials concluded that St. John’s wort is effective as a remedy to support mood.

St. John's Wort helps support mental health and reduces anxiety.
Photo by Randy Buresh

• Valerian has long been used to support healthy sleep patterns, general sense of well-being and to reduce anxious feelings. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is funding a study to examine the effects of valerian on sleep in healthy, older adults.

With a little herbal assistance, modified diet and adequate exercise, herbs can help provide mental support in times of stress. Herbal supplements such as skullcap, St. John’s wort, valerian, and kava work with your body in many different ways for a calmer, happier you. 

*Statements herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and are not intended to treat or diagnose any disease or health condition. It is also recommended that patients check with their doctors before taking herbs, to ensure that there are no contraindications with prescription medications.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

A plastic picnic knife makes a great gardening tool. I tend to be a frugal person and my frugal gardening suggestion this time is to recycle plastic forks, spoons and knives to make plant markers and plastic bag openers. In the summer season, you will probably use plastic flatware at a picnic and, unfortunately, most of it will go into the trash.

  
Plastic bags open quickly with a plastic knife.
Photo by Pasty Bell Hobson

But, you can recycle plastic flatware from picnics and to-go purchases. (It isn't considered recycling if you buy flatware specifically for this purpose!) So, if you happen to use plastic flatware this summer, recycle it for garden use and you will keep one more thing out of the landfill.

Recycle plastic picnicware into plant markers.
Photo by Pasty Bell Hobson

Do you recycle household items in your garden? Let us know!

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

As spring morphs into summer, mornings are very special in the herb garden. The air is so soft, humid and even a little bit cool ... as cool as it is going to be for the day. The Texas heat has set in. The gardens, and the gardener, look best in the early morning before the heat and humidity rise during the afternoon to the mid 90s. After a cool spring and a colder than usual winter, it's taking me some time to get used to summer temperatures. The herb gardens, however, are taking it all in stride.

Even the onslaught of the grasshopper hoards who are visiting us this year barely dampen the spirits of the plants. With the grasshoppers (to right) are munching on everything in sight, the herbs are the least bothered by the little critters.

Oh, yes, they're having their fun with the parsley, too, sharing what's left of the plants still to be harvested for seed with the swallowtail larvae. I've already harvested some seed from the parsley, and more is ready to cut. When saving seed from your own plants, it's important not to harvest the seed too early. If the seed is not fully mature, germination will be poor or non-existent. I'm anxious, though, to finish the harvest and pull the plants.

Not only is it nearly impossible to get through the path next to the bed, but I'd like that space to plant some more basil.

I did prune the monster Little Pinky Climbing Rose on the other side of the narrow pathway, but the parsley still impedes progress along the path. Once the parsley is gone, I plan to make a generous planting of the many different basils I'm currently growing out in the greenhouse. I have 'Serrata', with a serrated margin, three kinds of holy basil from India and several African varieties. The 'Serrata' is a sweet basil variety, and I'm anxious to see how the others taste.

Parsley flopping over the pathway awaiting harvest.

This time of year, basil does so well with adequate water. It's one herb that really loves our Texas heat and humidity, so I like to grow a lot of it. I know we're out of pesto, too, which I like to make and freeze in ice cube trays. It's so easy to cook up some pasta while a cube or two of pesto is thawing: Simply toss the hot pasta with the thawed pesto for an easy and delicious meal. Fresh tomatoes and squash from the garden can go in to make a more complete dish. Chill it and you have an easy pasta salad.

African blue basil—strong flavor and great flowers.

In the last month, I haven't worked too much in the gardens due to the business keeping me very busy, but I have done a few things. I added comfrey, pineapple sage and dwarf curry plant, Helichrysum microphyllum, to a mostly shady area on the north side of the yard (more about that bed in the future).

Dwarf curry—the little grayish plants in front of the comfrey.

I planted some stevia plants in a spot that gets morning sun and a little afternoon shade. The big job in the garden, however, was when we took down the tall lemon eucalyptus tree that died during the winter. Originally, we called a fellow whose ad in the local paper said "Tree Removal". But, when he called to tell us he couldn't keep his appointment to assess our project due to a broken arm received on a tree trimming job, we decided to do the job ourselves. We even treated ourselves to a new chainsaw, which will also come in handy to cut up the numerous dead pecan tree branches that have started to fall.

We roped off the dead trunk of our lemon eucalyptus for safety.

Making the notched cut.

Look out! Falling tree!

The tree measured almost 50 feet tall, exactly the distance from the base of the tree to our fence. After much studying of angles, reminding ourselves where the power lines are, roping the tree off so it wouldn't fall into said power lines if the cut was not right, my husband fired up the chain saw and made the precision cuts necessary to fell the tree and have it land where we wanted it to. And, it did ... pretty much. We were quite relieved and pleased that the tree was down with the only collateral damage being a pottery Toad Abode given to me by a friend. The pieces now decorate the cactus garden. The sprouts from the base of the old tree can grow up shrub like and full. Just today, I inadvertently ran the hose across some of the stalks that lie on the ground, and was rewarded with the pungent aroma of the lemon eucalpytus. Lovely.

What's going on in your early summer herb gardens around Texas? Whatever it is, I hope you are harvesting lots of your favorite herbs for salads, cooling teas and more.

Habek mint (Mentha longiflora) also known as bible mint,
with blue chicory flowers peeking from behind. This is a nice tea mint.

Here's a little poem I found which sums up my feeling of an early summer morning:

Turn out at six on a still June morning.
That's the hour, with the dew sheeting the grass,
and no one but the birds busy.
Five o'clock may be better if the weather is hot and fair.
This is one of the mystery hours in a garden, when the sunlight comes slantingly,
and strikes upon the wet and brilliant colors, and everything is still.

You are alone.
Your garden is yours and with it the whole world.
Not a voice to be heard...you are alone with beauty,
an impersonal and strange beauty,
a something that heals the heart of your restlessness.
For [we] need to be alone sometimes; and flowers ask no questions.

— Warwick Deeping

According to The New York Times, terrariums are more popular than ever. These captivating worlds filled with small plants (and even small animals such as frogs or lizards!) can add a little bit of the outdoors to any room. Plus, they are fairly low-maintenance for someone constantly on-the-go.

These miniature gardens can go for a bundle of money at a market; why spend a load of money when you can make one at home? Follow these easy (and fun!) steps to create a little garden with your own creative style.

Here is a great example of a closed "egg" terrarium.
Photo by ex.libric/ Courtest Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/exlibris/

You will need: an empty glass container, gravel, activated charcoal (if you're using a container with a lid), moss, soil, seeds and optional decorations.

Here are the basic steps to building a terrarium, according to the Terrarium Man.

1. Choose a container. It can be anything you want! It can range from an old fish bowl to a glass bottle.

2. Place a layer of gravel, sand or pebbles on the bottom of your container. This allows the water to drain and cycle properly in the terrarium.

3. If you are making a closed terrarium, add a thin layer of activated charcoal. This is the same stuff used in aquariums, so you can find it at any pet-supply store.

4. Add a thin layer of moss. This acts like a water filter.

5. Add a layer soil. Any kind potting soil will do the trick. You only need enough in which to embed your seeds.

6. Finally, it's time for the fun part. Add your plants or seeds! Just make sure you don’t over-crowd your plants. The Garden Helper website provides a whole list of terrarium-friendly plants. Depending on the size of your terrarium, keep the plants small. Herbs like parsley, mint, chives and oregano are great choices because they are tough, small plants. Plus, they add a little bit of fragrance to your terrarium. If you want a punch of color, try the Miniature African Violet to brighten things up. After planting, you can add fun, small garden decorations.

7. After everything is placed, add about an ounce of water. Be sure to not add too much. (You don’t want a moldy terrarium!) Keep the terrarium out of direct sunlight so you don't accidently boil your little garden. You need to spray your terrarium every few weeks to keep everything nice and hydrated.

Check out the Terrarium Man’s website for a lot of interesting information on how to create a terrarium. This website provides easy DIY instructions for creating many different kinds of terrariums in various containers and climates, such as a desert terrarium. (You can even learn how to make a terrarium waterfall.)

According to The Terrarium Museum, Dr. Nathanial Ward, a British doctor with an interest in botany, "accidently" invented the terrarium in 1827. He experimented with various cocoons in closed jars and noticed that the plants in the contained jar flourished. He called them "fern cases" because ferns were the first plants he used. Terrariums were also known as Wardian cases in honor of the inventor's name. These terrariums become extremely popular in the 1860s, with every respected Victorian household containing one, then cycled around again in the 1970s. Luckily for us, it looks like the little garden cases recently began to bloom again.

Have you made a terrarium? Do you have any tips on how to make one? Let us know!

Erin is the Communications Manager at Mountain Rose Herbs and an apprenticing herbalist at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies, where she botanizes and wildcrafts medicinal plants in the magnificent Oregon Cascades. www.mountainroseherbs.com 

I shared the long Memorial Day weekend with friends on 40 acres of Ponderosa Pine and White Oak forest near the Klickitat River. This was my first trip to the rugged Washington wilderness and I found its rocky hills and thick woods crawling with lizards and rattlesnakes and scorpions breathtaking!

It was sunny spring perfection, so we hiked deer trails for hours exploring wild plants like Lomatiums, tasty Alliums, and ripening blackcap raspberries.  A fresh spring trickled from the rocks and we collected cold mountain water to make wild rose tea in the mornings.

Klickitat, Washington.

During one afternoon expedition, we came across a wet patch abloom with yellow arnica flowers. Anyone who has spent time in arnica habitats will know the strong affinity this plant has for mosquitoes. Thousands and thousands of buzzing, blood-sucking mosquitoes! As we gathered to admire the heart-shaped leaves of the Arnica cordifolia, a hungry swarm clouded around us. Thankfully, I was prepared with a strong homemade insect repellent that kept them at a comfortable distance. Thinking ahead, I’d also made an astringent spray and poultice powder to apply to pesky bites, hiking scratches, and campfire burns.

Back at camp, a band of excited children wrapped white sage and cinnamon sticks in newspaper to make fragrant and effective fire starters. They marched triumphantly around the blaze, tooting their horsetail whistles as the herby campfire smoke proved inhospitable to the buggy invaders.

Herbal fire starters are fragrant and effective.  

Anytime I leave for a camping trip, I bring some staple extracts along. This collection usually includes a few of my favorite go-to herbs like skullcap and valerian to help relax my muscles and lull me to restful sleep, Oregon grape root as an anti-bacterial and digestive aide, a good astringent like red root bark (Ceanothus velutinus), and yerba santa to help dry up sneezy, watery allergy symptoms.

Being equipped with my trusty bag of herbal formulas makes handling the unforeseen much easier, and my forest experience that much more delightful.   

My trusty collection of formulas.

Bug-Away Spray 

I’ve read that catnip essential oil can be as effective as DEET, but it can also be expensive. So, I made a tincture of fresh catnip leaf from the garden in pure grain alcohol, which drew out the volatile oils in just a week and produced a lovely emerald extract.

• 4 ounces fresh catnip tincture (95 percent alcohol)
• 4 ounces witch hazel extract
• 80 drops organic citronella essential oil
• 80 drops organic eucalyptus essential oil
• 40 drops organic lavender essential oil
• 20 drops organic rosemary essential oil
• 10 drops organic lemongrass essential oil
• 10 drops organic lemon essential oil

1. Mix all ingredients in an 8 oz spray bottle and shake well before using.

2. Re-apply as often as needed.

Herbal Astringent Spray

This spray is ideal for itchy bug bites, removing sticky pitch from fingers, minor burns, cuts, scrapes, and a myriad of other irritating situations. I used my own tinctures of wild-harvested herbs that are anti-microbial and astringent, but similar herbs that you prefer can be used.

• 2 ounces witch hazel extract
• 1/2 ounces red root bark tincture
• 1/2 ounces Oregon grape root tincture (organically grown goldenseal tincture can be used)
• 1/2 ounces Pipsissewa tincture
• 1/2 ounces Uva-Ursi tincture

1. Mix all ingredients in a 4 oz spray bottle and shake before using.

2. Re-apply as often as needed.

Happy camping!  

Making perfume may seem like a mystical, complicated process, but fear not: it is more accessible than you think! Don’t be intimidated by a seemingly lengthy process or give in to bottled perfumes. It is possible to make natural perfumes at home from the flowers and herbs in your own garden.

The synthetic concoctions found in drug stores can be harsh and unforgiving compared to the scents found in a garden. Bottling your personal favorites is a great way to preserve your flowers long past the frosts of winter.

Natural perfumery business have taken off, creating their own blends
of essential oils for your convenience.
Photograph by PilotGirl/Courtesy of Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pilotgirl/

Natural perfumes, when broken down to their basic components, are made up of essential oils, alcohol, and distilled water. For these basic ingredients, keep the following tips in mind:

• If you’re on a budget, 190-proof Everclear will do the trick—otherwise, perfumer’s alcohol is preferable. An alcohol that is at least 100 proof is what really matters, in the end.
• Make sure you are using distilled water; it makes quite a difference.
• The essential oil provides the delicious fragrance you are seeking for the perfume. The ratio between the oil and the other two ingredients is crucial to the potency of your natural scent.

To make your own essential fragrances, follow this quick step-by-step guide to the “enfleurage” process.

Once you have an essential fragrance of some kind that you enjoy, mixing the actual perfume is simple. (Click here for detailed instructions.)

Experiment with the scents you want to make and use in the perfumes. Try mint, lemongrass, lavender, coriander, or any other number of plants with lovely scents. (Here are some tried-and-true recipes.)

If you’re still feeling unsure of your perfuming abilities, or simply do not have the time, small natural perfumer businesses have been popping up left and right. Women like Anya McCoy and Mandy Aftel do the work for you, offering a variety of perfumes, soaps, and essential oils. Olsen also teaches several online courses covering the ins and outs of natural perfumery.

Resources:
How to Make Your Own Fragrance
Making Flowers into Perfume  (New York Times)

Marguerite Dunne is a city girl and traveler. Visit her website at www.herbs-on-hudson.com or listen to her radio show, The Urban Herbalist, on www.wtbq.com. Marguerite was also the third place winner in The Herb Companion's essay contest, "Looking Forward to Herbs."

This weekend I was outside with my kittens and my cutting shears, delighting in the dirt, cutting back the natural raffia, amending my butterfly bush, (which took one wallop in our last snow storm), and juggling ropes to tie up my poor lilac bush, (which too much ice split right down to the roots). Betwixt and between the lavender and comfrey, my darling golden honey daylilies are crowning, and my azalea bushes are pushing back against my pruning shears. Then I remembered, “Time for M.’s springtime garden deer tonic.” Well, it’s not really a tonic to the deer, but a real tonic for the plants. 

You see, I love all the graceful fawns and gentle does and strong young bucks who think my garden is their personal salad bar, but I kind of wish they would find another garden to frolic in.

(Check out our five tips to keep deer out of your garden.)

Here’s my own deer go-away recipe to sprinkle on their favorite garden munchies.

Once the deer have tasted this impolite gruel, they're not likely to return.
Photo by xtoq/Courtesy of Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourtwenty/

Deer Go-Away

• 1/2 pound beeswax
• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
• 1 cup biodegradable dishwashing liquid
• 1/2 cup hot-hot cayenne

1. Throw all the ingredients in an old pot and set to heat on a low flame until the beeswax is completely melted (10-20 minutes). Stir.

2. While it’s still hot (once you remove the pot from the stove the wax starts to cool and harden), run outside and “sprinkle” this waxy deer go-away on the plants you don’t want to loose with a wooden spoon. (It won’t hurt the plants.) Wipe the spoon on some of the hard-to-reach leaves. 

You can check out the Lady Lemon Verbena at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com. 

I hope that wherever you may have an herb garden, you don't have this herbal pest: the Poecilocapsus lineatus. This four-lined plant bug started my Penn State master gardening volunteer efforts over ten years ago. I was having damage on my herbs and had never heard of a pest that made the kind of damage I was seeing. So I took a specimen of the bug and the damage to my local nursery and was told I had slug damage. I remember it was a nice dry, hot summer and I couldn't believe that slugs were the culprits.

So, I made a trip to the local book store and found The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control (Rodale Books, 1996), edited by Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley. On Page 329, there was my pest—the four-lined plant bug. I learned it is a true bug, meaning it has two stages—nymph and adult—and only has one generation a season, thankfully. Their damage is not life threatening to your herbs, but you may think it is once they start feeding. They love members of the mint family: mint, oregano, sweet marjoram, lavender, savories, sage, hyssop, horehound, lemon balm, catnip, and even basil, rosemary and thyme! All of your favorites! (Ironically my favorite, lemon verbena, is not one that is favored.) 

The damage done to my oregano plant.
Photo by Nancy Heraud

My nymphs this year are red or black. They can also be yellow. The eggs are laid in the twigs of woody plants in the fall. The adults like to lay their eggs on forsythia, deutzia, dogwood and weigela. I have all of these plants in my garden! These are just some of the ornamentals they can be attracted to. The nymphs usually hatch in late April or early May when the forsythia is leafing out. The nymphs have piercing-sucking mouthparts feeding on tender new growth. 

 A favorite food for the four-lined plant bug—peppermint!
Photo by Nancy Heraud

The damage also looks like the leaves are shrivelled or burned.

My summer savory looks like it has been burned.
Photo by Nancy Heraud

Just today I was out in the garden and most of the nymphs have morphed into adults.

I've put the four-lined plant bug adult in a safe place!
Photo by Nancy Heraud

Controls include insecticidal soap (nymphs only), pyrethrins and piperonyl butoxide, a combination of rotenone and pyrethrins and Sevin (carbaryl). Personally, I like to squish both the nymphs and adults by hand, with gloves or without. Get the kids involved. I hope they will have fun spotting them and squishing them as well. The nymphs and adults tend to "run" over the edge of the leaf and drop to the ground, but it is very satisifying to squish them between two leaves. Fortunately at the end of June, they are gone for the season and you can cut back the damage for regrowth before the end of the growing season. Just keep squishing and the four-lined plant bug season will end early, I hope! You won't even know they were around!

I hope you do not have this damage on your herbs, but if you do, remember that you can take appropriate action with my tips to protect your herbs! 

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Wild strawberries and Alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) are hardy, disease-resistant and perfect for a low border or edging plant. They are also a great groundcover. Some folks grow them in grass-free lawns.

You won't be able to find the sweet and fragile Alpine strawberries in grocery stores.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

I discovered some wild strawberries at my friend's lake house in Missouri. I was able to bring a few plants home. The wild strawberries loved living at my house and multiplied into a beautiful groundcover in my small flower bed. The love of my life thoughtfully cleaned up that flower bed one spring by ripping out all the weeds—which were my prized wild strawberries.

Since then, I’ve tried a couple of times to grow wild strawberries from seed and failed. When I had the opportunity to start new gardens at a new home I went a little overboard with these tiny berries.

I ordered the 'Mignonette' strawberry seeds, which are a French delicacy, from Renee’s Garden and had great success using the AeroGarden. The plants, once started, are easy to grow. They are compact perennial Alpine strawberry plants that produce sweet, pointed fruits from early spring to the last frost. I notice that Renee has an article about these itty bitty berries on her web page. This is where I got the idea to use these strawberries as an edging plant. It is not too late to start these plants from seed in May or June. (If you order from Renee's Garden, you will get prompt seed delivery!)

That same year, I bought a 'Ruegen' pack of 12 plants from Richter's. These sweet and tangy berries are just a little smaller in size than the 'Mignonette' growing on compact, runnerless plants, but they do multiply and should be thinned every few years. 'Ruegen' bears fruit from May until frost. Richter's has the best selection of culinary and medicinal herbs that I have found.

I think that those tasteless, monster-sized berries at the grocery store turned me away from normal strawberries. The tiny wild or Alpine berry tastes like strawberry candy in comparison.
The first year, it was a contest to see who would get to eat these mini delicacies: me or the birds. There are so many of them and the season is so long; now the birds and I have agreed to share the abundant harvest.

These little strawberry plants produce from spring until fall.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

My ‘Mara des Bois’ strawberries, which I bought from White Flower Farm, live in hanging baskets on the patio. Last summer I ate one or two berries and then a winged predator, or possibly my beloved, had the rest. There were not a lot of berries because the plants were busy trying to escape their confinement by sending runners over the edges of the hanging baskets. The berries are twice the size of the Alpine berries, although they are still a very small berry compared to what we find at the grocery. (The little ones fetch premium prices at some markets.) These hardy little plants overwintered in hanging basket while sitting on my patio all winter.

Fraises des bois is a French word for "strawberries of the woods." The strawberries are also known by other names including Fragaria vesca, Alpine strawberry, wild strawberry, Woodland strawberry, American strawberry, European strawberry and fraisier des bois. Remember that these itty bitty berries are too fragile for transport.

Strawberries will not ripen after picking. For the sweetest taste, pick ripe berries. 
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

The tiny berries are beautiful as a garnish on a dessert plate. It is said that tea made from the leaves will stimulate the appetite. They grow as an evergreen edging along the sidewalk in the potager, making for easy picking as I walk by.

Try adding balsamic vinegar and strawberries to your next salad.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

This strawberry seed is easy to find. I bought my seeds at Renee's Garden, Burpee and Richter's catalogs. Several other companies sell the wild strawberry seed. But if you don't want to find them on your own, enter my garden giveaway!

Seed Packet Giveaway!

I'm excited to announce another giveaway: Renee is giving away 'Mignonette' strawberry seed packets to three lucky Herb Companion readers.

• Post a comment below: Tell me how you would like to enjoy your 'Mignonette' strawberry seeds if you were to win? What wonderful dishes would you prepare? Courtesy Renee's Garden.

• End date: June 6, 2010 (12:00 AM, Central Time) UPDATE: Time's up!

And the winners are...

Patricia Meeks in Chehalis, Washington

Dianne Aikey in Mulberry, Florida

Karyl Fulkerson in Livermore, California

Winners were chosen using www.random.org. Thanks to everyone who entered my Garden Giveaway! Watch out for even more giveaways.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Chard is becoming a favorite summer green for home gardeners. It's beautiful! And, long after the cool season, when greens such as spinach have faded from my Zone 6 garden, chard is the one that steadily produces fresh greens for my favorite salads.

Make tomato and swiss chard soup this summer.
Photo by Robyn Lee/Courtesy Flickr

Grow and Cook with Swiss Chard

Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' was honored as an All-America Selections (AAS) winner in 1998. When buying herb and vegetable seeds, I look for seeds that are AAS winners, which are selected based on their superior performance. AAS winners will also grow most anywhere in North America. The All-America Selections® logo tells me that I can grow this plant easily from seed.

Swiss chard, or chard, is a beet that is usually selected for its leaf production, not for its root formation. Plant chard seeds a week or two before your favorite salad greens, such as spinach, bolt. When you pull up these greens your chard seedlings will be well on their way. Also, by the time tomatoes are ripe and ready, lettuce will be long gone from your garden. Instead, grow young chard leaves as a lettuce substitute. I use it in the summer's best sandwich: the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, or the BLT.

Many cooks remove chard's colorful stems, which can be yellow, gold, orange, pink, red or white, and cook them separately before adding greens to the mix. (The stems take longer to cook.) Cut off the outer leaves 1 1/2 inches above the ground when they are young and tender, which is when they are about 8 to 10 inches tall. Larger leaves can be cooked and used as you would use spinach. If you like spinach, you will like this hardy and more earthy-flavored relative.

Fill your garden with Swiss chard whereever you find an empty space. It grows well in containers and is pretty enough to grow in a flower bed. Swiss chard is loaded with vitamins A, C, and contain vitamin B, calcium, iron and phosphorus. Like most greens, chard is very low in calories. And unlike most vegetables, it has a slightly higher sodium content than most leafy greens.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

Burpee has generously agreed to give away three seed packets of Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' to my Herb Companion readers. Winners will be selected at random. Details below. 

HOW TO ENTER: 

• Post a comment below: Share your experience with Swiss chard. Do you currently grow this plant? What would you like to use it for? Courtesy Burpee. 

• End date: June 6, 2010 (12:00 AM, Central Time) UPDATE: Time's up!

And the winners are...

Brenda McKenzie in Summerdale, Alabama

Sue in Wilton, New Hampshire

Marsha Allison in Montgomery, Alabama

Winners were chosen using www.random.org. Thanks to everyone who entered my Garden Giveaway! Watch out for even more giveaways.

Erin is the Communications Manager at Mountain Rose Herbs and an apprenticing herbalist at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies, where she botanizes and wildcrafts medicinal plants in the magnificent Oregon Cascades. www.mountainroseherbs.com 

Sunlight peeks through the misty morning canopy and dapples the open book in my lap with gold. A soft breeze whispers through the forest carrying the fragrance of May blossoms and bird songs. I sit in a wet patch of fluttering Oxalis, a wild yellow violet smiling into my hand lens, and read the couplet aloud…    

26a - Leaves finely dotted, flecked, or reticulately mottled with purple, rather firm and coriaceous, persistent and generally pubescent, plant stoloniferous; mostly in moist woods. Viola sempervirens

26b - Leaves not flecked with purple, thin, generally withering during the winter, often glabrous, plant not stoloniferous; montane to alpine. Viola orbiculata

After careful examination of snaking shoots and leathery leaves, I discover that this spring beauty is indeed Viola sempervirens, the Evergreen Violet!

Erin keying out a furry Cat's Ear Lily at Mt. Pisgah Arboretum.

All friendships require a bit of curiosity, patience, and understanding. Keying plants in the wild calls for this kind of delightful commitment, too. Learning to identify the lovely little flowers blooming along beloved old-growth trails, bubbling river banks and in the crevices of rocky crags will surely enrich how we experience these special places. It’s quite exciting to meet the new magenta flowers opening on a familiar Rubus spectabilis. As I gaze into the glittering corolla, I remember last year’s juicy salmonberries and feel my connection to this plant deepen.

Deciphering botanical vocabulary can seem a daunting task, but mastering this language can be fun as you unveil the strange and mysterious lives of plants through a sort of scientific poetry.  Words roll off the tongue to illuminate an orchid’s pouty labellum, the maple’s winged double samaras, and the wonderfully zygomorphic silhouette of skullcap flowers.

Some phrases are so meticulously descriptive that I am struck with wonder!

Corolla strongly bilabiate with a flaring throat and a prominent maroon blotch.

Just imagine a fuzzy bee zooming in for landing on this flower’s beckoning maroon nectar guide.

I like to make botanical flash cards to learn the subtle nuances of different inflorescence forms, flower parts, and leaf shapes. Simply drawing a pistil and writing the definition helps to solidify the concept in my mind, while allowing time for pleasant meditation. These study cards also make a handy reference tool when hunting and keying out the countless medicinal, edible, and poisonous plants during a weekend in the woods.

Botanical terms are fun to learn with homemade flash cards.

Here in Oregon, I use a well worn copy of Hitchcock and Cronquist’s Flora of the Pacific Northwest to identify plants, but there are excellent field floras available for every region in the US and around the world. The Flora of North America is also being created and regularly updated online. An illustrated botanical glossary is important for any budding botanist to have on hand. A good choice is Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary by Harris and Harris. Be sure to check for botany classes or a native plant society in your town. These groups often have amazing resources available that are specific to your local area.

Whether you feel compelled to photograph, press, eat, or simply enjoy the company of the plants you study, their enchanting beauty will definitely inspire a closer look. 

Ramona Werst has a love for growing, caring for, and cooking with basil. There are over 30 different varieties of basil in her current collection, and she is adding to her collection all the time. She creates recipes to use with different basils and will teach you how to Love Your Basil! Visit her blog, www.ramonasbasilgarden.com, to download her free e-book, Love Your Basil.

My love for basil started by wanting to enhance my culinary skills, but once I started collecting this amazing herb and cooking with it I wanted to share with everyone how to grow, care for, and cook with basil.

Lemon basil is beautiful and aromatic. When you press leaves
between your fingers you can smell a light lemony scent.
Photo by David Werst

Summer is fast approaching! I always think of refreshing beverages, salads, cooking out on the grill and fancy delicious fruit desserts.

Photo by zoyachubby/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoyachubby/

Lemon Basil Varieties: I grow several basils to celebrate summer: lemon basil, Mrs. Burns' lemon basil, Thai lemon basil, Penang lemon basil, lime basil, Key Lime basil and Spicy Globe basil.

Growing Tips: Lemon basil is easy to grow, but sometimes it sprouts slowly. Have patience with it and make sure its soil is moist and warm. Like all basils, the ideal temperature is in the mid-70 degree range. Even though in my area of Texas our days can get up to 100 degrees, my basils are kept in the shade and seem to manage all summer long. Just make sure you refresh them with a drink of water (but not on their leaves!) during the heat of the day.

Planting lemon basil in containers and placing these containers around your patio will help repel mosquitoes and flies. Also, planting lemon basil in your tomato garden will repel pests that enjoy eating your tomato plants.

Cooking Tips: I can use any of my lemon basils to make Lemon Basil Syrup for lemonade. With my lime and Spicy Globe basils, I can prepare different fruit desserts. Simply adding chopped leaves from any of your basils can add a tang to your salad. Also, try adding a sprig of lemon or lime basil when you are grilling fish. When I grill fish, I will wrap my fish in foil and sprinkle it with spices, squeeze a little lemon on it, add a couple of slices of butter, and top it off with a lemon basil sprig. Next, I will fold the foil and cook it on the grill. Some people use cilantro, or parsley, but I use lemon or lime basil.

Now, don’t go and replace your lemons in recipes with lemon basil! Use the basil like a spice to add to your lemon recipes to add a different pleasant flavor.

If you garnish your ice tea with any of the lemon basils, you can advise your guests to rub the basil between their fingers just enough to bruise the basil, which will release its flavor, put it back into their ice tea and stir. This will add just a hint of lemon basil flavor to their beverage and your friends will enjoy learning the tips and secrets of using basil in their cooking and drinks. I still garnish with a fresh lemon slice. Although it adds a special mild flavor all on its own, the lemon basil is not strong enough to replace the flavor of fresh lemon.

Enjoy a freshly squeezed glass of lemonade
made with homemade lemon basil syrup.
Photo by David Werst

Try my recipe for Old Fashioned Lemon Basil Lemonade. Prepare the Lemon Basil Syrup ahead of time to dissolve and blend all the flavors. This will leave a smooth and refreshing lemonade flavor. (Click here to watch a video of Ramona prepare her Old Fashioned Lemon Basil Lemonade.)

Lemon Basil Syrup

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon basil leaves, loosely packed
• 1/2 of one lemon

1. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan; add sugar, lemon basil leaves and lemon (without squeezing it) to the water and stir.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat down and allow the mixture to remain at a simmering boil for about 5 minutes. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

3. Strain the basil leaves, and discard the lemon. You can refrigerate the lemon basil sugar water in an airtight container.

Old Fashioned Lemonade

• 1 lemon
• 12-ounce glass filled with ice
• 1 tablespoon Lemon Basil Syrup (Use this according to your sweetness preference.)

1. Squeeze lemon juice from one fresh lemon into a glass filled with ice. Add some lemon basil syrup according to your preference to how sweet you like your lemonade,then fill glass with filtered water.

2. Put another glass on top of the glass and shake the mixture well.

3. Garnish with lemon and lemon basil.

You, too, can enjoy the many benefits of learning to grow, care for, and cook with basil. The Herb Companion is a treasure of news and tips in learning all about the fascinating basil and other healthy herbs.

Ramona Werst grows and cares for her lemon basil plants
year round and uses them in many recipes.
Photo by David Werst

I’m Ramona Werst, teaching you to Love Your Basil.

Ramona Werst has a love for growing, caring for, and cooking with basil. There are over 30 different varieties of basil in her current collection, and she is adding to her collection all the time. She creates recipes to use with different basils and will teach you how to Love Your Basil! Visit her blog, www.ramonasbasilgarden.com, to download her free e-book, Love Your Basil.

My love for basil started by wanting to enhance my culinary skills, but once I started collecting this amazing herb and cooking with it I wanted to share with everyone how to grow, care for, and cook with basil.

There are hundreds of different varieties of basil. I have come to love the common sweet basil we all know as well as the exotic and incredibly usefull Lang basil only grown in the Lang area in Vietnam. Basil can be used for culinary purposes, medicinal purposes, as a pest repellant, and as a garden plant companion. Others basils are known for their beautiful flowers and the different colors of their leaves.

Cinnamon basil is beautiful and aromatic
with its red stem, bright green leaves and purple flowers.
Photo by David Werst

One of my favorite basils is cinnamon basil. Let’s talk about the amazing cinnamon basil just a moment:

• Did you know that gardeners plant cinnamon basil close to their tomato plants in the garden to discourage bugs from damaging the tomato plants? It’s true that cinnamon basil, when planted near tomatoes, not only enhances the flavor of the tomato but also repels mosquitos and white flies. It also will enhance the growth of asparagus and roses while protecting these plants from some insects. What else can it do? Rub its leaves on your skin or grow it in containers on your patio to help repel mosquitos. You can also place fresh sprigs on top of food containers to keep flies from landing at picnics.

• Did you know that cinnamon basil seeds have gone to space? When Park Seed Company turned 115 years old they put cinnamon basil seeds on a space shuttle to see if traveling in space would have any effect on the seeds. Park Seed Company and NASA have been collaborating to learn how seeds respond to outer space conditions since 1983 with a program titled "SEEDS in Space"; they are giving students around the world an opportunity to perform hands-on science experiments with space-exposed seeds.

Photo by Strata Chalup/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/strata/

• Cinnamon basil is one the easiest basils to grow. When planted from seed it takes approximately 5 to 7 days to sprout depending on how warm the soil is. It can be started indoors and transplanted into gardens or container pots. Cinnamon basil can grow up to 3 feet tall and, if you pinch back the leaves, it can bush out to 3 feet. When I harvest my cinnamon basil, I wash it, pinch the leaves from the stems, chop, place in labeled zip lock bags and freeze it. Anytime I want to use fresh cinnamon basil, all I have to do is reach in my freezer and I can cook with it all year round.

• When dried, cinnamon basil is wonderful in potpourri and can be used in herb/dried flower wreaths.

• I love the mild cinnamon flavor when cooking with cinnamon basil. I have made several recipes from cinnamon basil including Cinnamon Basil Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Basil Lime Icebox Cookies (recipe below), and Cinnamon Basil Chicken over Bowtie Pasta. I’ve also enjoyed adding cinnamon basil leaves to my tea. It can also be used in jellies, honeys, vinegars and baked goods.

You’ve just got to try my cinnamon basil cookie recipe. It will be a big hit in your family cookie jar and it’s a good way to introduce cooking with basil to the family. This is one of the recipes you will receive when Ramona's Basil Garden Membership launches on my website. Get a sneak preview:

Cinnamon Basil & Lime Icebox Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup flax seed, ground
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar 
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 2 tablespoon grated lime zest
• 6 tablespoons fresh cinnamon basil leaves, chopped
• 2 cups pecans, chopped
• Parchment or wax paper for wrapping dough

1. Pinch some cinnamon basil leaves from your herb; wash it, chop it and put in a small bowl.

2. Add flours, flax seed, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Mix and set the mixture aside. 

3. Add butter and beat until fluffy. Add sugar and eggs; beat the mixture until it becomes light and fluffy. Add vanilla, nutmeg, lime zest and cinnamon basil; blend. Take a measuring cup, scoop a cup from the flour mixture at a time and add it to the butter and blend. Add the nuts and gently stir. 

