Tag: Herbs

Building Herbal Gardens
Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Building Herbal Gardens

Sarah

When building a garden, planting herbs is one of the most important things you can do in it. Besides offering immense flavor and medicinal uses, many herbs are pollinator-friendly. If you want a higher production rate of produce in your garden, you must encourage pollinators to visit. Growing herb plants for the flowers is a dual-purpose crop. Add shallow containers of water (pot saucers filled with rocks) under the herb plants will have them coming and staying all day. Encourage wild and domesticated bees, butterflies, and more to visit.

Harvesting fresh lavender is a real treat.

It builds a legacy garden (that often lasts for many years with doing little work).

It also can build a rain-wise garden that only needs a bit of water a year, and often minimal upkeep, such as once-a-year pruning (and harvesting can be the pruning).

You can design your herb garden to be a focal point or in a raised bed or make it the outside of the garden, as a living fence/bed marker. There are so many possibilities.

Homegrown, air-dried herbs tucked away for winter use.

The Herb Garden Planning:

  • Make a list of what herbs you want/need.
  • Decide if you will grow from seed this winter or buy starts in spring.
  • Know what needs to be grown inside or in a greenhouse in your grow zone.
  • What will be an annual in your zone, and what will come back year after year, as a perennial.
  • Make a plan, on paper or using an app, to fugre out your design.
  • Keep yearly notes on what grows well, what dies over winter and what you liked.

There are many varieties to plant, though I tend to break them down into distinct planting types (some are interchangeable of course). It depends on what you want most out of your herbal garden: edible, medicinal, for tea or pretty flowers for the pollinators. And you can have all!

Not all herbs are small either, some are bushes and trees, so planning is essential when planting so it doesn’t take over the area.

If it says to contain, know that plant will spread and potentially take over if not controlled. Anything in the mint family is one to watch. Use pots instead of in ground, and make sure the drainage hole has a saucer under it, so roots can’t go wandering through it, into the ground.

Culinary Herbs:

  • Basil (sweet)
  • Bay (is a tree)
  • Catnip
  • Chilies (not quite an herb, it’s a pepper, for the seeds)
  • Chives
  • Coriander/Cilantro
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Lavender
  • Lemon balm
  • Lemongrass
  • Lovage
  • Marjoram
  • Oregano
  • Parsley
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Thyme
  • Oregano
  • Dill
  • Savory
  • Stevia
  • Tarragon

Pollinator Flower Herbs:

  • Basil (all types)
  • Bee Balm
  • Bergamot
  • Borage
  • Chamomile
  • Calendula
  • Catnip
  • Chives
  • Comfrey
  • Echinacea
  • Helichrysum
  • Lavender
  • Marjoram
  • Marshmallow
  • Sage

Tea Herbs:

  • Bee Balm
  • Catnip
  • Chamomile
  • Elderberry (a tree)
  • Ginger
  • Horehound
  • Lavender
  • Lemon Verbena
  • Marshmallow (needs wetter soil)
  • Mint (all types)
  • Pineapple Sage
  • Wild roses, for rosehips and leaves
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Stevia
  • Stinging Nettles

Medicinal Herbs:

  • Aloe (indoors in most areas)
  • Basil (hardy types)
  • Bee Balm
  • Chamomile
  • Calendula
  • Comfrey (must be contained)
  • Dandelion (the roots) (must be contained/dead-headed promptly to avoid seeds)
  • Dill
  • Echinacea
  • Feverfew
  • Helichrysum
  • Horehound
  • Ginger
  • Lavender
  • Lemon Balm (must be contained)
  • Marshmallow (needs wetter soil)
  • Mint (all types) (needs water and must be contained)
  • Oregano
  • Patchouli
  • Wild roses, such as Nooksack and Sitka
  • Red Dock
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Stevia
  • Stinging Nettles (must be contained)
  • Thyme
  • White Sage (Hard to grow from seed, plants are best)

~Sarah

If you are seeking seeds, I highly suggest Sow Right Seeds (Use code “SARAHK10” for 10% off) They carry many herb seeds, and offer bundles of seeds aimed at both culinary, tea and medicinal herb gardens.

