herbs and hildegard hedgehog
I haven’t been in the blog-sphere for the last few days because I’ve been busy buying out the nurseries and finishing up Hildegard. Curious to know what herbs I bought? Hildegard here is sitting among oregano, rosemary (lots), tarragon, thyme, chamomile, sage, marjoram, lavender (lots), parsley, basil, echinacea, and yarrow. Shoo, that’s a lot of herbs. Then my friend Stephanie (Ordinary Life Magic) mentioned that she bought lemon verbena and I’m horrified that I didn’t find any this weekend. It’s one of our favorites too and darn it my calendula didn’t reseed as well as last year so I am lacking calendula……will have to make a trip out of town to pick up those two (oh, and comfrey as well, so that’s 3 and knowing me there will be more)!
Here are some more pics of my garden, you will discover quickly that my favorite plant colors are purple and green with white here and there!
I love a cat mint border (not cat nip, but cat mint, there is a difference). This is Araina’s favorite plant to suck nectar from; it’s even better than honeysuckle! We love this plant for the spring purple color it provides, but it can take over a garden and must be divided by the third year. It does transplant easily though and most of the cat mint I now have are transplants from our first house that Dave and I bought together.
I leave a wild patch for the red clover to go crazy. Red clover is so medicinal as a tea and a salve or infused in an oil for your skin.
A last pic of Hildegard hiding under the lavender and munching on a chive blossom. She is an herbal hedgehog that takes after her namesake (Hildegard Von Bingen).
Am I missing any good herbs? I don’t include cilantro in my herb garden because I am one of those people that really don’t like the taste, the little ladies don’t seem to care for it as well. Oh, I love this time of year and planting the garden hoping for a great harvest of goodies!
“That’s all.”
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Finally catching up in blog reading
I LOVE the hedgie!!!
Wow what a herb garden! And that’s one seriously cute hedgehog!
purple and green are my favorites too. I agree that you need some lemon balm, and how about Monarda/Bee Balm? Of course both of those will take over your garden if you let them!
Your garden looks fabulous!! Purple is my favorite garden color, too, with some hot pink and orange and yellow mixed in.
i’M into my herbs too. Your garden looks so lush!
Hildegard is so darling!!!
Becca
You have a lovely garden. We are still waiting for some proper sunshine. So far the only flowers in my garden is the apple blossom from our old tree!
I have planted tubs and tubs of nasturtiums and sweet peas because I love them so much and they are so easy to grow. Nasturtiums are edible – both leaf and flower, so may be included in your herb suggestion? But their flowers are big, blowsy oranges and yellows, so not quite suited to your pretty purple scheme!
Hildegard Hedgehog is adorable! You are so talented!
Just curious: will you and yours still be moving to Georgia? You haven’t updated about that in a while.
Still not sure about Georgia, my husband is “looking” for a job around here in hopes that we could stay near family and friends. But so far nothing has come up. The moving date is July 31, I’m kind of ignoring the fact that it’s so close……..
Thanks for asking.
lisa
Hildegard looks so at home in her beautiful herb garden. I can almost smell them. Wonder what the name of the gorgeous rose is. I grew and sold herb plants for ten years in the UK and never got round to making a real herb garden.
Very pretty! I would love to grow lemon balm, echinacea, chamomile, and comfrey, I haven’t seen them at the nursery before. I wonder how they do in the desert?
Here’s another vote for purple basil. I’m sure you probably have it though, as purple is one of your favorites. We also have purple sage, and I’m sure that would be pretty with your colors also!
Looks like a great herb garden Lisa! We just finished putting our first set of herbs in yesterday, and I excited to get the rest in this week. Have a great beginning to your week
The hedgehog is adorable!Many of our herbs and perennials have come up and now we need to get the rest of the vegetable garden planted. Many veggies have to wait until mid to late May in MA.
I want to share a very sweet nature experience we had with a bird during the week. This is my post for Outdoor Monday. The children were with me and able to witness this special time.
http://www.childinharmony.com/2010/05/take-flight.html
happy day!
~marcia
Do you get different “flavours” of mint there? like
pineapple mint – wonderful tea!
chocolate mint – the smell is divine
and regular apple mint
what I miss is teaberry. we used to pick it in the woods in Maine where I grew up. I made teaberry tea from it. I don’t know if it is something you can purchase to plant though. My dad used to buy teaberry gum now and then if he came across it in a shop. It was rare though. I haven’t chewed gum for decades, as it isn’t common here, so don’t think I would want the teaberry gum now unless it was just to get the flavour once and a while.
My grandmother used to make nettle cough syrup. I expect you can find nettles in the wild. It tasted more like brown sugar syrup ! but it did work.
Sandy in the UK
Ohhhh, so curious about teaberry now. No, I’ve never seen it in the nurseries around here. I will have to find out why.
I didn’t even mention all of the mints I have- peppermint, chocolate, pineapple, grapefruit, spearmint, catnip, catmint, and a couple more varieties that I have forgotten what they were exactly.
Nettle is a wonderful plant. I have never actually harvested it to make medicinals, but I have used it to ward off posion ivy. I will have to try making the cough syrup. Thanks!
lisa
Hildegard fits so great in your garden! And all that colors!Man,I’m so jealous about you having a garden,and I don’t have one!I’ll have to make my own garden in few pots.
Looking good! I am working on my container herbs this week too. We have two Boston Terriers, so I feel more safe putting the herbs in containers. Are you doing any greens? Lettuce variations?
oh oh oh! lemon BALM! it is so delicious as tea and soothing to the little (and big) ones. i also put in a plug for anise hyssop or straight up hyssop. or both! i don’t, however, know the difference between catnip and cat mint! do tell!!! <3
comfrey is super crazy invasive here (not so good, actually, but plenty to harvest!) – let me know if you need some!
We still can’t even plant yet! Can’t wait, though. You know I love your hedgie
Wow — what fun. You’re making me think I am seriously behind!
your garden looks great! did you get any mint? i love herbs. i used to make my own calendula tincture and bug repellent.
have a great week!
lisa
My chives died last year & I miss their flowers! My mom has an adorable little wash basin herb garden outside her out-kitchen & her chives look WONDERFUL! Go figure? They survived the winter in a wash basin & mine died.
I love purple sage–the leaves are so velvety and beautiful. And, I love the woolly thyme we have growing around our pond. I’d love to have a whole patio & walkway with wooly thyme growing up between the brick pavers–ahhhhh, ho hum.
Borage is beautiful and self seeds, it would be a lovely addition to your garden…I’m partial to herbs that come up year after year. My favourites are rosemary, (oh god I LOVE that smell), sage, (white sage for smudging and making incense), and lavender, (for dream pillow of course)!!
Happy herb planting!!!
Maureen
cilantro! its in my top 3 favorites….
My favorite herbs to grow are cilantro and basil, but my basil is totally shriveled up! Those purple roses are so pretty! (They are roses, right?) I love purple flowers, too, but also love vivid pink and orange.
Your herb garden looks amazing! I never knew what those purple flowers were, but Elizabeth’s school has them and she sucks from them all the time.
Bay laurel is the only thing I can think of. We used to have one at our old house, and I kind of miss it.
I never have planted bay in my garden, I do have it on my kitchen windowsill though. It grows really well there.