4. Once the dough is mixed, remove from the bowl onto a piece of parchment paper that has been dusted with flour. Shape the dough into a log shape and then wrap it completely with the parchment paper. Put it in a refrigerator overnight until the mixture gets hardened so that you can slice the dough. Take the dough that was refrigerated overnight, user a serrated and cut the dough about 1/4-inches to 1/2-inch slices. Arrange the cookies on a cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes until the cookies become golden brown. Once the pieces are baked, put on a rack to cool.

Recipe Tip: You can bake some of the cookies and freeze, then just microwave to thaw.  Or wrap the dough log and put in ziplock bag, and freeze.  When you are ready to use, thaw almost completely, but still stiff to slice into 1/4" to 1/2" slices and bake.

The good news? You can do all this too!

You, too, can enjoy the many benefits of learning to grow, care for, and cook with basil. The Herb Companion is a treasure of news and tips in learning all about the fascinating basil and other healthy herbs.

Ramona Werst grows and cares for her basil garden year round
and uses her favorite basils in many of herrecipes.
Photo by David Werst

I’m Ramona Werst, teaching you to Love Your Basil.

Spring is one of my favorite times, not only for the warmer temperatures and bursts of color, but also because my birthday is in May.

On the day I was born, or so I’m told, the lilac bushes in Wisconsin were celebrating in full bloom. My father filled the hospital room with the many shades of purple blossoms and every birthday since then my mother has filled the house with them as well. That light, sweet smell evokes so many memories for me.

Courtesy Flickr/Photo by Muffet
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/

Last year I finally moved into a place with lilac bushes and couldn’t wait to revel in their aroma all spring long. Much to my chagrin, this year the sudden shift from winter to spring has shortened the spring season and caused the blooming lilacs here in Kansas to burst even earlier than normal! Rather than asking my mom to FedEx a box of fresh lilacs from Minnesota on my birthday, or stuffing the house with lilac-scented candles, I wanted to find some ways to preserve them a little longer.

Courtesy Flickr/Photo by QuintanaRoo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanaroo/501706047/

Luckily, I came across a few articles that will not only help me preserve my lilac flowers but also use them as edible garnishes on my birthday cake. First I’m going to try Kathy Thompson’s recipe for candied lilacs, but I’d also like to try Cathy Wilkinson Barash’s lilac sorbet and this recipe for lilac wine from the Grape Stomper website. Feel free to substitute your own favorite edible flowers in any of these recipes and enjoy spring flowers all summer long. 

Have you tried any of these edible flower recipes before? Do you have any other advice on how I can preserve my lilacs? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Last spring, I introduced and encouraged you to try planting chinese lantern plants (Physalis alkekengi). If you didn’t try it then, try it now! 

These plants will be difficult to find already started, but the good news is that they do well from seed. Now that spring is here (FINALLY), this is your best opportunity to find seed packets from which to start in any local nursery or superstore. 

After my first blog, which you can read here, I received dozens of questions from interested readers. I think it best to address those questions in three simple, question-answer formats: Growing. Cooking. Healing.

The Chinese lantern plant, also known as the winter or bladder cherry,
bears a small fruit in the tomatillo family with a sweet flavor.
Photo by Ivaschenko Roman

Q. Is the chinese lantern plant an herb? 

A. Chinese lantern plant is herbaceous, which means that parts of the plants are used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It is a member of the family Solanaceae, most commonly known as nightshade plants. Nightshade plants also include potatoes, tomatoes and petunias, and share the genus Physalis with cape gooseberries (a very close relative).

Q. Why Physalis?

A. Physalis is a perennial plant grown easily from inexpensive seeds. It doesn’t need a lot of attention, grows quickly, attracts few pests and enjoys a variety of uses. It’s a plant of all trades.

Q. Is the chinese lantern plant difficult to grow?

A. No. In fact, one of its flaws may be that it’s too easy to grow. The chinese lantern plant, like mint, has rhizomes that spread horizontally, meaning that even if you chop down the plant without dropping any seeds, it might pop up in another part of your garden.  That’s why Physalis would do best planted in either a contained garden, or in a pot. Or even a pot that is buried in the ground, perhaps disguised with some cedar mulch.

Q. When is the best time to plant the chinese lantern plant?

A. For most zones, the plant does best if sown directly into the ground in late spring. No need to start it indoors ahead of time; just make sure that you’re outside of frost-temperatures.

Q. Where and how should I plant the chinese lantern plant?

A. Physalis can be planted in either full sun or partial shade. It is best to plant them on the sunniest side of your home but in an area that isn’t exposed to full sun for more than 8 hours a day.

Because Physalis can become invasive, it is best to plant it in a pot or in a garden that’s contained. I recommend buying a large, plain terra cotta pot to place with your other herbs and flowers to give the landscaping texture, height and a punch of color.

Q. Where can I purchase the seeds for the chinese lantern plant?

A. Typically, you buy seeds at a nursery or even in the flower section of a superstore. But if you can’t find them, buy them online at BackyardGardener.com.

Q. Can I grow the chinese lantern plant in my apartment?

A. Few plants do best indoors. In fact, even the peace lily, a plant known to do well inside, won’t bloom unless it gets adequate light, preferably in a sunny room. So, if you have a window or a balcony that faces south and gets a lot of sun, you may be able to pull it off.

Q. Why are south-facing gardens best?

A. The sun doesn’t technically rise in true east and set in true west. In the Northern Hemisphere growing season, the sun spends most of its time in the southern part of the sky, so your house will cast its shadow on the northern part of your property. This is because the sun as we see it, is below the zenith. Many outdoor ornamental plants do well in the sun on the east or west side of your house because it isn’t as hot. Window plants, or plants on a balcony, will likely receive less or diluted light, which is why south-facing exposure is best.

Food plants such as vegetables will do best in south-facing, full sun gardens.

Courtesy Flickr/Photo by tanakawho
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00/

Q. What is a good companion plant for chinese lantern plants?

A. In the comments section of my blog last year, reader Rainbowstar Linares suggested pairing the plant with Lily of the Valley or bee balm. Her assertion is that because both plants bloom at different times, they encourage mutual growth and bloom.

Q. Do chinese lantern plants attract pests?

A. Not typically, but occasionally lanterns can become infested with flea-beetles, a common pest for many vegetables. They damage the plants with something called “shotholing”, literally chewed holes in vegetable leaves. Often these pests are more of a nuisance than a veritable threat, and generally you can eliminate them with common insecticides. But if you are planning to use your lanterns as a food source, you should talk with your nursery about more organic options for your region.

Q. How do I use the chinese lantern plant ornamentally?

A. Physalis can be used in an arrangement that will last about a week, or it can be dried and used for a dash of color with your fall decorations. To dry Physalis, harvest the calcye or “latern” immediately after it turns red, then hang it upside down in a dark room for several weeks.   

Check back soon to learn about some of the culinary and medicinal uses of this cherished species, the Chinese lantern plant. And if you've got a gardening question, I've got your answer! Shoot an email over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

An aromatherapy blend can be many things in a single blend. Perhaps that is what I love the most about the art of aromatherapy. You're given the flexibility to create something that is uniquely pleasing to the user with an ability to heal the body and soul in very tangible ways. So much thought goes into the selection of the essential oils of a blend (fragrance, medicinal properties, etc.) that many people forget that the carrier oils used to dilute blends properly add another dimension: they also enhance the healing properties of the oils, provide antioxidants, protection, and vitamins and minerals.

I thought it would be worth exploring some of my favorite carrier oils to help you select the proper one for your blends. Essential oils, with the exception of lavender, tea tree and ravensara, should never be applied directly to the skin. For safety they should be diluted with a "carrier oil" or a "base oil". In aromatherapy these oils are cold pressed and plant based—usually vegetable, nut or seed oils. The premise of choosing a plant based oil over a mineral oil (i.e. baby oil) is simple: essential oils are lipid soluable. We want them to absorb into the skin and work systemically in our system.

Essential oils can be carried throughout the body at the cellular level. In hospitals, mineral-ased oils are chosen for the exact opposite reason—they are blocking the absorption of anything that could threaten the immune system. In a hospital environment this makes sense because you are subjected to pathogens that could harm you (staph infections are rampant these days). But because you are in a somewhat "controlled" environment at home, you will want every healing drop of your essential oil blend to benefit you body. Let's explore a few carrier oil selections to help you pick the correct one each time. Our list includes oils that are easily found.

Courtesy Flickr/Photo by Helena Liu
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helenaliu/

• Sweet Almond Oil (SAO) is obtained from the kernel of the nut. Relatively inexpensive and readily available. It has a sweet light aroma that won't overpower your blend. Sweet Almond Oil is rich with glucosides, vitamins (B1, B6, B2, A, E & D), minerals and is rich in protein. It's perfect for all skin types and helps relive itching, dryness and inflammation. It's perfect for massage oil blends and for facial moisturizers. Massage therapists often pick this oil because it is a medium viscosity based oil and offers a nice 'glide' effect.
Shelf life: 12 months
Note: Persons with nut allergies should NOT use Sweet Almond Oil. SAO is very pale yellow in color and may stain light clothing and linens.

• Grapeseed Oil (GO) is almost colorless, very lightweight and may leave a light oil sheen on the skin. This oil glides readily over the skin and it's price point makes it nice for large applications, such as full body massage oils. It is extracted from the seeds of grapes. Look for cold pressed oils, as many are solvent extracted. Some grapeseed oils are derived from Riesling and Chardonnay grapes and are used in spa treatments as 'Vino Therapies'.
Shelf life: 6 to 12 months. Storing it in the refrigerator may extend it a bit.

Courtesy Flickr/Photo by rkosick
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69194706@N00/

• Apricot Kernel Oil (AKO) is derived from the kernel of the apricot plant and is pale yellow in color. This oil is well suited for aging and mature skin and is a common ingredient in the anti-aging formulas of pricey cosmetics. A drop or two can go a long way with incredible benefits for dry, inflamed and sensitive skin due to the essentiall fatty acids oleic & linoleic acid, and the vitamins A & E. It is light weight and easily absorbs in the skin without a greasy feeling. Use alone or with other carrier oils. A drop of lavender in 3 drops of AKO is a wonderful once a week must for keeping your skin young looking and blemish free. AKO may stain light colored linens or clothing.
Shelf life: 12 months

• Jojoba Oil (JO) is a beautiful golden yellow and hands down my favorite oil to use. Jojoba oil is actually a 'wax' derived from the jojoba bean. It has an indefinite shelf life so can be used for blends that may need to be stored for a longer period. It glides on like any other oil and absorbs into the skin. Jojoba oil mimics collagen and is soothing for sensitive skin, psoriasis, eczema and acne. It can be applied 100 percent or diluted in a massage oil at 10 percent to 15 percent JO and 90 percent other carrier oil to help the glide over the body. We love HobaCare from the Jojoba Oil Company. These products are perfect for everyday use and will also condition your hair and scalp. It relieves babies' cradle cap and is "far more congenial to to the hair and scalp than olive or other vegetable oils or mineral oils," according to the founder Bob Butler.
Shelf life: Indefinite

Courtesy  The Jojoba Company

• Olive Oil (OO) is most often associated with culinary pursuits. However, I've included it here as a "go to" oil when you need something in a pinch. Perhaps at 2:00 in the morning when a little one wakes up with an earache. If nothing else is on hand, OO is a great oil to use. Its strong scent is the main reason you don't see it in more aromatherapy or massage blends, but don't let that stop you from using it. Use 10 percent OO to another carrier oil for larger application. Beautiful green in color and chock full of proteins, vitamins and minerals, OO is soothing for rheumatic conditions, adds shine to hair and is often found in soaps and shampoos.
Shelf life: 18 months

Try these basic essential oil formulas:

Earache

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 drops chamomile oil
• 1 drop lavender oil
• 1 drop tea tree oil

To use: Massage around the ear, up the neck and over cheek bones. May also be used in a warm compress.

Stretch Marks

• 2 tablespoons almond oil
• ½ Tablespoon grapeseed oil
• 10 drops borage seed Oil
• 5 drops carrot oil
• 2 teaspoons wheatgerm oil.

To use: Massage in circular motion daily to help fade marks due to pregnancy or weight loss.

Neck Oil

• 1 tablespoon apricot kernel oil
• 10 drops carrot oil (optional)
• 10 drops rose atar oil
• 6 drops clary sage oil

To use: Apply morning and evening in upward strokes on neck. Note to professional therapists: Be sure to do a health intake form from your clients that include any nut or plant based allergies that could contraindicate an oil blend.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Cilantro is a love-it-or-hate-it herb—most everyone has a strong opinion about this lacey green herb. Like it or not, you've probably eaten it in a Mexican or Thai dish at restaurants.

Use cilantro flowers in salads or as garnish.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Personally, I am a fan of cilantro. However, I grow several plantings from seed each year and it always seems like the herb is never ready to harvest when my other herbal ingredients that are essential to my favorite cilantro-infused recipes are. Because of this, I once let a cilantro plant go to seed. Now, it has moved in and become the dandelion of my herb garden, popping up everywhere. Here are some of tips I've come up with to help you grow cilantro:

• If you see the plants for sale, be aware that cilantro has a long tap root like its sister the carrot. You will have limited success transplanting cilantro. It takes about 45 days for cilantro to transition from seed to a harvestable plant. 

• The very best way to grow this herb is from seed. Sow a few seeds every few weeks to have it fresh when you want to add it to a recipe.

• Thin the seed (six to eight inches) and pinch the seedlings when they are about one to two inches tall in order to encourage more leafy plant growth. Then you can quickly toss the thinnings into a salad or a salsa.

• Cilantro needs full sun and can grow in some light shade in southern states.

• Although cilantro likes a sunny location, it is quick to bolt in the hottest part of summer. Cilantro plants like well drained soil and plenty of water. Plants grow well in containers and is attractive in mixed herb container plantings.

• Succession plantings are best because cilantro has a short life. When the plant blooms, pinch off the flowers and add to salads or use as garnish. Or, if your plants go to seed, harvest the seeds and dry it to use it as its spice coriander.

Long tap roots make this plant best for direct seeding into the garden.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

I grow cilantro to use in recipes like salsa, pico de gallo and gazpacho. The seeds were used medicinally to help with sleep and digestion.

Cilantro is truly an herb of summer and best used fresh. The leaves are almost tasteless when dried. Cuttings won't last long in the refrigerator or in a glass of water. This leafy herb does not store well, which is why you seldom see it offered in grocery stores or markets.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

The seed company Burpee has some recipes on their website that use cilantro, such as their Mexican-Style Pizza with Cilantro.

HOW TO ENTER

Three randomly selected readers who comment will receive a packet of cilantro seed.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Lavender attracts butterflies, is drought and heat tolerant and grows well in gardens and containers. Both flowers and foliage are fragrant. The blue-purple flowers on silver foliage make this a must-have plant in a white- and silver-themed garden, or a blue- and purple-themed garden. Its upright habit make lavender a good choice for butterfly- and cutting-gardens. Lavender is a good choice in most any herb garden.

Attract birds, butterflies and pollinators to your garden with lavender.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

Jody Byrne, founder of DayBreak Lavender Farm says “Lavender is the Swiss Army Knife of herbs. It can be used in crafting, cosmetics, fragrance, cooking, healing and homekeeping.”

“We couldn't say that about oregano, for example. No offense oregano! Lavender is truly the most beloved herb in the world. Its scent is pure and clean, neither masculine nor feminine. And it grows nearly all over the world. Not at the ice caps. Not in the humid jungles. But most everywhere else ... and it grows wild. Which gives you a clue that it is no diva in the garden,” says Byrne.

Like any new plant, you need to give lavender plenty of water and attention until its roots are well established. Herbs in containers will be dependent on you to provide plenty of water year round. Once lavender is established in your herb garden, plants will need to be pruned every year.

Lavender gives height to containers of mixed plants.
Photo by Provern Winners

'Goodwin Creek' lavender (Lavandula heterophylla) has light grey, deeply toothed foliage and small, deep purple flowers. This 'Proven Winners' lavender is an annual (except in Zone 8 and above) making it an excellent choice for mixed plants in a single large container.

Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner of Nichols Garden Nursery, says “I would in particular recommend 'Sharon Roberts' lavender (Lavender angustifolia) both for hardiness and repeat flowering. However, in Zone 6 you must also deal with fungal diseases, so you should consider planting 'Sweet' lavender (Lavender heterophylla), which blooms steadily through the summer, is disease resistant and a stunning container plant.”

“I should mention a very nice 'Lavender Lady' (L. angustifolia), which was a 1994 All-America Selections winner. It grows easily from seed and, if started in February, will have a fast growing attractive blooming plant the first summer,” advises McGee. “This will sail through most winters but the economy of seed allows those in climates too hot or too cold to have an affordable abundance of lavender plants that can be treated as an annual.”

Lavender shouldn't grow in Ohio, tell that to Jody Byrne.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

Like me, many beginning gardeners have no luck with seeds or plants in their first attempts. I finally ordered three different types of lavender plants for the garden. Only one was a hardy surviver. It has grown faithfully in my Zone 6 humid summers and freezing winters for six years.

“There are so many choices in with lavenders that there is one suitable for just about anywhere,” says McGee.

If you've been hesitant to try lavender in your garden either for the first time or again, remember Jody Byrne's simple rules:

Lavender fields ready for harvest in Ohio.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

“Lavender only wants three things, but on these she is adamant:

• Blazing sunlight 6 to 8 hours per day.
• Well-drained soil. More lavender dies from wet roots than any other cause.
• Sweet soil. (Alkaline soil.) I recommend crushed oyster shell. It's slow release, 100% natural and lightens heavy or clay soil”, said Byrne. “Lavender is a sturdy soldier and gives so much, asking very little in return.”

So, if your first attempt at growing lavender was less than successful, try again this spring. Whether you treat lavender like an annual or perennial depends on your location, both the zone and garden placement. Consider planting lavender in a container that you can shelter from the wettest and coldest days.

Find your zone using your zip code. 

Resources:

• Jody Byrne, founder of DayBreak Lavender Farm
• Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner of Nichols Garden Nursery

The weather may or may not be looking up in your neck of the woods, but one thing is certain—herbies are excited about growing herbs! We want to know which herbs you're most excited about growing this year and why? Are you going to experiment with a new culinary herb or are you ready to concoct some of your all-time favorite herbal teas? We asked our Facebook fans and followers on Twitter what they're most excited about growing. Many of you can't wait to grow your age-old favorites and some of you are eager to start something new. Here are some of our Facebook and Twitter answers. Did your comment get published?

From left to right: stevia, dill, basil and garlic.

"I grow about 300 herbs and I am excited about all of them. But new ones to me this year include starting some spiked zaatar from seed and getting an anise verbena plant." —Betty Pillsbury

"Lemon verbena. Mmm, it smell sooo good!" —Allie SilverMoon

"Enough basil for pesto and enough mint and parsley for a summer of tabouli. Holy basil for tea is sooooo healing!" —Lynn Snyder

"Would you believe good 'ole mugwort? LOL! Artemisia douglasiana to be exact...go figure!" —Heather MacGregor

"Basil, cilantro, chamomile, lavender, rosemary, and I'm looking forward to the dandelions. Sorry neighbors!" —Shannon Perron Thaw

"Hopefully the hops vine will grow this year, shelter the chickens from the sun, and muffle their noises a bit for the neighbor. Maybe even some dried hops for me to use in sleep pillows." —Theresa Rooney

"Wow. It's hard to decide but it's probably going to be stevia. If I could find it, I'd get excited about lemon verbena, too." —Liz Chesterton Morris

"Feverfew, sage, rosemary...and of course lavender, lavender, and more lavender. Yay!" —Dineen Basile

Which herb are you most excited about growing this year? Please share with our readers in the comments section below. Don't forget to check out all 43 reader responses on our Facebook page. (Become our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. )

If you’ve been exfoliating daily or using certain natural facial scrubs, you may have been doing your face more harm than good. Although skin exfoliating products can unclog pores, stimulate circulation and smooth your skin, the scrubbing granules found in some, such as the apricot pits in St. Ives Apricot Scrub, can also damage capillaries and cause breakouts to spread. 

It’s important to examine your natural facial scrub to see what exactly does the scrubbing. For instance, even natural exfoliants, such as nuts and seeds, need to be finely ground. Otherwise their sharp pieces can cut and damage your skin.

Photo by Rishi B/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamers_lair/  

Microbeads, such as those found in Dove’s Gentle Exfoliating Foaming Facial Cleanser, have become a common alternative to harsh scrubbers. However, even though they’re gentle on your skin, they’re often detrimental to the environment. In the Orion Magazine article "Polymers Are Forever" Alan Weisman discusses how polymers, often listed as “polyethylenes”, are regular ingredients in exfoliating microbeads. Long after you scrub and rinse your face clean, these polymer fragments are washing up along shores and harbors around the world, including Plymouth Harbor in England. 

But don’t give up on exfoliating just yet. There are plenty of ways to exfoliate without harming the environment or your skin. Simply adding a little sugar to your face wash and then GENTLY scrubbing your face no more than a couple of times a week is one way to go. 

Also, natural exfoliant enzymes found in papayas and pineapples, as well as alpha-hyrdoxy acids from citrus fruits and sour milk, can help with your natural exfoliation routine.

Photo by Leeno/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leena/

Try out some of our natural exfoliation recipes and get started on a path toward glowing, healthy skin. 

• Oatmeal Facial Cleanser
• Rose Petal Yogurt Scrub
• Comfrey and Oatmeal Facial Scrub
• Pineapple Sage Face Mask
• Oats and Eucalyptus Scrub 

For more information on how to exfoliate naturally, check out Laurel Vukovic’s article, "Skin Deep: Natural Exfoliation." 

Have you had problems with facial scrubs in the past? What do you use to exfoliate? Leave me a comment and let me know.

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

I enjoy a really good life. You see, I don't do much of the cooking when The Herbal Husband is around. Now that he has taken a vacation from the snow and cold temperatures, I'm struggling to cook my own single serving food. I do cook once in a while when he is here, but for the most part I get off easy.

So before he left, I got out a gift that my mom gave to me for Christmas in 1978. It is Barbara Swain's Cookery for 1 or 2.

The 70s Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

I have to be honest, I haven't used it much since I was single. When The Herbal Husband and I met, I was honing my cooking skills with a microwave! One tip I remember is that a 10-ounce package of frozen vegetable can be cooked in seven minutes. You don't have to remove the packaging but you do have to remember to take off the foil wrapper, if it has one. Place it on a plate before zapping it. Even this 70s cookbook has a recipe for Chopped Parsley Salad.

Chopped Parsley Salad

Serves 2; Courtesy Swain, Barbara. Cookery for 1 or 2. Tuscon:  H.P. Books, 1978.

• 3/4 cup chopped parsley, lightly packed
• 3/4 cup minced celery
• 1/4 minced green onions (about 4 onions)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice or white wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine parsley, celery and green onions in a medium bowl. 

2. Toss with oil until well-coated. Toss with lemon juice or vinegar and salt and pepper. 

Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich

Another easy comfort food of mine is mayonnaise. I remember visiting my aunt and having her make tuna fish salad sandwiches for me at lunch. Yum! I just remember her making the tuna fish salad with Miracle Whip salad dressing and green olives. So my version is to use single serving cups of tuna with 2 tablespoons light Miracle Whip, 2 teaspoons herbal seasoning (your choice) and 2 green olives, diced. Combine ingredients and then refrigerate for a 1/2 hour or so. I use light whole wheat bread and a small handful of salad greens to give some crunch.

My version of my aunt's classic Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich.

The Ultimate Herbal Egg and Ham

A favorite herbal author of mine, Maggie Oster, has an herbal calendar that inspires me each day. She has an herbal topic each month and then expands on that topic with helpful hints. One hint that stuck with me from when herbal butter was the topic was to try frying an egg in herb butter. Boy, was she right!

The Ultimate Herbal Egg and Ham.

I used this as part of a Wednesday tradition: an egg, ham, cheese and English muffin. The Lemon Verbena Lady way! I used less than a tablespoon of herb butter in the saute pan. Once fried, I placed an egg and ham on a toasted whole wheat English muffin with a slice of American cheese. It is the way I'm going to make it from now on!

I hope I have given you some inspiration if you are struggling to find single serving recipes. Despite eating this kind of comfort food once in a while, I have lost 17 pounds since mid-November. They say everything in moderation. You can enhance your cooking with herbs and it doesn't have to be difficult. Tell me what you are cooking for yourself and we can help each other enjoy cooking with herbs.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

I'm fanning through the seed catalogs, looking for seed that will eventually become my favorite dishes. Such as gazpacho, ratatouille or tabouli.

I seldom use a recipe without tweaking it a little. This is The Cook's Garden's recipe for Vegetable Soup. I am sharing the recipe with you because I like the idea of harvesting all these beautiful vegetables from my garden. It is on their website along with many other tried and true recipes for your garden bounty.

Add a can of chick peas or any vegetable you like and skip the ones you don't.
Photo by Harris Graber 

Vegetable Soup

The idea, which you can see as you read the ingredients in the following link, is to grow your own soup vegetables and harvest, store or preserve your very own veggies. Your hard work will be rewarded by your delicious home garden medly.

Ingredients: Click here for the list of ingredients: Ingredients For Vegetable Soup. The herbs in this recipe (garlic, bay and basil) are merely suggestions for an herb gardener. Add many more herbs if desired. (Click here for the full recipe: Vegetable Soup.)

Directions: To prepare this soup, saute cut meat, minced garlic, onions and chopped celery in olive oil and add cup of stock as ingredients cook. Transfer ingredients to a large soup pot and add remaining ingredients. Cook under low heat for many hours. (You can fork test the vegetables for tenderness.) Soup can be thickened easily by using cornstarch or pre-sifted flour. When serving, remove bay leaves. Leftovers are a bonus. A quart of this soup in your freezer is a perfect too-tired-to-cook meal that is much more tempting than fast-food.

Vegetable soup is a medly of your garden.
Make some version of this as your signature soup.
Photo courtesy  The Cook's Garden

My Tweaks: Right before that last hour of cooking, take out enough soup to fill a container and freeze for later. Potatoes and carrots should not be completely cooked through; they will finish cooking when you reheat the soup. Season this portion of the vegetable soup with herbs when you reheat. Herbs are also best added during the last hour of cooking. Add a salt-free, all-purpose combination of bouquet garni. Bouquet garni, it is a traditional French herb combination of savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano dill, marjoram sage and tarragon. If you are unfamiliar with this herb combination, only add a teaspoon to your soup. With this big batch of vegetables, I would probably start with a tablespoon of bouquet garni, or a similar combination of these individual herbs. Also, you can skip the beef or chicken if you like. The Cook's Garden has several great recipes on their website that will showcase your vegetable harvest at its very best.

At first, I was drawn to The Cook's Garden catalog by their broccoli romanesco. This vegetable is an heirloom that has been around a long time but is new to me. I try something new in my garden every year, and this year I chose broccoli romanesco.

I found broccoli romanesco seeds at The Cook's Garden, Territorial Seed Company, Seed Savers and several other seed sources. Although broccoli and cauliflower have always been a challenge, I'm going to give it a try this spring.

HOW TO ENTER

Three randomly selected readers who comment will receive a packet of broccoli romanesco seed.

• Post a comment below: What's your favorite heirloom vegetable to grow from seed? Courtesy The Cook's Garden.

• End date:  April 4, 2010 (12:00 AM, Central Time) UPDATE: Time's up!

And the winners are...

Brenda Davis in
Viroqua, Wisconsin

Lauren Benard in Phoenix, Arizona

Sara O'Shea in Crystal City, Missouri

Expect your seed packets to arrive in the mail directly from The Cook's Garden. Thanks for reading my blog.

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

Spring is slowly, slowly showing signs of beginning. Much of February had cold, rainy, wintery weather. Today, March 1, was sunny and around 70 degrees by late morning. Now, mid-afternoon, the clouds have moved in and we're experiencing a shower. So, what's happening in The Herb Garden here at The Herb Cottage?

Roses are definitely showing new leaf growth. My big Little Pinkie climber has tipped over its copper trellis. Somehow, I'm going to have to right the trellis without being eaten by the plant!

There is a lot of new growth from the yarrow patch. 

Herbs in the beds are beginning to show some size, even though most of the potted stock plants are in desperate need of sun for growth. Root systems are gaining size and strength due to diligent feeding, but top growth of herbs and tomato plants is very slight. It's as if the plants are just waiting for sun before they really put on new leaves. I guess this is their way of survival in the cooler temperatures.

Soon we should be able to tell what actually was killed off by the deep cold we had back in January. I'm looking daily at more of the plants, which generally die back for the winter and re-appear in spring, to see if they, indeed, shall recover. In my last blog post (Growing Herbs in Texas: Early Spring Planting), I wrote about my ramie plant showing new growth. That new growth has stayed the same size. But, it survives!

Green pepper basil  (Ocimum selloi) is returning to life.

I'm seeing new shoots peeking out from the frozen stems of the Mexican mint marigold, also known as Texas (or Mexican) tarragon. This is a fabulous perennial for landscape use and for cooking. The leaves are used as a substitute for French tarragon, which just does not like our Gulf Coast conditions. I like to use the leaves in tea, too, and the flowers add a cheery yellow to salads.

Mexican mint marigold in full flower.

One plant in my herb bed, lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora), is an herbal tree. The freeze really affected the leaves, although they are now just beginning to drop. I know, however, the tree survived because it is shedding its bark, as it does every year during the spring growth spurt. The bark that is shed seems thicker this year, perhaps due to the extreme cold. This year we experienced the coldest temperatures since I've had the tree in the ground. Even though the tree has only been in the ground about 7 or 8 years, it's already attained a height of about 30 feet!! 

Lemon eucalyptus trunk. (Old live oak in the background.)       

Way up there!! Cleaned, new trunk with shredded bark above, ready to be discarded.

What's going on in your gardens? One day, we'll look out at the gardens and realize that spring is in full swing with flowering herbs, fragrant roses and lush vegetable plants. The gardens will be a riot of color, scents and buzzing, busy insects. Until then, bask in the sunny days when we have them, plant some basil seeds in preparation for summer and enjoy the winter flowers.

For the bees, I planted flowering arugula (white flowers) and minutina (yellow flowers). On sunny days, the bees are a-buzz in these flowering tops.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." —Marcus Tullius Cicero

For many of us, the weather is not quite where we want it to be for gardening. So we want to know: How have you been caring for your herbs this winter? We asked our Facebook fans how they are caring for their herbs as they patiently wait for the arrival of spring. Many of you, eager to dig into your spring garden, have learned that patience is a virtue and have been caring for your potted herbs indoors until the timing is right. Here are some of our Facebook fan's answers:

Indoor favorites include potted bay, snow rose and coffee.
Photo by Rob Cardillo

"I've brought in rosemary, thyme, non-hardy lavender and lemon verbena." —Katherine Glaros Ryan

"I have a long list of herbs I treat as houseplants in the winter here in Zone 5. They include he shou wu, galangal, rosemary, turemeric, vanilla orchid, black pepper vine, Cactus grandiflorus, Vick's plant, lemon verbena, costus, rock rose, scented geraniums, rootbeer plant, vetiver and many others." —Betty Pillsbury

"Rosemary fills half of my dining room. I can't wait for spring. It takes over an hour to water everything!" —Elissa Monroe

"Rosemary stays nice and green all year here in central New Mexico. I have basil, thyme, lemon balm and several other herbs in containers in my green house. I refuse to be without them in the winter!" —Suzy Quintana

"Pulling weeds." —Virginia Lee Adi 

How are you caring for your herbs this winter? We want to hear from you! Drop us a comment below and don't forget to become our fan on Facebook.

Before you can get down and dirty in the garden, remember to check out our checklist to be fully prepared for spring.  

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

When the winter weather is unrelenting like it is here, hope that you have herbs in containers to keep you sane! I was very hopeful several weeks ago that we were on the way to spring a little early. Not to be! I will be happy to see any sign of the herb garden before spring arrives in five weeks or so. Hopefully, the snow will have acted as an insulator and kept plants intact.

My herb garden in February, 2010.

Some of our herbs are on the windowsills that have southern exposure like this lemon verbena and scented geranium.

Lemon verbena and scented geranium sitting on my windowsill.

A couple of 'Logee's Snowflake' and wooly mint-scented geraniums are doing fine in the basement with little light.

'Logee's Snowflake' and wooly mint-scented geraniums surviving in my basement.

Then our garage plays a large role because it too has south facing windows and is cool, but not cold for a sweet lavender, a Victorian rosemary and a Habek mint.

Sweet lavender, Victorian rosemary and Habek mint flourishing in the garage. 

The best way to keep a rosemary through our winter is to have it in a cool room with southern exposure, a garage or an unheated room. This rosemary was dug late in the season. We never dig plants too soon. The Herbal Husband and I tend to wait until the killing frost comes to dig plants up. Don't wait that long. You want to give the herbs plenty of time to get adjusted. This is our prostrate rosemary in late December. It has actually grown some new shoots since this picture was taken.

A prostrate rosemary has found just the right spot in the garage. 

So when the winter season is getting you down, hopefully you have some herbs on your windowsills to keep you company. Hurry spring! It can't come soon enough for me and The Herbal Husband!

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

Winter sure is hanging on here in south central Texas. We've had so many cloudy days, a fair amount of rain and cold temperatures. It's been a few weeks, however, since we've seen a freeze here, and I'm seeing signs of new growth on plants that froze back. One of my favorite plants that froze is ramie (Boehmeria nivea), or Chinese silkplant. This is the plant that the fiber ramie is made from—you know the fiber that's woven with wool or cotton for sweaters. For more information, here's a link to an article in Wikipedia.

Tiny new growth on a ramie plant. 

Mature ramie plant.
Courtesy of Wikipedia 

I've seen swelling buds on several trees such as vitex (Vitex agnus-castus), or chastetree, also called Texas lilac or monk's pepper due to its reputation for suppressing libido.  

Vitex is a wonderful small tree with fragrant purple, pink or white flowers. The leaves are palmate and a nice, medium green. Vitex is easy to grow and the flowers attract butterflies and other beneficial insects. I know spring can't be too far ahead when the vitex shows signs of new life.

Purple vitex
Courtesy of  www.davesgarden.com .

According to Ellen Zimmerman of EZ Herbs in Austin, "The medicinal berries are used to treat PMS and menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and excessive bleeding. As a hormonal balancer, vitex regulates progesterone and estrogen, treats fibroids and re-establishes normal ovulation and menstruation."

Cleared garden beds waiting for growth to fill in and some mulch. Notice how green the grass is from all the rain we've had.

I've had time between seeding flat upon flat of tomatoes for spring sales to weed and clean up a few garden beds. The main herb bed looks much better without all the spring grass coming up everywhere. I even planted a few more herbs from transplants: fennel, bronze fennel, I planted these adjacent to each other as they are a great visual combination, more chamomile, dill and a Greek oregano.

Bronze and green fennel.

As with many gardeners, this is has to be my favorite time of year. Oh, yes, I love late spring and early summer when the roses are in full bloom, the basil is still stocky and perfect, the thyme has its tiny blossoms, and I'm overwhelmed by the richness of the textures and colors of the garden. But this time of year is quiet and slow. You have to look closely to see the changes, but they are there. Spring is not that far off when the buds begin to swell on bare branches, new growth is tucked down between dead branches and people at the farmers' market talk to me about starting their garden.

Texas olive in San Antonio, Texas.
Courtesy of  Bexar County Agri-Life Service  

Don't be fooled, though, by the errant warm breeze or sunny day, of which we've had one in about the last two weeks! Winter resides even in the southern part of Texas into March. So if you start to put out tender plants like basil or tomatoes, be ready to bring them in during the next freeze. I cannot tell you when it will happen, only that it will. And, those of you in the northern part of Texas, you know you have at least two more months before your winter weather is truly over.  

