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. 

This summer has been exceedingly hot and dry where I live. Plants that seem to have laughed at drought conditions in the past are showing the effects of many weeks without rain. The pastures around our farmhouse are brown and dusty. It's not an uplifting sight. But when I go out to my little herb garden I am met by the bright green leaves of basil plants!

Ah! Cool, green and flavorful. What could be more uplifting than to pick a leaf of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) just to smell and to rejuvenate the senses? Or how about lemon basil (O. xcitriodorum) with its citrus aroma and flavor that adds so much to a pasta salad or a marinade for chicken?

The purple and red leaved varieties add drama to the garden and a tossed salad. 

Then there is cinnamon basil, an unusual and surprising addition to an herbal iced tea. There is even a medicinal basil, holy basil, (Ocimum sanctum) from India. The variety known as 'Red and Green' is very ornamental as well as useful.

A tea prepared with the leaves of the 'Tulsi' variety, as it is known in India, is commonly used to treat coughs, colds and mild indigestion. Basil does so well here in Texas because it loves the heat and humidity. Given ample water and good drainage, basil thrives when the temperatures stay in the 90s or even the 100s during the day, and the mid to upper 70s at night. I have my containerized basil in a partly-shaded area. The roots in any container become so hot during the afternoon that some shade will help protect the roots and conserve moisture. In the herb bed, though, basil can be left in full sun. Just be sure to keep it watered and mulched.

One thing I like about basil is that if it is happy where it is planted, it reseeds itself. If you leave a few flowers on the stalks to go to seed, the seeds will drop around the existing plant. Then, you'll see little baby basil seedlings start to grow.

If you like, you can dig these up and pot them or simply replant them elsewhere in the garden. Basil also attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. In the fall, when lots of basil is flowering in my garden, butterflies are competing with the hummingbirds for the flower nectar.

If you need a pick-me-up this summer, and a break from the heat, look no further than your herb garden and the wonderful, flavorful, aromatic basil plants.

"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!

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!

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 am a long time reader of The Herb Companion magazine and always look forward to each new issue. I have noticed, however, that the gardening information about growing herbs is not always relevant to me. I live and garden with herbs in Texas, where the growing conditions and the weather can be very extreme. I thought other Texas readers of The Herb Companion might enjoy reading a blog about gardening with herbs from the Lone Star State.

I live in an area between Houston and San Antonio, just north of the Coastal Plain in Lavaca County near Hallettsville. Our soil pH is neutral, and we are lucky to have great sandy loam texture on our farm. We have a well to provide water, which is very hard and full of minerals, especially calcium. Right now we are experiencing a drought and, like most of the state, extreme heat, somewhat earlier than usual... if there is a “usual” any more. Herbs are some of the most drought-tolerant plants, as many of us have found out this year.

What's doing really well right now with very little water? Well, I have to say the Greek oregano and Santa Cruz oregano are doing the best with the least amount of water. Rosemary is doing the next best in my garden, although I am having to water it a bit.

Mexican oregano (Poliomintha longiflora) is doing very well with minimal water, and it's covered in the pinky-purple flowers it's known for. This is an underused plant. It has great flavor, is evergreen during the winter in our part of the state, and flowers during the hottest part of the summer. What's not to like?

I'm surprised the sage (Salvia officinalis) is doing as well as it is. I have had it die out during a very hot summer, but this year, perhaps because it is so well established, it is thriving in afternoon shade with just a little water about every other day.

Because I run a little nursery at my place, and because during this time of the year I spend a lot of my time and energy keeping stock plants alive for sales, my beds are often neglected. That's why I like herbs so much—they are really tough. 

My herb bed would definitely appreciate a new layer of mulch and I'm trying to find the time to do that. It sure would help. Mulch is a very important component in any garden because it moderates the soil temperatures and, as you know, helps conserve moisture. A 2-inch layer of mulch will do wonders for your herbs, vegetables, shrubs and your annual and perennial flowers. Even native trees will respond well to a layer of mulch, so long as it's kept away from the trunk.

I hope you're all enjoying your gardens in the early mornings and evenings when it's pleasant to be outdoors. Don't forget to use those herbs. They're not just a pretty face!

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!