Sitka Rose Hip Syrup
Herbalism · Recipes

Sitka Rose Hip Syrup

Sarah

One of the best roses for creating herbalist recipes with is the Sitka Rose. While its name has one thinking of wild Alaska, it actually grows along the low lands of the PNW well into Washington State and beyond, and grows beautifully. It’s a gorgeous bush, and they grow tall along the salt water on our island. Locally, our Nootka Rose bushes are native and grow alongside them, but have smaller, and firm rose hips. So at this time of year, if I see a Sitka loaded with fresh, ripe hips, I start picking. They are truly the size of plump cherry tomatoes, and have the feel of a gummy candy.

As always, only pick rose hips from bushes you know were not sprayed with fungicides. I have a couple areas I know about, and they are safe. I tend to keep plastic sandwich boxes in the car’s trunk in case I see berries or similar to pick. When picking toss any that are wrinkled or have any black spots. Be wary of the spines on the bushes, they are sharp.

Rose hip syrup is a great way to use hips. The syrup is full of Vitamin C and a sip here and there can be good for the body.

Sitka Rose Hip Syrup

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound fresh Sitka rose hips
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup granulated sugar or favorite sugar 1:1 substitute

Directions:

Wash, and trim the rose hips (I pull the ends and tops off by hand). Add them and the water to a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

Take off the heat.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Rinse the strainer well, line it with a jelly muslin bag, restrain the liquid into a clean container.

Rinse out the saucepan well, and return the liquid to it.

Stir in the sugar till dissolved.

Bring to a boil, simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

Let cool, transfer to a clean jar and seal, store in refrigerator.

Notes:

Why strain and clean the items? Rose hips contain tiny hairs that can cause discomfort if you ingest them. So double straining removes them. And as well, rinsing the pot out between uses. You will see the tiny bits left behind, the syrup should be clear in appearance once finished. If in any doubt? Strain it a third time.

~Sarah

Air Drying Herbs and Flowers
Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Preserving

Air Drying Herbs and Flowers

Sarah

Drying herbs and flowers is easy to do, and takes little work to put away a years worth. And you don’t need a dehydrator either. My method is very simple: Take a clean brown grocery bag outside and pick, tossing into the bag as you do. Then fold over the top to keep light and dust out, and let air dry. I gently shake the bag(s) daily to move the flowers and leaves around. You get a nicer color this way, and no heat means all the natural essential oils stay. Heat can destroy them.

Once dried I store the smaller items in mason jars.

Larger items, such as Comfrey leaves I store in plastic storage bags, gently placed in so they don’t crumble.

Best use is to store out of light, in a dry area that doesn’t overheat in summer. Use within a year for best quality.

Pick Chamomile early in the day, before the sun hits it.

Chamomile is not only great as a relaxing tea, it can be brewed and used as a hair rinse for blonde hair.

Calendula flower.

Rosemary can be brewed strong, cooled and used as a hair rinse for dark hair.

Sage flowers.

Sage being picked.

Comfrey. Bees love the flowers.

The back of Comfrey leaves are fascinating in the patterns. Dry it and save for making strong brews to soak skin in, if needed.

Dry what you grow, or friends grow, and dry what you use – both in culinary and medicinal uses. Then you won’t ever have to to buy herbs where you don’t know where they were grown.

~Sarah

Easy To Grow Perennial Herbs
Gardening · Homesteading

Easy To Grow Perennial Herbs

Sarah

No matter where I have lived, I have always had herbs growing. Even in dismal cramped apartments I found ways to have life near me. It is what the hippies would have called Earth Grounding. That you can easily touch a living plant, and feel right with the world, inside or outside. Now then, I grow all my herbs outside these days, in the ground and in pots, spread across our land. Some of these cross the line between herb and flower, but all have medicinal or culinary purposes, and all but one is bee and pollinator friendly.

Most are easily started from seed, and once in the ground can be ignored outside of watering and trimming periodically. Many herbs are animal resistant, due to the bitter essential oils in them. Now then, a really hungry deer or rabbit will eat some to the ground if the winter is harsh. But often the plants will still survive, as the roots will generate once again.

If you are looking for seeds or starts, start at Strictly Medicinal Seeds. This is all they sell – herbs, flowers and more, all for the herbal lover. Great company to do business with.

In no order…..

Stinging Nettles. You might have these growing wild if you have a damp area, such as near a pond, lake, stream or even a well head. If not, you can purchase seeds. Unlike many of the herbs here, this one does need good watering.

Rosemary. In most areas rosemary is a durable evergreen herb, with woody stems. Its purple flowers are delicate and attract so many pollinators.

Helichrysm. Also known as the curry plant, due to its unique smell. The herb has a couple varieties, some can pass for lavender due to the bushy look at first, others are more sprawling. They produce button like yellow flowers, and often bloom even in winter, in warmer years.

