July Garden Musings

When I wrote at the end of May about needing patience in gardening, I didn't know that we were going to have the rainiest June on record and that planting was going to be more delayed than I had even imagined!

But I persevered, catching windows of time here and there in between rain storms to continue planting. I had taken a workshop a few years ago about soil and it was drilled into me not to work soil that is wet. I tried very hard to follow that, but wet soil was the norm in June.

The perennials were all planted and the gardens mulched. Slugs have appeared in abundance and seem to love cilantro, but I've been trying to control them with an organic product that seems to be working. The garlic was the only thing that was able to be planted last year, and it seems very happy. The currants transplanted well this Spring and are fully of berries, providing a pretty backdrop to the garlic. And bordering it is lemon balm, which after all the construction came back up on it's own!

The plant search continues with some spots needing "just the right" plant. I searched all over for an apothecary rose (rosa gallica), an old heirloom traditionally used by herbalists and ended up buying one online. It is small but seems very healthy. I know it will grow large, so there are a lot of annuals around it round now, as is the case with many of the perennials that were planted. I just don't like the look of lots of mulch and the annuals are adding a lot of color and interest, Here's a picture of my small little rose bush before the annuals were planted...

And now mid-July, the garden is looking good. The Hot Kaps that I used were wonderful and I've already picked a 10" zuchinni from the plants I started from seed. I was so proud of it (see picture) and my husband even remarked with amazement "that's from our garden?" The bed I had with the zuchinni and pumpkins is overflowing and there should be a good crop of both this year.

And the espaliered apple tree that I put in 5 years ago has apples for the first time! When the garden was redone we discussed taking the tree out, but I'm so glad now that it stayed. The apples are a bit hard to see in the picture, but they're there!



How is your garden growing this year? Feel free to post comments and pictures!

May Garden & Lessons in Patience

One of the things I love about gardening is the many life lessons that can be received. And for me, patience is one of those. Plants and gardens have their own timetables and they may not necessarily correspond with mine. May has been a month of waiting and watching, planning and yearning, fine tuning the garden plan and wondering how it is all going to work.

We had some periods of warm, sunny weather where I wanted to run out and plant, but I knew it was too early. The full planting moon came several weeks ago but it was still too cold and early. But slowly some chervil, parsley and onions went in the garden.

Martha Stewart had a show recently where she showed a product called Hot Kaps (hotkaps.com) to protect seedlings. Her garden was planted and covered with caps - ah ha I thought! I went online and bought some and planted my pumpkins and zuchini started from seed and covered them protectively with their hot kaps. How cute and how satisfying to get some planting done.

And so I waited, as weeds started filling my beautiful new garden soil. The hollyhocks I started from seed went into the garden, also wearing their hot kaps and a good size echinacea and perennial carnation went in. Ladies mantle was transplanted, and russian sage, catmint and comfrey went in. And the weeds still came and the garden looks so empty.

I know that the first year is the year of the "bones" of the garden. Get the perennials in and started, allowing plenty of room for their eventual growth. I yearn to plant everything closer, but know that if I do, I will be pulling out, dividing, and trying to control the plants in a year or two so am holding myself back.

I have a garden plan on paper, with each bed measured and on graph paper to scale, filled in with plants at their mature size. But the gardens look so much bigger in real life and right now they look rather empty.

But in getting plants to fill in all the space, I've also had to deal with my perfectionism in my garden. I go between 2 extremes....one wanting just the right, perfect plant for a certain location and the other saving every lost little plant I find. Sometimes this works....a plant that is struggling at the store I will put in my home garden knowing that it will come to life and be a wonderful addition. I just can't throw a plant away and although it might not be perfect enough to sell, it can be salvaged. A few of the scented geraniums I overwintered fell into that category. Missing most of their leaves and looking very scraggly, I planted several of them in the garden where they are flowering and new leaves are starting to appear. Voila! But I know I will get a lot further, faster if I buy full size perennials such as the echinacea that went in. So I go between the two extremes, feeling satisfaction in watching the struggling plant come back to life but also appreciating the beauty of the large full plants.

