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

The Herbal Husband and I set off for Miami Beach (specifically South Beach). My master gardening friends asked "Why?" Even when The Herbal Husband is on the beach, I can find a beautiful garden to enjoy when we are on vacation. So I was able to find herbs on the beach without being on the sand and near the ocean.

I was surprised to find a lovely herb garden at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden right across from the Convention Center and a 25 cent bus ride from our hotel. There were raised beds for vegetables, lettuces and herbs. I spotted chives and sorrel and both tomatoes and tomatillos. You see, when the temperatures are in the 90s tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos lose their flowers and do not produce fruit. As soon as the temperature decreases, vegetable plants can be planted and fruit will be produced.

There always has to be a beautiful rosemary plant. I am always so envious of all of you who can grow rosemary outside year round. The rosemary bush was no exception at this garden not quite as big as Peru, but really fragrant and sculptural.

A beautiful rosemary bush at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

I am also always looking for lemon verbena when I am away. This lemon verbena was not the largest I have ever seen, but it was what was on the herb garden tag that was different. There were small lizards everywhere!

Lemon Verbena and a surprise guest at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

Finally, I was thrilled to see a large cardamom plant, which is a seed that I have used in baking, but had never seen the plant. It is native to India and its black and green seeds are used in meat and vegetable dishes.

Cardamom plant at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

In Scandinavia white cardamom is used in baking. Cardamom is a pod that has an outer flavorless shell and tiny seeds inside that have the intense flavor. If unbroken, the pods keep indefinitely because it protects the seeds from deterioration.  So even at the beach when you are thinking sun, sand and tan, think herbs!

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

I'm always searching out herb gardens, herb lunches, herb dinners and herb plants when I'm traveling. Any combination of the above and I'm a happy herbal camper. (My idea of camping though is the Holiday Inn!) It gets a little annoying for The Herbal Husband. He has been known to find herbs for me to make me calm when I was frustrated by a bad travel day. When we were in the Loire Valley in France for our 20th anniversary trip, I found the most unusual herbs. Not because of what they were, but because of what was attached to them!

Yes, the French love their escargot and maybe if you add a little butter and garlic to the rosemary plant in the picture, it would make a wonderful dish!

I have fourlined plant bug problems here in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania and they are bad enough—but snails! In their defense, I must say that they have an attractive shell. I also found a snail on a fennel plant when we went to the Garden Festival of Chaumont-Sur-Loire.  

They used snail shells to make an arrangement in one of the exhibits. See? They do have a purpose in life!

I guess I just like my herbs without the snails!

My final story is one of the perfect rosemary plant or hedge! Rosemary is a tender perennial for me in the Pittsburgh area. There are many of you that can grow it all-year-round without protection. You are very lucky people! It is like that in the Loire Valley.

We passed this hedge many times while we were visiting our friends. On our last day, I asked if we would pass it one last time so that I could take a picture of it. I got out of the car and pointed my camera and the owner came to see what was going on. Our friend went and introduced himself and explained to him in French that I loved his rosemary hedge. He gave me a big smileand was very pleased that I loved his rosemary.

Enjoy herbs (and a snail or two) in your life every day! 

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

During my stay in New York City I was able to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens ("Herbal Escape: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens") and the New York Botanical Garden.

I went to Grand Central Station and took the Metro North train to the New York Botanical Garden. They even have their own stop! I really enjoyed the Home Gardening Center, which was very nicely presented and had wonderful lettuces, edible flowers and other spring veggies.

The Herb Garden was another intimate space designed by Martha Stewart and her team. It was very well proportioned and had benches so that you could enjoy the space. As an accent, bay (Laurus nobilis), the 2009 Herb of the Year was used as a standard.

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory reminds me of my own Phipps Conservatory in my hometown, Pittsburgh. There was a beautiful and colorful spring flower show. So fragrant and lovely.

Believe it or not I even saw a turkey grazing on the lawn!  Guess he or she knows a good thing!

So my timing was only briefly bad, and overall I had two wonderful visits to two of New York's favorite gardens! Visit them if you are in the New York City area this summer. They both have many gardening programs for the entire family. Get the next generation involved for their sakes!

To find out more about the Lemon Verbena Lady’s travels in New York City, read “Herbal Travels: New York Botanical Garden.” 

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden while visiting St. Louis. The 79-acre national landmark features a beautiful display of flowers, herbs and plants from across the world, including an amazing orchid garden, a Japanese strolling garden, a geodesic dome, an arid-climate garden, a Victorian garden (complete with hedge maze), a rose garden and even an iris garden.

The first stop on the tour, conveniently located near the restrooms, was the orchid garden. Lately, I have become fascinated with orchids. Right now, I have a 4-foot moth orchid (Phalaenopsis amabilis) and a jungle monarch orchid (Oncidium maculatum), both of which are doing surprisingly well. However, neither of them are nearly as exotic as some of the ones in the display! This is a Brassia rising star, which is a spider-like orchid.