Red Dock. If in a good sunny area, this can actually get pretty good in size. Otherwise, it is a small plant.

Feverfew. It is the one that bees don’t care for. The flowers are about the same size as chamomile. Feverfew grows tall. Deer ignore it.

Bee Balm. It has tall spikes with purple/pink flowers. For us it comes back, in cold areas it may not. It may need bracing, so it doesn’t flop over.

Marshmallow. The one plant deer mow to the ground here. The pastel flowers attract pollinators, the roots are what the plant is grown for. Marshmallow grows quite tall, a number of feet.

Echinca. It can be harder to start from seed, but once going is a sturdy short plant to add to the herb bed.

Chives. Plant once, have a million free starts for life! The flowers are always covered in pollinators.

Sage. Hardy and outside of rabbits not much likes it. If left be, it will grow to be a strong, woody plant. The purple flowers are quite pretty and bees love them.

Lavender. The drier and rockier the soil, so much the better. There are two types of lavender. Some you can grow from seed, and it is quite easy to do. Other types, which you are more likely to see for sale as plants, are started by rootings.

White Sage. Growing by seed is extremely hard, it takes a lot of effort to get it to germinate. There are tricks, such as using fire. However, if you can find a nursery that sells starts, go this route. When it produces long runners that flower, bask in it. They produce seeds!

Thyme. The pretty, tiny flowers bloom even into winter in mild areas.

And to not forget….all the many forms of Mint, from Peppermint, Spearmint and so many others. But always grow them in a pot, as they will take over your garden in a year’s time.

~Sarah

Tye-Dyeing With Fresh Indigo Leaves
Crafting · crafts · DIY · Gardening · Herbalism · Homeschooling · Wildcrafting

Tye-Dyeing With Fresh Indigo Leaves

Sarah

As part of the hybrid homeschooling we are doing with our local school district, the boys get to attend the farm at the school in person. Last week we had an instructor come and teach tye-dyeing with Indigo leaves. I hadn’t done it before, so it was very fascinating to learn. Glad we had cover at the school farm though, because the fall rain showed up that day, and was very heavy.

Indigo.

We were given a couple plug starts in late spring and I potted it up. It grows easily, and needs nothing more than sun and water. I am hoping to get seeds from it before the cold comes.

Soaking the fabric in the dye slurry. The boys opted for gloves, as it does stain your hands (but not synthetic fabric).

Rinsing it well in tubs of water.

Finished product.

Gorgeous color from nature.

I borrowed the hand out we were given, with the details below to do it yourself. We used silk fabric scraps to dye.

Dyeing with Fresh Indigo leaves
The plant we are using is called Persicaria tinctoria (also called Polygonum
tinctoria) or Japanese indigo.
Inside the leaf of indigo plants is a molecule called Indican. The leaf also contains
enzymes. When blended together, these two things combine to create indoxyl.
Indoxyl plus oxygen combine to create indigotin. Indigotin is the main blue
substance of the color indigo.
Indican + enzyme = indoxyl
Indoxyl + oxygen = Indigotin or indigo or Blue!

Materials and equipment:
Indigo leaves
Buckets
Blender
Cold water
Protein fiber (silk or wool) – washed
Gloves (optional)
Salt (optional for process #2)

Process #1:
1 – Harvest the indigo plants about 6 inches above the ground. Do this first thing
in the morning when the plants are coolest and contain the most juice.
2 – carefully strip the leaves off of the stalks
3 – put some leaves in the blender and fill halfway with cold water. Blend on high
until well pulverized like a smoothie.
4 – Pour this liquid into a container and add your fiber or fabric. Depending on the
size of your fabric, you may want more than one blenderful. Note – you may
want to strain the liquid through a fine mesh or cloth bag if you are dyeing
something like wool yarn to prevent the plant fibers from sticking to the yarn.
5 – Gently rotate the fabric in the liquid for 20 – 30 minutes
6 – Rinse in cold water and hang to dry

Process #2: Salt method
1 – Harvest the indigo plants about 6 inches above the ground. Do this first thing
in the morning when the plants are coolest and contain the most juice.
2 – carefully strip the leaves off of the stalks
3 – Put a big handful or two of leaves into a large bowl. Add some salt (like a
tablespoon). Massage the fabric and leaves for 20 -30 minutes. Until the leaves
have released their juice and the fabric has turned blue.

~Sarah