And I realize that it is the need for instant gratification, the desire to have the perfect garden NOW and wanting the plants and nature to be on my schedule rather than my having to adapt to theirs that can be so frustrating. So I take a deep breath, talk to the plants and allow myself to sink into the process of building a garden which will take years, not days.

But that is part of the joy of it and the sense of being part of something living outside myself. I am their caretaker, and they are mine. There is so much in life that is fast, easy and instantaneous that it can feel uncomfortable to be slow, mindful and on nature's schedule. But maybe that's the sign that I need it all the more.

New Garden in April

The planting has started in the new garden, hurrah! It has been a cold wet month and not a lot has been able to go in yet. I mentioned to someone that I was planting and she replied that I had said in the store newsletter that it was too early to plant in April. Well, generally speaking that's true. But there are always exceptions. So what has been planted in April....

• The Hawthorn tree (in picture). This is planted in the center circle. There was much discussion about what to put in the circle...a fountain, maybe a statue, some plantings, a tree or shrub? I decided on the hawthorn because hawthorn is a gentle herb of the heart, and is a sacred plant from the tradition that it supplied the cross of thorns. It is also considered a magical plant for protection. I had a beautiful small tree from our garden club plant sale and no where to put it. It does get large and may not stay in its current home, but we'll see how it goes!
• Overwintered perennials. Many of my plants had to be moved for the new garden and it was too late in the year to replant them, so I overwintered them in a holding spot until Spring. As they started to show new growth, I've replanted them and have a small border of lavender along with lovage, valerian, ladie's mantle,thyme, chives and angelica replanted.
• Cold hardy plants. Newly planted are lettuces, arugula, sorrel, tatsoi, peas and a few other assorted greens that grow in the cold soil and air.

So now I'm just waiting for the soil to warm up a bit to continue planting. The space is much larger than I'm used to having which is a good thing, but also a bit overwhelming. So I'm just taking it a bit at a time and trying to curb my impatience as I space plants far apart knowing that they will grow in and a the bones of a beautiful garden are being established.

My New Herb Garden

Is there nothing more promising than a new garden, ready to be planted? Dreams of lush flowers, the air filled with the scent of herbs and robust vegetables ready for the dinner table... We all know that by July those dreams may be dashed, but in late March everything seems possible.

This garden is the result of 6 years of dreaming and planning. Having moved into this house with a small garden running along the side of the house, I struggled to make it work. It was filled with lemon balm and the first few years I affectionately called it my lemon balm garden. And although I love lemon balm, I would like some other things there also. So lemon balm plants went to the Garden Club sale, the store, friends and anyone who would take it....and still there was lemon balm. But after a year or two of diligent removal and new plantings, the form of an herb garden began to take shape. But there wasn't enough room in the narrow strips on either side of an old, lopsided brick path to include all I wanted. And the vegetables always overflowed, with pumpkin and squash vines taking up the path and winding around other plants, tomatoes running into the currant bushes that were there, and the sage growing large and overshadowing everything around it.

But the final blow was the vole, or what seemed like a large family of voles. My first indication several years ago was the echinacea. Big, beautiful echinacea in bloom suddenly was tilting to one side. When I went out to see what was happening, I pulled at it and up the whole stalk came, with no roots at all on the plant or in the ground. After much internet research I found this was probably the work of a vole and the next year, almost the entire garden was eaten from below ground. The vole war started, and after trying all the organic remedies I resorted to poison, which still only worked minimally. So last year I planted in cages I made out of chicken wire and decided that was it....I was giving up on reforming this garden and a new one was warranted.

So after close to a year of plans, discussions, hiring and work my beautiful garden is finished (many thanks to Lisa Bailey of BayLeaf Studios in Maynard, MA, Steve Jackson of Stonewalls by Jackson in Lancaster, MA and Miller Fence in Worcester, MA).

But we finished just as the first snow and freezing weather started, leaving me a blank landscape to start with in the Spring. I heeled in existing plants I wanted to replant and hopefully they have made it through the winter.

So the winter months were spent on dreaming and planning....what to plant, where, how many, how to work around the shade areas and slope by the stairs....all the fun stuff.

I plan to post my progress this season in the blog. Any ideas, suggestions and comments are welcome!