(Find more tips for starting your spring garden by reading our "Spring Garden Checklist.")

So, try to enjoy the quiet pre-spring season, watch your plants, look for the robins and blue birds, and spring will be here before you know it.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Chili rellenos are one of my favorite Mexican restaurant foods. Last year, when I had a bountiful crop of mild chilis, I attempted to make chili rellenos. I never got the hang of it. The best I could do was make a greasy, cheesy mess. I did become a master at charing peppers.

The cook at El Acapulco Mexican Restaurant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri showed me the secret. Ramon Soriano Cruz is the cook at El Acapulco. He shared the secret about how to make chili rellenos from scratch..

Ramon had already blackened, peeled and stuffed the peppers. That is how the restaurant is able to serve chili rellenos in less than an hour.

    
Gradually add flour to eggs a little at a time. Five egg whites are beaten until stiff.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

My lesson started after the whole peppers were charred, peeled and stuffed. At this point the chilis were frozen. Ramon began by rolling the frozen chilis in flour and set them aside while making the batter.

Chili Relleno Instructions

Separate 1 egg for every chili. Beat the whites until stiff then sprinkle in flour to the egg whites as they begin to stiffen. With Ramon's expertise, he mixed an unmeasured amount of flour into the eggs—I think a scant ½ of a cup of all purpose flour. He set aside the batter and rolled each frozen pepper in the flour again.

Then, he used the kitchen's deep fryer to cook the chilis. At home, heat cooking oil 1- to 2-inch deep in a big frying pan to about 375 degrees.

Hold the chili by the stem, dip it in the egg batter until well coated. Use a rubber spatula to help spread batter if it doesn’t cover the entire chili.

Ramon Soriano Cruz can serve a full restaurant. The sauce served over the chili is a mild seasoned tomato sauce.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Gently place the battered pepper in the hot oil, carefully turn the chili until it is well browned. You can cook two or three at a time, just don't fry so many that it lowers the temperature of the oil. As each chili is browned, place it carefully on the plate. Ladle heated tomato sauce, over the pepper. Serve with beans and rice.

Once the beans and rice are on the plate, a quick zap in the microwave insures the complete meal is served steamy hot.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Look for ancho or poblano pepper seeds or plants. Find seeds and plants in most of the seed catalogs. Wait on the last frost date in your area and hold off for another week or two before planting peppers. The seedling and plants do not like wet feet.

Thanks Ramon!
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Resource: El Acapulco Mexican Restaurant; 202 South Mount Auburn Road; Cape Girardeau, MO, 63703; (573) 332-1465

Photo by freeariello/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeariello/

My goodness, where does the time go? It seems I just wished everyone a happy and prosperous new year. Now it's almost the end of the month. It seems like spring is just around the corner. After the very cold weather from a couple of weeks ago, the warmer temperatures are most welcome. From my vantage point at local farmers' markets I know a lot of people had plants frozen back or lost plants altogether in the recent cold snap here. As I, and lots of other gardening folks have written in the last few weeks, don't be in a hurry to cut back the dead branches from your plants. That mass can help protect the plants in the next freeze... and, yes, I'm sure we will experience another bout of freezing temperatures before spring sets in for good.

Lushious and green curly parsley after the freeze.

Hardy arp rosemary and Santa Cruz oregano looking good after the freeze.

It is time, however, to start cleaning up garden beds and preparing for new plants in the garden. If, like me, you've allowed that pesky Coastal Bermuda to invade your beds, now is the time to dig it out.

Dormant Coastal Bermuda invaded this bed. 

Sadly, chemical herbicides (i.e. Round Up©) just don't work long term on Coastal. The best way I know to deal with it is to dig as much as you can out. Now it's mostly dormant, so it should be easier to dig. Then mulch, mulch, mulch!!! I've been using the layered newspaper technique, which really works well but is a bit of work.

The technique: Dampen newspaper; lay at least 4 to 6 layers or more on the soil. Next, overlap it in a crisscross pattern so there's no space for the Coastal to come through; cover with mulch. To plant, cut through the paper and set your transplants in. The newspaper degrades after while, as does the mulch, of course, but if you've been able to keep the Coastal and other weeds from coming up, then you can just keep up a good layer of mulch in the beds without the newspaper.

The one drawback to this method is if you are waiting for reseeding annuals to sprout—the newspaper mulch will keep them from sprouting. Many people grow dill, fennel, cilantro, poppies, larkspur and even basil by leaving seeds on the plant and letting them fall and germinate in situ. I have an area where the tall, bright orange cosmos grew last year. I sprinkled more seed around the area because I want more of them this year. They were just fabulous and attracted butterflies and other beneficial insects all summer and fall, until frost. The Coastal isn't too bad in that area, so I'm going to dig it out and simply put down a good layer of organic mulch without the newspaper. The cosmos seed will germinate through the mulch, I hope. If you're waiting for reseeding annuals to sprout, you can still dig the Coastal out. You might want to wait until you see sprouts of the plants you want before mulching. 

I'm also seeing "spring" grass in one bed, so that has to be weeded and mulched again.

My grass is hiding the chervil in this bed! 

It may seem like you can spend a lot of money on mulch, but the savings in the work later on, especially as the temperature warms up and you'd rather be enjoying your garden than weeding, is worth the investment. And, a good organic mulch will add needed nutrients and tilth to your soil.

If you have a lot of leaves later in the spring, when the Live Oaks shed theirs to make room for the new leaves, rake them up into a pile and run your mower over them to chop them up. These make great mulch, which prevent relocation to your local landfill. If your community has a compost project, they'll take them, too, of course.

Take a look at your garden and see where you might want to start cleaning up for the spring planting season ahead. You'll be inspired to continue your projects as you imagine new plants growing and thriving in the upcoming months.

My lettuce bowls are almost ready for sale! 

Either my taste buds are dying or I’ve developed immunity to the taste of my own cooking because increasingly I’ve had to use more and more salt in anything I create. 

I know that this can’t be good for my heart or my waistline, so in an effort to cut back, I’m trying to heat up my cooking with more peppers. 

This approach seems to work wonderfully for many of my friends and family, who pour on the Sriracha and Louisiana Hot Sauce like it’s going out of style.

So far I haven’t found quite the same enjoyment, but I’ll keep battling through my burning tears and runny nose in the hopes of cultivating an appreciation for the fierier side of life. And until I do, I’ll keep lots of yogurt within arms’ reach.

Photo by Darwin Bell/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/

Despite my struggles, it turns out that a love for all things spicy may not be a choice. According to Kim Erickson's article, Hot Chile Pepper Health, capsaicin, which is the active ingredient in hot peppers, can cause an addictive reaction because, as your taste buds burn, your brain produces pain-relieving endorphins. 

The only concern I’ve heard from my friends about their hot sauce habits is if too much salt is so bad for you, how can so much hot sauce be okay? 

One of the most popular misconceptions about spicy over-indulgence is that too much heat can cause stomach ulcers. However, Gina Mohammed, Ph.D. says in her article A Hot And Spicy Introduction to Peppers that the opposite is actually true. Capsaicin fights ulcer-causing bacteria and has plenty of other health benefits well worth the burn, including increased circulation and metabolism, cancer fighting antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.

The most damaging aspect of hot sauce is probably the additives, such as preservatives and sugars, used in store-bought brands. So if you’re a hot sauce connoisseur, it might be a good idea to switch up your routine and make some healthier sauce of your own.

Photo by barcoder96/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leegillen/ 

Last night, I experimented with Kim Erickson’s simple recipe Red Hot Sauce because, with only three ingredients, it seemed like even I couldn’t screw it up.

• 3 cups distilled white vinegar
• 2 pounds peppers (ancho, habanero, jalapeño, passilla or serrano), seeded and coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons salt (optional)

1. Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

2. Process in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour into glass canning jars and cap tightly.

3. Store in the refrigerator and use for up to two months, or freeze for later use. Note: The intensity of this sauce increases as it ages.

As a chile pepper newbie, I chose to use jalapeño peppers, which are in the middle range of Erickson’s useful heat index. Also, I halved the recipe and excluded the salt. All in all the sauce was a hit, although I think I added too much vinegar because it tasted a little bit too limey and the kitchen still has a lingering astringent odor. 

Next time I’ll experiment with different types of peppers and flavors, and perhaps let it age longer. I’m hoping to try out The Lemon Verbena Lady’s recipe, Salsa Peruana Aji de Miguel, and Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsingers’ recipe, Habanero, Tomatillo and Orange Salsa. 

I’m looking forward to having special, spicy sauces to offer to my pepper-happy friends and family next time around. 

For information on growing your own hot peppers, check out Patsy Bell Hobson’s recent blog, How To: Chili Gardens. 

Have you tried to make your own hot sauce before? What are your favorite hot pepper recipes? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Someone once told me that, in any good relationship, there is a gardener and there is a chef. If you have read anything I've written you probably understand that while I can tell you that asparagus is spindly in its first few years, a long time ago, when a friend handed me a butcher knife and said, "Take. Cut. Prepare." I shrugged out a nervous giggle before trying to explain that I wasn't even really sure which end to eat.

Thankfully, now when I am confronted with a new vegetable I have grown but never before prepared I respond with, "You know, someone once told me that, in any good relationship there is a gardener and there is a chef."

I am a single man. A bachelor. And while I have given it many honest attempts, I've only ever had one really successful relationship. I am not proud of this fact, and while I have a number of good friends who CHOOSE TO BELIEVE it was "them" and not "me," I can't help but feel a little guilty for morphing into a total bat when I become involved. But, eventually, when things do come to a close, for better or for worse, I pick myself up, dust myself off and hope that the next attempt will bear much sweeter fruit.

It's important for me to tell you before I go on, that at this moment in the game, I do not go on blind dates and say, "You know, someone once told me ... that in any good relationship, there is a gardener and there is a chef. So, c'mon, quick, which are you?" But I will admit to you, that everytime I meet someone for that nervous first dinner or that awkward first movie, I always sit and think to myself, "I wonder what this person would do ... if I handed them an artichoke."

For the record, I have since learned how to pick and prepare just one asparagus dish. And here, I'm sharing with you, my simple little recipe that any gardener without his chef could easily make. I hope that in return, in the comments section below, you leave a little recipe you think even I might be able to handle.

Photo by Esteban_Cavrico/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36179943@N00/

The Asparagus Recipe Every Gardener Should Have

• 1 bundle asparagus
• 2 cloves garlic
• Olive oil

1. Pick up a bundle of asparagus with unwrinkled stalks and tight leaf tips. Smell the heads: Good bundles will have a fresh clean smell, while spoiled or aged bundles will have a fishy odor.

2. Take one spear from the bundle and snap off the woody end. (This is usually where the stalk turns from green to white.) Put it back with the rest of the bundle to use as a guide point, and chop the rest of the spears for quick preparation.

3. Lay spears on a cookie sheet and drizzle them with olive oil. Sprinkle chopped garlic cloves, salt and pepper and mix with your hands. Bake at 325 degrees until tender with a fork. Eat and enjoy!

About asparagus: Asparagus enjoys a long herbal history as a plant with plenty of nutritional purpose. It is said to help prevent heart disease, aid the digestive system, re-energize the body, and serve as a low-calorie, healthy source of folate, potassium, vitamin C and beta-carotene. Asparagus also pairs well with tomatoes in companion planting, both preventing eachother's most common pests.

Before you turn to drugs to treat gynecological conditions as common as premenstrual symptoms or as troubling as infertility, here’s yet another way herbs can help your health. According to an article in Alternative and Complementary Therapies by Tieraona Low Dog, recent studies on the herb vitex agnus-castus, or chaste tree, report that regular doses of chaste tree berry extract can help treat PMS and irregular menses as well as aid infertility. This confirms what previous studies and practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine have known for years.

Interestingly, chaste tree’s efficacy lies in its regulation of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, as opposed to its ancient reputation of ensuring chastity. Steven Foster says in his article "Vitex: A Vital Herb for Women" that ancient Greeks’ understanding of chaste tree was incorporated into festivals honoring Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, fertility and marriage. 

Photo by maggie_and_her_camera/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13389908@N03/

German researchers have picked up where the Greeks left off with numerous studies of chaste tree and an approval by the German Commission E for the herb’s treatment of PMS, cyclical mastalgia and menstrual irregularity. A recent study cited in Michael Castleman’s article "Time Tested Herbs" reported that 93 percent of its 1,634 participants experienced partial to complete relief of their PMS symptoms.

As with all medicinal herbs, it’s important to follow the dosage instructions and to realize that it may take some time to experience the benefits. Linda B. White’s article "Women’s Herbal Wisdom" advises that it may take at least three months of a daily dose of chaste tree berry extract before you see any relief.

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage ( www.theherbcottage.com ) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state. 

Winter certainly has set in here in south-central Texas. The temperatures barely reach 55 or 60 degrees during the day and the lows have been in the high 30s to low 40s most mornings. However, the forecast is for much colder weather this week, so keep those sheets, old quilts and blankets handy to cover tender plants. Remember to water herbaceous herbs and vegetables if the temperatures drop to freezing or below freezing to help them cope with the cold.

Most of my plants, including potted herbs and vegetable seedlings I have for sale, are growing slowly during this cold and, sometimes, cloudy weather. There is root growth, however, taking place in all my pots and small plants in the garden beds. Roots grow during cold temperatures so long as the ground does not freeze or stay very cold for weeks on end. That is why we suggest planting hardy herbs, shrubs and trees in the fall. The roots get a chance to get good growth during the cool to cold weather and then have a much easier time coping with the extreme heat of our brutal summer and early fall seasons.

When it's too cold, windy and unpleasant outdoors, what do we do to satisfy our gardening urge? Why, we peruse seed catalogs and web sites looking for new and interesting plant varieties for our gardens. Or, we may look over last year's garden journal. Didn't keep a journal? Well, you could simply write down what you remember from the past year. Or, look for a notebook to start one now for 2010. Or, set up a little journal on the computer, if you prefer to keep notes that way. Any way you decide to do it, keeping a garden journal weekly, monthly or how ever often you decide to make an entry is fun. The experience causes you to distill what's been happening in the garden so you can write about it.

Here's a link to a garden journal you can download and print out. I found it at the website called www.gardensimply.com.  

Also, check out the great article in the January 2010 issue of the Herb Companion, "Herbie's Favorite Seed Catalogs." 

Here in Texas we have to know about our climate and growing conditions to interpret the information given in catalogs that are for national consumption. I buy seeds from suppliers as far away as Maine, Colorado and Virginia. The cultural information for those areas of the country can be quite different than for here in Texas. Sowing season, water usage, sun/shade requirements and how big the plant will get can vary greatly in my garden from the stated information given from the supplier.

My advice is to do further research on new plants you want to grow in your gardens. Read the given information, and think about your own garden. Many plants, for instance, that require summer FULL SUN in other parts of the country will need afternoon shade here. Some seeds will need to be sown in February or March here instead of May or June in places further north. A good starting point for finding out about Texas plants is Aggie Horticulture. There are sections for each part of Texas so you can learn with confidence about your area of the state. Of course, you can always check out The Herb Cottage, too, for the best information on growing herbs in Texas.

I love experimenting with new varieties of herbs in my garden, pushing the Zone envelope. Sometimes the plants I want to grow do not survive here. Or, I learn I need to grow them as winter annuals instead of spring into summer. Testing, learning and even failing is all part of gardening.

May your New Year be Prosperous, Growing and Thriving.

Stay warm and don't fret over your hardy herbs in the garden. With a little cover, they'll come through the below freezing temperatures just fine!! Potted herbs need more protection because the roots are not insulated by the ground, so you might want to move them or cover them. I've even seen pots wrapped in bubble wrap to help insulate the roots!!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

My New Year's resolution has been the same for a number of years: lose weight! The other night I was browsing through my back issues of The Herb Companion and came across the article "Eat Yourself Thin" by Debbie Whittaker in the March 2000 issue. She talks about replacing white flour for whole-wheat flour, white rice for brown rice and eating more fruits, vegetables and herbs among other ideas. Using herbal vinegars, oils and butters in smaller amounts and hincorporating herbs and spices into your recipes add great flavor without the extra calories. There is a recipe for Dilled Dijon Green Beans that sounds yummy. (Remember that dill is the 2010 Herb of the Year—there are lots of easy ways to use dill in recipes.) I'll share some of them throughout the coming year.  Also you can start the year out right with Patsy Bell Hobson's article in the January 2010 issue, "How to Make Herbal Oils & Butters." It is packed with great recipes and tips to add flavor to your meals as long as you limit the quantity of oil or butter you use. I use an herb butter mix from The Village Herb Shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. I add it to my light mayonnaise for an extra bit of flavor or make herbal butter for a loaf of whole-grain bread on pasta night.

This a tin of bouquet garni from The Spice Shop in London, England. It consists of parsley, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram and sage. A very traditional bouquet garni includes bay leaves, thyme and parsley. As far as American spice companies go, I love Penzeys Spices. They have a wonderful catalog with great recipes using their herbs, spices and herb and spice combinations that they sell. 

For New Year's Day dinner, The Herbal Husband and I had a pork roast that was marinaded overnight with white wine, white wine vinegar, garlic, herbs and spices. We have had this particular recipe several times now, but it only sunk in that vinegar and wine or some kind of stock adds flavor without adding additional fat. It was very tasty.

Of course the additional herbal flavor is a bit of rosemary garlic jelly! (Click here for the recipe: Rosemary Garlic Jelly.) I put some chives from my freezer on top of the mashed potatoes and then mixed them into the potatoes for extra taste. They were delicious. Here is the pork recipe:

Roast Pork Fillet in White Wine
Wonderful on a chilly night

• 3 pounds pork loin
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine, stock or water if you prefer
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves (I did not have dried thyme leaves, so I used dried rosemary instead. Also next time I will use the dried bouquet garni in the marinading process. I also used an additional 1 teaspoon of bouquet garni after it came out of the marniade and before it went into the oven.)
• Salt and pepper

1. Combine wine, vinegar, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf and thyme (or whatever herb you chose) in a baking dish just large enough to hold meat. If you just put the marinade in a dish without the bag, it needs to be a glass pan or dish. I also use a gallon size sealable plastic bag to make marinading easier. Put pork and marinade in bag and then in the pan or dish and refrigerate overnight. 

2. Turn the pork several times until ready to roast. Drain pork and sprinkle with salt and pepper and additional herbs if you wish. Pour 1/2 cup of marinade over meat and roast at 325 or 350 degrees for 1/2 hour per pound or until a meat thermometer registers 170 degrees. Let sit 15 minutes before carving.

Recipe courtesy of Child Health Association of Sewickley, Inc., Three Rivers Cookbook II, Pittsburgh, PA:  Herrmann Printing & Litho, Inc., 1981.

The statement under the title of the recipe says it all—Wonderful on a chilly night. It is easy to add herbs to make my New Year's resolution an herbal reality!

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Chili herbs and spices are easy to grow in the heat of my full-sun zone 6 garden. However, it is the impending snowstorm that has gotten me to start thinking about chili. As you page through the seed catalogs this winter, consider growing a salsa garden or a chili garden. Peppers are colorful enough to plant in a full-sun flower bed—not for the flowers, which are usually small, white and unremarkable. The foliage can be lush and the color variety of the peppers ranges as wide as the heat levels.

Nutrients in peppers depend on the variety and maturity. Both sweet and hot peppers are high in vitamins A and C. If you make your own chili seasoning, you will get many levels of taste and a lot less salt.

Chili con carne ingredients change according to the region and the cook.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

Start with ancho chili peppers, the key ingredient in chili seasonings. These rich and flavorful peppers have very little heat. I buy whole, dried peppers and crush them in a plastic bag for pepper flakes. The best way to crush any kind of dried pepper is to place them inside of a heavy plastic zipper bag. Then, smash the dried peppers.

Use gloves when working with peppers. Even the slightly hot peppers can burn. I can't say this enough: WEAR GLOVES. If you don't have gloves, put your hands in plastic produce bags or plastic zipper bags.

Capsicums are what make spicy dishes hot. Add chipotle, cayenne and/or jalapeno to the ancho in chili to give it spice and heat. Start with just a little hot pepper. It's easy to add more heat later.

  
Left: Dried poblanos (Capsicum annuum) are used in chili.
Right: Fresh and versitile, poblanos are used to make chili rellenos.
Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

If you want to grow your own chili peppers, look for poblano pepper seeds or plants. Green anchos are stuffed and used to make chili rellenos. These triangular peppers are the dried version of the poblano chile—the most common dried pepper in Mexico.

To make your own chili powder, start with ground ancho chili pepper. Add cumin and Mexican oregano. Then, add onion and garlic. I use fresh onion and garlic because it is readily available, but you can use garlic and onion powder. Finally, add hot peppers to taste.

Here is a salt-free chili seasoning mix. This is a guide. Add more or less of any ingredient to make this your own special chili powder. With the rich flavors of your own chili powder, you won't miss the salt.

Chili Seasoning Mix

• 3 tablespoons ground ancho
• 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano, dried
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne

Some chili recipes include tumeric, dried mustard, thyme, cinnamon or paprika. So don't be shy—chili is an easy dish to experiment with and learn about the depth and flavor of herbs and spices. Original Texas-style chili contains no beans or tomatoes, so be creative.

We will talk about other traditional Mexican herbs and seasoning to plant in a salsa or chili garden. Be on the lookout as those catalogs come rolling in.

Resources

How to grow peppers:

• AgriLife Extension 
• University of Illinois Extension 

Pepper seeds and plants:

• The Cook's Garden
• Renee's Garden Seed

Chili spices:

• Penzeys Spices 

The Herb Society of America (HSA) was invited by Lake Metroparks Farmpark to decorate a Christmas tree in their main lobby. The HSA staff decorated the tree this year with many natural, low-cost ornaments.

Many herbs were used to create fabulous ornaments. Excited staff members tucked Artemisia stems and leaves, Allium christophii seed heads, Achillea flowers, Lavandula flowers, Aquilegia seed pods, Hydrangea blossoms, Origanum flowers, Eryngium flowers and sage flowers in among the branches of the Farmpark Christmas tree. These herbs were gathered from the small garden surrounding the HSA headquarters by Helen Tramte, an HSA librarian who also harvested and dried these herbs.

Cinnamon sticks embellished the tree. To make: Simply tie together three cinnamon sticks with a twist tie. Then cover the twist tie with a beautiful ribbon of your choice. Next, if you choose, tie fishing line to the center of the ornament and loop it as if it were a hanger. (You can also use store-bought ornament hangers.)

HSA staff circled the Christmas tree with a string of popcorn. To make: Get fishing line that measures at about 6 feet and string popcorn together.

About 100 cinnamon and applesauce ornaments were crafted as decoration. To make: Stir together 1 cup cinnamon, 1 cup applesauce and 1 tablespoon white glue until dough becomes stiff. Roll into a ball then flatten in between two sheets of wax paper. Cut dough with cookie cutters to create fun, seasonal shapes. Use straw to create a hole for a ribbon hanger. Turn ornaments twice a day until dry. Drying usually takes about five days.

(Click here for more ways to create Cinnamon Dough Ornaments.)

(Click here for instructions on how to create Cinnamon Spice Ornaments.)

The tree keeps an herbal fragrance with hanging potpourri mixes. To make: Slice oranges. Stud slices with white cloves and dust in cinnamon powder. Next, place your fragrant pomanders in netting and secure with ribbon.

The tree was topped with a large gathering of alliums. Tramte compares their likeness to that of fireworks.

It took the staff a little over an hour to decorate the tree. The tree went on display during the Country Lights event, which sold out. Farmpark is located in Kirtland, Ohio.

With the holidays quickly approaching, this time of the season can be extremely stressful. Traveling, cleaning, cooking, and holiday shopping all add extra stress. But if you sit down and relax for a few minutes to eat some dark chocolate, you might just feel better!

Researchers at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland suggest that eating a few pieces of dark chocolate every day can improve metabolic response for people who are highly stressed.

Sunil Kochhar and a group of researchers studied the metabolic responses of 30 healthy adult volunteers who consumed 20 grams of dark chocolate every day for 14 days. The individuals in the group were classified with high and low anxiety levels. They collected urine and blood plasma in the beginning, halfway through and at the end of the two week period to analyze specific energy metabolism and gut microbial activities.

In the end, the researchers saw that the subjects with higher anxiety had distinct metabolic profiles. With different energy and gut microbe activities, the dark chocolate decreased the amount of stress hormones, cortisol and catecholamines. The chocolate also partially normalized stress-related biochemical differences in energy metabolism and microbial activities. 

Photo by Portal and Friends/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dboz/

According to the findings, published in The Journal of Proteome Research,“the study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams of dark chocolate during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of free living and healthy human subjects, as per variation of both host and gut microbial metabolism.” 

Tea, cranberries, strawberries and several fruits all are strong sources of antioxidants, but per serving dark chocolate has more antioxidants than green tea or red wine. Antioxidants like flavonoids, epicatechin and gallic acid, all aid in antioxidant activity. Flavonoids, also known as vitamin P and citrin can also help capillary permeability, blood flow, anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Besides containing more stress-relieving antioxidants, you enjoy more health benefits from dark chocolate because it has more cocoa, a lower sugar content, less saturated fat, less cholesterol and a higher iron content than milk chocolate. University of Michigan Integrative Medicine found that milk chocolate does not offer antioxidant activity like dark chocolate because the milk binds to the antioxidants. You have to have 70 percent cocoa solids and no milk for antioxidants to be present.

Antioxidants in dark chocolate may also reduce risk for heart disease, lower blood pressure, protect from skin cancer and relieve pain. Other studies show that dark chocolate can increase the production of serotonin and endorphins, reducing stress levels and relieving chronic fatigue syndrome.

So take a break and treat yourself to the occasional dark chocolate snack. Don’t stress over the holidays or eating chocolate, it might actually decrease your stress!

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage ( www.theherbcottage.com ) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state. 

Winter has set in a bit early this year, it seems. We've had snow in south Texas—although not at The Herb Cottage—sleet, a hard freeze, and generally cold and damp weather. While it did not snow here at The Herb Cottage, the temperature did dip to about 26 degrees for a few hours one morning and lots of landscape plants froze. I now have droopy passion vines on the fence, melted nasturtiums and frozen podrangea vine. Various hibiscus, Texas olive (Cordia boissieri) and henna (Lawsonia inermis), among other plants, are also frozen. Most succulents that were left out have frozen, too. 

Frozen passion vines hanging on the fence.

The tender evergreens, which in my yard, include esperanza (Tecoma stans), vitex tree (Vitex agnus-castus) and henna, have all frozen. I will not prune the esperanza or the vitex at all because new foliage will appear on old wood. And it did not get cold enough to damage most of the wood on either plant. The dead wood at the tips of the branches, if there is any, will help insulate the plants from further damage during other freezes this winter. In the spring when new growth has started, I will be able to see where the freeze damage is and prune it off at that time. 

Frozen esperenza.

Some references say henna should not have temperatures below 50 degrees, but I know mine has survived much colder temps than that—last year the leaves never froze. Another source says it can take down to 25 degrees. I have the plant rooted in a large pot because it's been in the same spot for so long. It became difficult to move into the greenhouse, so I've left it outside for about the past three or four years. Since it is frozen now, I may cut the roots that go into the ground and move it into the greenhouse to give it some TLC over the winter. The branches still show live wood when the thin bark is scratched, so the plant will definitely recover.

Frozen henna plant.

Of course, all the culinary herbs survived the cold just fine...except the lemon grass. It's pretty sad looking. The newly planted chamomile, salad burnet, lovage, cilantro, chervil, violets and thyme took the cold just fine. And the established rosemary, oregano, calendula and dill look great. 

Soapwort.

Last time I got sick, the constant itch in my throat as I was healing tormented me more than the hacking cough that started it all. For a while after I’d recovered I couldn’t get rid of the menthol taste or the bright red color of my mouth no matter how many times I brushed my teeth. I began to wonder if the cough drops I had been unwisely and obsessively sucking on were only exacerbating my symptoms.

That’s when I wished that I had something a little less medicated and sugary, and a little more natural. Thankfully I ran across this recipe for homemade cough drops from WikiHow, which seems almost fool-proof, although I’m going to replace the sugar and corn syrup with honey.

Photo by ladybugbkt/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/branditressler/

And with the priceless archive of herbal medicine at The Herb Companion, I discovered some of the best herbs to make this recipe even more effective. For instance, herbs with expectorant qualities that help loosen phlegm include aniseed (Pimpinella anisum), elderberberry (Sambucus nigra), ginger root (Zingiber officinale), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), osha (Ligusticum porteri) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris). All you’ll need is a pot, waxed paper and a greased cooking sheet.

Homemade Herbal Cough Drops

• Powdered herbs
• 1 cup sugar, or honey
• ^_1/3 cup light corn syrup, or honey
• 1 ^_1/2 cups water
• Powdered sugar, for easy handling

1. Steep your preferred soothing herbs in 1 _^1/2 cups of water to make a tea.

2. Mix sugar and corn syrup with tea. Cook over low heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved and mixture boils.

3. Continue boiling without stirring until the mixture begins to crystallize; reduce heat. Wash away crystals from the side of your pan with a damp cloth.

4. Remove from the heat after a few minutes. Drop some of the mixture from the tip of a spoon onto a greased surface. Allow to harden and cool completely before removing. Roll the candies in powdered sugar and wrap in waxed paper for storage.

For more information on the best herbs for a sore throat, check out these past articles: 

• Seasonal Allergy Help by Kris Wetherbee
• Best Herbs for the Common Cold by Linda B. White, M.D.
• Culinary Herbs and Medicinal Spices by Amy Mayfield
• Herbs to Treat the Common Cold by The Herb Companion staff
• Kids Sore Throat Remedies by Linda B. White, M.D. and Sunny Mavor, A.H.G. 

And try Kathy Azmeh-Scanlan’s recipe for herbal throat drops in Herbal Relief for Seasonal Allergies.

Have you tried making your own cough drops before? What's your favorite sore throat remedy? Leave a me a comment and let me know.

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

I was searching in my work space this morning and discovered some ornaments from previous holiday seasons. I enjoy holiday decorating with herbs because it is both simple, yet oh so fragrant. Hopefully, I will get a chance to make a garland with these cinnamon spice ornaments, stars, hearts and birds and use a piece of fishing line, a needle and thread dried bay leaves between the cinnamon spice ornaments to adorn our mantle. 

Cinnamon spice and gingerbread cookie ornaments from years gone by.

Since these ornaments are more than a few years old, I may use a little cinnamon essential oil to add additional fragrance to the ornaments. The other night we had our master gardener holiday party and cinnamon spice ornaments were a gift for each participant. I am giving you that recipe so hopefully you can make some ornaments, either large or small, before your holiday parties begin!

Cinnamon spice ornaments from the Master Gardener holiday party.

Cinnamon Spice Ornaments

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 40 minutes, or 1 to 2 days air drying
Makes 12 to 15 ornaments

Tools:

• Cookie cutters
• Cookie sheet (use an old one that you won't use for food again)
• Drinking straw
• Ribbon or string
• Plastic wrap
• Rolling pin
• Parchment paper to line cookie sheets
• Disposable gloves

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 1 to 4.12 ounce bottle ground cinnamon (You can substitute a portion of the cinnamon with ground ginger,
allspice, ground cloves, etc.)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons white glue to start

1.  Mix applesauce and white glue with spices to form a stiff dough. Don't add all of the glue at once. Drizzle a little glue at a time until dough reaches right consistency, not too wet, or crumbly.

2.  Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. With rolling pin flatten dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Remove top sheet of plastic wrap and cut dough with cookie cutters. Move ornament to cookie sheet with a spatula. Cut holes for ribbon with the drinking straw. Bake at 200 degrees until ornaments slightly darken, about 40 minutes; place on rack to cool. You can also air dry for 1 to 2 days; turn ornaments occasionally to prevent warping!  These are NOT EDIBLE!

That last sentence is necessary because they look good enough to eat. At our party, there were some ornaments that were unwrapped and partygoers were taking them thinking they were cookies!

The other ornaments are gingerbread cookie ornaments and they have decorated a rosemary, curry and lavender plant over the years. You see we don't have room in our house for a Christmas tree. The only place to have a decorated tree would be the bathtub, and I have opted that option out! Even The Herbal Husband did not think that was such a good idea. I have become a minimalist in holiday decorating. I have a small German feather table top tree, but our main "tree" has been an herb plant of some type and these mini gingerbread ornaments.

Decorated curry plant at an herbal holiday party.

Gingerbread Cookie Ornaments

To make these ornaments, you need to make your favorite gingerbread cookie recipe and roll it out to about 1/4-inch thick and use mini cookie cutters to cut the shapes. Then, cut the top off of a paperclip to make a hanger that is U-shaped; place in the top of the cookie after it comes out of the oven. Next, use green or red ribbon to hang the ornaments on your herbal tree. Hopefully, you will have a chance to make these ornaments with your family and add to their spirit with a little herbal decorating!

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

Here come the holidays! For many of us, that means merriment and overindulgence. Try as we might, we find ourselves decking the halls, shopping frantically and attending party after party. To help out with your holiday festivities and the inevitable aftermath let me offer a few ways to incorporate aromatherapy into your holiday season.
 
1. Since much of the holidays are spent indoors, it makes sense to use essential oils to diffuse in the air. Not only can your home smell of wonderful aromas such as cinnamon, clove, sweet orange, fir, or even exotic frankincense, you’ll be protecting your family and guests by inhibiting airborne germs that cause many wintertime illnesses. Take it one step further—wipe down countertops with your favorite fragrance and mix. 

(The Herb Companion loves Homeology’s plant-based cleaning products.)

2. Use ½ cup distilled water with 15 drops essential oil in a glass spray bottle to spray the damp, musty odors from your upholstery. (Always test fabrics and surfaces in an inconspicuous area before using a blend.) 
 
3. With your house in order, you’ll want to send out holiday cards or invitations to your holiday party. Make sure you do one week of planning before mailing them. Use a cotton ball and add a drop or two of seasonal essential oils. (We love fir needle, cinnamon or sweet orange.) Put the cotton ball in the box of cards and close the lid. In one week they will be filled with your fragrance and delight its receiver even more.
 
4. When it’s time for you to open your house to your holiday guests, don’t forget to throw a log or two in the fire. A few drops of an essential oil, such as sandalwood, on each log will impart a lovely atmosphere for guests.

Photo by _christian m/Courtesty Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7908355@N06/

5. Of course, there is always a guest or two (or perhaps the host?) who may overindulge in the “spirits” of the season. To face the next day, be sure to have your aromatherapy-hangover-kit ready to go: Use peppermint or fennel tea to treat nausea; apply lavender at the temples to quiet your pounding head; and bathe with grapefruit, lemon, or fennel essential oils to help detoxify your body by increasing your urine production. Also, drink plenty of water—then solemnly promise to behave better NEXT time!
 
6. Holidays demand gifts. This year, vow not to have gifts break your budget or consume all of your time. Check out your local book seller and find books that use essential oils for making quick, inexpensive, yet personal, presents. Lotions, bath salts and herbal vinegars are just a few ideas to get you started. I am sure you will find many ideas here at The Herb Companion site as well!

(Try giving herbal oils and butters as simple and delicious gifts.)

7. Take the money you saved and treat yourself to a long deserved treat—maybe take in a holiday performance, indulge in a massage or treat the kids to an uninterrupted day of outdoor fun.