These beautiful red flowers, which I believe to be ginger blossoms, were everwhere in the geodesic "rainforest" dome of the garden called the Climatron. The Climatron is the first climate controlled green-house dome of its kind and, in my opinion, the single most fascinating part of the botanical gardens.

Here are a couple shots of the interior of the Climatron geodesic green-house dome. The dome covers a half-acre area and contains thousands of plant species - a microcosm of the rainforest. It includes a handful of tropical, medicinal herbs and spices such as banyan (used to treat diabetes), ginger (for motion-sickness), neem (a repellant against viruses, bacteria and insects, such as lice), pineapple (aids in the treatment of swelling and inflammation), artemisia (calms stomach aches and fever), nutmeg (said to fight diarrhea) turmeric (a spice in curry that may reduce the risk of cancer) and wild plum (used for treating various skin conditions like acne and eczema).

In the footer of our trip, we visited the extensive gift shop, where, in addition to the many garden tools, plants and books for sale, there was one item I just couldn't leave without. Meet Henry the Talking Gnome.

Simply press and hold the button on Henry's foot, record your message and listen to a gnome-version of your voice peep from your new petite pal. Hours of fun if you're like me, and one of the highlights of our trip. I would definitely recommend this as a gift. While it was a little pricey, the gnome should be sure to get a laugh out of you and your friends.

Fortunately for us, the talking gnome has created something of a cult-following on YouTube, spawning hundreds of "webisodes" of the gnome's life. See one YouTube user's demonstration of the talking gnome below, and follow this link to get your own! Tell them The Garden Gnome sent you.

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

I thought I would take a break from stories about Peru. I was inspired by Taylor Miller's blog (The Garden Gnome), Giving the White House a Green Thumb. This was a lettuce bed in the early days of our kitchen garden BD (before deer). We also have rabbit fencing surrounding the garden now and repellents work for deer browsing. When we forget to spray the repellents, the deer remember to eat! (Learn more about repelling deer from your garden.) 

Whether you have one bed for your kitchen garden or many beds, herbal kitchen gardens are making a huge difference in many lives all over the world. (Learn more about creating your own kitchen garden this summer.)

Several years ago, I went to France with my husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Our English friends, who we stayed with in the Loire Valley, took us to the Château de Villandry. I thought I had died and gone to herbal heaven. It is breathtaking and spectacular all at the same time. It was the last great château to be built in 1536. After the gardens were turned into an English park in the late 19th century, the house and gardens were restored by a Spanish scientist in the 20th century. Thank heavens! The herb garden was placed in a separate location than it was in medieval times. I was really looking forward to seeing it but was disappointed–the herb garden was clipped so severely that I could not recognize my favorite herbs. This one is lemon verbena!  Doesn't look at all like it, does it?

We recently returned from a trip to England. We drove one day to Grafton Underwood and came upon this Englishman starting work on his allotment in early March. He paid 4 pounds (about $5.60) for his plot, which will feed his family and leave enough left for a donation. 

Last week, I did a presentation on herbal kitchen gardens for a local garden club last week–I wrote this ode and would like to share it with you.

Ode to Herbal Kitchen Gardens

The Greeks and Romans celebrated with bay.
The monks grew their sage and thyme and used them every day.
Walls were built around to protect the young herb plants.
The monks needed diversity and left nothing to chance.
The English used the front yard to start the four square plot.
The rosemary, kale and roses were raised and eaten on the spot.
The French made their potagers as pretty as a picture.
Then planted lettuces, marigolds and young fruit trees to add to the mixture.
Washington, Jefferson, FDR and Obama had kitchen gardens in their blood and some haved lived into the next generation like new edible flower buds!
So plant an herbal kitchen garden this very day and you will start reaping the bounty in every savory way!

Hope you are starting your own herbal kitchen gardens because, among other good things, it brings beneficial insects and wonderful, flavorful meals using all of the various herbs you have grown.

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

We continued our tour of Chaclacayo and literally stumbled into an herbal clinic and botanical garden in a residential neighborhood. It was called the Instituto Peruano de Investigacion Fitoterapica Andina, founded in 1983 by a Polish priest. It is a private, non-profit, scientific medical, health care and promotional association. It had a walled garden and was very secluded and peaceful. 

We had a little tour of the grounds. There were various animals around the grounds, including a tortoise, monkeys, birds, guinea pigs and rabbits.

My Spanish is unfortunately only the bad words, and fortunately, she didn't use any of them! I did understand some of the tour though. There were rooms that were right in the garden for the consultations and treatments.

No wonder  people returned regularly to this beautiful spot. Our guide told us that they treated many diseases, including cancer. All of the herbs were labeled and some were recognizable, including, rosemary, fennel, comfrey and salvia.

A tiny part of me was hoping I could get a treatment of some kind while I was there. We were lucky to see this true herbal paradise!