Herbal Companion Planting

So I'm not very good at blogging. I think of all sorts of things to write about, but never actually sit down and do it. So I'll keep trying and see if I can get into the swing of this!

A customer who is planning her herb garden contacted me recently looking for a listing of herb companion planting. No problem I thought, I have lots of information on companion planting. But in looking at it more closely, I realized all the information I had related to companion planting with vegetables and I really didn't have anything that specifically addressed herbs.

Intrigued, I decided to make up my own. What a good winter project, that turned out to be more difficult than it sounds. There really wasn't a lot of good information in my own personal herb book library or on the internet, so I picked out what I could and then headed to the library at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. I went through all kinds of herb books, and developed my own list.

So what is companion planting? Simply speaking, it is putting plants together that benefit each other or keeping those apart that don't. Mother Nature does this on her own but we can mimic it in our own gardens. Companion planting sets up a kind of large scale symbiosis between the plants in your garden, and can do everything from provide insect control, climbing support, control competition, and provide soil conditioning. Some plants even release chemicals that are helpful to other plants, or on the other hand, toxic to other plants.

Going a little further, companion planting also includes not planting together plants that are susceptible to the same insects or diseases and putting together plants that like the same growing conditions but occupy different soil strata. For example, planting African marigolds and narcissus together. The bulbs are planted deep so the marigolds can be planted on top and the marigold repels nematodes that attack the bulb.

According to Anna Carr in Good Neighbors: Companion Planting for Gardeners, companion planting is a mix of folk wisdom, fairy tale or scientific proof, usually a little of all three.

I found this all fascinating. If you would like to read further about companion planting, some books I like are Herbs in the Garden, The Art of Intermingling by Rob Proctor and David Macke, Roses Love Garlic, Secrets of Companion Planting with Flowers by Louise Riotte (which has a great list of herbs as they related to insect control), and Good Neighbors: Companion Planting for Gardeners by Anna Carr.

And I will continue working on my list so if you have any good herbal companion planting thoughts, please pass them along!

So here's the list of things to plant together with their dislikes and other information such as pest control. I included vegetable information as well because if you're like me, I interplant my vegetables and herbs together so find this helpful.