Remember, the holiday should be healthy and fun—try to minimize this year and savor the simple things in life. Take a deep breath of your favorite scent before bed each night and reflect on the joys of each day. In this way, your soul is fed as well. Take care and my best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful, meaningful and aromatic holiday!  

Marguerite Dunne is a city girl and traveler. Visit her website at www.herbs-on-hudson.com or listen to her radio show, The Urban Herbalist, on www.wtbq.com. Marguerite was also the third place winner in The Herb Companion's essay contest, "Looking Forward to Herbs."

The holidays, especially New Year’s, always invite us to reassess whatever the heck it is we think we have to reassess about our own cacophonous agendas. I like the Japanese tradition of making New Year’s a time to clean out the closets; a little feng shui de-cluttering sounds like a good start to the new year. ‘Tis also the season of more than enough colds, flus, indigestion, and even a little heartache; add in all the holiday spending we do, and who’s got time to figure out how to stay healthy? 

I was shuffling these (almost) disparate thoughts around, thinking about what to write here, when I opened up my latest email question post to by fellow writers from The Association of Health Care Journalists. I thought the questions represented a good state of art in health care:

“….a story involving a hospital board and its political lobbying, conflicts of interest, illegal awarding of salaries and severances to executives, possible violation of non-profit statutes and IRS codes.  Can you suggest any experts or former attorneys general who advise boards in these areas…..?”

and  

“…in California, people are going to alternative treatment centers to be injected with sodium bicarbonate ‘because their pH is too high.’ Has anyone else heard of this…?”

Whether we are seeing doctors in hospitals or visiting alternative health practitioners, we must be ever viligent about the care we are depending on, seeking and choosing. 

Since it is winter, and we are facing that tricky combination of crowds coughing, flu germs flying on close-quarters sneezes, weakened livers from festive holiday drinking, and sugar-overload from sugar plums dancing in our mouths, it’s very tempting to just grab the first echinacea tea bag and hope it will all go away. At this propitious moment, we need more information to take care of ourselves right. Our health won’t come from any laws passed; by taking the reins, we can give ourselves a blooming health annus mirabilis. The feng shui of our vitamin/herb/nutrition routine is the key; however, the riddle of our story is: Where were you before? 

• Have you been eating cheeseburgers, French fries, and a coke 4 to 8 times a week? (Did you see Supersize Me?)

• Have you been getting frequent colds and flus since you moved to a new place? (Have it checked for mold and other resident bacteria.)

• Did your digestive problems begin when you got back from that exotic vacation to Africa? (It’s nice to see the animals, but many Third World populations hardly receive any vaccines, and frequently, the living conditions breed illnesses we’ve never even heard of.)

• Did you change jobs recently and are now sitting at a new desk in a new room with new people? (You are now in a new germ pool, and when this happens, your body goes through a lot of readjustments.)

Sometimes, taking care of your health means getting to the deeper, deeper layers first—address those issues and then go for the immediate symptoms.

David Winston, founder of Herbalists and Alchemists and the author of many books, has several favorite seasonal supports. I’ve added to some of his.

•  Holy Basil . Long in use in Ayurvedic medicine for the mind and nervous system, holy basil helps lift the spirits, dispel depression, and acts as an antiviral.

•  Schisandra Berry . A powerful adaptogen, schisandra berry helps strengthen the pituitary and adrenal functions.  It is rich in anti-inflammatory flavonoids and is useful for mild asthma as well as cleansing to the liver.

•  Elderberry . Rich in antioxidants, elderberries have been shown in clinical trials to inhibit viruses, especially the flu.  And your great-grandma might have even made some nice elderberry wine for those cold, winter nights.

•  Goldenseal . Goldenseal treats gastric inflammation, upper intestinal tract deficiency, eye inflammations, hemorrhoids, liver congestion and jaundice, sore throats, coughs, and more and more and more. This one’s my favorite and I won’t leave home without it.

So how much to take? It goes back to where were you before? One cup of tea daily or two capsules or fifteen drops of the tincture are usually safe places to start….Where’s my dust bunny?

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage ( www.theherbcottage.com ) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I was in California, meeting my newest great-niece for the first time and celebrating with my family there. It was a very satisfying visit. Even so, I'm always so glad to come home to our farm and my nursery. This time, I came home to the news of a serious cold front on its way. Time to winterize! 

Summer shade house covered for the winter.

Well!! The weather certainly has changed overnight. Even yesterday, while I was putting the final touches on winterizing here at The Herb Cottage, moving plants into the greenhouse and wondering just how cold it would get, the temperatures made it into the 50s and the sun was shining. Not so today... no way. It's gray, windy and cold. I've already seen a little bit of sleet and snow. I know those of you in other parts of the state are also seeing real winter weather today.

One bench in the winter greenhouse.

I just had a call from a neighbor regarding what plants in her garden would be hardy overnight, when it's supposed to dip to about 26 degrees. Mostly she was concerned about lettuce and snow peas. Both of which, I told her, would be fine without a cover. I think she's going to cover her lettuce anyway. That's a good idea to keep the tips from possibly getting frost bitten. Then she had questions about her herb garden. She asked if her rosemary would be OK? Oh, yes, I said. Rosemary can easily take down to the middle 20s for a few hours.

Other herbs that will be hardy in this little cold snap are oregano, thyme, parsley, arugula, cilantro, fennel, chamomile, chervil, lovage... the list is long. Many edible flowers will thrive in the cold, too. Pansies, violets, calendula and even roses will do just fine. My nasturtiums will not survive, however. I've got nice big plants with a few flowers, but a freeze will definitely knock them back. I could try to cover them, but I have more in the greenhouse, not as large, of course, that I can plant out. I love nasturtiums. The flowers are so cheery, colorful and bright, and they're edible, too. I always plant some in the fall hoping they'll make it through the winter, and they never do. Then, I replant in the very early spring and have scads of flowers all through spring and early summer until it gets too hot for them to survive.

Big, beautiful nasturtiums. Tatsoi in the foreground, which will prove to be winter hardy. 

My little nursery looks so barren with many plants brought into the greenhouses in the last 2 days.

Hardy herbs are under the table with the white covering.


Empty, barren tables that just yesterday held many, many plants.

I left outside many of the hardy herbs in small pots, but covered them a little bit to protect them from icy rain. Snow wouldn't hurt them too much, as it kind of insulates from the cold. But, some of the potted herbs have just recently been potted up, so I thought I'd protect them a little.

Small herb pots under the white cover. 

I've been in and out of the house quite a bit this morning. There's something about inclement weather that makes me want to be outdoors in it.... at least for a little while. Maybe I appreciate the warmth and shelter of the house more after being outdoors.

Amity with her winter friend, Mr. Heater.

I wish you all warmth and comfort for today's cold spell. Stay cozy and know the weather will warm up in a day or two. Isn't living in Texas grand? Snow one day, sunshine and warmer temperatures the next!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

The Herbal Husband and I managed to make another great turkey for Thanksgiving this year. Hope you tried our herbed stuffed turkey recipe from my Herbal Thanksgiving Tale post. We have finally gotten a little more seasonable weatherwise. I did find some flowers in the garden, mainly calendulas and herbs such as, feverfew, pineapple sage, peppermint, tricolor sage and a nasturtium leaf.

Even as we have just finished the gardening season, I think it is so important to give yourself some herbal aromatherapy when you can.

We had a nice dinner with herbed stuffed turkey breast, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and white asparagus from Peru, rolls and pecan pie for dessert! The Herbal Husband always enjoys having a connection to Peru even when the holiday is an American one. This is a special day for the two of us because it was 26 years ago that we met on Thanksgiving.

Now for my favorite part, the leftovers!  Here is a recipe for Turkey Tetrazzini that The Herbal Husband loves.
 
Turkey Tetrazzini

Makes 6 to 8 servings

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups light cream
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked turkey, diced
• 12 ounces thin spaghetti, cooked
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon sherry
• Buttered bread crumbs, optional

1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven. Add sliced mushrooms and brown slightly. Blend in flour. Add chicken stock. Cook, stirring until thickened and smooth. 

2. Gradually stir in cream. Season to taste. Add turkey, cooked spaghetti, grated cheese and sherry. Place in large buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs if desired. Bake at 350 degree in the oven for 20 minutes. 

I have been making this recipe for a very long time and it never fails to please family and friends. It is very easy to make and adds another layer of flavor to that wonderful turkey. Hope you like it as well!

It may not be the best thing for your breath, but garlic sure does help your heart. The idea of using garlic medicinally is not a new idea. Garlic bulbs were used in China and India as blood thinners and they were also used to treat cervical cancer and dysentery. Also, our March 2009 article, Grow Heart Health, listed garlic as an herbal mainstay for heart health. However, a new study has learned more about this powerful herb.

The Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine discovered how freshly crushed garlic, as opposed to dried or cooked garlic, protects the heart. Freshly cut garlic generates hydrogen sulfide. This gas, when used in excess, can become poisonous but, when used sparingly, functions as a compound that can protect the heart.

Health researcher Yulia Berry says that hydrogen sulfide acts as a chemical messenger allowing blood vessels to relax and flow more freely. It usually disappears when garlic is dried, processed or cooked. 

Dr. Dipak K. Das led the study, which published these findings in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The researchers gave freshly crushed garlic to one group of lab rats and processed garlic to another group. They studied how the rats reacted and recovered from simulated heart attacks. “Both crushed and processed garlic reduced damage from lack of oxygen, but the fresh garlic group had a significantly greater effect on restoring good blood flow in the aorta and increased pressure in the left ventricle of the heart,” Das says in the CNN article, Protect your heart with fresh garlic. 

Photo by Marco Veringa/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcoveringa/

Although both groups fared better with garlic the rats given freshly crushed garlic recovered from their simulated heart attacks more quickly and had better blood flow. 

Garlic can help lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels and stabilize blood sugar levels. Garlic can also decrease platelet and blood clotting, two of the most common causes of strokes and heart attacks. 

The American Dietetic Association suggests an individual must take 600mg to 900mg, or 1 fresh clove, a day to see the health benefits of garlic. It's worth the bad breath!

( Herbs for Bad Breath .) 

Incorporate more garlic into your lifestyle with these healthy recipes:

• Creamy Garlic Spinach Dip 
• Raw Garlic Fettunta
• Roasted Garlic 

Garlic is easy to grow, and while it is relatively hassle-free, you will reap some pretty awesome rewards at the end of the growing season. 

There is no time like the now-time (late fall) to think about planting your bulbs, and I have a couple quick tips to get your garlic garden started!

1. Get the grocery store goods: You could pay a bundle for a bulb or two of garlic at your local nursery, and it might grow.  But, if you just want to have some garlic to spice up your kitchen and are unconcerned with knowing the exact variety, there is a much easier and cheaper way to get started.  Go to the grocery store!  All you need to plant garlic is a garlic bulb, and you can buy a pack of 10 or 11 for under a buck, or buy a string at your local farmer's market!  But, make sure to pick the organic variety - other bulbs may have been grown with artificial fertilizers or be pumped with hormones that prevent new growth.

The garlic you buy in the store is a garlic bulb. Buy an organic bulb, and you're well on your way to growing garlic! Here are some I harvested this summer that came from an organic Mexican variety.

2. Split up the bulb: A garlic bulb is typically composed of about 8-10 cloves. Split up the bulb and set aside the smallest cloves for kitchen use. With your four or five remaining UNPEELED cloves, head out to the garden and find an optimum spot that gets plenty of sun.  Most of garlic's growth is vertical, and it can get quite tall, so cloves can be planted near eachother - about five inches apart without issue. It's important to plant garlic in the late fall or early winter (in most climates) because it needs a very long growing season. In the winter, it can work on developing its roots and forming its bulb and in the summer, it will begin to grow.

3. Plant the cloves: Dig a small hole 6-8 inches and, with the pointy end up and the stout end down, push the garlic directly into the soil. If you have any leftover coffee grounds, a handful on top of the clove will help it grow, as garlic likes an acidic soil pH. But, if you are not growing the garlic near a sidewalk, a foundation or in a rocky area, this shouldn't be a concern. Cover the clove with soil and a bit of mulch to keep it insulated over the winter. 

4. Sit back and relax: Garlic needs very little attention except attentive weeding. Move the mulch aside when temperatures are warm. Water it normally, holding off in times of rain. Garlic flowers are large, beautiful ball-shaped blooms, but if you let your plant flower, the bulb will likely not grow as large, so cut off flower stalks as you see them.You may notice over the winter that bulbs may begin to sprout - but do not be concerned. Even if they die down in the frost of the winter, they will come back next spring, and will be ready to harvest in the fall.

5. Harvesting time: When the leaves have yellowed and died, it is time to dig up your cloves, which are now ... tada ... garlic bulbs!

Garlic flowers are very beautiful. But if your main concern is harvesting the largest possible bulb, you should snip off flower stalks so the plant can focus its energy into bulb growth. I plant several cloves each year so I can enjoy both the beautiful flowers and the larger bulbs.

And it really is just that simple. Garlic may very well be the easiest herb to grow.

For more information about garlic, read these Herb Companion articles:

• Dancing in the Kitchen with Garlic
• Garlic Obsession
• The Goodness of Garlic 

If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

I’m slowly trying to wean myself off of harmful, synthetic perfumes but the process has been a little bumpy. For instance last week, in need of a little Monday morning pickup, I decided to de-stress with lavender-chamomile essential oil lotion. I blended a spoonful into my arms and hands and headed out the door.

It was only as I boarded the bus to campus that I realized I may have overdone it. My attempt at aromatherapy didn’t soothe the passenger on my left; actually it seemed to revolt her. As she held her nose and gave me angry glares, I realized that lavender may not have the same soothing effect on others as it does on me. At that moment any earlier relaxation I felt evaporated just like the fumes of lavender radiating from my skin.

Photo by Jaako/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaako/ 

So what to do? If I had thought ahead or known earlier, I might have diluted my lotion with a carrier oil, like jojoba, applied some rubbing alcohol or packed unscented lotion to mitigate the essential oil’s heavy perfume. I also would have waited for the scent to sink in at least 10 minutes before leaving my house. As it was, I sat out the interminable bus ride, ran into the bathroom before class and ferociously scrubbed my forearms so that I wouldn’t have to worry about disturbing my classmates as well.

Photo by The Owlchemist/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helenaliu/ 

Shifting our communities to more sustainable, thoughtful living is all about experimentation. We’re trying to find out what works, what doesn’t work and what we can compromise on in order to ensure a healthy future. Until I can afford the pretty, light smelling crème perfumes and eau de colognes that are being created by natural perfumers and aromatherapists, I guess I’ll just have to rely on my own methods and hope that others will be more tolerant.

If you’re having troubles, like me, switching from eau de parfum to au natural, check out some of these resources. 

• Learn which 20 synthetic perfume ingredients to avoid.

• Find out how to use essential oils and how to make your own herbal fragrances: 
How to Create Floral Waters and Colognes by Janice Cox
Fragrances of Life by Theresa Loe
Herbal Body Fragrances by Theresa Loe
Restorative Perfume by Edwin T. Morris 

• Check out these natural, beauty brands. (A lot of companies offer trial sizes so you can test out a scent before investing your hard-earned money):
Aubrey Organics
Aveda
Ayala Moriel Parfums
CB I Hate Perfume
Rochelle Boleyn 

Have you had any embarrassing or disastrous moments in your transition to herbal living? Leave me a comment and share your story with others!

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. It protects you from infection, excretes waste products and excess salt from your body, regulates your temperature, synthesizes vitamin D and provides the sense of touch. Products that come into contact with skin are easily absorbed into your blood stream. Something to be mindful of when choosing personal products. Read your ingredient labels. Many contain toxins or synthetic ingredients that may block the solubility of necessary nutrients or vitamins essential for good health and well being. A prime example of an oil which destroys fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K & F as it metabolizes is baby oil (mineral oil). Most of us are aware of the carcinogenic risks of parabens and are actively avoiding those ingredients. However, natural skin care is easy and affordable and quite effective with some tried and true aromatherapy blends.

Aromatherapy is based upon the absorption of essential oils through the skin. When choosing your carrier oils for use in aromatherapy care, it is important to choose plant based, cold pressed oils for this reason. These oils (grapeseed, jojoba, almond etc.) also have the natural antioxidant vitamin E which may help rejuvenate your skin . Incorporating essential oils and cold pressed carrier oils are effective and natural ways to heal common ailment and improve the general condition of your skin.

Photo by epicnom/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32627348@N06/

A Quick Tip Sheet For Three Common Ailments

1. Oil Blend For Shingles:

Excess oil, shingles, diaper rash and other conditions which cause redness and itching can often be alleviated with lavender and tea tree. Both will work well on bacterial, fungal, parasitic or viral systemic conditions. Although both lavender and tea tree are safe to use at full strength, it is recommended to dilute in oil, lotion or witch hazel for large areas of application. If in a day or two there isn't significant change and reduction of itching (especially indicated for shingles) add a few drops of frankincense to your blend.

• 1 ounce cold pressed carrier lotion or oil
• 4 drops lavender essential oil
• 2 drops tea tree essential oil
• 3 drops frankincense essential oil

1. Apply twice daily.

2. Cold Sore Remedy:

A common, but embarrassing, problem for many people is an eruption of a cold sore (Herpes Simplex Virus). These are easily controlled at the first sign of outbreak, usually a tingling sensation, with this formula:

• 8 drops tea tree essential oil
• 15 drops rose geranium essential oil
• 7 drops lavender essential oil
• 8 drops Roman OR German chamomile essential oil
• 6 drops melissa (lemon balm) essential oil

1. Apply at first sensation of outbreak at full strength or combine 4 drops blend in 1 teaspoon jojoba oils and apply directly to area. Keep moist with jojoba oil or a beeswax lip balm to avoid cracking.

3. Facial Toner For Acne Prone Skin:

Skin Care Basics: Many essential oils have the wonderful benefit of skin rejuvenating properties. Applying lavender to a wound not only disinfects the cut but also speeds the repair process of the epithelial tissue. Teens and adults who suffer from acne can help prevent breakouts with a simple solution of distilled water, witch hazel and essential oils of cedarwood, rosemary, lavender and German chamomile. Try the following treatment for a month and notice the difference it can make:

• 2 ounces witch hazel
• 1 ounce distilled water
• 6 drops lavender essential oil
• 3 drops lemon essential oil
• 2 drops German chamomile essential oil

1. Pour in a glass bottle, shake before each use.

2. Apply with cotton ball two to three times daily.

The main objective of any skin care routine is to stimulate and detoxify your pores. In order to maintain an appearance of youth and health, it is important to not only treat the surface area, but to penetrate the subcutaneous tissues - lucky for us, essential oils do that easily.

I prefer blending small quantities of skin care products as you need them. Once a blend is created, the process of deterioration can occur if stored incorrectly. Although it won't happen overnight, some carrier oils, such as grapeseed and sweet almond, have relatively short shelf lives (12 to 18 months). If you do decide to create blends in bulk, add 1/4 teaspoon benzoin oil to each cup of carrier oil, along with a teaspoon of vitamin E oil to help maintain it's freshness naturally.

Skin care doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Research your skin type and the essential oils best suited for you. Choose oils for your blends based upon your needs and your preferences. Experiment and have fun. Life is beautiful and so are you!

Desiree Bell is inspired by botanicals and natural materials. She is a vegetarian who has a certificate in herbal studies and a certificate from Australasian College of Health Sciences in Aromatherapy. When she isn't in her suburban garden, hiking or crafting, she is teaching pre-k with an emphasis on nature and gardening. For more ideas on Simple Living With Nature you can visit her blogs at www.beyondagarden.blogspot.com and www.kidsnaturespot.blogspot.com.

The ginger root (Zingiber officinale) is actually a rhizome. The word ginger is derived from the Sanskrit word for ginger, sringa-vera, meaning “antler shaped.” It has buds on the top of each of its stubby fingers and grows a mass of thin, tangled roots below. The roots are scraped off before the ginger arrives at the market.

Ginger is 80 percent water, 2.3 percent water, 1 percent fat, 2.5 percent fibrous material, 1.2 percent minerals, and vitamins of B and C. Medicinally, it is used for the circulatory and digestive systems, coughs, colds, aches and pains.

There are two groups of compounds in the rhizome. The essential oil is the liquid found in tiny vessels just under the corky skin, which is collected by distillation. The other compound is located in the cells dotted around the fleshy interior of the rhizome in between the starch cells. It is extracted with alcohol or a solvent.

Ginger does best in a hot, moist climate, with a little shade at noon and well-drained soil. It is grown as a crop in countries such as India, Australia, Jamaica, China and Nigeria. Many years ago I read in the book Herbal Treasures (Storey Publishing, LLC, 1990), by Phyllis Shaudys, how to grow a ginger root inside the house using a rhizome from the market.

Cut a piece of ginger root from the rhizome. Make sure the piece you cut to plant has at least one bud on it. Fill a clay pot with potting soil and bury the ginger root cut side down, bud up, 1 inch below the surface. Place in a sunny, warm window, water well, then keep moist. It takes about a month for the first sprout to appear.

To harvest, pull the plant from its pot 8 to 12 months after planting, cut off leaf stalks, and remove fibrous roots. Cut off as much ginger as you can use and replant the rest. Many winters I have grown a nice looking ginger plants. Try it!

Fresh ginger produces a warm, spicy and refreshing aroma. Its taste is pungent, aromatic, lemony, and slightly bitter. Dried ginger is less lemony and more warm, woody and pungent. Besides fresh and dried, it is used pickled, preserved and crystallized in cooking. Here is a tasty and healthy Indian Lemonade-Ginger Ale recipe I found in a vegetarian magazine many years ago.

Photo by sweetbeetandgreenbean/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetbeetandgreenbean/

Indian Lemonade-Ginger Ale
Makes 8 cups

• 8 cups sparkling water (club soda)
• ½ cup fresh lime juice
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 ½ cups maple syrup
• ½ tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher or punch bowl.

2. Serve at room temperature or chilled.  

Thanksgiving will be here soon so I have included a recipe from the book, The Ginger Book (Avery, 1996), by Stephen Fulder, Ph.D., for Ginger Pumpkin Pie. This book was also used as a reference for some of this article.

Ginger Pumpkin Pie
Makes 16 servings

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ¾ ounce piece fresh ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 ½ cups pureed boiled pumpkin
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 7 tablespoons butter or vegetable shortening
• 3 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch diameter flan tins.

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon , and cloves. Add the pumpkin, brown sugar, buttermilk and butter or shortening: beat briefly. Add the eggs and beat again.

3. Pour the batter into the flan tins and place the tins in the oven. Bake until the pies are firm, about 45 minutes. Let cool before serving.

If you bake this pie let me know how it turned out. I have not made it yet.

Happy Thanksgiving….

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage ( www.theherbcottage.com ) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

I can hardly believe how beautiful the weather has been this past week or so. Since the rains moved on, the skies have been clear and sunny with low humidity and near perfect temperatures. I'm spending every possible minute outdoors to enjoy these perfect Texas fall days. After so much rain, and now with the sun beaming down, the garden is putting on it's best show since spring. To enhance the picture, there are butterflies everywhere flitting from flower to flower. And, thankfully, they have a lot to choose from.

Orange cosmos with butterflies

There are blossoms of cosmos, podrangea, porterweed, basil, morning glories, Texas olive (Cordia boissieri) and now I've planted a few violets and pansies in the herb garden because, of course, these are edible flowers to add to salad mixes.

Podrangea blossom with dragon fly...or are there fairies in the garden?

I also added a few more herb plants to the herb garden. I had lost all my thyme over the summer, so I added a couple of lemon thyme plants. Lemon thyme is a wonderfully fragrant lemon herb to use with fish, chicken, soup, in tea and herbal vinegars and in a fruit salad dressing. Its tiny, bright green leaves with pale edging bring a sparkle to the herb bed. I planted it in a raised area so it should do better next year when the weather turns hot again.

Coral Porterweed with butterfly

Another plant I lost during the long, hot summer was my garden sage. It lasted until August and then just gave up the ghost and faded away. With Thanksgiving almost here, I know sage is one herb we'll be looking for in the garden. Sage is an herb that really shines during holiday cooking for those of us who roast a turkey or even a goose for a special meal. Sage has a strong taste and goes well with the pungent flavor of fowl. We simply stuff the bird with handfuls of sage along with rosemary, savory or thyme, garlic cloves and quartered onions. We use the same herbs to flavor the broth that moistens the dressing and to make gravy. One year, I thought we used too many herbs inside the bird, but the flavor of the turkey came through with the herbs as underlying flavors. Very nice!

Variegated Lemon Thyme

We'll be using lots of the savory herbs from the garden as fall moves into winter. Soups, stews and other hearty dishes call for rosemary, bay, sage, parsley and winter savory—an herb not used very much, I find, but is so flavorful. It's like a blend of thyme and rosemary, almost, and grows so well in winter and summer. Winter savory (Satureja montana) grows into a little woody shrub. The small, dark green leaves are a welcome addition to meat dishes as well as blending well with vegetables, rice and fruit deserts. It's easy to grow in full sun to partial shade. Seeds are slow to start, but worth it. If you can find a plant to purchase, that's the easiest way to go.

Photo courtesy of HERBALPEDIA^TM 
Sage (Salvia officinalis)

I hope you are all taking advantage of the fine fall weather to work in the garden, plant, prune a little, remulch or whatever you can do to enhance your gardening experience during these sunny days. Even pulling and hoeing weeds is pleasurable on these bright, sun-filled days.

Photo courtesy of HERBALPEDIA^TM 
Winter savory (Satureja montana)

I'm off to the garden to weed and plant more herbs.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
—Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage ( www.theherbcottage.com ) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

As fall continues with more rain and still greatly fluctuating temperatures, some of the best herbs are really coming into their own. Even though we've had quite a few warm days in between some picture-perfect fall days of cool, dry, sunny weather, the cool season annuals are thriving.

Cool season annuals are herb or flower crops that do not succeed in our hot, humid summer weather. These varieties need the lower temperatures of our fall, winter and early spring to be at their best. The most commonly grown herbs of the cool season annuals are cilantro, dill, arugula and chervil along with the edible flowers of calendula, violets and nasturtiums. If you're going to grow edible flowers, as with the herbs, be sure they haven't been treated with chemical pesticides or fungicides.

Photo courtesy of  HERBALPEDIA™

Photo courtesy of www.ehow.com

Cilantro likes a sunny spot to grow in. Water needs are average. The one issue with cilantro in our southern Texas area is that a few warm days during winter will cause the plant to bolt, or to send up a flower stalk. That signals the end of the regular growth of the plant. The leaves turn from the flat, parsley-like leaves to sort of a ferny appearance. 

Photo courtesy of www.fragrantfields.com
The cilantro plant is starting to bolt - notice the ferny leaves forming.

Umbrels of small white flowers appear at the top of the flower stalk. While the plant is in bloom, however, it is still usable. The ferny leaves can be used just as you would the flat leaves, and the flowers can also be eaten. The leaves and flowers also make a nice filler in a cut flower arrangement.

Photo courtesy of  HERBALPEDIA™  

If you let the plant flower and go to seed, the ripe seeds are known as the spice coriander.These are useful in baking and in Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. Invariably some seeds will fall from your plant and there you'll have more cilantro when the soil and moisture conditions are right for the seed to germinate. Or you can collect the seed to save and share with other gardeners or plant later. 

www.botanicalinterests.com
A packet of cilantro seeds is inexpensive and holds far more seeds than you need to plant at one time.

I live in Denver, Colorado and baking is usually a bit of a challenge for me. I’m not sure if it is because of my high altitude, my inability to bake, or a combination of the two. After some research online and in an assortment of cookbooks, this is what I've learned for those of you who, like me, are forced to bake in high altitudes:

• Reduce the amount of baking powder and baking soda you use in your recipe by 1/8 teaspoon.

• Raise the oven temperature 10 to 15 degrees.

• Increase the amount of liquid you use in a recipe in relationship to the amount of flour used. According to the Quaker Oats Company, you should increase the amount of liquid by 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup of flour.

Photo by chotda/Courtsey Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/santos/

My cookies always come out of the oven looking like pancakes. On the one occasion I tried to alter the recipe for high altitude baking using the tips above. They came out looking a little better, but not presentable by any means. I think I may have taken them out of the oven way too quickly. 

We want to hear from you! How do you compensate for the high altitude (if you live in an area like mine) when baking? My number one priority is to get my cookies to look and taste like cookies. Then I would like to move on to baking delicious dark chocolate lavender cookies.

Do you have any ideas to solving my high altitude baking issue? Do you have a favorite cookie recipe that I should try? Leave me a comment and let’s chat about it!

Q: Why are my herbs dying?

A: Many of our readers e-mailed us asking one main question: Why are my herbs dying?

At The Herb Companion, we thought we would resurrect our “Herb 911” series to cover additional herbs. Our past “Herb 911” entries included basil (Ocimum basilicum), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), mint (Mentha spp.), lavender (Lavandula spp.), and sage (Salvia officinalis). Let us know what herbs you are having a difficult time growing and we will try to cover it.

Thyme is a perennial herb that is hardy to dry and rugged terrain. For this reason, you can sometimes find it in the crevasse of a rock wall. It is often used as ground cover or in a raised bed in an herb garden. There are many reasons why thyme can take a turn for the worse; a few being sun exposure (or lack there of), poor location, amount of water and balanced soil.

Tips for Keeping your Thyme Alive

• If your thyme is lighter in color, it may be due to the location. Keep your thyme in a bright, sunny location that also has morning or afternoon shade. Make sure the location is also sheltered from winds.

• Balancing the soil is a trick and an often over looked step in overall plant care. If your thyme plant is looking bad, it might be the soil’s pH. Keep the pH level of the soil between 5.5 and 7.0 is ideal as the soil should be neutral to slightly basic. You can buy a pH test kit at your local nursery or hardware store.

• If the soil is well balanced and you’ve found the ideal location, the problem may be watering too much or not enough. Like other plant, the watering amount depends on the size, age and the location of the plant. Thyme ranges in sizes from 3 inches with an 18 inch spread to 14 inches with a spread of 3 feet—depending on if it is a shrub or creeping variety of thyme. Start with 2 to 3 cups of water once every three days and adjust from there. If you spot mold or fungus growing at the base of the plant, cut back on the water. If the soil is dry and flaky, this means you should add more water.

• Regardless of the variety, Thyme flourishes in warmer weather. If you are growing thyme either from seeds, divisions or cuttings, it is essential that the temperature does not go below 55 degrees. Usually propagation takes place just before the last frost, however, you can start now as long as they stay indoors or in a green house during the winter months.

Do you have problems growing thyme? What herbs do you have a difficult time growing? Let’s chat about it; drop me a comment or email me at snelson@ogdenpubs.com.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blogMy garden blog  at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) thrives in my garden. I don't know why. Several people have asked me for tarragon growing secrets. I don't have a clue. Seldom fed or watered, mulched, but not otherwise protected in the winter, tarragon likes to live in the sunny, well drained soil of the raised bed.

It is a perennial that I do not bring in for the winter. The tarragon plant, and the whole herb bed gets a healthy layer of shredded leaf mulch later in fall. That is the only protection I provide in my zone 6 garden. The herb plant, disappears in winter, goes dormant, and comes back stronger and bigger next spring.

I use tarragon in the kitchen mainly as a herb vinegar additive and in salad dressing. In the garden, it adds variety and has a strong anise (licorice) scent when touched.

Tarragon wine vinegar can be diluted with water if it is too strong.
Photo by Trey Capnerhurst

Tarragon has some antibacterial qualities. It may be one of the reasons why, in ancient times, it was recommended to treat mad dog and dragon bites. I, personally, have never had the occasion to need such medical care, and therefore cannot testify to its healing properties.

I mention tarragon this late in the gardening season because there are two fall-time ways I use French tarragon. 1. To make tarragon vinegar and 2. To make tarragon chicken. Make these recipes your own by tweaking them and trying different herb combinations.

Herb vinegar is only as good as the vinegar you select. If you are making a gourmet product, buy  the best quality vinegar you can afford. If the herb vinegar is mostly for decoration or display, use inexpensive white vinegar. It doesn’t take much tarragon—just a sprig or two to flavor a whole bottle of white wine vinegar.

Use a 5 or 6 inch sprig of tarragon in each bottle.
Photo by Jasmine & Roses

A mild garlic flavor is a great addition to tarragon vinegar. Poke a peeled clove of garlic onto a wooden skewer. Add the garlic skewer to the vinegar.  You may need to clip the skewer so the lid will fill on the jar or bottle of vinegar. Taste the vinegar after two weeks. If the flavor is strong enough, remove the tarragon and garlic. If not, let the herb vinegar continue to steep for another week. Strain using a paper coffee filter.

Now, isn’t removing that skewer a lot easier than fishing around for elusive garlic cloves at the bottom of the herb vinegar bottle?

Stuff a sprig of tarragon in the cavity of a Cornish game hen and cook it as you normally do. The rotisserie works well for this recipe. As the hen cooks, tarragon lightly permeates whole bird. Remove the herbs when the hen cools and freeze whole or cut in half. Next month, thaw the birds in the frig, then slowly warm in the oven.

End of season bloomer Mexican tarragon looks like dwarf single marigolds.
Photo by Valenaann

A little tarragon goes a long way. If in doubt, use less now—it's easier to add more tarragon later.

Michele Tune (a.k.a. Raw Juice Girl) is a freelance writer and blogger. She has lost over 100 pounds and found great healing from natural remedies, raw foods and juices. Read about her journey at www.healingwithjuices.com.

In response from Natural Alternatives: Dry Eye Syndrome Treatment. 

Dry, itching, throbbing, bloodshot eyes are no fun! And, if it’s your job to stare at a computer screen all day, every day, then your eyes are continuously being aggravated—that’s not healthy.

If you aren’t familiar with natural remedies, you may feel your only options for relief are over-the-counter, chemical-laden eye solutions. Sure, some of them may soothe your eye woes for a short time but how many of them are going to target the root cause and truly help you improve the health of your eyes?

If you’re experiencing these irritating eye problems, your eyes need to be lubricated and nurtured—you can do this with natural remedies, both from within and externally.

But first, what actually causes dry eyes to begin with? There are a variety of reasons eyes dry out.

Here are a few:

• Allergies
• Aging
• Menopause or other hormonal imbalances
• Staring at computer screens for too long

 
Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography/Courtesy Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/  

Treating Dry Eyes from Within

You may have one or more nutritional deficiencies. For ultimate eye health, you need to take in plenty of vitamins A, B, C, and E. Also be sure to eat foods rich in zinc and selenium (or take quality supplements). And as K.C. mentioned in her recent post on dry eye syndrome, Omegas are fabulous for eye health.

Raw fruits and vegetables are crucial for overall health—including our eyes. You can pack in a ton of extra veggies and fruits by drinking fresh juices and smoothies. For instance, toss a handful or two of baby spinach leaves into your banana (or other fruit) smoothie and the fruit’s sweetness actually dominates the flavor, so it’s a nice way to sneak in those greens you may not otherwise eat.

Some people have noticed improvements to their eye health and vision from juice fasting as well.

Natural Remedy Recipes (for External Use)

Although it’s important to fill our bodies with the proper nutrition that promotes strong, moist, healthy eyes from within, it’s also nice to have safe, go-to natural remedies that can relieve our aching eyes while we wait for the internal methods to kick in. Following are a couple of inexpensive, organic recipes—and they’re both so soothing!

