Welcome to our fall/winter herbal grow along! I’ve curated a collection of medicinal herbs called the Cedar House Living Herb Set offered by Halden Gardens and I’m inviting YOU to grow with me in health and soil. The set includes the following five varieties: bee balm, lemon balm, calendula, catnip and chamomile.
Grown, gathered and dried. Yesterday was for harvesting herbs from the garden. I do this every couple weeks throughout the summer. It’s a quiet, slow, fragrant task that I truly enjoy. Here are a couple tips to keep in mind when storing your kitchen herbs:
Belonging to the Tropaeolaceae family, nasturtium is a vibrant and unique herb popular for its striking appearance and earthy, peppery flavor is most often used in culinary dishes, particularly salads and sandwiches. It’s colorful blossoms and unique lily pad-shaped leaves make it a popular ornamental addition to gardens. The trumpet-shaped flowers are usually vibrantly colored and come in a range of sunset colors.
I have what is sometimes referred to as a pollinator garden. It is filled with colorful and fragrant flowers and herbs that attract and feed pollinators such as honey bees, native bees, moths and butterflies. When I harvest, I make sure to always leave plenty of blooms to keep them busy and happy. Yesterday, we watched countless butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, bees, robins, chickadees, and a pair of Stellar Jays visit our garden, so it’s working.
Belonging to the onion family, chive (Allium schoenoprasum) is a kitchen-friendly perennial herb with countless culinary uses. It has long, thin, green leaves that are grow 12 inches tall and are hollow and tubular in shape, growing in clumps. They grow lavender-colored blossoms that are also edible.