Angelica: Nettle. Dislikes Dill
Anise: Cilantro -plant together for faster germination
Basil: Marigold, Parsley, Tomatoes. Dislikes Rue. Deters flies, mosquitoes, aphids, white fly, controls tomato worm (1 basil plant to 3 tomato plants)
Bergamot (Monarda/Bee Balm): Attracts honey bees
Borage: Tomatoes, Squash, Strawberries, said to increase strawberry crop. Controls tomato worm. Adds potassium, calcium & minerals to soil.
Caraway: Avoid Dill, fennel, carrot. Plant throughout the garden to loosen the soil.
Catnip: Eggplant, collards. Deters flea beetle, ants, attracts bees
Chamomile: Mint, Roses. Plant cabbages & onions to improve chamomile flavor. Improves health of plants grown close to it.
Comfrey: Strawberries. Rich in potassium, nitrogen & phosphates. Great in compost/compost tea
Cilantro (Coriander): Anise, Chervil, Dill (plant with Anise for faster germination). Deters aphids
Chervil: Cilantro, Dill, Anise. Deters aphids, attracts bees .
Chives: Parsley, Roses, Tomato, Carrots. Deters aphids, black spot on roses
Dead Nettle: Potatoes. Deters potato bug
Dill: Dislikes Lavender, Fennel, Caraway, Angelica. Dill & Fennel can cross-pollinate, attracts honey bees
Fennel: Most plants dislike this herb, don’t grow in vegetable garden. Deters fleas.
Feverfew: Roses, attracts aphids away from roses
Flax: Carrots,Potatoes. Deters Potato Bug
Garlic: Roses, raspberries, tomato, fruit trees. Deters Japanese beetle, aphids
Horehound: Tomatoe, horseradish. Deters potato bug, blister beetle
Henbit: General insect repellent
Hyssop: Cabbage, grapes, collards, broccoli, brussel sprouts. Dislikes radishes. Deters cabbage moth
Lamb Quarters: Marigolds, pansies. Deters Leaf miner, attracts lady beetle. Soil improver.
Lavender: Deters Moths -- combine with southernwood, wormwood and rosemary in an anti-moth sachet
Lemon Balm: Most plants, improves tomatoes, attracts nees
Lovage: Improves health & flavor of most plants near it. Dislikes rhubarb.
Marjoram: Sage, Nettle, Pepper. Repels most insects, attracts bees
Marigolds: Plant throughout the garden. Deters Mexican bean beetles, nematodes, others
Mint: Chamomile, Salad Burnet, Nettle, Tomato, Cabbage. Dislikes parsley. Deters white cabbage moth, aphids, flea beetles ants, mosquitoes, mice
Nasturium: Marigold, Savory, Cucumber. Deters cucumber beetle (sow in cucumber hills when plant)
Nettle: Mint, Sage, Marjoram, Angelica, Valerian. Deters Slugs, Snails
Oregano: Cabbage, cucumber, grapes. Deters Cucumber beetle, cabbage butterfly
Parsley: Chives, Roses, Onion, Tomato. Dislikes Mint. Deters Rose beetles, carrot flies, asparagus beetles
Pennyroyal: Roses, broccoli, cabbage. Deters ants, flies, fleas, mosquitoes. Helps roses, attracts bees.
Roses: Tansy, Rue, Pennyroyal, Parsley, Garlic, Chives, Chamomile. Dislikes Boxwood.
Rosemary: Sage, Collards, Cabbage. Deters cabbage moth, bean beetles, carrot fly
Rue: Roses, Strawberries, Raspberries. Dislikes Basil, Sage. Deters flies, Japanese beetles, dogs & cats
Sage: Rosemary, Nettle. Dislikes Rue & Onions.
Salad Burnet: Mint, Thyme
Savory: Onion, beans
Tansy: Roses, Raspberries, Squash. Dislikes Collards. Good all-round insect repellant. Concentrates potassium in soil.
Tarragon: All purpose beneficial garden helper
Thyme: Hyssop, Salad Burnet, Lettuce, Cabbage family. Deters cabbage maggots & worms, flea beetles. Said to help sick plants recover.
Valerian: Nettle. Stimulates phosphorous activity in soil, good for compost. Attracts earthworms.
Wormwood: Dislikes most vegetables. Deters Black flea beetles, mosquitoes, most animals
Yarrow: Aromatic herbs. Increases essential oil content & aromatic quality

Not Meant to Have St John's Wort Oil this Year!

On the Elder Flower Adventure, I started picking St John's Wort to make oil. This is one of my favorite things to do every summer. The flowers are a beautiful shiny buttercup yellow and the oil of the plant a blood red color. When the flowers and flower buds are infused in oil, the oil turns a brilliant ruby red color. I like to use the oil in the lip balms I make as it is good for sun protection and soothing and healing to the lips, especially if they get chapped in the winter.

But I'll have to get some oil from friends this year. I started off well with the flowers I first picked, adding them to jojoba oil. But after a few days I noticed it wasn't turning the red color it should but was rather a pinky color. It had been stormy so I hadn't put it out in the full sun as I usually do so I figured it just didn't get enough heat and I moved it.

I kept picking flowers and one of the wonderful things about St John's Wort is that it pops up all over! I found it on the farm where I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I asked the farmer if I could pick the St John's wort and he didn't even know what it was, so I pointed out all the beautiful plants growing in the field (alongside lots of red clover) and he said I was welcome to whatever I wanted to pick. I also found it in my yard (where I'm always careful to mow around it) and on the golf course.

I was golfing one evening and came around a corner to a spot that had elder flower, which of course I now see everywhere, several large mullein plants and St John's Wort. I was ready to stop the game and go pick herbs, but the women I was golfing with didn't understand why I would go want to pick some weeds and I couldn't hold the game up!

But I digress.....As I picked new St John's Wort, I started a new jar of oil in case the pink one was just ruined. Using organic olive oil this time, it turned a nice red and I was happily adding flowers as I found them to my oil mixture out in the sun. All was going well, until....

We had terribly humid weather for a period and a friend who was visiting noticed my oil and commented that there was condensation on the inside of the jars. Not a good thing for oil! So I replaced the jar lids with cheesecloth, folded over several times and secured with a rubber band around the lid. This allowed enough air that the condensation went away and I was merrily continuing adding flowers to my oil.