Organic Chamomile Eye Wash

• 2 chamomile tea bags (or spoonful of dried chamomile flower)
• Warm water
• A cup or bowl
• Sieve (if you’re using loose-leaf herb)

1. Add chamomile bag or loose herb to a cup or bowl.

2. Pour warm water on top of it.

3. Let them steep for up to 15 minutes.

4. Remove the tea bags (or strain loose herb with sieve).

5. Find a relaxing position (lay down or lean back in a chair).

6. Close your eyes and cover each one with a tea bag.

7. Leave the tea bags on for up to 10 minutes.

Note: If you’re using loose-leaf chamomile herb, you can put the moistened mixture you’ve strained into cheesecloth (or an empty tea bag you can purchase online or at your health food store) and follow the same steps above.
You can also cup some of the chamomile tea into your hand (or draw it up into a dropper) and wash your eyes out with it. It’s warm, soothing, healing, and safe.

Cold Cucumber Compress

• 2 cold cucumber slices

1. Find a comfortable position.

2. Put a cold cucumber over (closed) eyes.

3. Leave them on for up to 10 minutes.

Tip: Slice an organic cucumber ahead of time and lay the slices flat (not touching) in small plastic bags or reusable containers and freeze. When you need a quick “cold cucumber compress,” you can just grab two slices from the freezer and let them thaw a little. After all, you want relief—not frozen eyeballs!
I have personally followed all of the tips mentioned here for the past several years. The result? I no longer have to wear eye glasses.

References:
Balch, Phyllis A., CNC, Prescription for Herbal Healing: An Easy-to-Use A-to-Z Reference to Hundreds of Common Disorders and Their Herbal Remedies, New York, NY: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2002
Balch, Phyllis A., CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing (Third Edition), New York: Avery Publishing, 2000.
National Institute of Health Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Selenium 
National Institute of Health Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Zinc 

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

This weekend my sister welcomed another grandchild to her family. It’s been a long time since I held my own newborn son in my arms, but as I looked at the pictures of the newest addition to our family online, I began to think…"Is there anything more precious than a newborn baby?" "Is there anything more confusing to new parents?"
This time of wonder and discovery is the perfect time for parents to unlock the benefits of aromatherapy and infant massage. By incorporating touch with botanicals, you increase the bond between parent and child while simultaneously creating a healthy, relaxing environment for bot.

Aromatherapy can be safe for infants and children as long as a few guidelines are observed: 

• Never apply oils full strength to the baby’s skin. Since babies have a smaller amount of resistive tissue, adult doses can be considered toxic. Be sure to dilute essential oils for babies and toddlers to ½ amount of the adult dose. This would be ¼ drop for every 3 drops in a standard blend. Since it is impossible to measure a ¼ of a drop, it is advisable to decrease the essential oil and increase the carrier oil or lotion. Remember, no where in aromatherapy is the ‘less is more’ approach more appropriate than here.

Safe essential oil choices for babies: lavender, chamomile and rose

Children are naturals with aromatherapy. The sweet and floral scents calm them almost instantaneously. Older children who no longer will tolerate a back rub from mom or dad will most assuredly indulge in a foot massage (especially after sports). All ages welcome the addition of essential oils in their bath tubs. Be sure to dilute these oils in an appropriate carrier oil according the recommendations below. Allow some flexibility to adjust the amounts if the child’s body size and weight is above or below average percentile for the child’s age. Your pediatrician can help you with this information.

Children: Factor age vs. body weight
5-8 years: 1/6th to 1/3rd the adult recommendation
8-12 years: 1/3th to ½ the adult recommendation
12-15 years: ½ to 2/3rd the adult recommendation

Safe essential oil choices for children: lavender, tea tree, German or Roman chamomile, tangerine, spearmint, rose, lemon, ravensara, eucalyptus and rosemary

• Avoid the following oils for use with all children unless instructed by a reliable text or a certified aromatherapist. All ‘spice oils’ such as clove, cinnamon, cassia, nutmeg, ginger and black pepper. Other oils which should not be used with children are pennyroyal, hyssops, rue and yarrow.

• Avoid citrus oils if your children are playing out of doors since they may increase photosensitivity.

• Use cold pressed, natural oils. Stay away from  petroleum-, chemical- or mineral-based oils (such as baby oil). These oils interfere with the solubility of vitamins and minerals within the essential oils. An easy rule for oils is if you can eat it, you can use it. (Olive oil and grapeseed are wonderful.)

Photo by ::paqman::/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paqman/

As a licensed massage therapist and a certified infant massage instructor and practitioner, I recommend infant massage for building a bond with your baby. Infant massage is a path that will lead to a lifetime of good communication and closeness. Numerous studies show impressive benefits, such as significant neurological development and absorption of nutrients. Also, parents raise their confidence and sensitivity to meeting their babies’ needs, allowing them to respond appropriately to baby’s cues.  The special time spent together can help promote longer and deeper sleep patterns, help relieve colic or gas and helps babies and children develop a positive body image.  Your touch will help baby relax and release accumulated tension by decreasing the production of stress hormones.

How to give a rewarding infant massage (for you and baby):

• Make eye contact with baby. Watch baby’s expressions and note how your touch affects your child. Smile, sing and whisper to baby as you touch.

• Ask permission of your baby to touch each part. This simple act of respect also encourages verbalization and word associations for your baby and brings the art of a lifetime of communication into play.

• Use a gentle, but firm pressure when massaging. A confident touch is conveyed and baby’s sense of safety and love is reinforced.

Ready to begin?  Enjoy the following formulas for baby.

To promote sleep patterns in well babies:

• 1 ½ ounce grapeseed essential oil
• 1 drop lavender essential oil
• 1 drop German chamomile essential oil

1. Mix ingredients together.

2. Use mix during massage OR use 1 teaspoon in your baby’s bath at night time when you want your child to fall asleep faster.

To allieviate gas and upset tummies:

• 1 drop fennel essential oil
• 3 ounces grapeseed essential oil

1. Mix ingredients together.

2. Apply mix to abdomen only. Use plain grapeseed for the remainder of a full body massage.

To open nasal passages: 

Put a drop of eucalyptus oil on a night light or into a humidifier as baby sleeps. Never apply this oil directly to baby. An aromatic bath for baby can be made by substituting one drop eucalyptus or ravensara for the fennel in the above formula. Use 1 tablespoon of the mixture in the bath.  Hold baby securely when bathing with oils.

So if you are lucky enough to be welcoming  a new addition to your immediate or extended family, pass along this information.  Family bonds begin early and the skills and communications in those formative years can be key to a confident child.  Babies grow up too quickly, take the time now to be as present as possible.  Learn and grow with your baby – and may you be ‘forever young’.

Marguerite Dunne is a city girl and traveler. Visit her website at www.herbs-on-hudson.com or listen to her radio show, The Urban Herbalist, on www.wtbq.com. Marguerite was also the third place winner in The Herb Companion's essay contest, "Looking Forward to Herbs."

My Jewish friends have always found it odd that I'm such a fan of Yom Kippur. I like the idea of taking one day a year for thinking about your mistakes and making yourself a better person. When I was still teaching, I used the occasion to assign this essay thesis statement: If you could take back one thing you did as a child, what would it be? 

The stories were often painful to read. One story was written by an angry, adolescent young boy from the inner city. He wrote about the time he was 11 years old, hanging out with his pals in the garage, and playing with his father's guns. They were each taking turns handling the gun. When it was his turn, he accidently shot his friend, nearly killing him and taking out one of his friend’s eyes.

He never alluded to this tragedy before, masking the emotion he felt. The part that was so painful for him was that he'd never been given the canvas, the paper or the platform to express his feelings and tell his tale.

People are faced with great challenges, and somehow people have to deal with them daily. Reading these painful essays reminded me of how regenerative Mother Nature can be, and how lucky we are to have her abundance to help overcome tough situations.

Although it would trivialize my former student’s situation to imply that a few herbs could take away the pain of his life situation, I do believe that some of nature’s healing plants can help put our bodies and spirits at ease.

Here are some herbal remedies that have specific healing properties for dealing with overcoming sorrow, anger and depression.

There’s nothing like a sip of skullcap tea. Also try a medium green leaf tea, which helps relax nervous tension and is a favorite at the end of a trying day.

Verbena officinalis

Vervain (don't forget to add the honey to this one!) is more “full-bodied” and can help overcome a deeper depression. The secret is in the consistency; you can’t have a “one cup here and a one cup there" approach. Instead, use 2 to 3 cups daily for a couple of weeks, depending on how overwhelming the sorrow is and how many toxins one loads up with. Vervain also acts as a hepatic remedy and helps with inflammation of the gallbladder. In Chinese Medicine, anger is held in the gallbladder.

Next, I suggest picking up a paintbrush, grabbing a pen, or finding a guitar and discovering new ways to express your emotions and overcome terrible situations. Bodies and minds can mend; nature and art can lead the way.

If I had a greener thumb or more dispensable income I would fill my house with fresh cut flowers everyday. Instead I only buy cut flowers on special occasions and struggle to keep them alive for as long as possible until finally surrendering to their wilted petals and hanging them up to dry. The bouquets I get are usually from the local co-op or farmers market and don’t normally come with commercial preservatives like store-bought flowers. But a couple of days ago I found an interesting solution. 

After dining with my aunt, she gave me an arrangement of some of the beautiful, golden mums that I’d been admiring in her yard and told me to add a little bit of hydrogen peroxide and sugar to their water. I must have looked confused because she quickly explained that the hydrogen peroxide helps to kill bacteria and the sugar gives nutrients. Luckily, I had both hydrogen peroxide and sugar at home, so I quickly added it to the mums’ water and to another bouquet of flowers from a few days earlier.

Photo by gregw/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregw/

For now the wilting of my older flowers seems to have stalled and the mums still look bright and fresh, but I’m going to wait a couple more days before I give this method my full approval. Actually, homemade floral preservatives are relatively respected according to The University of New Hampshire’s Cooperative Extension. In fact, they recommend using the soft drink Sprite diluted with equal parts water or combining 4 teaspoons of cane sugar with 2 tablespoons of white distilled vinegar.

Photo by Compton & Wright/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/comptonwright/

Whether you make your own natural preservatives, buy them at the store or go preservative-free, experts at The University of Minnesota and The University of New Hampshire Extensions agree that you have to change the water and trim the stems daily if you want your fresh cut flowers to last a while. Once again proving that there are no true shortcuts to success in life or in gardening – it just takes time and labor. 

Have you made your own floral preservatives before? What method worked best? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blogMy garden blog  at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Every day is a gamble in October. I begin checking the evening temperature to see if the basil will survive another night. The least hint of frost will kill a basil plant. Before we go into mourning over the loss of our favorite fresh herb, consider these five ways to stretch out your harvest.

Basil is best used fresh. If you can’t use all the basil before the first frost, consider these ways to preserve the harvest. When they predict the first frost, madly run out and bring in as much basil as you can carry.

Cross pollinated basil in the Rodale Gardens, Kutztown, Pennsyvannia

1. Fresh Basil: Cut off branches or stems of the basil plant and put them in a vase or jar. Pinch off leaves to use fresh. You might have fresh basil for weeks past the first frost. Basil stems easily root in water. I have a big bouquet of the different kinds of basil in my garden.

2. Basil Vinegar: Splurge on a good white wine vinegar. Fill a jar with basil leaves. Cover the basil with warmed vinegar. Gently shake or press the air bubbles out of the basil and vinegar. Cover and let the vinegar steep for a week. Taste the vinegar, if you would like a more pronounced basil flavor, let it steep for another week. Using a kitchen strainer colander, stain the basil vinegar. Remove and discard the basil leaves. Strain vinegar again through a paper coffee filter or cheese cloth. Label the bottle. It’s ok to add a little water if the vinegar is too strong for your taste.

3. Basil Cubes: Chop up the leaves into small pieces and place in a plastic ice cube tray. Cover leaves with water and freeze. When frozen, store the basil ice cubes in a heavy plastic freezer bag. Drop a frozen cube, directly into any simmering sauce or soup.

4. Basil Butter: Add 3 or 4 leaves of chopped basil to a softened stick of butter, then roll into a log wrap plastic wrap or waxed paper and freeze.

Fresh coarsely chopped basil for basil butter.
Add a slice of basil butter to vegetables or rice.

5. Pesto: The Herb Companion has printed many recipes for pesto. Basically, only three ingredients are needed to make pesto: basil, pine nuts and olive oil. I freeze pesto in a plastic ice cube tray. When frozen, pop the cubes out and put into a heavy duty freezer bag. Skip the cheese in the recipe if you are freezing the pesto. Add fresh grated cheese when you use the pesto.

Here is a good pesto recipe from the September 1996 Herb Companion article "A Basil Harvest," Italian-Style Pesto

Here is another basil recipe from fellow blogger, the Lemon Verbena Lady: Basil Jelly Recipe.

Mixed variety of fresh basil rescued before the big chill. In about two
weeks the stems will root in tap water.
Photo by Lara Ferroni

I will miss fresh basil. If you see me moping around the garden centers, don’t go overboard. A simple “I’m sorry for you loss.” will do.

Later, when the basil recipe making frenzy subsides, we will talk about starting basil indoors from seed. I use an AeroGarden.

Desiree Bell is inspired by botanicals and natural materials. She is a vegetarian who has a certificate in herbal studies and a certificate from Australasian College of Health Sciences in Aromatherapy. When she isn't in her suburban garden, hiking or crafting, she is teaching pre-k with an emphasis on nature and gardening. For more ideas on Simple Living With Nature you can visit her blogs at www.beyondagarden.blogspot.com and www.kidsnaturespot.blogspot.com.

The common sunflower is an American native plant. The American Indian was the first to use the sunflower, but there is no written record. Sunflower achene’s (seeds) have been found at several archaeological sites in the United States and early explorers notebooks and journals have information about Indians gathering achene’s for food. At prehistoric sites in Arizona, several sunflower disks have been found, as well as designs of the flowers incorporated in their pottery.
 
After the discovery of America in 1492, the sunflower went to Europe, then onto Russia, and was then reintroduced into America from Russia. Practically all the flowers now cultivated in America were of Russian origin. The Russians are the greatest users of the plant.
 
Sunflowers are known scientifically by the genus name Helianthus from the Greek words helios, meaning “sun” and anthos meaning “flower.” There are around 60 different species, but in this article I am mainly discussing Helianthus annus L. The L. stands for Linnaeus, the great Swedish naturalist of the eighteenth century, who gave this plant and thousands of others their Latin names. This sunflower was the only one known to him and it only lived a single season, so the annuus is for annual.
 
This species of sunflower is extremely variable. There are branched forms with small flower heads, which are common in the wild. Unbranched forms with massive flower heads, which are cultivated for their oily seeds; and still others with red or double flowers which are grown for their ornamental value.

Photo by cobalt123/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/

Sunflowers are related to the daisies, asters, marigolds, dandelions and black-eyed susans, all of which are members of the Compositae family. The stem is thick, hairy and light green with leaves that are large, rough, toothed and heart-shaped with prominent veins. The flower has a ray of petals on the outer part of the sunflower head, and disk flowers in the center. The outer apparently to attract insects since they are sterile. Sunflowers grow from 3 to 15 feet high and the flower heads measure from 3 to 14 inches in diameter. The sunflower is the state flower of Kansas.
 
The first published record of the sunflower appeared in 1568 by the Belgian Rembert Dodoens, one of the famous herbalists of the era. It was not known to herbalists before the discovery of America (1492), which is evidence that the sunflower was of American origin.
 
The greatest medicinal use of the sunflower that has been used throughout the world is for pulmonary afflictions. It was the main medicinal use of many Indians. A decoction was made from the sunflower head, which the Dakota and Pawnee Indians would drink for respiratory ailments, like bronchitis, lung infections and pleurisy.

Sunflower oil is used in salad dressings, for cooking and in the manufacturing of margarine and shortening. It is used in industry for making paints and cosmetics. The roasted seeds make a coffee type drink. In countries where they grow sunflowers the seed cake that is left after the oil is extracted is given to livestock as food. In the Soviet Union the hulls are used for manufacturing ethyl alcohol, in lining for plywood and growing yeast. The dried stems have also been used for fuel. The stems contain phosphorous and potassium which can be composted and returned to soil as fertilizer.
 
The Chinese have used the fiber from stems for fabrics and paper. The pith (the interior of the stalk) is one of the lightest substances known and is used in scientific labs. The plant’s ability to absorb water from soil has been used to reclaim mushy land in the Netherlands.
 
The sunflower is a plant to be valued and appreciated for more than just food for birds or an ornamental fixture in a summer garden. Add a few sunflowers to the next garden you plant and they will put a smile on your face.                              

I’ll admit sometimes I can be over-dramatic when it comes to pain – drama runs in my family. But for the last couple of years I’ve suffered from regular lower-back spasms that can literally knock me off my feet. So yesterday I finally gave in to the sage advice of my family and friends who’ve witnessed my painful collapses and visited the chiropractor.

It’s been over 10 years since the last time I met with a chiropractor, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was definitely surprised to see a familiar herbal supplement perched on my practitioner’s shelf of featured pain relief supplies – turmeric capsules. Under the bottle was a note suggesting that a daily dose (720 mg) of this turmeric supplement, instead of Ibuprofen, not only reduces painful inflammation but is also healthier for long term use than other pain relievers.

Photo by Carlos Lorenzo/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlos_lorenzo/

Considering how often I’ve popped Ibuprofen over the last couple years after long bouts of sitting at a desk or going for a jog, I was surprised that I hadn’t thought of the detrimental effects earlier.

I already use turmeric in most of my cooking, so instead of adding even more and turning everything I eat bright yellow, I’m going to give these supplements a try. For the sake of my future health, and to aid in the recovery of my abused neck and back from the chiropractic therapy, I’ll put the lid on ibuprofen and open up the turmeric. Oh, and I’ll also be using ice - lots and lots of ice.

Photo by foolsplay07/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrightguideminiatures/

Have you used turmeric supplements to relieve your pain? How did it work for you? Leave me a comment and let me know.

For more information about the health benefits of turmeric, check out these past articles from The Herb Companion.

• The Healing Plant by Nancy Allison
• Ancient, Pungent Turmeric by Cornelia Carlson, Ph.D.
• Smart Cooking with Turmeric by Cornelia Carlson, Ph.D.
• Ancient Herbs, Modern Uses by James A. Duke, Ph.D.
• Spotlight on Turmeric by Lynda McCullough

Economic and financial issues plaguing the globe have spawned a new wave of interest in sustainability, fostering the need for more urban gardeners. For those living in such a densely populated area, growing space is often limited, and you need to think creatively and maybe even squint your eyes a little to make it work.

Such space concerns are why vertical planters are becoming increasingly popular. A year ago, I picked the top Top 8 Gardening Products for Fall 2008, and among them listed the Living Wall by ELT.

This year, another company sent me a different kind of wall-hanging potter called the Woolly Pocket, which prides itself in adding a touch of class to any home (and it does). The long, almost windowsill-type potters are made out of a dense fabric that feels like a wool peacoat, and they come in coated and uncoated varieties, depending on if you’re planning on using it indoors or out.

I requested the coated version so it would not leak, but opted to set it up outside for the summer – and maybe clean it for reuse indoors for the winter. The Pocket was easy to install and within a few months tomatoes were producing and producing well in the Pocket compared with those on the ground. This is a major advantage if you’re wanting to keep animals away from your plants, especially indoors where most common houseplants are toxic to your pets.

The Woolly Pocket website gives detailed information on all of their planters with colorful photos like this one that make you see both the company and the product as unique. While the imagery with the naked people doesn’t really bother me, nearly every plant shown in this photo is toxic to animals (we’ll hope the dog wasn’t hungry), so I wouldn’t recommend using a sitting planter if you have an indoor pet.

The fabric of the Pocket, unlike with the Living Wall, prevents scratching on your walls and is a better safeguard to leaking because of the inner-coating. The coating covers the inside of the planter, protecting your walls and floor from leaks that may come from overwatering. However, this is a particular concern, because those of us that tend to give our plants more water, will be more likely to kill a plant or create an environment susceptible to root rot.

So, if you were planning on using the Pocket indoors, I might suggest lining the bottom with 2 or 3 inches of Perlite for the best possible drainage.

Other than that, the Woolly Pocket, which comes in many shapes and sizes, would make a great gift for anyone and everyone with a bright, empty wall considering starting a new garden or consolidating some of their favorite houseplants.

No matter how many times I check my cupboard before I bake, it seems I’m always missing an ingredient. However, next time I’m out of eggs I won’t have to worry because I’ve found an even healthier substitute: flaxseed. You only need to add 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to 3 tablespoons of water (or 1 tablespoon of whole flaxseed to 4 tablespoons of water) to get the same baking benefits as you would with eggs.

Photo by AlishaV/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alishav/

I already knew that flaxseed had a myriad of benefits, from protecting your colon to preventing heart disease, but I wasn’t sure whether I'd like how it tasted until last night. Eggs have always seemed like a baking staple to me, so I decided to do a taste test and see if my picky taste-buds could really enjoy egg-less baking.

Photo by Sifu Renka/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sifu_renka/

I started with a small batch of traditional chocolate chip cookies and for the next batch I substituted my flaxseed replacement for the water. Amazingly, I actually liked the flaxseed batch better! The flaxseed chocolate chip cookies had a softer, chewier texture and a richer, nutty flavor. In fact next time I decide to bake I’m going to use flaxseed, even if my fridge is full of eggs.

Have you tried substituting flaxseed for eggs before? What are your thoughts? Share your kitchen secrets with me by leaving me a comment!

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

It's that time of year again. The kids are back at school and the holidays are looming in front of us. Just when we need all the energy we can muster, IT descends upon us: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). For many individuals in northern climates, myself included, the onset of seasonal depression is signaled by a sense of emptiness, fatigue, lethargy, food cravings, lack of concentration and/or disturbed sleep patterns. Once dismissed as 'simply the blues', mainstream medicine has acknowledged that this is a true disorder affecting as many as one in 20 individuals during the fall and winter months. Reduction of sunlight is often cited as a primary cause of SAD. Without the correct full spectrum light patterns that we are used to during the summer months, our neurotransmitter serotonin levels become irregular and an increase of the hormone melatonin (from the pineal gland) causes us to be come depressed at varying degrees.

Most people will 'snap out of it' on their own, others can benefit from holistic care: aromatherapy, light therapy, herbal supplements and a sunny vacation!

(Please note that severely depressed or suicidal individuals should seek the care of a physician and may need to consider the addition of antidepressant care. Never dismiss or self-treat massive depressive disorders yourself or encourage anyone to discontinue medication when being treated by a physician).

As a southern girl transplanted to Ohio, I know only too well how devastating and debilitating this disorder can be. In fact, SAD is what first brought me to aromatherapy. For me it was a natural choice to help prevent the onset of a mild depressive episode. Since aromatherapy doesn't require much time, it is a perfect way to incorporate a feeling of wellness during the bleakest months of the year.

Aromatherapy is using essential oils in massage, inhalation, diffusion and bathing as a way to uplift the body, mind and spirit. The medicinal properties of the oils are absorbed through the skin or through the olfactory system into the blood stream. In addition to their pleasing scents, which calm or stimulate the mind, the body benefits from the natural antiseptic, anti-viral and hormonal regulation of various oils. These properties may help boost the overall immune system. By diffusing fragrant oil in the air you are not only enhancing the emotional and spiritual benefits, but also creating an atmosphere of wellness by combating airborne germs (viral and bacteria).

Since SAD affects the body, mind and spirit, it makes sense that aromatherapy, which works on all aspects of the disorder, can be used alone or in tandem with other medical treatments.  Aromatherapy is a complimentary therapy to traditional and herbal medicines. Here are some applications to incorporate in your daily life to help lift seasonal depression:

Fatigue, Lethargy, Lack of Concentration: The symptoms described are in need of essential oils, which stimulate the mind, activate the circulatory system, and energize the soul. These are the oils to choose when you need to 'wake yourself up' or put in overtime at the office. Any and all of the citrus oils are perfect for office use: grapefruit, sweet orange, tangerine, lemon, lime and bergamot will impart freshness in the air, reminiscent of walking through a fresh orchard. To boost memory and increase your mental clarity you can add a drop or two of peppermint, basil, rosemary or black pepper.

Disturbed Sleep: A client of mine seems to get her days and nights mixed up when she is experiencing her bout with SAD. To help alleviate this we set up an evening and morning ritual to help trigger her brain to function and to rest when it was required. For evening she diffuses calming, sedative scents in the air, bathes in ylang ylang & lavender before bedtime and puts one drop of lavender on her pillowcase to help fall asleep naturally. By using these relaxing scents she has encouraged a reflex response (memory map) of relaxation. The morning, however, required a bit more of a wake up call for her. We added some lemon essential oil to her shampoo, not just to condition her hair, but to give a burst of energy first thing in the morning. We blended a jar of sea salts, jojoba oil and essential oils of rosemary and grapefruit to exfoliate her skin.  Rosemary is used for its stimulating scent and has the added bonus of being a wonderful respiratory oil which helps clear up nasal congestion and fight off colds and flu. In addition she switched to full spectrum lighting with increased wattage at the office and diffuses lemon in the air during office hours. Now she keeps her energy at peak performance.

Cravings & Weight Gain: Essential oils may be used in weight loss and to help curb your appetite. The most common essential oil to combat hunger is fennel. Use two drops in a cup of warm water. Drink before meals. Soaking in an essential oil bath of grapefruit, lemon or other diuretic oils may help increase the flow of urine to alleviate bloating and excess fluids.  Don’t' neglect your daily exercises or diet (using essential oils will only boost your potential) and remember to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water

If you decide to incorporate aromatherapy to help you combat the onset of SAD a few precautions for safety must be adhered to:

• Always use pure botanical oils. Synthetic, perfume and fragrance oils are lovely to smell but have none of the medicinal properties contained from extraction of the true plant.

• Essential oils are potent and should be used sparingly. A few drops mixed in a carrier oils is perfect for massage or bathing. A general guide is 15 drops essential oils to one fluid ounce of carrier oil (almond, sesame, grapeseed etc.). Remember these are therapeutic at low levels and may be toxic at high. 

• Consult a reliable aromatherapy text or Certified Aromatherapist if you are in doubt of the safety of an oil. Check for contra-indications if you are prone to seizures, high blood pressure, heart ailments or are pregnant or nursing.

Suggested essential oils for SAD through aromatherapy:

• Clary sage (mild depression, aggression, PMS)
• Lemon & grapefruit (mild depression, water retention)
• Rosemary, basil (fatigue, mental confusion, respiratory concerns)
• Pettigrain & bergamot (balancing, uplifting)
• Lavender (insomnia, tension headaches)   

Q: What is the best way to grow and dry garlic? I live in Minnesota, is there a list of herbs that I can grow, harvest and dry for my personal use?
—Sent via e-mail from J. Werlinger

A: Growing garlic is fairly easy. However, harsh Minnesota weather isn’t exactly the ideal growing climate for garlic.

Photo by graibeard/Courtesy of Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8393288@N04/ 

Growing Garlic

Latin name:  Allium sativum L. 

Soil condition: Garlic thrives in well-drained soil with a pH level between 4.5 and 8.3. If you are not sure if the soil to too acidic or too basic, test the soil by purchasing a pH test strip from your local garden store. Garlic is not drought tolerant and does not do well in extremely wet soil.

Temperature: Garlic will typically germinated in 60 to 80 degree weather.
Maintenance: Keep an eye out for these pests: Onion thrips, armyworms and onion maggots. Although pests are not a big issue with garlic, it is something to keep in the back of your mind. If you are planning on growing garlic, make sure you stay on top of weeds, as garlic does not fare well against them.

For additional reading on growing garlic in Minnesota, visit The University of Minnesota: Extension.

Drying Garlic

Regardless of which method you choose to dry garlic, the most important component is good air circulation. You will want to store your drying garlic in a dark and cool location.
Hanging garlic: This is the method I recommend as it efficiently dries the garlic and minimal space is required. Tie 7-12 garlic stalks together to forms a bundle. Check on the garlic maybe once a month. The type of garlic will depend on the drying time, however, the process will take anywhere from 6 to 8 months.

For additional reading on drying herbs, read DIY: Drying Fresh Herbs.

Growing Herbs in Minnesota

The USDA Hardiness Zones notes that Minnesota's average minimum winter temperatures range from -20 to -45 degrees. That being said, growing herbs indoors throughout the winter months is a great option for colder climates.

Growing Herbs Indoors

Growing herbs indoors is a great way to enjoy summer flavors during the cold winter months. These herbs do fairly well indoors: basil, bay, cilantro, chives, dill, ginger, lemon verbena, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme. Keep in mind each herb’s growing requirements (watering, sunlight, fertilizer, etc.).

For additional reading on this subject, read long time herb gardener Betsy Strauch's article Wintering Herbs Indoors. If you are interested in creating a winter herb drying display basket, read Rosemary McCreary's An Indoor Visual Feast. 

Do you live in a cold climate-growing zone? What herbs do you have success with and which do you bring indoors during the winter months? Drop me a comment or e-mail me at: snelson@ogdenpubs.com.

Brenda Stansfield is a licensed massage therapist, certified clincial aromatherapist and the creator of the Clear My Head product line, sold in spas nationally at www.clearmyhead.com. She belives aromatherapy should be simple and easy to incorporate into a hectic lifestyle.

Lately, I'm noticing a trend and I'm not liking it either. I watch as so many of us (and yes, I am guilty myself) are overly connected with our electronic devices. Yes, it's often time well spent in front of our computer screens updating our friends through Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, and yes we all get a little thrill when we open our "mail" to find a note (not just a forward, forward, forward) from a good friend. But ask yourself…would you rather have a ::hug:: or a real hug? 

The problem becomes clear as we watch our children communicate through more text messages and spend less time hearing a voice on the other end of their phones. How does one learn social skills or pick up non-verbal cues any more? After all, intonation in a voice can tell you wonders about a person’s well-being. The big question is how do we reconnect with our loved ones? The answer can be, surprisingly, aromatherapy. 

Use essential oil of lavender for a compassionate hand massage.

Over the years in my massage therapy & aromatherapy practice, I've encountered the "disconnect" of families. I've taught many workshops that bring people together and can open up a safe environment for conversations. Here are a few quick tips to help you turn down the electronic clutter in your life:

Children: Small children (3-6 years) are often antsy and on the move. Getting them to focus is challenging (if not impossible). These formative years are also when they are developing good routines and coping skills. A wonderful gift you can give your child is the ability to allow themselves to slow down in the evening. Prepare them for a good nights sleep with four drops of lavender essential oil in a warm bath—this will help them unwind and sleep more soundly. Taking baths are a great time for singing songs and other soothing activities—they'll never know they're getting clean in the process.

Teenagers: Teens are a little tougher to pin down and even harder at times to get to open up. A shame, since this is a time they need the guidance of a parent even more. Boys in particular are very resistant to keeping communication open. A way to get your teen to relax with you, and a nice time to catch up on the day, is with a nice peppermint foot rub (6 drops peppermint essential oil to 1 ounce lotion). The sensation on the feet is exhilarating and they'll sit still for it. Athletic teens and the over-achievers are often very unaware of the toll stress and a lot of activity can take on their body and mind. A 10 minute foot rub will help with fatigue and also teach them about giving to others.  

Our Elders: Often times I've been asked to call on a client’s family member in Hospice or Alzheimer wards. The elderly, and especially those in the last days or weeks of their life present emotional difficulties for both the family and the individual. A wonderful thing happens when we visit and offer a bit of compassion in the form of a hand massage. A suggestion of oils for this would be lavender, clary sage, bergamot or cedarwood (3 drops in 1 ounce). I've always felt in the grace of God during these visits. You needn't be a professional therapist for this. Your touch is comforting to the patient, the fragrance is soothing and the time is well spent. Often, in their final days, our loved ones cannot communicate with us. However, I promise the look in their eyes will tell you what they cannot. You will notice love and understanding and you will reap rewards that will be revealed to you later. It is not uncommon when I create blends for my clients to use with their loved ones that after the person has passed on they tell me that they use the aromatherapy lotion to feel the presence of their loved one again. This is understandable, since our sense of smell imprints emotions into us through our limbic system. Once we "memory map" our essential oils to a specific action, (one that is soothing, calming, joyful, and compassionate) we have set in motion a powerful way to communicate.

So today, unplug the cell phone, turn off the computer, even if it's just for 20 minutes, and go find someone who is getting "lost" in the digital age and bring them back to their senses!

People who suffer from insomnia usually have a difficult time falling asleep or wake up after only a few hours of sleep. Stress, anxiety, depression and grief are a few of the factors that contribute to insomnia. After experiencing a few sleepless nights I read up on insomnia. Through my research I discovered a few herbal remedies to ease the symptoms of insomnia.

Chamomile promotes natural sleep.

These herbs are an insomniac’s best friend!

• Chamomile: This herb relaxes the body and eases tension. Chamomile also helps other parts of the body by relieving indigestion and headaches.

• Lemon balm: Combined with chamomile, lemon balm relaxes the body and helps people fall asleep. By itself the herb has antibacterial and antiviral properties.

Other herbs that induce natural sleep are valerian, lavender, kava, St. John’s wort, passionflower and skullcap.

One product I've found that works great is Sound Sleep by Bath & Body Works ($10). This product, which is made with lavender and chamomile essential oils, is wonderful to use—especially after enjoying a cup of tea.

Have you experienced insomnia and used herbs to fall asleep? Let’s chat about it! Your comments could help other sleepless readers.

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, gardening with herbs and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state. 

I didn't get too much done at The Herb Cottage this week. I spent a couple of days in lovely San Antonio visiting with a friend from Florida who was there visiting her mother. But, I did get germination on several flats I planted last week. The salad burnet and fernleaf dill seeds sprouted. The plants are so tiny!! I love seeding. It's just amazing to me how a little seed pushes itself through the soil and reaches for the sun. Just add water!

Salad burnet and dill seedlings. 

I had very good germination on the thyme seeds. There are two different varieties here: German winter thyme, which is an excellent herb to grow in our area and further north in Texas, and English thyme. Both types are called Thymus vulgaris or common thyme. If you see a recipe which calls for simply thyme, you can never go wrong using English thyme or the German winter variety.

German winter thyme grows a little bit stockier than the English, in my experience. It grows woodier and very sturdy. The flavors are very similar—the German is perhaps a little more pungent.

Propagating thyme from seed is not a quick endeavor. (Click here to read more about propagating herbs.) It will take about 5 to 6 weeks before these seedlings are ready to be planted in a garden or herb container. If you have healthy, thriving thyme in your garden it's easy to make new plants simply by digging out a section of the plant with roots and transplanting it to another spot. If your thyme is in a container, take it out of the pot and cut the plant in half or in sections for more plants. Don't over-water the new plants; do keep them moist until they settle into their new home.

Thyme seedlings.

It's still very hot here in Texas, but it didn't break 100 degrees yesterday. Today and tomorrow are forecast to stay in the 90s as well. I also noticed the forecast lows to be below 70 degrees the next few nights. The plants will love the cooler night temperatures, even if it's just cooler by a few degrees. When it stays hot at night, as it does here for weeks and weeks, it really stresses the herbs.

Many of our favorite herbs are from very warm environments such as the Mediterranean. Even these herbs, which thrive in hot daytime temperatures, start to suffer when the nights stay above about 75 degrees for weeks on end. So, the upcoming cooler nights should help make our herbs perk up and even put on new growth. The lemon balm I pruned to the ground a couple of weeks ago is already showing signs of fresh new growth.

If you live in the southern half of Texas and you haven't pruned back leggy herbs yet, go ahead and do it now. You don't have to prune heavily if the plants still look good. But, if you have plants that are all stem with a few leaves at the top, go ahead and cut those stems down to several inches above the soil. With cooler temperatures and shorter days, those plants will put on a flush of new growth this fall.