And then yesterday afternoon there was a large thunderstorm. It hadn't been forecasted, and my jars of oil were out in the sun, brewing away. And now that there was cheesecloth instead of the jar lids, the rain poured into my jars.

Oil and water definitely do not mix and I'm heartsick to lose my oil. Most of the St John's Wort has stopped blooming, so there's really nothing left to do until wait for next year.

Lesson learned!

Elder Flower Adventure

Having just made a non-alcoholic elder flower cordial for a Cordials & Liqueurs workshop at the store, I decided I needed to make more for the herbal apprentice class coming up in a few weeks. But where to find elder flowers? Faith, my fellow herbalist and teacher, had brought the elder flowers to the workshop and I knew they were passing their prime quickly. Driving home yesterday taking my usual backroad shortcuts, I glanced over at the woods and what did I see - flowering elder! I drove past again and clocked the mileage from the trees to home, exactly 2 miles. I could bike there in the morning and pick the elder flowers.

So this morning the adventure began. I just got my bike last week, deciding with my husband that we needed to do something to get into shape as well as have something we would enjoy doing together. I went out once and made it about a mile or so. But this should be easy, what is 4 miles round trip?

Alot, at least for me. Setting out around nine to beat the hot humid weather forecasted for the day didn't work. It was hot and humid. I had made my usual fruit yogurt shake for breakfast, and when I took a sip of the ice cold water I had brought, Vesuvius broke out in my stomach. About a mile and a half in, I pulled over, sat on someone's lawn and thought I would lose breakfast. But it passed, and I was determined to get to the elder.

Heading to my spot, I passed another elder. Ha ha! I don't have to bike the full 4 miles and can still get my elder flowers. As I approached the flowers I saw the large swath of poison ivy surrounding it. Faith had encountered prehistoric size mosquitos in her elder flower quest, and my bane was poison ivy. So I decided to pass walking in the poison ivy and to reach my original destination.

I biked, I walked, I wanted to throw up and I reached "my" elder flowers. They were beautiful, and also surrounded by poison ivy. I was picking them, poison ivy or not! After all this I was not going home without elder flowers. So I gingerly walked through the poison ivy, picked the flowers and headed back home.

I started feeling a bit better on the way back and took it easy, walking the bike up the hills. There are no flat roads around here! I stopped at the first elder I had found, and the flowers were beautiful and in their prime so I decided to brave the poison ivy and pick some more. Thankfully the poison ivy was also surrounded by jewelweed, so after picking I opened the stems of some jewelweed, smeared it all over my legs and hoped for the best. Poison ivy and I have a long, painful history and I treat it with much respect and usually stay as far away as possible.

With a bag full of elder flowers, I headed home. Reaching the center of town, I noticed St John's wort blooming. Well how could I ride past that? So I stopped and picked St John's wort flowers to make an oil. I had only brought one bag, so the St John's wort went in with the elder flowers, mixing colorfully.

I got home, got out the Tecru and washed all over in fear of the poison ivy oil and jumped in the pool to cool off.

Refreshed, I sorted out the elder and St John's wort flowers and made an infusion of the elder flowers and set the St John's wort flowers to wilt a bit before making the oil.

Here's the elder flower cordial recipe that started the whole adventure. It is well worth it! It makes a lot, so can be reduced. I am infusing the elder flower in the water to freeze it, and then make the syrup in a few weeks.

English Elderflower Cordial
5 cups water
3 pounds sugar
1 lemon, sliced
25 large elderflower heads
6 tablespoons citric acid
Sparkling or still mineral water to dilute

Place the water in a large plan and bring to a boil. Add the sugar and lemon and remove from the heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Place on the heat again and return to a boil. Add the elderflower heads and citric acid and bring to a boil once more. Remove from the heat and leave to stand until cool. Strain and bottle in clean bottles with corks. This can be drunk immediately. If stored in a cool place, it should keep about three months. When serving, dilute with 5 parts water and add ice.

Yield: approximately 2 quarts of syrup
Source: Drink to Your Health, Anne McIntyre