If you live in the northern half of Texas, where it will get colder sooner, prune lightly if the plants look leggy. Otherwise, leave them alone, harvest and enjoy your herbs this fall.

I thought I'd share this picture of Miss Ruby Begonia (my cat) under our big oak tree lounging in the chive flats. On a hot afternoon, it's cool there and the pots are a bit damp, making a fragrant, comfy place for napping. I'll be repotting the chives when she moves on to a sunnier spot as the weather cools a bit.

Ruby Begonia lounging in the chives.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
Marcus Tullius Cicero

As a kid, I actually looked forward to getting hiccups, all thanks to my dad’s distinctive cure. He’d sit us on the kitchen counter, measure a spoon full of sugar and tell us we had to swallow it all. My hiccups routinely occurred around bedtime, so much to my mother’s chagrin, I rarely fell asleep on time after taking my “hiccup medicine.”

I’m not a sugar fiend anymore like I was during my childhood. Nowadays when I get a hiccup attack I hold my breath until I turn blue in the face. Or for a particularly rough bout, I’ll try to drink a cup of water backwards and usually spill most of it on the floor.

By cdw9/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wainwright/

I’d always I thought that, because hiccups are caused by spasms of your diaphragm, you had to alter your breathing pattern to stop them. However, you also need to increase the level of carbon dioxide in your blood, which is how certain herbs can help. 

It turns out that there are as many hiccup remedies as there are hiccups. Traditional herbal cures include eating a whole chervil plant, drinking anise or taking tinctures of mustard or peppermint. Today, many experts recommed specific herbal tinctures to reduce hiccup suffering. For instance, Life Mojo suggests boiling a combination of cardamom and mint leaves.

In his article, Fix-ups for Hiccups, Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa says that there are many herbal hiccup cures but unfortunately not all of them work. Also, if your hiccups last longer than three days you should see a doctor. His holistic recommendations include plain yogurt and salt, honey and castor oil, watermelon, Kaki tea, and fresh ginger. Surprisingly, both white sugar and cardamom were on his list as well. So I guess my dad’s hiccup medicine wasn’t just an “old wives’ tale” after all.

Have you tried herbs to get rid of hiccups? What method works for you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, gardening with herbs and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state.

It's still hot and dry here in my part of south-central Texas. We had a couple of showers last week, but the tiny bit of rain made very little difference to the overall conditions. It is mid-August, however, and it's time to look ahead to the cooler days of fall (and perhaps even some rain). So, what to do in the herb garden this week?

Well, this week I'm doing lots of seeding of herbs and vegetables for fall!

Even though it's still very hot, by the time any herbs started now are ready for the garden, it'll be late September soon, and somewhat cooler. At least the days will be shorter and perhaps the nights will be a bit cooler. So, what to plant?

Cilantro, a favorite herb in this part of Texas, loves the cool temperatures of fall. And it's one I get requests for at every market, even in the heat of summer. Sadly, cilantro, or coriander as the seed is known, just does not perform well in our summer heat. The seed will sprout but the plant will bolt, go to flower and then seed almost immediately. There won't be any of those spicy, flat, flavorful leaves we love. This one has to be grown from fall into spring. Or if you're in the northern part of our state, in the fall and then again in the spring until the weather gets very hot. (Click here to read more about cilantro.)

Dill is savory, piquant and a must for potato salad, egg salad and with salmon and other fish. Dill thrives in the cool weather of fall. If you live in the northern or western part of the state, dill will not overwinter for you, so now is the time to direct seed it in beds or in containers so you'll have enough to harvest for winter. Dill is very easy to preserve. You can dry both the leaves and flowers—they hold their flavor well—or simply clip the leaves and flowers, place them in a plastic baggy and pop them into the freezer. (Click here to learn more about drying herbs.) When needed take out the parts you desire, close the baggy and put it back in the freezer. Chop or tear the dill and add it to your favorite recipe. (Click here for our recipes for dill.) If you have a long enough growing season, and enough seeds, dill makes an excellent addition to breads and seasoning mixes. If you had a dill patch in the spring that flowered and went to seed, simply water the area and you will be rewarded with new dill plants. If you've been getting rain, perhaps you are already seeing baby dill sprouting. Lucky you!

Chervil is under-appreciated, but so flavorful and dainty looking. (Click here to read more about chervil.) It sometimes goes by the name of French parsley, has a mild anise flavor that compliments fish dishes perfectly, has finely cut leaves, and is very ornamental. Try it planted with lettuce, mesclun mix or edible flowers for a winter salad garden. In the southern part of the state, chervil appreciates a little afternoon shade, but will do well in a mostly sunny spot in other areas over the winter. (Click here to try our Lemon-Butter Sauce with Chervil.)

Parsley is a highly nutritious, multi-use and indispensable herb. If your parsley didn't make it through the summer, this is a perfect time to start new plants from seed. Be patient though as parsley seed can take from 1 to 2 weeks to germinate. If you direct seed it, plant fairly close together so you have a nice, thick row. (Click here to read more about parsley.)

Curly parsley is a very attractive ornamental herb for the winter with its rich evergreen color and complex leaf shapes. Flat leaf, or Italian parsley, is not as ornamental but many people favor it for its culinary uses over the curly varieties. I suggest, "Why not plant both?"

If you've had a challenging summer with your garden, do not despair. Fall will be here, so in the meantime get a head start on your fall and winter herbs by seeding now. If you're very successful, you might have plants to share with friends or you might just have to expand your own herb plantings.

 Q: My herbs are ready to harvest and I don’t know how to dry them, freeze them, etc. Help!
—Mary Barnett
Tahlequah, Oklahoma

A: There are a few ways to dry herbs: Hang drying, screen drying, oven drying and refrigerator drying. Each technique has its pros and its cons; some techniques are better for certain herbs. When drying herbs you want to remove moisture from the plant and retain its oils. Usually, the longer it takes to dry the herbs, regardless of the technique, the less oils there will be, which means the dried herbs will have less flavor.

Basic Tips Before you Start the Drying Process

• Pick herbs just before the plant flowers to ensure that the flavors are at their strongest.

• When cutting herbs, make sure they are healthy. A few dead or damaged leaves here and they will not affect your drying as long as you discard them before drying process.

(Click here to read more about drying herbs.)

HANG DRYING: Hang drying is an ideal technique for long-stemmed herbs such as lavender, sage and rosemary.

Technique: Make a bundle of stems and tie the ends together. Pick a drying location that has good air circulation with minimal exposure to sunlight and dust. Hang the bundles upside down, and check back on the herbs in one to two weeks. You will know when the herbs are completely dried because the leaves will come off of the stem with minimal effort. Once they are dry, you can crumble them and store them into jars.

Pros: Hanging herbs is one of the easiest techniques and requires very minimal time.

Cons: If you do not have the right drying location, your herbs can take longer to dry.

SCREEN DRYING: This technique is great for smaller herbs.

Technique: Place the herbs on a window screen. As an alternative, you can use a piece of cheesecloth material stretched over a frame or any material that permits air circulation. Your herbs should be kept in a dry climate with minimal exposure to sunlight. Check on them after a couple of days and flip them over for so that they dry evenly. They will dry in about one week.

Pros: The process only takes about a week to complete. Like hang drying herbs, the process requires minimal time.

Cons: This drying technique requires space and a specific environment.

OVEN DRYING: Oven drying herbs speeds up the drying process, so be careful not to use this method for herbs that ignite quickly, such as sage.

Technique: Pull fresh leaves off of the stalk and place on an oven try. The oven should be around 350 to 400 degrees. Keep them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until they are brittle. If the herbs are not freshly picked, reduce the oven temperature to 100 degrees and keep a constant eye on them so they do not burn.

Pros: This is the quickest drying process.

Cons: Unlike the previous techniques, using your oven to dry herbs is an expense. Also, this technique is very interactive.

REFRIGERATOR DRYING: Drying herbs in the refrigerator is great for small-leaved herbs like marjoram, rosemary and thyme.

Technique: Place small-leaved herbs on a plate and place in the refrigerator. For larger-leaved herbs, like basil, place leaves on a tray in the refrigerator. Check on them frequently and stir them around to avoid wilting and to ensure an even drying process. (Each type of herb has different drying times.) Once they are dry, place them into containers or freezer bags. Store them in the freezer for later use.

Pros: This cool, dry and dark climate will preserve oils and give you a minimal drying time.

Cons: This process requires spare refrigerator space. If the food in the refrigerator is not covered well, the odors will migrate to the herbs and they might taste like other foods. The opposite is true as well; food might taste like the herbs you are drying if the food is not covered well.  

What’s your favorite drying technique? What technique have you had success with in the past? Leave a comment and let's chat about it.

It may be the thought of winter – the death, the icy roads, the erratic temperatures … the ridiculous decorations – that makes me want to protect my garden indoors every autumn. The thought of that perfect pot of mint, that fragrant rosemary or even those tangy chives sullied and soggy under the lush Kansas snow is too much. Woe is winter.

But I’m a realist – there are only so many things that can survive indoors, and without a lot of experience or a gardening expert on your side, it can prove difficult to predict what will and what will not work.

Fortunately for us, we live in the golden age of technology, and there are tools in our belts fit for such a project. Meet EasyBloom, your plant diagnostician in a box.

The premise is easy – plant, plug and play. Plant the EasyBloom anywhere in your garden, indoors or out, for 24 hours, plug it into your computer, and download a reading of all the environmental conditions for that particular spot, including soil moisture, light exposure, humidity and average temperature.

Then, EasyBloom’s website will generate a list of plants that would grow well in those conditions, helpful when you’re planning for next year’s garden. Explore thousands of plants in its extensive database and connect with other like-minded gardeners from amateur to extraordinaire.

After you’ve downloaded the information from one spot in your garden – say, where your mint pot lives – then, try different sites inside your home that might be environmentally similar. You will not find conditions that are exact and you are bound to lose some plants no matter what you do. But with the EasyBloom you can figure out where in your home might provide you with the best probability for survival or where to shelter your plants for the cold to come.

Cool, huh?

This late in the summer, conditions are ripe to begin testing environmental conditions indoors and out, so you can plan on starting the great plant migration in late September and early October.

The EasyBloom is easy-to-use and relatively affordable, considering how much you have probably already invested in your plants, and it could only be improved with the ability to test soil acidity or pH. But, all in good time, I suppose.

The EasyBloom retails on the company’s website for $59.95 and makes a great gift for any age.

For a full list of tips and tricks on indoor gardening, check out my post, Five Tips for Indoor Gardens, or, for any gardening question, shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

If you’re an herbie, then chances are you love tea. Any herbalista does! (Click here for our favorite iced tea recipes.) But did you know that your herbs also enjoy tea? Just like people consuming tea, garden herbs and weeds provide nourishment and nutrients for growing plants. Although many gardeners can never brew a batch of compost tea and still be successful with their gardens, there are times when crafting a liquid fertilizer can really improve the quality of your soil. Such as …

• when plants are showing little to know sign of growth and showing obvious signs of stress or disease.

• when plants appear to need an extra boost.

• when you have only a small amount of compost and widespread poor soil conditions. (Compost tea makes the benefits of compost go farther.)

Compost tea is made almost exactly how it sounds—steeping compost in water. You can apply compost tea to your lawn and/or garden using a pump sprayer, hose-end sprayer or a watering can. First, choose which herb to use in your compost concoction. Athough it's best to use an herb found most common in your garden, not every herb has the nutritional content your lawn needs. Try these herbs, which have a variety of nutritional content:

Russian Comfrey
Photo by Barry Cornelius/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrycornelius/

• Comfrey: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, C and other trace materials.
• Nettle: vitamins A, C, and K, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, phosphorus, potassium, boron, bromine, copper, iron, selenium and zinc.
• Parsley: vitamins A and C, iron, copper and manganese.
• Dandelion: vitamins A and C, calcium and potassium.
• Stinging Nettle: magnesium, sulphur and iron. (You Grow Girl)
• Horsetail: silica. (You Grow Girl)

(Click here to read more about why plants need tea.)

To create your herb tea fertilizer, fill a 5-gallon bucket with your pruned herb of choice and pack it in tightly. (Using a heavy object such as a brick or a stone may help keep the herbs tightly packed.) Next, pour in water until it reaches the top of your container and let the mix sit for a day or two until the leaves break down. Place in direct sunlight and remember to stir every now and then. Strain the mixture and start composting.

(Read The Complete Compost Gardening Guide.)

Have you ever used a liquid tea fertilizer? What herb do you like to use for your herbal concoction? Drop me a comment and let me know!

I tend to go through obsessive routines with food. See, once I’ve found a relatively easy meal that’s tasty and healthy, I make it repetitively until the thought of it nauseates me – then I know it’s time to move on.

About this time last year I made shrimp and veggie stir fry almost daily, but I haven’t made it since. It just seems easier to buy the same groceries, instead of wasting food for meals that I don’t get around to making. This habit drives my friends and family crazy, “How can you eat that again?!”

(Click here to learn how to reel in runaway costs the bistro way.)

My latest addiction is eggs. I had to cut back on my boiled eggs when I realized that the amount of cholesterol in one egg, 213 milligrams, is almost as much as the recommended daily total of cholesterol, 300 milligrams. And now I’ve found another reason to be concerned – excess cholesterol could contribute to weakened memory.

Photo by meonomous/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tidalotter/

For the past few years my short-term memory has been horrible. I remember things from my childhood that no one else seems to and I memorize study-material just fine. However, I struggle with questions like, “What’s the last movie you saw?”

Although I doubt the eggs are a major contributor to my weak short-term memory, I’ve realized that I need to take better care of my brain and find some solutions. Especially when in a recent conversation I was stuck trying to remember the name of the daily supplement I take to improve my memory – oh, yeah, ginkgo biloba. 

Photo by fabdebaz/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabdebaz/

In a study from The Journal of American Medical Association last fall, ginkgo biloba was proven to prevent the spread of existing dementia attributed to Alzheimer’s Disease, but if you have a more casually weak memory, like mine, it may not be the best herbal solution.

Instead try rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), which can improve memory by stimulating the immune system, or bacopa (Bacopa monnieri), which works to ease anxiety and decrease blood pressure. The best way to improve memory retention is to reduce stress, but sometimes stress just isn’t avoidable. So if you want additional help, take a look at the list of alternative herbs I’ve compiled below.

Maybe, with the help of these herbs, my conversations will finally stop including, “I’m sure you’ve already told me about it, but could you tell me one more time?” or “You never told me that!” – Only to be proven wrong once again.

Photo by Lorianne DiSabato/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenmama/

Herbs to magnify your memory:

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, gardening with herbs and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state. 

I was checking to see if there had been any comments on the blog post I wrote last week, and saw a link in the section Related Content called Lucious Lavender: A Guide to Growing and Using Lavender. What a wonderful article Kathleen Halloran wrote! Although the article was written in 1994 the content was as fresh and up-to-date as, well, a bouquet of lavender flowers. I could picture the areas she talked about in New York, Oregon and Hollywood, California where people had planted their lavender to beautify various locations. I was looking for information on growing lavender in Texas—of course—and there was a little bit at the end of the article. Kathleen referenced Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay, our beloved Texas herb gurus. Had the article been written about five years later I believe Kathleen would have also been writing about the Texas lavender industry.

Although it's still in its fledgling state, Texas now boasts the Blanco Lavender Festival in Blanco, Texas, and a Lavender Festival at Becker Vineyards in Stonewall, Texas. Also, there are numerous lavender growers in the Texas area who are both commercial and recreational. 

Lavender Hills in Blanco, Texas 

Lavender Field at Becker Vineyard in Stonewall, Texas

Growing lavender in Texas is a challenge, especially if you live close to the Gulf Coast where the summers stay humid, as well as hot, or in eastern Texas where the soil is very heavy "Texas Gumbo" soil. The summer atmosphere dries out a bit in the Hill Country and northern Texas, so growing lavender is a lot easier. If you love lavender as much as many of us herbies do, you must have lavender growing somewhere—in your herb garden, in your container garden or even in your house—no matter how difficult.

Spanish Lavender (L. Stoechas)

The variety you choose to grow should be determined by your location. If you live where it stays humid in the summer and rains a lot—most years, anyway—the lavandin lavenders do well. These are the hybirds such as 'Provense', 'Grosso' and 'Sweet'. Spanish lavender (L. stoechas) is another lavender variety that tends to do well for me.

There are many more choices if you live in the western or northern part of the state. Many of the L. angustifolia varieties do well in these locations and will even survive the winter, as long as you can protect them a little from the drying winds of winter.

Spanish lavender can be successfully grown from seed and will flower the first year. The others, the lavandin, must be purchased as transplants or propagated from cuttings taken from a friend's plant.

Here are some links to good lavender growing information for Texas:

• White Acres Farm 

• Back Yard Gardener- This website offers more general information, but it is very complete. It explains the most common diseases found in lavender plants.

Lavender Flower, courtesy of White Acres Farm

One thing I have learned about growing lavender in southern Texas is that a good gravel mulch goes a long way to helping your plants along. This is only practical, of course, in a smaller garden setting, or even in a container garden. The idea is that the gravel helps dry the air around the plant on humid mornings, which we usually have during the summer. The other benefit of the gravel mulch is that it keeps soil from splashing on the underside of the plant, which can help keep diseases down. 

If you love lavender, don't despair, no matter where you live in Texas—there is a lavender that you can grow! Even if you have one pot on your deck or patio, you'll still be able to enjoy the aroma, pastel look and even, perhaps, be able to harvest a few flowers to make Lavender Lemonade.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
—Marcus Tullius Cicero

It’s that time of year again. Going back to school means late night cram sessions, unhealthy eating habits (coffee and chocolate anyone?) and mind and body exhaustion. Try these herbs to help relieve stress, accelerate energy and induce sleep.

Photo By sobriquet.net/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sobriquet/

Herbs for Stress

When all of the tasks start to pile up at once and it seems like you can’t get anything done, try these herbs to calm your nerves.

• Chamomile: Make a chamomile tea to calm nerves and relieve stress headaches. After, put the warm tea bags on your eyelids to relieve tired eyes.

• Lavender: Use lavender to help concentrate on a task. Sniff the dried flowers or lavender essential oil to stimulate your brain when you’re down.

• Geranium essential oil: Before going into an exam or giving a speech, sniff some geranium essential oil to relieve butterflies in your stomach.

Herbs to Accelerate Energy

Lay off the coffee and energy drinks. They may increase energy for a while, but you’ll be sure to crash after the caffeine high wears off. Try these herbs for a natural way to boost energy.

• Rosemary: Increase your energy with an invigorating bath. Combine ½ cup rosemary, and ½ cup ground almonds and 2 cups plain rolled oats in a terry cloth bag or washcloth and float in the bath.

• Thyme: Get the energizing scent of thyme by filling a spray bottle with 2 or 3 drops of thyme essential oil and a ½ cup of water and spraying it in the air. Thyme’s also delicious with meats and sauces.

Herbs to Stimulate Sleep

With a thousand different worries popping up in your mind, getting sleep can be difficult. Try these herbs to get some rest.

• Anise: Chew the seeds by themselves or add them to hot milk to make you sleepy. Also try filling a small bag with anise seeds and place it by your pillow so you can breathe in the scent.

• Linden: Brew linden flowers in a tea to induce sleep. Or find linden flower tea in health food stores.

How do you cope with the stress of school? Have any herbal tips? Leave me a comment and tell me about them.

Sarah Powell, an herbalist, medical anthropologist and proprietor of the natural bath & body business, Lilith’s Apothecary. Find her shop at www.lilithsapothecary.etsy.com and her blog at www.lilithsapothecary.wordpress.com for more natural body care tips and recipes. 

If it is one thing we can all agree on, it is that having clear, glowing skin is the most important factor to your appearance. Clear skin boosts one’s self-esteem, self-confidence, and certainly makes us all feel good! Our skin is also a great reflection of what is going on internally, especially if we are experiencing an imbalance of some kind. A healthful life usually results in healthy skin.  However, normal hormonal changes, dietary problems, and toxic drugs or chemicals can certainly take their toll. 

This is the first in a series of posts devoted to caring for one’s skin naturally, and here we start with caring for the skin from the inside out.  Skin estheticians will acknowledge that healthy skin is directly related to proper skin care, which includes good nutrition. Skin is nourished by the bloodstream, which gains nutrients from the gastro-intestinal tract. In conversation, Mary Friehofner, a Philadelphia esthetician and acne specialist, told me about a persistent denial in the medical community of any special correlation between sugar and acne. As someone who has suffered with acne herself, Mary said, “I know that I could almost feel and fuzzy or prickly feeling in my chin and jaw area (where I used to break out with acne) almost immediately after eating very sugary foods. Now western medicine has documented a release of hormones by the liver associated with intake of sugar and these hormones in some people initiate acne.”

So yes, yet again, the message is that “you are what you eat," or at least you are certainly affected by it! Herbalists have for centuries treated skin conditions with liver supportive and detoxifying herbs, as the liver is the responsible organ for processing fats, sugars, hormones, and chemicals we ingest, even if herbalists didn’t traditionally have the ‘science’ to back it up. There was plenty empirical evidence to suggest that supporting the liver can help correct many conditions, including eczema, psoriasis and acne. Skin conditions that result from hormonal imbalances, a common cause of acne, may require further hormone regulators in an herbal compound, but thankfully, we have many such allies to help with problem skin.  We will delve further into the treatment of skin imbalances with herbs in later posts in this series.

Nourishment on the inside should be the first step in treating the outside appearance. We often see topical products on the market promising clear, even skin tone, regenerative powers, or other chemicals and even toxic ingredients to cause skin ‘plumping’ to make the skin appear healthier and younger. It’s true that there are ingredients added to skin care products that can help prevent the development of fine lines and wrinkles and certainly there are others that may cause some regenerative ability, but flawless skin starts with what you put into your body.

The skin is an incredibly complex organ –your body’s largest—and contains several layers: the epidermal, dermal, and subcutaneous, all of which have functions that keep our skin fed by the bloodstream and enervated by our nervous system, protected from the outside, acting as a barrier to protect our vital internal organs from the outside. It is a somewhat permeable barrier, however, and what we put on the skin’s surface may or may not penetrate to our bloodstream below. This is why some chemicals, such as propylene glycol, that facilitate absorption of harmful compounds are so problematic and should be avoided. Our skin performs vital functions that include maintaining the body’s temperature, protecting us from biological invaders and physical, chemical, thermal, and electrical damage. It regulates moisture, excretes toxins via sweat, secretes sebum—our natural ‘moisturizer’ –which lubricates skin and keeps it from drying out. It metabolizes and stores fat and also converts ultraviolet rays into vitamin D, which enhances calcium absorption (Tourles, 1999).

One of the first steps we can take towards achieving beautiful skin includes making sure we ingest the most vital vitamins and minerals for healthy skin. Vitamin A (beta-carotene) is a fat-soluble antioxidant that is essential for growth and maintenance of skin tissue and proper functioning of mucous membranes. Vitamin A also speeds healing of acne and boosts the body’s immunity. B-complex vitamins are water-soluble and should be taken as a ‘complex’ rather than in isolated parts. This is what some call the ‘anti-stress’ vitamin that helps prevent acne and premature aging. It promotes healthy circulation and metabolism, and is also essential for wound-healing. Vitamin C is a water-soluble antioxidant that helps produce collagen in connective tissue, strengthens capillary walls, speeds healing, and helps protect against environmental stress. Vitamin D is a fat soluble nutrient that when combined with vitamin A, helps treat acne. It is gaining much recognition as a more important vitamin than we have realized in recent years, and recommended doses are currently being evaluated by regulatory bodies. Vitamin D, not even really a vitamin, may be more beneficial in much larger doses than we are accustomed to. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that oxygenates tissues, protects tissues, speeds healing of chronic skin conditions, and may decrease scarring. Mineral iodine aids in healing skin infections, increases oxygen consumption and metabolic rate in the skin; silicon aids in collagen formation, keeps skin taut, and strengthens skin tissues. Sulfur helps keep skin clear and smooth, while zinc promotes cell growth, boosts immunity, and helps treat acne along with vitamins A & B (Tourles, 1999). 

Fat is an essential component to your skin’s health and beauty. Without at least a thin layer of fat providing padding to support your skin’s structure, it can’t be beautiful! For years, we have been told by mainstream dieticians and advisors that fat is “bad” and should be avoided, and now it appears the health gurus are changing their minds! Mother Earth News published a great article outlining this debate, one subscribed to by the Weston Price Foundation for nearly a century.  Soy-based beverages are made with unfermented soy milk, which has its own controversy surrounding it, as indeed  its high content of phytic acids may block the uptake of vital minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and zinc.  In line with more whole foods, local movements, I prefer sourcing locally produced raw or minimally processed milk and certainly drink whole milk and full fat cream as much as I desire.

Whether we are talking about the fat on our bodies, or the fat we ingest, we’ve been ‘trained’ to think of all of it as bad, but without fats, we can’t have well-lubricated, glowing skin with the roundness and shape we associate with beauty.  Saturated fatty acids are solid at room temperature and include animal fats, coconut oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter.  Monounsaturated fatty acids are liquid at room temperature, including oils of olive, avocado, cashew, salmon, and halibut. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are also liquid at room temperature but have a different molecular structure; they include oils of walnut, flax, safflower, sunflower, and corn.  Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are vitamin-like substances that have a protective effect on the body. Your body cannot manufacture them, but you must obtain them from the food you eat. As little as 2 to 3 teaspoons per day will provide you with the EFAs you need. Omega-3 fatty acids are the super stars we hear so much about, and truly, with their potent anti-inflammatory abilities and superior healing qualities, these are an essential addition to our diets. Cold-water fish such as bluefish, salmon, mackerel, and tuna, as well as freshly ground flax, walnuts, and brazil nuts are all good sources. Omega 3’s provide wound-healing, arthritis relief and relief of other inflammatory conditions, healing for eczema and psoriasis, and assistance in balancing sebum production. We need them! Of course some fats are bad, but the only fats that I consider bad are the hydrogenated oils that dominate our processed food supply. Avoid those processed and ‘fast’ foods as much as possible, and you’ll be avoiding so-called ‘bad fats’ too.

Now that you have this information, what can you do with it?  While a multi-vitamin is often touted as a good idea in theory, it is much better to get your nutrients from natural sources, preferably whole foods, herbal infusions, and if necessary, bio-available liquid extracts. Most pill-shaped supplements are hardly bio-available at all, and most people don’t take the multi- vitamin with the necessary fat  that would provide absorption of many fat-soluble vitamins in the first place. Do your best to consume whole, unprocessed sources, of which there are myriad; many on-line sources identify superior sources of all the nutrients outlined above. Super-food supplements like spirulina, blue-green algae, dulse flakes, and bee pollen are a great addition to juices and smoothies. Nutrient rich herbal tonics—intended for regular, long-term use—are an even more wonderful choice for bio-available nourishment.

Remember that your skin basically shows what it takes in. The more refined sugars, ‘bad’ hydrogenated fats, caffeine, alcohol, pharmaceutical or narcotic drugs you ingest, the worse your skin will look. It goes the same for lack of sleep! When you don’t get your ‘beauty rest’, your skin will show it first with break-outs, bags under the eyes, or tired, dull skin tone. Check out the recipes below for boosting your body’s nutrition and contributing to healthy, vitalized skin. A regular smoothie, a multi-grain omega-rich muffin, fresh local plain yoghurt sprinkled with ground golden flax, or a bowl of pre-soaked, cooked oatmeal sprinkled with fresh, raw almonds or walnuts and plump goji or blueberries are all ways to boost your nutritional intake alongside your daily herbal infusion. Try the recipes below to begin to move towards creating healthy skin from the inside out:

Skin Food Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1 cup strawberries or other berries, frozen or fresh
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses, rich in iron
• 2 teaspoons golden flax seeds, freshly ground
• 10 raw almonds, preferably blanched and skin removed
• 10 raw walnuts
• ¼ cup cooked oatmeal, pre-soaked,
• 2 teaspoons honey, preferably raw and locally sourced
• ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 to 3 ice cubes (if not using frozen fruit)

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth for 30 to 60 seconds. 

2. Drink throughout the morning or drink half in the morning and half for a snack later on. Makes approximately two  1½ cup (375 ml) servings.

*Inspired by Stephanie Tourles’ Skin-So-Smoothie (Tourles, 1999)
 
Fantastic Skin Herbal Tonic 

You can try this yummy infusion using tablespoons to measure each herb, but it’s even better to measure in ounces, store in a covered container and use for medicinal infusions consistently, over time. True medicinal-strength infusions use a lot of dried herb combined with a long steeping time to achieve optimum extraction of vitamins and minerals. 

• 1 tablespoon nettle leaf
• 1 tablespoon oatstraw
• 1 tablespoon alfalfa
• 1 tablespoon dandelion leaf
• 1 tablespoon red raspberry leaf
• 1 tablespoon rose petals
• ½ tablespoon rosehips
• ¼ tablespoon cinnamon chips, not the powder (or substitute 1 part spearmint)

1. Measure 5 to 6 tablespoons of the mix into a glass, heat-proof mason jar or similar container with a tight-fitting lid. 

2. Pour boiling water over the herbs and steep 4 -8 hrs or overnight.

3. Strain herbs and drink infusion either throughout the day or in 1 cup amounts. An infusion will last 3 days when kept refrigerated.

Herbal Sources:  Mountain Rose Herbs or Pacific Botanicals. For more on making herbal infusions, pop on by my blog at http://lilithsapothecary.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/herbal-infusions-part-ii.

References: Tourles, Stephanie (1999). Naturally Healthy Skin: Tips and Techniques for a Lifetime of Radiant Skin. MA:  Publishing .

My good friend, Cecilia is moving into her first apartment in a few weeks. Her mind is racing with color themes, furniture measurements and the overall design flow of her apartment. When we discussed her grand plans along with her creative ideas, one project really stuck out in my mind: Making a terrarium.  

Regardless of how big a space is or what room it is in, terrariums polish a space off and they incorporate nature into a room.

What you'll need:

• Spray bottle
• Glass container (a large open top will be easier for routine maintenance, however you can also have a closed terrarium)
• Gravel or small rocks
• Charcoal
• Cactus potting soil
• A few succulents (the number will depend on how big your glass container is) or ferns
• Moss or ground cover
• Decorations (rocks, glass or metal birds, sticks or sea glass)
• Water

Directions:

1. Terrariums do not have a drainage hole like a potted plant, so a false drainage system is necessary. Add 1 to 2 inches of gravel or small rocks to the bottom of the container. This will prevent the plants from sitting in too much water and eventually rotting.

2. Next, add a thin layer of charcoal. You can substitute sand for charcoal but keep in mind that charcoal will prevent mold from growing and it also keeps the soil fresh.

3. Add cactus potting soil. It should take up roughly1/3 the size of the container. If you are using ferns you can substitute cactus potting soil for normal potting mix.

4. Before planting, make sure you remove any dead leaves or pest infestations. Place the largest plants first as they will take up the most space; plant the others next. Make sure the leaves are not touching the glass sides. This measure will prevent unnecessary condensation.

5. Add a thin layer of moss or ground cover.

6. Place any garden decorations on top of the moss.

7. Using a spray bottle, add about a shot glass worth of water to the terrarium for the finishing touch. Don’t add too much water.

8. Keep the terrarium out of direct sun as the heat will fry the plants.

Read more about terrific terrariums: Herbs Under Glass.

Cynthia Meredith has been gardening with herbs, reading about herbs, gardening with herbs and discussing herb gardening in Texas for more than 20 years. She has owned The Herb Cottage (www.theherbcottage.com) for over 10 years, selling herb plants to people all over our state. 

It is still very hot here in my part of Texas. Day after day the temperature reaches 100 degrees or above with no rain. I was in town this morning and two people stopped me to ask how to keep their plants alive in this weather. It surely is a challenge.

Two things I think will help preserve plants are pruning and mulch. If you live where there is water rationing, you might have to sacrifice some plants to save others. Annuals are generally the biggest water-users—even in the herb garden. The sweet and succulent basils that I wrote about last week definitely are not considered drought-tolerant. Harvest your basil, make pesto or make flavored vinegar and think about replanting it early in the fall for a later crop. Save your water for your big rosemary plant or your favorite antique rose. Basil grows quickly from seed; you can usually find transplants in the southern parts of Texas to plant it early in the fall. If you live in the northern part of Texas, you can take cuttings now. Root them in a glass of water in the kitchen and plant them indoors for the winter.

Also, prune those leggy oregano plants if they're wilting too quickly every day. If they've already bloomed, prune them back by about half their size. The following picture is before I pruned back this Santa Cruz Oregano.

You can see how leggy it is—it looks unhealthy and not very attractive. The next picture is after only about 15 to 20 minutes of work pruning. How much better the tractor tire bed looks.

My lemon balm looks very poor even though it gets afternoon shade. I generally prune my lemon balm during August, and this year I'm doing it earlier. When the weather cools down it'll grow out and againprovide me with wonderful leaves for tea and Lemon Balm Quick Bread (a favorite with anyone who's ever tried it!)

The other very important step that will help your plants through this hot, dry spell is to mulch, mulch, mulch. I stepped barefoot on a spot in my yard underneath the full sun that is not mulched. Yeow!! The soil was really hot! Imagine how the roots of the plants feel with that heat around them. Also, we all know that mulch conserves water as well as tempering the soil temperature.

I know other parts of Texas have been getting rain. I'd love to hear from some of you in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area or east Texas. How do your herb gardens grow this summer??

And, just so we never give up hope, here's a picture of the flowers that recently bloomed on that tough plant—garlic chives.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
—Marcus Tullius Cicero

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

When The Herbal Husband and I said yes to a garden tour this summer, I had envisoned taking out a huge clump of tansy that was trying to control my herb garden. 

The suspect plants are pictured in the left and part of this photo.

Then I started to see signs of life—beneficial life at that! So much for jetisoning the tansy! As the tansy was growing and swallowing up more and more of the back of my herb garden, I noticed the ladybugs were moving on to the Russian sage. 

They were taking a small tour of my herb garden. The ladybugs were nowhere to be found on garden tour day. I was hoping to show them off to the visitors in the garden. Maybe because it rained, they moved under the leaves to keep dry. They were back in full force today with the hot sunny day and welcomed visitors in my herb garden. I have joined the Lost Ladybug Project and uploaded my photos to their website. They identified my little darlings as multicolored Asian ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis). So think twice and check carefully before you want to take out that aggressive herb that is taking over your garden!

The perfect mix of seasonings can make all the difference when flavoring any dish. Last night, I made Spicy Sizzling Prawns with Mountain Rose Herbs' new line of Epicurean Organic seasoning blends. I used the Herbs De Provence, a refreshing blend of basil, tarragon, organic marjoram, thyme, lavender and fennel. The distinct aroma of this blend lends a clean flavor to this prawn dish. I also used the West Indies Rub, an exotic blend of ginger, fenugreek, coriander, mustard seed, black pepper, garlic, sea salt and other spices. This blend added a Caribbean spice. Together, the seasonings were a perfect mix for my prawns.

Photo courtesty of C Results Communications

Mountain Rose Herbs also offers a Macadamia Nut Oil, which has a nutty aroma and flavor but it does not overpower your food. I used 3 tablespoons of this oil to cover the bottom of my cooking pan. This oil also tastes great with sundried tomato rolls.

The Epicurean Organics line is Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth and Kosher Certified by Earth Kosher. They are non-GMO, irradiation-free, fairly traded and chemical free. Try these products together to flavor seafood. (I recommend prawns.)

I know a few guys and gals—I won’t name names—who are obsessed with enhancing their athletic performance and physical health. From protein drinks to creatine powders and quercetin supplements, they’re always out for the latest breakthrough in athletic technology. I have been caught up in this sporty fervor myself and been forced to drink protein concoctions from time to time. As long as they’re mixed with tasty fruit juices and yogurts, I’m fine, but protein powder and water – no thanks.

I begrudgingly agree that drinking protein powders after my workout does seem to help my energy and stamina. However, after reading Don Matesz’s article, Natural Healing: Making a Fresh Start, I realize that I might be getting more protein than I really need. I don’t need as much because my workouts are usually fast and furious rather than long and intense. I’m reluctant to rely on manufactured supplements, anyway. I’d prefer to get the most out of a good, healthy meal, instead of abstaining from calories and chugging protein.

Photo by size8jeans/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newbirth/ 

To improve your game, you don’t necessarily have to look ahead for the next scientific supplement, just look around you. Researchers for The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research found in a study this year that consuming black currants before and after your workout can decrease muscle damage, reduce inflammation and boost immune systems. 

Photo by Quite Adept/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiteadept/

Another popular herbal classic, ginseng, is also a great natural supplement. Ginseng’s expansive family, Siberian ginseng, American ginseng and Asian ginseng, to name a few, can all help your performance. Although, a study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, also done this year, didn’t find any conclusive evidence of ginseng’s performance enhancement, ancient practitioners from locals such as Russia and China, have consumed ginseng to enhance productivity, increase stamina and improve the immune system because of its adaptogen qualities.

Photo by whitney waller/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitneywaller/

Astragalus and schisandra are two more great options for herbal athletic enhancement because both exhibit adaptogen potential similarly to ginseng. Astragalus is especially beneficial to reduce inflammation and strengthen natural immunities.

I find the option of drinking a cup of tea made from any one of these herbs vastly preferable to the drinks I’m choking down after the gym right now.

Photo by meeg-el/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meeg-el/ 

What works best for your workout? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Although we all love the summertime feeling of freedom and warmth, we don’t always love what it does to our hair and skin. During the summer, we have to take extra care of ourselves to look our best. The chlorine and sun dry out our skin and our hair and sometimes it seems that we sweat all day long. A few of these recipes may prevent the summer from limiting our natural beauty.

If you’re having trouble staying clean because of your many hours spent having outdoor adventures, try the Rose Hip Mask:

This facial treatment of pureed rose hips and plain yogurt will leave your skin soft and smooth. Dried rose hips are available in many grocery and health-food stores. Simply soak them in some warm water for 15 to 20 minutes to rehydrate them and then follow the recipe as written.

• 10 fresh rose hips from unsprayed shrubs
• Water
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt

1. Remove the stalk and blossom ends of the rose hips. Rinse the hips, place them in a small saucepan, and cover them with water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain, then pour the rose hips into a blender or food processor and puree. Let it cool, then mix with the yogurt.

2. Spread the mask on your face and neck. Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse with cool water and pat your skin dry. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for as long as 2 weeks.

Photo by Carmen Sotuela/ Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carmensotuela/

When the weather gets hot and humid, stay cool by smoothing on some Cooling Peppermint Body Powder:

The fresh, clean scent of peppermint is an instant energizer. Mixing the essential oil into cornstarch makes a refreshing body powder.

• ½ teaspoon peppermint oil
• 1 cup cornstarch

1. Place the peppermint oil and cornstarch in a plastic zip-close bag or a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake the container well to combine the ingredients. Store the scented powder in a clean container with a lid. A large saltshaker makes a good dispenser.

2. Shake the powder on clean, dry skin or apply it with a powder puff.

Humidity can really get your hair on the fritz; keep it in place with Summer Braid Gel:

The small, shiny brown seeds are the source of linseed oil. When soaked in water, they form a gel that gives hair extra body and lift.

• 3 tablespoons flaxseed
• 1 cup water

1. Mix the flaxseed and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Off heat, let the mixture stand for 15 minutes. Strain out the seeds and allow the jellylike liquid to cool completely. Pour the gel into a clean container and cap it. The mixture will continue to thicken if left uncovered.

2. Apply a small amount to wet or dry hair as you would any other styling gel.

How do you keep yourself clean and gorgeous during the summer heat? Leave me comments and let me know!

Listening to music helps me get through just about any task. I have a playlist on my ipod for work and another one for walking up the hill to school. I’m actually addicted to making mix CDs for every occasion. When I drive from New Mexico to Kansas, I make a CD with some Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline. (Country is my first choice for this particular road trip because it fits the scenery.) 

I’ve wanted to make a gardening playlist for quite some time and I’ve finally accumulated enough songs to do so. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound of Mother Nature but listening to some tunes will make tending to the garden a totally different experience.

Here is my list of songs that I would listen to while gardening. I would love to hear what songs you would add to this playlist, so please share!

Photo by pokpok313/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pokpok/

• Simon and Garfunkel, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme” – A garden mix without this song? Are you kidding me?

• Peter Bjorn and John, “Young Folks” – This song reminds me of spring and it makes me want to be outside whenever I listen to it. It has a catchy beat and it has whistling in it, too! Any song with whistling is fine by me. 

• Booker T. and The MGs, “Green Onions” – This song makes me feel like I’m on a mission. It might give you the motivation to bring your beloved herbs indoors.

• The Kinks, “Village Green” – This is a great tune to skip to! I could also water some plants to it. 

• The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” – Try tilling to this song. It might give you the motivation to dig and create new garden spaces.

• Ella Fitzgerald, “Give Me The Simple Life” – This one goes out to Samurai Sage, a.k.a. K.C. Compton.

• Manu Chao, “Mi Vida” – For some reason this song makes me want to cook. Maybe it would be good for planting your culinary herb garden. 

• John Denver, “Home Grown Tomatoes” – He’s right, money can’t buy home-grown tomatoes. Life is just so much better with home-grown tomatoes and this song to listen to while growing them.

Let me know if you have any more suggestions for my gardening mix by leaving a comment!

I think I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m an awful cook.  Desperate, really. But with a backyard of herbs, it’s tough not to do some experimenting and, with me, desserts are the way to go!

Here are some great recipes I’ve made, perfect for any mint-grower. And believe me, if I can make them, you can too!

Candied Mint Leaves:

Serve these easy-to-make candies as an after-dinner mint or a garnish to a sorbet. They’ll leave you with a surprisingly refreshing taste like you’ve never experienced.

My candied mint leaves were a big hit at my 4th of July party. I served them aligned in rows on a platter I bought from Natural Home magazine (which is now on clearance!)

• 1 egg white
• Small amount of water
• Handful of rinsed mint leaves (chocolate-mint, spearmint, peppermint, lemon-balm, orange mint and/or cinnamon-mint)

1. Beat egg white with water.

2. Dip or brush mixture on to mint leaves.

3. Coat mixture in granulated sugar.

4. Cool in refrigerator for one hour and serve. 

“Hint of Mint” Dark-Chocolate Truffles:

So easy to make and always in demand, these dark chocolate truffles can be a bad-cook’s best friend!

Inspired by truffle mushrooms, good chocolate truffles should have a fresh-from-the earth look. Pictured here are a few of my truffle variations rolled in cocoa: mint, orange-almond and coffee. I served them with a sprig of chocolate mint and I used a recycled glass bowl from Natural Home magazine (which is also on clearance!). 

• 1 large handful of freshly-cut chocolate-mint leaves (substitute peppermint leaves)
• 1 pound dark chocolate baking chips or baking chocolate bar, chopped
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Rinse mint leaves and crush in a mortar and pestle until smooth. You can also chop them using a food processor or  just crush them with a spoon.

2. Pour chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate bars) and crushed mint leaves into a mixing bowl

3. Bring cream to boil in saucepan and immediately pour over chocolate chips. Let cool for 60 seconds

4. Next, take a whisk and, beginning in the center, very gently stir the mixture at the surface in small circles. As the cream melts the chips, you can continue to stir deeper and more quickly until the mixture is even and shiny. This smooth, almost pudding-like mixture is called a ganache.

5. Now, you should let the ganache chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. When you remove the mixture, it will have firmed and can be sculpted.

6. For my truffles, I used a small melon-baller to scoop spheres and rolled them in cocoa powder as a coat. You can also roll in crushed cookies, graham crackers, hot chocolate powder, or you can coat with chocolate syrup that hardens.

Substitutions:

By simply substituting other ingredients for the mint in this recipe, you can completely transform the flavoring of your truffles for a wonderful mixture of candies.

- Lemon Truffles: Substitute lemon balm and a pinch of lemon juice for the chocolate-mint leaves to punch up a citrusy flavor.

- Lime Truffles:  Peel, chop and mix-in half a lime and all its juice.

- Lavender Truffles: Crush and chop finely a handsome bunch with a touch of mint leaves to taste.

- Orange-Almond Truffles: Substitute freshly-chopped orange zest or orange oil extract and a small bag of chopped almonds.

- Coffee Truffles: Use instant coffee and a bit of cinnamon to taste. A little can go a long way in terms of flavor.

- Spicy Truffles: Add a few shakes of cayenne pepper (I would half this recipe with another variation of truffle if you’re not sure you’ll like it).

The variations really are endless, try ginger, white-chocolate and saffron, peanut butter, etc. Any basket of truffles would make for a thoughtful, homemade gift.

If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

It’s time to stop going out for lunch and start brown-baggin’ it. Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk offer this advice in their new book, The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook (Viva Editions, 2009). Flipping through pages and pages of money-saving recipes, I realized this is just the book for me. I’m young, lazy and I continually forget to pack a lunch for work. Now, more than ever, is the time to really start saving money. I just graduated college and I need those extra dollars to get by. The problem is that I’m so sick of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but that’s all I have time to make in morning (my lunch is prepared five minutes before I rush out the door).

Photo courtesy of Viva Editions

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook is a great source for delicious, herb-infused recipes. Try this recipe for Roasted Garlic, Spinach, and Feta Pizza.

• 1 whole head of garlic, unpeeled
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ large red onion, very finely minced
• 1 pound fresh spinach, washed, stemmed, and chopped
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ pound feta cheese, crumbled

* Roast the garlic before baking the pizza dough 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut off the top of the head of garlic about ¼ inch from the top, exposing most of the cloves. Place garlic on a square of aluminum foil and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Wrap the foil around the garlic, covering completely. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until soft to the touch. Let the bulb cool, then squeeze the soft garlic into a small bowl.

Make the Sauce

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, lidded skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the spinach, cover the pan, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until wilted. Stir in the vinegar and salt. Cook uncovered, stirring, for about 2 minutes more. If the spinach is very wet, transfer to a mesh strainer and press with a wooden spoon to remove excess liquid.

2. Brush the prebaked pizza crust with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Spread the roasted garlic over the olive oil. Add the spinach in an even layer and top with the crumbled cheese. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes.

With a cat, a sink full of dishes and teeming garbage, my house is in constant need of air freshening. My stand-by method of air freshening was burning incense, but I quickly run out of incense to burn. As a resutl, I decided to switch to a plug-in air freshener. Although I’ve missed the relaxing waft of incense smoke, I haven’t missed dusty ashes covering my book shelf. The absence of visible smoke, however, does not mean that my air is clean. The invisible chemicals ejected into the air from my plug-in air freshener may be just as harmful as the smoke was, if not more.

Photo by CM Sims/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fragmentsofsobriquets/

It turns out that some automatic air fresheners emit chemicals such as phthalates. According to a 2007 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, these chemicals can disrupt hormone levels and lead to reproductive abnormalities.

I don’t think I’ll revert back to incense with gusto because a recent University of Minnesota study indicates that excessive usage can contribute to respiratory tract cancers. 

Instead, my new favorite freshening friend has become a potted chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemums, as well as other indoor plants, offer a number of health and freshening benefits. Specifically, they can neutralize airborne chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene and carbon monoxide. In a clean air study, done jointly by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, houseplants were proven to effectively remove up to 87 percent of air borne pollutants within 24 hours.

Another alternative to mainstream air fresheners are pure essential oils. These oils can be used with diffusers or nebulizers found at your nearest health food store or online.

While I will give household plants and essential oil diffusers a try, I can’t completely give up incense; it is just too much a part of my cleaning routine.

How about you? Have you found any natural air fresheners that work great at your place? Leave a comment and let me know!  

When the weather gets warm, my socks and shoes come off. I like my feet to feel free and therefore spend most of my time barefoot during the summer months. But the constant wear from my lack of shoes leaves my tootsies dry and callused.

If you go barefoot like me and your feet need some TLC, or if you just want your feet to look great in some strappy sandals, try this five-step natural pedicure.

Step One: Soak and Relax

Light some candles and unwind by soaking your feet in a bath of warm water for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of baking soda and ½ cup of borax to soften calluses to remove rough skin more easily. For a fresh scent, also add a few drops of an essential oil, such as lavender or peppermint.

Step Two: Deep Cleanse

After soaking, soap up your feet and thoroughly scrub them with a natural bristle foot brush. To make a revitalizing foot soap, combine 4 ounces of unscented liquid body soap with 10 drops each of rosemary essential oil, lavender essential oil and peppermint essential oil in a plastic bottle.

Photo By Diva Bex/Courtesy Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/bexshots/

Step Three: Smooth Your Feet

Finish the foot bath with an exfoliating scrub. Try this Peppermint Foot Scrub.

• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon almond oil
• 3 drops peppermint essential oil

1. Combine the ingredients and add enough warm water to make a thick paste. Massage your feet with the scrub, paying special attention to rough, callused areas.

2. Rinse well with warm, soapy water.

Step Four: Moisturize for Soft Feet

Pat your feet dry and slather them with a rich moisturizing cream. Massage a small amount of the cream into cuticles and nails or use this cuticle and nail butter. Gently push back cuticles with the blunt end of an orangewood stick; don’t cut cuticles, they help protect the nails and keep bacteria out.

Step Five: Trim, Shape and Buff

Trim toenails straight across. Prevent ingrown toenails by not cutting nails too short and rounding the corners of the nails. File toenails with an emery board in one direction, following the natural shape of your toenails. Finish by buffing nails with a nail buffer. 

This easy (and inexpensive!) do-it-yourself pedicure will leave feet soft and refreshed.

Do you have any tips for keeping feet from getting dry and callused during the summer? What are your natural foot care remedies? Tell me about them in the comment section.

Growing up in Hawaii, I would camp on the shore, hike around volcanoes, relax at the beach, swim in waterfalls, kayak and bike down beautiful trails. (It was a rough life, but someone had to do it!)

Unfortunately, despite my previous experiences, I always seemed to return home with a pink glowing aura around my burnt body. The Hawaiian summer sun is relentless! Before I could even step out of the car, my mom would fill my ears with her endless speech on the benefits of using more sunscreen. She said I didn’t use enough sunscreen to start out with and that I had neglected to reapply. Nonetheless, the damage was done.

Once I got home the “ritualistic process” would begin: My mom would start a cool shower for her burnt, crispy daughter and then I would douse myself in aloe vera.

Aloe was my number one remedy as it would soothe my skin and cease the burning sensation. What more could you ask for when you feel like you’ve been deep-fried? The miracle plant also relieves thermal burned skin and it stimulates wounds to heal quicker.

There are a plethora of aloe plants throughout Hawaii and extracting the gel is as easy as snapping off a leaf. The aloe leaf is like a hallow tube and clear gel occupies the space. If you extract aloe for skin related purposes, make sure the gel is clear and not yellow. The yellow juice is found in the resin canal cells of the plant and acts as a laxative.

Even though I currently live in Denver, I still do many of the same activities I did in Hawaii. With the high elevation and the summer sun, I still manage to get burned (regardless of the amount of sunscreen I use). Fortunately, a bottle of aloe vera is always close by. 

Marguerite Dunne is a city girl and traveler. Visit her website at www.herbs-on-hudson.com or listen to her radio show, The Urban Herbalist, on www.wtbq.com. Marguerite was also the third place winner in The Herb Companion's essay contest, "Looking Forward to Herbs."

It's officially summertime. The fish are jumping, the catnip is high, the birds and the bees are busy gathering, the plants are busy growing and some herbalists are busy brewing up herbal recipes for skincare lotions and creams. But what about taking care of your skin from the inside?

In The Practicing Herbalist, master herbalist Margi Flint does an outstanding job of explaining Chinese Facial Analysis, illustrating how the laugh lines around your mouth and the lines across your forehead are reflections of a backed-up colon. Other lines are also connected to toxic body sites.

Here are a couple of my favorite herbs that work from the inside to help your skin shine on the outside. 

• Burdock (Arctium lappa). My favorite blood cleanser, with an affinity for the epidermis. So good, it helps with psoriasis and poison ivy. 

• Red clover (Trifolium pratense). An antibacterial agent. It’s been effective with many skin disorders including athlete’s foot.  It also helps with cough, colds and burns. 

• Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). A safe and effective laxative; also useful for clearing impurities out of the blood.

• Boldo (Peumus boldus). A gentle remedy for the liver, gallbladder and digestion.  
          
Helping to clean the digestive system and liver will assist clearing the body of toxins so that epidermis eruptions, pimples, and rashes don’t have a chance collecting and dispersing on the skin.    

Continued from 7 Tips for Everday Outdoor Gardening, Part 1 and 7 Tips for Everday Outdoor Gardening, Part 2. 

15. Sprout your Seeds – A lot of people ask me about growing peanuts, moonflowers or pumpkin seeds because they have trouble getting them to germinate.

Resolution: Place seeds inside three or four wet, stacked paper towels and set on a plate in the sink. Keep the seeds moist, cool and dark; check after 72 hours for the sprouting of cotyledons or seed leaves. Once they have grown, plant the seed in a small paper cup or empty egg carton of dirt and set in a sunny window.

16. Strengthen your Seedlings – Frequently, seeds started indoors will germinate weak stemmed seedlings, because the plant invests only as much energy as it thinks it needs in holding the plant erect.

Resolution: Lightly brush your hand back and forth over your seedlings a few times a day, helping them become accustomed to stem movement.

17. Explore the Benefits of Bugs – In Tip 13, I explained a simple, organic way to control pests – but let’s say your infestation is a bit more severe than just out-of-control.

Resolution: Many garden-dwelling insects are harmless to our plants, and do us a service in terms of pest control. Before spraying your vegetation with toxic pesticides that kill both good and bad insects, ask your local nurseries about beneficial bugs. Mantids, for example, will eat nearly any insect they catch, including aphids and mosquitoes, while lady bugs are used especially for aphid infestations that would be difficult to control with chemicals or soap-washes. You can also buy predatory bugs specifically bred to kill spider mites, larvae, worms, thrips and mealybugs; however, these insects can be difficult to control.

18. Be Aware of Toxic Plants – If you have children, becoming aware of the toxicity of, what may seem like common plants, is very important. Many indoor tropical plants are toxic to both humans and animals, such as philodendron, pothos, spiderplants and mistletoe.

Many common outdoor varieties can cause abdominal pains or cardiac complications, such as sweet pea, iris, clematis, foxglove, poinsettias, amaryllis, hydrangeas, lilacs and vinca. (For a more complete list, visit this website: http://www.aragriculture.org/horticulture/ornamentals/toxic_plants.htm)

19. Make Propagation Easy – You’ve tried seeds, you’ve tried seedlings, you’ve given them everything short of blood, yet nothing seems to make them grow! 

Resolution: Plants can also be grown from cutting, layering or dividing.

• Cuttings – With several plants, you can take a cutting from just below a leaf node and stick them in water or the ground to produce new roots. Mints and pothos plants can both be grown effectively from cuttings. In fact, pothos plants, which are often mislabeled as philodendron by florists, are hydroponic, meaning they will thrive in water. Make sure to remove any leaves from the part of the stem submerged in water.

• Layering - Some plants will send out stolons or “runners,” which are prostrate stems that have the ability to root the plant elsewhere. These include mints, many shrubs and even strawberries. For example, forsythia, a very common leafy shrub that is bright yellow in the spring, can be propagated by layering. Simply bend one end of a stem to bury in the ground. In a few weeks, roots will develop and the bent stem can be snipped from the mother-plant. With strawberries, runners can be pinned to the ground with a rock to encourage rooting; snip them when they show signs of growth so they don’t leach nutrients from the parent plant. Dig and transplant as needed.

• Dividing – Digging up and dividing roots is one of the most effective means of propagation. Lilies, especially, can be divided and transplanted. Dig them in the fall after the flowers are spent, and replant where desired for re-growth in the spring.

( The Herb Companion Guide to Propagating Herbs ) 

20. Consider Using your Hair – Occasionally, orthodox solutions just don’t work for curing your garden of rabbits or skunks or strays.

Resolution: Take a bag of human (or cat) hair clippings and spread around the yard. Many beauty salons will give you a bag of clippings but with a sideways look. Garden-dwelling animals are sensitive to predators and will be discouraged from invading marked areas. Another option, and one that I have found most effective, is to spray a hot pepper-wax or essential oil solution on plants, making them unsavory.

21. Never Over-water –A flooded plant is a dead plant. 

Resolution: It’s better to underwater a plant you’re unfamiliar with, rather than overwater. It seems like, ironically, our concern for life causes us to kill – so take it easy with the hose next time you water your favorite new flowers.

And that does it! If you have any suggestions, comments or additions to this list, leave a comment below. If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

I plan to go camping this summer but don’t want my fun ruined by bug bites, bee stings or poison ivy. With my luck though, I’ll spend most of the camping trip itching my legs rather than enjoying the wilderness. Preventive measures – bug sprays and campfires – can only go so far; try our herbal remedies to soothe those common camping complaints. 

Camping Ailment #1: Poison Ivy  

Prevent poison ivy rashes by learning how to identify them. Poison ivy grows as a vine or a shrub. Most often it coils around trees or along the ground, but it can also form into upright bushes.

The leaves of poison ivy consist of three pointed leaflets. The leaves have a reddish color in the spring, are green in the summer, and have various shades of yellow, orange or red in the fall.

If you do catch poison ivy, try these herbs to soothe the itching:

• Grindelia, also known as gumweed, contains resins and tannins that help relieve pain and itching. Apply a grindelia tincture or spray directly to the rash.

• Jewelweed tends to grow near poison ivy. For instant relief, pick a branch, crush it and apply the juice directly to the rash. To keep jewelweed handy, make this jewelweed vinegar, which stays good for about a year.

• Oatmeal also works well to soothe irritated skin because it pulls out any remaining toxins. Use oatmeal for rashes that have already set in. Try adding a pot of oatmeal to a bath or grind together oatmeal and cold water to make a paste to spread onto the rash.

Photo by Colin Purrington/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/

Camping Ailment #2: Poison Oak

Poison oak grows mainly in the western United States. It usually grows as a shrub but can also grow as a vine.

Like poison ivy, poison oak usually has three leaflets; sometimes it has five. Its leaves are green in the summer, but red or pinkish in the fall.

The remedies for poison ivy work equally well for poison oak.

Camping Ailment #3: Bug Bites

To prevent bug bites, try diluting these herbs with vinegar or oils such as olive, almond, grapeseed, sesame or walnut, to deter mosquitoes, chiggers, gnats, ticks and biting flies.

• Lemongrass
• Eucalyptus
• Lavender
• Lemon Thyme
• Mountain Mint
• Citronella
• Sandalwood 

Unfortunately bug sprays don’t repel against all bugs all the time. Plus they evaporate quickly and require frequent reapplication. If you get bitten, try these herbal remedies for itching relief.

For mosquito or chigger bites, rub tea tree oil on the affected area.

For other bites, try peppermint essential oil or witch hazel extract. With its high concentration of menthol, peppermint works to curb itching caused by bug bites. Distilled witch hazel has astringent, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, which help soothe insect bites.

Lemon juice also relieves itching from bug bites. The juice works against bug saliva, the source of the itching. Baking soda and apple cider vinegar work similarly.

Photo by da100fotos/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/da100fotos/

Camping Ailment #4: Bee Stings

Apply the end of an onion (any type works) to an insect sting. The onion draws out venom and creates a soothing sensation.

Plantains also soothe stings. Crush a few leaves of the plant and apply the juice to the affected area.

Lotions or creams that contain calendula or chamomile can also soothe mild stings.

Enjoying the great outdoors can come with an itchy price. I hope these herbal remedies help. Do you have any natural remedies for soothing common summer ailments? Tell me about them in the comment section.

During the summertime, the living is easy; but what is the only unfortunate part about summer? Bug bites. Apparently, I have sweet-tasting blood that mosquitoes love to dive into, causing tons of bug bites all summer long. Repelling insects is a crucial strategy during the summer, especially to gardeners. Fortunately, there are great herbal bug repellent and itch-relief remedies that can easily be made at home. Be careful! First, try allergy tests to see how your skin reacts to some of these strong herbs.

Photo by James Jordan/Courtesy Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/

Next, try these two skin oil formulas:

Antiseptic Insect Repellent Skin Oil

• 1/2 cup almond, walnut or grapeseed oil
• 6 drops oregano, thyme or tea tree oil
• 4 drops each of up to four insect repellent oils (click here for a list of oils)

1. Add oil to a small clean bottle, preferably dark glass. Drop in the essential oils of your choice and shake well.

2. Label and keep in a dark, cool place.

Insect Repellent Neat's-foot Oil

• 1/2 teaspoon each orange, eucalyptus and citronella essential oils
• 7.5-ounce bottle neat’s-foot oil (available in sporting goods stores)

1. Add the essential oils to the neat’s-foot oil bottle and shake well.

2. Apply to boots as directed on bottle.

You can also try these two vinegar formulas. Use them separate or mixed together:

Herbal Insect Repellent Vinegar

You can pour vinegars into spray bottles for easy application.

• 2 cups fresh insect-repellent herbs (click here for a list of herbs)
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar

1. Crush herbs with a mortar and pestle. Place herbs in a glass quart jar and cover with vinegar. Use a plastic lid to seal the jar (vinegar corrodes metal).

2. Shake every day for 3 to 7 days. Filter vinegar within a week and use within the year.

Jewelweed Vinegar

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) grows in the wild, wet places in the eastern United States. The juice of the plant is a traditional remedy for all sorts of skin ailments. To use it, simply crush the leaves and stems and rub the juice on itchy spots. To preserve and keep it handy, make this vinegar.

• 1 cup fresh crushed jewelweed
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar

1. Place jewelweed in glass quart jar. Cover with vinegar and seal with a plastic lid. You can leave the herb in for up to four weeks. Pour vinegar through a cheesecloth-lined strainer.

2. We add insect-repellent and antiseptic essential oils to the vinegar, 10 drops to a one-pint sprayer. Vinegars are good for about a year.

Finally, you could also try this formula for a foot powder:

Gardener's Foot Powder

• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 10 drops each lavender and tea tree oils

1. Put cornstarch and baking soda in a jar; add essential oils and stir.

I am a big coffee drinker. I need the caffeine to keep me going while I’m at work and when I’m pulling all-nighters for papers and tests. As a result, I admit, I can get bad breath. Sure, I could brush my teeth 10 times a day, but who has time for that? Luckily, Health 911 and MotherNature have some herbal remedies to assist me with solving the issue.

Parsley is particularly high in chlorophyll, so there’s no doubt that it’s a great mouth-freshener. Parsley is often used as a garnish on platters when you’re out to eat, so take advantage of this free breath mint. Effective mostly against garlic and onion, munching on this herb after your meal will give you instant fresh breath. If swallowed, it will digest and can keep your mouth fresh for hours. Personally, this is my favorite post-meal freshener.

Photo by Sarah Norden

Like parsley, dill is also high in cholorphyll and has antibacterial, digestive and diuretic properties, making it a boon to any meal. Simply chew on some dill seeds or make a cup of tea with 1 to 2 teaspoons of leaves for each cup of boiling water.

Chewing on some sage helps to neutralize mouth odors because of its essential and antibacterial oils. You can also gargle sage tea to freshen up or to help heal mouth sores.

Anise is known to eliminate the bacteria in your mouth that causes bad breath. Chewing on some anise seeds will get rid of the bad smell and it tastes like licorice. You can even boil it into a tea and drink it or use it as a mouthwash.

Photo by Whirling Phoenix/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelloggphotography/

The oil from cloves is a strong antiseptic. Boil it into a tea or let it steep in some vodka to create a potent and effective mouthwash. Chew on a bit of clove to get a quick breath freshener as well.

So if you think you’re too afraid for the up-close-and-personal moments, just give one of these homemade herbal remedies a shot and let those concerns fade. Leave me a comment and let me know how you solve your daily bad breath!

When cooking, I never use herbs as the heart of a dish. A sprinkling of basil or parsley can add that extra zing of flavor that pushes a meal from blah to delish, so I have never considered using herbs as more than ingredients. But they can be!

Because it's summertime, I crave cool, refreshing salads. For your next meal, rather than falling back on the standard lettuce-tomato-cucumber salad, skip the lettuce and use fresh herbs instead. Try this mouth-watering mushroom and fresh herb salad, from The New York Times, which is rich in vitamins, beneficial flavonoids and volatile elements. The recipe uses "sweet- and sharp-tasting herbs, such as tarragon, chervil, parsley, wild arugula and dill."

(Read The New York Time's "A Focus on Fresh Herbs")

Try combining fresh herbs with mixed greens like in our Herb Companion recipe for a fresh herb and flower salad.

Photo by Vigilant20/Courtesy Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/lynnszwalkiewicz/

Wild Spring Herb and Flower Salad

Serves 4

• 1/2 head romaine lettuce, washed, patted dry, and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 head red leaf lettuce, washed, patted dry, and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 cup sweet violet flowers (Viola spp., the common wild perennial)
• 1/3 cup unsprayed sweet violet leaves, stems removed
• 12 small young yarrow leaves
• 1/4 cup arugula flowers or 8 arugula leaves
• 1/4 cup organic dandelion leaves, picked before flowering
• 12 tips each of two mild herbs, such as dill and lemon balm
• 3 tablespoons cold-pressed olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. In a large bowl, toss all the greens and herbs with the olive oil. Drizzle the rice wine vinegar over the greens and serve with salt and pepper on the side.

Not only do herb salads make for a refreshing change, but they also offer health benefits. The dark green color of fresh herbs indicates their high nutrition value. For example, parsley is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and iron, while basil packs a punch with vitamin A, vitamin K, iron and calcium.

Do you have a delicious (and nutritious) herb salad recipe? What herbs do you think would make the best salads? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Whether you have children, a fast-paced job, or classes to take, we all lead hectic lives. The stress from our lives can bring on a lot of anxiety. As a student, I get stressed and anxious fairly often, but there are many herbs that can help ease this anxiety. Some of these herbs include kava kava, valerian, St. John’s wort, bugleweed, ginseng, and chamomile.

 According to www.iampanicked.com, kava kava can ease your anxiety level in just one week and can also help you sleep.

LoveToKnow tells us that valerian is very effective when it comes to healing anxiety. Valerian works as a sedative and seems to have the least amount of side effects of any anxiety-healing herb. It also can work within a week of consumption.

St. John’s wort can provide long-term treatment for anxiety according to LoveToKnow, although it can cause interference with some prescription drugs such as anti-depressants, birth control pills, cyclosporine, digoxin, and wafarin.

Photo by Cactusbones/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cactusbones/

Holisticonline.com says that bugleweed can help soothe nerves as a way to treat anxiety.

Ginseng has stimulant properties, can help reduce anxiety and give you an extra energy-boost, according to iampanicked.com.

According to holisticonline.com, chamomile has a few anxiety-healing properties. It gently acts therapeutically on your nerves and can help to soothe an upset stomach.

Photo by Matsuyuki/ Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matsuyuki/

Instead of risking addiction to anxiety drugs, try herbal treatment! Create teas or take capsules of these herbs for treatment. You can pick these herbs up at your local organic market.

It's been wonderful to write for The Herb Companion, Natural Home and GRIT. I'm excited about my herb cooking feature on quick pickling in the September issue. To date, I've written over 1,000 published articles, including features on gardening, green living, travel, beauty, healthy cooking and good eating.  You can reach me at lstarart@gmail.com.

When interviewing Chef Bruce Sherman for the July 2009 article, "Herbal Escape: North Pond Restaurant in Chicago", I was impressed by his reliance on herbs. Although he and his staff regularly pluck a rich, fragrant variety of herbs from the restaurant's own kitchen garden, he also relies on local farms for outstanding in-season herbs and other produce.

City Farm, Chicago; www.cityfarmchicago.org 

One of his suppliers is City Farm, just a short drive from his famous Lincoln Park eatery and the Chicago's Magnificient Mile. An ardent supporter, Chef Sherman is lavish in his praise of the organic offerings from this green oasis which thrives on only one acre by the intersection of Division Street and Clybourn Avenue. You can buy fresh, organically grown herbs at the City Farm farmstand, located on its site which borders the diverse neighborhoods of Cabrini-Green and the Gold Coast.

City Farm grows organic herbs on Chicago's near north side. Here Tim Wilson (left) and Ken Dunn (right) examine new fall turnips.

Sustainable urban farms such as City Farm are literally sprouting up all over the country. (Please forgive the pun.) This is excellent news for herb enthusiasts because many of these community-minded ventures grow and sell herbs, as well as herb plants. Urban farms can be an excellent source of formal or informal gardening instruction, which often includes herb cultivation. Also look for handmade herb-based products from the farm's own workshop.

Homeless Garden Project, Santa Cruz, California; www.homelessgardenproject.org 

Do you particularly love lavender? Not just the scent, but also the taste, color and texture? You can buy an amazing, creative array of lavender offerings from the Homeless Garden Project, located in Santa Cruz, California. This innovative program provides homeless men and women with job training and transitional services. The Homeless Garden Project cultivates organic herbs, produce, flowers -- and hope. Go to the online store at to buy Lavender Shortbread & Herb Biscuit Mix, Lavender Shortbread Cookie Mix, lavender sachets and more.

Greensgrow Farms, Philadelphia; www.greensgrow.org 

Another inspiring urban farm is a one-acre gem located near the heart of downtown Philadelphia. What's remarkable is that this pesticide-free farm was once a former toxic steel industrial site. Mary Seton Corboy, hailed as an urban agricultural hero, and her partner Tom Sereduk founded Greensgrow Farms over a decade ago -- making it one of the first urban farms in the nation. Today, Greensgrow Farms cultivates produce and flowers for Philly's grateful urban dwellers and restaurants. It also operates a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program with 65 local farms, a successful nursery, a farm stand, green roofs, and many community and educational programs. Of particular note are the herb plants that Greensgrow sells in its prolific nursery.

Urban Farms Near You

Throughout the nation, there are many urban farms that very much want and need your support. A quick way to find farms in your area is to conduct an online search for "urban farm" and the "city name." Also go to www.localharvest.org.

Do you have a favorite urban farm? Please share your thoughts with other readers in the comment form.

An herbal-themed gift basket will make a great present for your dad this Father’s Day. Whether he’s a cook, a gardener or enjoys an occasional spa day, giving him a variety of treats that incorporate herbs will make his day complete. Check out some herb-inspired gifts to include in your Father’s Day gift basket this year.

Your gift basket can be simple, inexpensive and still include a variety of gifts that cater to your dad’s interests. For example, my dad enjoys cooking with herbs from his garden, and his favorite snack is a cheese sandwich with a little Roma tomato and fresh basil (Ocimum basilicum). He grows basil in his garden, but he’s always looking to try a new cheese to put on his sandwich. I found this recipe for an herbed cheese that makes a wonderful spread on crackers and I plan on making the cheese or including the recipe in his basket. Here are a few ideas for herbal-themed treats to put in your Father’s Day gift basket.

Photo by Calvert Cafe & Catering/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37468351@N03/

• Make a botanical card: Create your own paper, embedded with bits of plants and delicious herbal scents. For instructions, read Easy-To-Make Herbal Cards.

• Herbal tea: Give your dad a variety of herbal infused teas such as chamomile (Matricaria recutita), yerba mate, peppermint (Mentha piperita) or green tea (Camellia sinensis).

• Herbal fragrances for men: Make your dad bath salts, potpourri or an air freshener. For recipes read Herbal Scents for Men.  

• Chocolates: Exotic chocolates flavored with herbs, such as lavender honey, garden mint and much more are great gifts for dad.

• A book for the gardener: Nancy Arrowsmith’s book, Essential Herbal Wisdom is a great gift for a gardener. Read this review for more information. 

These are just a few treats to fill your Father’s Day gift basket. I’m interested to hear what herbal-themed gifts you would give to your dad. Please share by leaving a comment.

As the lowly, new intern at The Herb Companion, one of my first tasks is to catalog and reorganize the books in our very messy library. While sorting through pages and pages of books all about herbs, the enticing, colorful covers made me wish that I was reading them instead of labeling them. So, I decided to chose a book and write about an interesting fact or tip that I discovered while reading it. (See…I get to do fun tasks too!)

The first book I found interesting was the The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook (Quarry Books, 2009) by Kim Flottum. In this book I learned about an interesting way to make your own herb-infused honey.

Check out this guide for bee-keeping information, honey recipes and more tips on making herb-infused honey.
Photo Courtesy Voyageur Press 

I’ve never tried flavored honey other than the sticks of strawberry honey I would buy at the Kansas State Fair as a kid. Here’s a method to make infused honey for a more grown-up palette.

Making Infused Honey

1. If you grow your own herbs, gather them early in the morning, so they’re as fresh as possible. Consider your tastes when choosing the herbs. Rose petals, chamomile and lavender have a more delicate flavor, while rosemary, anise and mint are stronger.

2. Wash the herbs under cold water to remove soil and old leaves.

3. Fill pint jars with honey about 4/5 full. Use a light, mildly flavored honey so that the herbs will have a stronger flavor. Try Purely Organic’s Poggio all'Olmo Organic Sunflower Honey. A 24-ounce jar costs $16.99 at www.purelyorganic.com.

4. Chop the herbs into fine pieces. Use 3 to 5 tablespoons for delicate-flavored herbs and 2 to 4 tablespoons for stronger herbs.

5. Place herbs into a reusable tea bag and put in a pint jar.

6. Set the jar in a sunny windowsill for one to two weeks. (It takes time for the honey to steep and reach maximum intensity.)

7. After one week, taste the honey. If the flavor is strong enough, remove the bag and discard. If a stronger flavor is desired, either add more herbs or let the herbs steep for another week.

Photo by Indigo Goat/ Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indigogoat/212780493/

Fast Method

If you just can’t wait two weeks for that delicious herb-infused honey try this faster method.

1. Using a double boiler, add two cups of honey.

2. Add 1 to 2 cups of the (chopped) herb of your choice directly to the honey, or use a mesh bag to contain the fragments.

3. Heat the mixture at 180 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

4. Strain the mixture or discard the mesh bag then place the mixture in a jar.

If you want a more delicately flavored honey, you can also use the nectar of flowers, such as violets and honeysuckle blossoms or fruit, such as the zest of an orange, tangerine or grapefruit to infuse your honey. For a stronger flavor, try minced garlic.

Have you ever tried herb-infused honey? Leave me a comment and tell me your sticky story.

References:

The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook by Kim Flottum (Quarry Books, 2009).

Also read  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 2  and  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3 . 

1. Kink Your Hose – Ever been dragging your hose around the garden, just to have it kink right before you get to the plant you want to water? “I just want to water that flower right there…no.” And then you shake the hose like a jump rope dreading to walk those 10 or 15 feet to the kink, don’t you? Or, do you have difficulty rolling up the hose in a nice circular pile when you’re through, ending up with something more closely resembling a five-pointed star than a circle?

Resolution: The trick is to keep water pressure in your hose so it maintains its shape. Just kink the end you’re holding or use a water nozzle that shuts off the flow of water while you're moving from plant to plant or rolling it up. It’s not fool-proof, but it works pretty well!

Photo by Eric Vondy/Courtesy Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/vondy

2.  Enjoy Summer Nights Bug-free – You’re sitting on the patio, enjoying the cool breeze from a warm summer day. Frogs are croaking, crickets chirping and June bugs are smacking you in the face.

Resolution: String large-bulb lights around the garden away from your lawn furniture. You get to enjoy the pleasant twinkle of the lights from afar, while your bugs enjoy them up close and away from you.

3.  Keep Dirt from Under Your Fingernails – Let’s not front, garden gloves are good for your hands, but you lose a lot of dexterity through that thick cloth. That in mind, you also want to keep your fingernails shiny for a night on the town later.

Resolution: Scratch all your nails on a bar of soap before going into the garden. This will seal off spaces under your nails, and will wash out more easily than dirt. Plus, you’ll be clean!

4.  Easily Train Vines – Say you have some up-growing vines like morning glories or Virginia creeper you want to train around a doorway for that cool, welcome-to-my-cottage look. You’ve tried sticks and twisty ties, but they’re just not cutting it.

Resolution: Use jute twine! Texture from the twine makes a great growing medium for most vining plants, blends well with natural foliage (especially if you use a green), and bends easier for a customized look. Tie down the ends to a rock or nail for extra support; the jute can be trimmed and sometimes removed after the vine is trained.

Photo by jozephine/Courtesy Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/7790557@N07

5.  Fresh-smelling Cars Go Great with Dried Herbs – Your car stinks and you need some dried herbs in a jiffy.

Resolution: Cut herbs as desired, lay in a single layer on a newspaper on the front-seat of your car and leave to set in the sun.

6.  Worm Poo Works! – Let’s say you're growing food and want to fertilize your garden more organically.

Resolution: Worm “castings” as they’re called, are rich in nitrogen and certain bacteria, which help your plants grow, and the best bit, they don’t stink like other manure! You can buy a worm composter (like this one) and use your kitchen scraps to cultivate healthy, rich organic material that your flowers and herbs will love. You can even compost things like dryer lint or used tissues! Wild!

7.  Encourage New Blooms – Some tips may seem common sense, but many people wouldn’t know that more blooms can be encouraged if spent blooms are removed.

Resolution: Cut off the dead flower stems to the base without removing any leaves like with geraniums or daisies. With day lilies, pinch off only the flower leaving the green stick for texture. When the plant fades in the fall, the stick will brown and can be easily pulled from the ground for fun crafts, like this authentic-looking witch’s broom I made for Halloween.

Check back next week for seven more outdoor gardening tips! UPDATE: 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 2 and 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3. 

If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

What are the health risks of chemical cleaners and which ingredients should we look out for? The more I read about harmful household cleaners the more I want to know about the chemical ingredients that make these products unsafe. Here’s a look at some of the problematic chemicals found in many household cleaners and some greener/healthier alternatives for you to try instead.

According to a 2006 study by the University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the most offensive common ingredients found in household cleaners, is ethylene-based glycol ethers, used commonly in cleaning agents. Also, chlorine bleach, often labeled as “sodium hypochlorite” or “hypochlorite,” is often found in household cleaners. It's  used to whiten fabrics or remove mold from surfaces. High-level exposure can irritate the lungs and cause chronic respiratory problems. Usually these conditions occur if you’re storing chlorine bleach in poorly ventilated rooms and breathing in its toxic fumes.  

Some other problematic chemicals found in many household cleaners include ammonia. Mild exposure to ammonia vapors may cause respiratory irritation; repeated or prolonged exposure to vapors may cause irritation, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Butyl cellosolve is a toxic ingredient used in some all-purpose cleaners, window cleaners and other household cleaning products. It's an eye irritant that has been linked to kidney and liver problems and is reportedly toxic to forming cells.

Here are some commonly used household products that should be avoided and a list of greener/healthier alternatives.

Photo by Rebecca Weeks/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marinegirl/385097057/sizes/m/

Avoid: All-purpose cleaners with butyl cellosolve or ammonia.
Instead: Make a simple, herbal all-purpose cleaner. It’s eco-friendly, healthy and only takes five minutes to make. The following ingredients are non-toxic and most of them you probably have on hand.

Avoid: Household bleach, used to whiten fabrics and remove spots, that contains chlorine bleach.
Instead: Try making a bleach/brightener substitute to brighten your clothes. Use hydrogen peroxide, water, lemon juice and tea tree oil (which contains antibacterial properties) instead of using bleach that contains harsh chemicals.

Avoid: Air fresheners with the chemical, isopar (deodorized kerosene). It is a moderate eye and skin irritant.
Instead: use essential oils such as lavender and rosemary to naturally scent your home.

Avoid: Carpet cleaners with butyl cellosolve.
Instead: make a lavender-ginger suds rug shampoo. All you need is water, vinegar, sodium lauryl sulfate, baking soda and a few essential oils. The lavender and ginger essential oils help if animal smells are a problem.                  

References: 
“Hazardous Ingredients In Household Products,” provided by the Cancer Prevention Coalition.  
Household Products Database, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

Clothes moths and carpet beetles are pesky little creatures—especially when they lay their larvae. These insects seek out rarely disturbed areas (such as under a couch or somewhere in storage) and set up their home. Because moths and carpet beetles feed on animal products such as hair and dander, dark closet spaces are one of the most favorite locations for larvae to live and feed (on your fabrics).

You won’t see these insects, especially the larvae, because they love dark areas and flutter from light. With the exception of small holes in clothes, it can be difficult to even notice their existence.

If you think you might have clothing moths or carpet beetles, fill a sachet with lavender and place it wherever the bugs might be—under your bed, in a sock drawer or in your closet. Although this won’t kill the insects, it will protect your clothes.

Combating these munching insects can be easy, as long as you spot them early. If you have a small infestation, try this Thyme and Clove Moth Repellent:

• ¼ cup dried thyme
• ¼ cup whole cloves

1. Combine the herbs in a small bowl. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in a small cloth bag or tea ball.

2. To use, tuck into drawers or hang in your closet.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series  Naturally Clean.

There are many different kinds of cutting boards ranging from plastic to stone or even wood. Each type of cutting board has its benefits and its flaws. Many people prefer chopping herbs and vegetables on wood cutting boards because they love how they feel, they are durable and they do not dull knifes quickly. However, if you use a wood cutting board chances are you have had some difficulties keeping it clean. Plastic cutting boards are easier to wash because they can easily be washed in the dishwasher; the high temperatures in the dishwasher will cause wood cutting boards to crack or, even worse, split.

This easy scrub from Martha Stewart Living will keep your wood cutting board looking great and most importantly, disinfected.

1. Wash your cutting board with mild soap and rinse with hot water. Make sure your board is completely dry before you begin. Apply a thin layer of coarse salt over the cutting board.

2. Cut a lemon in half and rub it over the salt and board. Continue rubbing for five minutes. This acts as an antibacterial scrub.

3. Once completed run hot water over the board for about 15 seconds to ensure that all of the salt is removed. Dry the board in an upright position.

4. In addition to this, you can apply a beeswax coat to the board.

Bamboo and other wooden utensils are similar to wood cutting boards as they can crack in the dishwasher. Caring for wooden utensils is easy with these tips:

• Dry the wooden utensils with a cloth, which eliminates excess water that could cause the utensil to swell and eventually crack.

• Once a month rub the utensil with just a little mineral oil. This will maintain its finish and help with the utensil drying out.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

Is there another way to get white clothing and bedding bright without using bleach? Recently, I’ve been searching for a healthier alternative because the toxins in chlorine bleach scare me a little. For years, my mom used chlorine bleach to get the stains out of our white linens and it worked like a charm. Little did I know that chlorine bleach, often labeled as “sodium hypochlorite,” can irritate the lungs and cause chronic respiratory problems. Usually these conditions occur if you’re storing your chlorine bleach in poorly ventilated rooms and breathing in its toxic fumes.

Now that I’m on my own, I decided to make a Bleach/Brightener Substitute to save money and stay healthy. I added tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) to the recipe for its antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Though the substitute didn’t get all the spots out of my whites, it did make them very bright. I’m still on the hunt for a healthier homemade stain remover, but for now I’ll use this recipe to make my whites glow. 

Photo by Taylor Miller

Bleach/Brightener Substitute

• 1 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1 1/4 cup lemon or grapefruit juice
• 12 cups water

1. Mix together and store in a 1 gallon container.

Recipe from Clean, Naturally: Recipes for Body, Home, and Spirit by Sandy Maine. Interweave Press, 2001.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

With my very fair skin, all it takes is ten minutes under the harsh summer sun and I begin to burn. My usual sunburn remedy consists of slathering aloe vera onto my skin and then lying in front of a floor fan to cool off. However, aloe vera isn’t the only herbal remedy for burn relief. Many herbs can help protect skin and soothe it after a burn. Here are my four favorites.

1. Aloe vera, the common go-to sunburn remedy, helps heal and relieve skin. Whether it is in the form of a store-bought gel or came straight from its leaves, aloe leaves a noticeable cooling sensation on burned skin. This herb works most effectively on minor burns.

The juice from aloe leaves can help heal minor burns.

Photo by Powerhouse Museum/courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum_photography/ 

Try Pure Aloe Vera Gel by Aubrey Organics, $7.78. This four-ounce bottle is 98 percent organic.

2. Chickweed, best known for relieving itchy skin, also works well for healing sunburns because of its cooling effects. This herb can be used immediately by pulling some up from the ground and applying it to the affected area. Another method is to crush some with a mortar and pestle into a paste and bandage it on the wound.

3. Green tea, the delicious hot drink you sip to soothe a sore throat, also works to relieve sunburns. The antioxidants in this herb help heal skin damage caused by ultraviolet rays. You can benefit from applying the tea to the burn externally and also by drinking it.

Try this recipe for a soothing aloe-green-tea-lavender mist.

• 1/4 cup brewed green tea
• 1/4 cup aloe vera juice
• 1/4 teaspoon lavender essential oil

1. Mix together cool green tea, aloe and lavender essential oil in a spray bottle. Shake well. Spray liberally onto skin as often as desired.

2. Refrigerate, and use within two weeks.

4. Since lavender has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties it is great for soothing sunburns. Add lavender essential oil to a cool bath for immediate relief.

Although these herbs work well for soothing sunburns, there’s nothing worse than having skin that resembles a tomato. The real key is prevention. When out in the sun, stay in the shade as much as possible and make sure to wear sunscreen.

For an organic sunscreen option, try SPF 30 Organic Lavender Face and Body Sun Protection by Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens, $15.30.

References: Backyard Medicine: Harvest and Make Your Own Herbal Remedies by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009)

Cleaning a home can seem tedious and never ending—at least that’s the way I feel. Two months ago I moved into my friend’s home that is on the market. (It is a new trend to have your home staged by a renter. They get a discounted rent and you get to have your home staged with furniture.) Unfortunately, realtors and prospective buyers track mud all around the house and sometimes leave old coffee cups for me to clean up.

I’m constantly cleaning the 1950’s hardwood floors with my housewarming gift: a Swiffer Sweeper. I’m not a huge fan of the company’s dry cloths since they are not eco-friendly, but they do clean the floors nicely. (A great green alternative is the omop floor care by Method.) Now that I’ve used the trial pack, I decided to make my own version of Swiffer’s dry cloths out of an old towel.

The towel works great, whether it is used dry or with a cleaning product. Best of all, my cleaning doesn’t hurt the environment by tossing individually used cloths in the trash after each cleaning session.

Dry Cloth Towel 
Time: 20 minutes

• An old towel (any size will do)
• One foot of ribbon

1. Loosely trace the shape of the Swiffer so there is about a half of an inch on the shorter ends and an inch to an inch and a half on the longer sides.

2. Cut the rectangle out of the towel.

3. Sew all of the sides.

4. Cut your ribbon into three-inch strips, you will have four pieces of ribbon.

5. If you are using a swifter, you can use the cloth holders as a marker for where to sew the pieces of ribbon. Sew a ribbon strip to the edge of towel on the longer side of the rectangle.

6. Repeat step five to the remaining three sides.

Herbal Floor Cleaner  

• 1/8 cup plant-based liquid soap
• 1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 gallon water
• 10 drops lavender essential oil.

1. Mix the soap and vinegar into the water. Next add the lavender essential oil.

2. If you don’t like the lavender fragrance, you can swap it out for your favorite essential oil.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

Marguerite Dunne is a c ity girl and traveler. Visit her website at www.herbs-on-hudson.com or listen to her radio show, The Urban Herbalist, on www.wtbq.com. Marguerite was also the third place winner in The Herb Companion's essay contest, "Looking Forward to Herbs."

A friend asked me to be a guest speaker in her college class one night, with the noble task of explaining to her students how to get started using medicinal herbs. Twenty intelligent adults leaned forward as the spotlight was on me and I told the tale of how I got started with herbs. I talked about how the doctors had pumped me with drugs, which made me feel worse, and about how herbal roots and leaves were what gave me back my body.

One flustered 40-year-old lady raised her hand. She described, in scathing detail, her arthritis, hip replacements, autoimmune diseases and the various failing pill protocols the doctors placed her on and off and on and off for the past five years. She raged over a lopsided conversation she’d had with a young clerk in a health food store. Pounding her fist into her hand, to the beat of every spoken word, she intoned, “How do I know I’m getting the right medical advice when I go into a health food store?” 

What I would have liked to have said was, “So, you want to make sure this 18-year-old young woman in a health food store can give you the proper diagnosis to your illness, which three medical doctors and, collectively, 55 years of graduate medical school, have failed to correctly analyze? Did I get that right?”

It’s frustrating as heck when your body is going one way and you want it to go the other and nobody, but nobody, is giving you the right information and you just want some answers; when it isn’t like anything you or your friend has experienced before; when you did all the things the doctor told you to do! I remember how sick I was for three years after I stopped taking birth control pills: I lost my period, gained 30 pounds, got all kinds of allergies and suffered from 104 degree fevers for days. I went in for all kinds of tests and got all kinds of pills and shots from nine different doctors—nobody could tell me what was wrong with my body.

That was when an old and dear friend, turned me on to herbs. My friend took me to a chiropractor who adjusted my back and suggested I use aloe root and blue cohosh. Within two weeks, I got my period back for the first time in nearly three years and fifteen pounds fell off of me. I was sold!

My very first herb book, which I still recommend and now holds the highest place of honor on my bookshelf, was the original 1939 version of Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss (Lotus Press, 1997). Yeah, I know there are thousands of scientific studies about herbs and all kinds of texts with annotations written and efficient, systematic technobrews that have been sliced-and-diced-analyzed, investigated, footnoted, and refined, but after 30 years as a practicing herbalist, I still prefer the sweet sensibility of the wise, old healing shaman of the village. I learned so much from trying each herb. Sometimes, there is no exact name for one disease to explain all the knotty symptoms your body is showing. Locate which body system feels the most affected, and begin there. When anyone asks, I just say, “Start with one herb related to one health issue you want to work on.”  Jethro Kloss would approve.

Making your own household cleaners is a small investment upfront but, in the long run, is a cheaper and healthier alternative.

Homemade cleaners are toxin free and easy to make. If you want to know exactly what your cleaning products are made of, making your own is the best option. Homemade cleaning products will make your house smell fresh and keep it chemical free—without stretching your budget.

The recipes for homemade cleaners call for a list of basic ingredients that you probably already have on hand. If not, they can easily be purchased for cheaper in bulk. For example, baking soda, white vinegar, borax and liquid vegetable-based soap are needed to make the majority of these recipes. These supplies will last a long time, so instead of continually restocking these supplies and making several trips to the grocery store, purchase your most used products in bulk.

The most expensive of the ingredients you might need are essential oils. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), ginger (Zingiber officinale) and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) will add wonderful scents to your cleaners; tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) will add antiseptic and antibacterial qualities to all of your homemade products. For other miscellaneous equipment, you may need spray bottles, sponges and a few labels to identify your cleaner. Some of these products, such as the spray bottles, can be reused and recycled.

Photo by astro twilight/courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogbytes/

Many homemade recipes for natural cleaning products require a small amount of the more expensive ingredients. With that in mind, a 0.33-ounce bottle of essential oil should last you a while. Remember that essential oils are not required for all homemade natural cleaning product recipes. I made a bleach brightener and the only ingredient I had to purchase was hydrogen peroxide. The other ingredients I used were water and lemon juice (look for the results of my homemade cleaner in an upcoming blog).

In the end, you will end up saving money if you make your own cleaners—most of the ingredients are already under your kitchen sink and if not, they're cheap. Here is a brief cost comparison of the basic ingredients you will need to make homemade cleaners versus the cost of brand-name products.

Ingredients for Homemade Cleaners

• Baking soda: Arm and Hammer baking soda is $3.77-$4.00 for 4 pounds.
• Vinegar: Heinz Distilled White Vinegar is $2.19 for 32 ounces.
• Borax: 20 Mule-Team Borax is $4.79 for 76 ounces.
• Vegetable-based soap: Tea Tree Therapy Vegetable Based Soap is $2.31 for 3.5 ounce bars.
• Essential oils: $4.00-$10.00 for 0.33 ounces.

Common Brand-Name Products

• General purpose cleaner: Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner is $4.49 for 16 ounces.
• Glass cleaners: Windex Antibacterial Glass and Surface Cleaner is $5.99 for 32 ounces.
• Soap: Dial Antibacterial Liquid Soap is $17.58 for 1 gallon.
• Bleach: Clorox Laundry Detergent Bleach is $3.99 for 96 ounces.  

Have you ever channeled your inner environmentalist and made a homemade cleaner? If so, please share your experiences by leaving me a comment.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

At the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability conference last year, Simran Sethi, one of the guest speakers, put chemical cleaning products in perspective for me. Sethi basically asked her audience this question: Would you feel comfortable leaving your child alone in a room with toxic household cleaners? Although I’m not a parent, the answer is clearly no. Sethi’s point was that this scenario is the same as using toxic products all around the house.

Since talking to Sethi, I’ve looked at household cleaners in a whole new light and I’ve started making my own as means to replace these toxic chemicals. This simple, herbal all-purpose cleaner is eco-friendly and only takes five minutes to make.  

All-Purpose Cleaner

• 2 tablespoons borax
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 cups hot water
• 20 drops tea tree essential oil

1. Combine the borax and lemon juice with the water in a spray bottle. Cap and shake well to dissolve the mineral.

2. Add the tea tree oil and shake again to disperse the oil.

For more information on cleaning your home naturally, visit our blog series Naturally Clean.

Last week I was reading my favorite Herb Companion blogs Samurai Sage and The Herbalista. Editor-in-chief K.C. Compton’s post, At My Place: Spring Vegetable Gardening, and associate editor Allison Martin’s post, Kitchen Vegetable Gardening for Beginners, made me think of the various herbs, flowers and vegetables I wanted to grow in my own backyard. Shortly after, I took off to my local nursery.

I asked the owner of my local nursery for some advice and which plants they recommend for my area. The owner suggested a few books I should read, one of which was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Harper Collins Publishers, 2007) authored by Barbara Kingsolver and her family. I had already read this book last summer because I was so excited to pick seeds, watch things grow and become affectionate toward my garden.

Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle documents Barbara and her family’s year of eating local food from their own backyard, farmers’ markets and neighboring farms.

Barbara, her husband, Steven L. Hopp, and their two daughters, Camille and Lily, wrote the book as a family. Barbara wrote the main narrative while her husband contributed sidebars focused on the food industry and food production. Camille wrote about meal plans, seasonal recipes and important nutritional information. The youngest in the family, Lily, raised their chickens, turkeys and helped with the farm work.

This book is at the top of my “Favorite Books List” for a few reasons. First, I enjoy the concept of living off of the land and becoming a localvore. Since reading the book last summer, I’ve tried to eat local, in-season foods and grow my own handful of herbs. Second, I enjoyed the family's collaborative effort to follow through with their goal to eat locally produced food. The family proved that with enough planning and preparation, eating local doesn’t have to be limiting or expensive.

Here are a few tips from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on becoming a localvore:

•  Eat in season. Find out what season your favorite produce grow in and plan accordingly—this will vary for each Zone.
•  Start a community garden or, if your community already has one, join in.
•  Attend farmer’s markets—who knew you could support local farmers while enjoying delicious, fresh foods!

Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? Are you a localvore? If you have any tips or suggestions for eating local or growing your own food, let’s chat about it. Leave me a comment or send me an email at snelson@ogdenpubs.com.

Q: I started my first herb garden 13 years ago—I never had any trouble growing sage. My husband and I moved to a new house three years ago—each year, I plant sage, and it dies. Any ideas? 
– E.  Darnell

A: Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a member of Labiatae or the mint family. This herb is a fairly resilient herb, so it can bear a trial-and-error gardening method. Like most herbs, sage is better when fresh, yet still good when frozen.

If you are planting seeds, it should germinate in temperatures that don’t drop below 60 degrees or go higher than 70 degrees. Also, growing sage seeds indoors with lots of light is more successful then leaving them outdoors as the sage germination period can be tricky. Keep overnight temperatures in mind if you plan on leaving seeds outdoors. A couple of weeks ago, I planted sage seeds in a pot. This past weekend, they were starting to come up when a spring cold front moved into the Denver area. I’m not sure what the damage is, but just in case I planted more seeds. If your sage plant is established, but still young, you have a little more leeway with the temperature—keep it about 55 degrees to 85 degrees. If your sage is an adult shrub, it can withstand -30 degrees winter temperatures, if properly covered.

Like rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), also from the Labiatae family, sage prefers a light fertilizer and for the soil pH to be between 6.0 and 7.0. To measure the soil’s pH, you can buy a pH reader from your local garden store. Sage thrives in fairly rich soil that is well-drained. However, sage can tolerate droughts and poor soil conditions just like lavender.

The size of the plant will determine how much water it will need. Start with two cups of water every three days. Adjust this amount if you see mold or fungus at the base of the plant, which indicates too much water, or if the soil dries out.

There are many different types of sage: common (or garden) sage, pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), blue (or Cleveland) sage (S. clevelandii), broad leaf sage, clary (or muscatel) sage (S. scleria), golden sage (S. off. “Aurea”), purple sage (S. off. ‘Purpurea’) and tri-color sage (S. off. ‘Tricolor’).

Although these general growing conditions can be applied to the various types of sage, each variety has specific needs and purposes. Common sage is used primarily for cooking and is typically used in medicine as an antiseptic, a disinfectant and to help restore the liver and the digestive system. Clary or muscatel sage is occasionally mixed with Muscatel wine, and this variety prefers heavier soils and is not typically used for cooking. The tri-color sage can withstand 20 degree temperatures and is also used in culinary dishes. Diviners’ sage or sage of the seers (Salvia divinorum) is a psychoactive sage. This herb was used medicinally as a healing agent and for divination practices in some ancient cultures.

Photo by Narisa /Courtsey Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/narisa/

Tips for Keeping Sage Alive

There are many different variables for solving Darnell’s sage problem. Here are a few general tips and pointers.

• Don’t plant sage next to cucumbers or members of the onion family as they are not compatible plants. Incompatible plants can spread dominant flavors to another plant, causing it to loose original taste, can lead to an increased number of insects in your garden, or can lead to a decreased plant production.

• Sage has a difficult time germinating. Start your seeds indoors if the temperature is too cold outside. You can move your seeds outdoors after a month or two.

• Keep an 18- to 20-inch distance between sage and other plants when planted in a bed for root growth and bushiness of the plant.

• When planting sage in a garden, keep in mind that sage is compatible with tomatoes, rosemary, strawberries, carrots and marjoram among a few other plants. Plants that are companions often have similar growing habits and conditions.  

Do you have problems growing sage? What herbs do you have a difficult time growing? Let’s chat about it; drop me a comment or email The Herb Companion magazine at editor@herbcompanion.com.

Human cases of Swine Influenza, otherwise known as swine flu, may be emerging in the United States. On April 29, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the nation’s first fatality from this outbreak. The CDC also reported a number of laboratory confirmed cases of the swine flu in 10 states throughout the U.S.

According to the CDC, the swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by type A influenza viruses, which cause regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Usually, swine flu viruses infect humans with direct exposure to pigs. But more recently, it has been reported to spread from person-to-person. The anxiety this flu is causing is so strong all over the world that the Egyptian government has ordered the slaughter of the country's entire hog population, according to NPR.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

What can you do? Washing your hands frequently is one of the most important steps we can take to prevent infection and spreading germs. Here are some guidelines for washing your hands the right way from the CDC.

• Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if available.
• Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue rubbing hands for 15-20 seconds. Need a timer? Imagine singing "Happy Birthday" twice through to a friend.
• Rinse hands well under running water.
• Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
• Always use soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.

When using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:

• Apply product to the palm of one hand.
• Rub hands together.
• Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.

Courtesy Flickr/Andreas Levers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96dpi/

Here are some antiviral soaps that you can use to stay healthy and swine flu-free. Herbs such as elderberry, astragalus, ginger, licorice, zinc, lavender and ginseng all appear to have antiviral activity.

• Peppermint Frog Bar Soap by Brigit True Organics ($10) is 88 percent organic, has pure essential oils of peppermint, and is both antiviral and antiseptic.   
• Elderberry Flowers with Garden Iris and French Clay by Botanical Soap Shop ($7.99) is certified organic, soothing and calming and acts as an antiviral and antibacterial agent.
• Ginger Pomelo Hand Soap Liquid by Caldrea ($10.50) has a blend of essential oils including ginger, pomelo and aloe vera.

And last but certainly not least, you can enter for a chance to win Natural Hand Refresher by Green Tea Goods on our website in a few weeks.  It’s a wonderful hand sanitizer that naturally cleans your skin without that alcohol smell. The product uses a blend of Chinese herbs that have anti-bacterial functions. These herbs include mugwort leaf, licorice root and coptis chinensis.

Honeybees are the best of friends for blooming fruit trees flowers, and herbs, such as apricot, cherry, members of the daisy family, lavender, oregano and sage. We’ve known that bees help pollinate plants before Jugen Tautz’s study. Tautz, of Biozentrum Universitat Wurzburg, Germany, has studied bees since 1973 and in 2008 released his book The Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism (Springer, 2008). Now, Tautz has studied even more about the relationship between honeybees and plants. In 2008, his extensive study on honeybees, caterpillars and blooming plants and trees, proved that honeybees protect plants from hungry caterpillars. 

Tautz’s findings revealed that caterpillars have sensory hairs located on the front portion of their body. Although these sensory hairs can detect vibrations, such as the buzzing of a bee, they are unable to distinguish bees from wasps, which fall into the same vibration level. Assuming the worst, the caterpillar will often stop moving or intentionally fall from the plant when a bee or wasp is overhead. (It is a technique to fool the flying creature by making them believe they are dead.)  

In addition to this, Tautz found that if bees or wasps are present, caterpillars will become stressed and feed less. This is especially true for caterpillars feeding on blossoming fruit trees. He says that plants that were “protected” by visiting honeybees suffered 60 to 70 percent less leaf damage.

Courtesty of Flickr/Energetic_Spirit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nperlapro/

To protect your garden from caterpillars, put blooming trees and plants near non-flowering plants to create a bee-friendly yard. Bees are attracted to yellow, blue and purple colored flowers. According to Tautz’s study, the honeybees will create a stressful environment for the herbivores to the extent that they will be discouraged from eating in that location.

Q: Why are my herbs dying?

A: Although mint (Mentha spp.) is easy to grow, I’ve killed a few mint plants for many different reasons. Whether you have better luck or a light brown gardening thumb like me, these tips will improve the health of your mint.

All mint varieties are “easy” to grow because they can flourish in almost any lighting condition, but mint performs the best in full sun. The general ideal temperature range is between 60 to 80 degrees.

The herb likes a medium-rich soil—not too moist and not too dry. The pH should be around 5.6 to 7.5. If you live in a dry climate, you might want to water more frequently. The opposite goes for wet tropical climates, such as southern California or Hawaii.

A few common types of mint are spearmint, which is often used in dishes; peppermint, which is commonly used in teas as it is stronger than spearmint; and apple mint, which is used in teas and salads. The main differences between these various types of mints are their scents, flavors and appearance.

Tips for Keeping Mint Alive:

In general, the same tips for growing common types of mint are the same for unique and rare types of mint.

• If you plan on planting mint in a pot, keep in mind that its roots grow quickly. I recommend using a medium sized pot, around 12 to 15 inches deep and seven to 10 inches wide.

• If you are going to plant mint in the ground, keep it away from other herbs. It will give a minty flavor to its closely surrounding plants. On that same note, don’t plant different types of mint next to each other, as they will loose their original flavors.

• Keep an eye out for weather conditions, such as sudden freezes or heat waves that could damage your plants and adapt water and fertilizer amounts.

• Find an appropriate watering balance for your growing Zone and plant size. For a medium sized plant, about five to seven inches, use about two to three cups of water every three days and adjust from there. 

Do you have problems growing mint? What herbs do you have a difficult time growing? Let’s chat about it; drop me a comment or email The Herb Companion magazine at editor@herbcompanion.com.

Q: Why are my herbs dying?

A: Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) is a versatile herb used in cooking, used medicinally and used decoratively throughout the home. When I think about lavender, the romantic purple fields of Provence, France, and endless products come to mind. This dreamy herb is a warm-season perennial plant that is durable to frosts and mild freezes.

English lavender blooms in early summer. Compared to other types of lavender it is darker in color and taller with longer flowers. French lavender (Lavendula dentana) is a medium-sized plant that is gray in color and capable of blooming year round (depending on location). There are many types of lavender but English lavender and French lavender are the most common.

The native Mediterranean herb prospers in sunlight—we recommend anywhere between six to eight hours of warm sunlight. Create a growing space that offers the appropriate amount of light. You can plant lavender in the ground or in a pot for easy transportation during cold months.

Another important aspect is proper soil drainage; too much rain and humidity can lead to mildew or root-rot, which is a common reason why this otherwise resilient herb dies.

Lavender is a long-lasting herb that likes well-drained soil and can withstand minor drought conditions. If you are growing lavender in humid conditions, avoid dark mulches as they encourage fungus growth. The soil should be between neutral to slightly alkaline and have a pH of 6.5 to 8.2. Testing the quality of your soil is easy with a pH kit from your local gardening store. Although there are many types of lavender, most can handle Zone 5 growing conditions.

Photo by _setev/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/downunderphotos/

Tips for Keeping Your Lavender Alive:

• If you are going to take clippings of the herb, take them when the stems break easily. (This usually happens in June.) Clippings promote a healthy, bush-like growth.

• Make sure your plants have a good drainage system to reduce root-rot and fungus growth. To achieve this you might add sand or perlite to your soil, but keep in mind that too much will dry the plant out. If you live in a wet climate and want to add sand or perlite, add no more then 1/5 of the pot’s container, if growing in a pot.

• If planting in the ground, place lavender 2-3 feet apart; lavender can have an expansive root system and can be tall and bushy.

• Keep an eye out for weather conditions, such as overnight frosts, that could damage your plants; adapt water and fertilizer amounts accordingly.

• Find an appropriate watering balance for you climate and plant size—lavender needs lots of watering, especially in the first season of growth. You can start with 3 cups of water and adjust from there. 

Do you have problems growing lavender? What herbs do you have a difficult time growing? Let’s chat about it; drop me a comment or email The Herb Companion magazine at editor@herbcompanion.com.