Planned Gardenhood

Although it's tempting to visit an herb greenhouse or place an order for seeds and plants when you first make the decision to have an herb garden, you should always create a plan (on paper preferably) before you make any purchases.

As any real estate agent will tell you, it's all about Location, Location, Location. Whether you're buying a home, a business or plotting out an herb garden, you want to make sure you end up somewhere that you can be happy for years to come. Not only do you want a garden that's aesthetically pleasing when you're working in it, but you should also consider how it will look from the street, from other parts of your yard and when you're inside looking at it through windows.

While it's true that most herbs grow like weeds (and some in fact are classifed by many as weeds) and will thrive in almost any location, choosing a spot that has full sun at least part of the day will be the most likely choice for best results. Most herbs will grow nicely in partial shade, although they will not grow as fast or full as they would in full sun. Very few herbs will grow in full shade, certainly they will not grow to their full potential.

Drainage is important in an herb garden too. Although mints seem to not mind having wet feet, many herbs will fail to thrive if they don't get to dry their feet fairly often. A nice sunny slight slope or hillside is always nice for an herb garden, as is a level area with slopes nearby for drainage.

An herb garden doesn't have to be any exact size or shape. Some people have great success gardening in containers and hanging baskets on a porch or a deck. Others plow up great expanses and grow herbs as row crops. Others choose to create a design and focus on a smaller area, with room to grow if all goes well.

Once you've chosen the location and the general scale, it's time to decide what type of herbs you want to grow. Perhaps you want to create a simple tea garden, growing herbs that you can easily harvest and dry for tasty teas to help you while away the winter hours. Maybe you enjoy cooking and want to see what taste sensations you can create using freshly grown herbs instead of the processed herbs you currently are using. Are you a crafter anxious to try your hand at making wreaths, potpourri, fragrances, or beauty aids? Or maybe you want to dabble with growing herbs for medicinal purposes. Or, possibly you just want to create a "scratch and sniff" garden that sends you into near sensory overload by just walking through it and brushing against the plants.

Once you've made your decision, you must learn more about your individual choices to see if you've set aside the correct place for them to enjoy optimum growth, if they will be hardy in your zone and also be sure that your soil doesn't need to be amended before planting. Most herbs will grow in almost any soil, but some can be a bit persnickety. Do your homework to avoid losing valuable plants because you planted in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now that you have the plan in your head, it's time to put it on paper. Even if you can't draw stick people (and I can't!) you can do a rough sketch of how you want your plants placed in their new home. It's much easier on you to move plants around with pencil and eraser than with shovel and rake, and it's certainly much easier on the plants. It's ok to make changes as you go along, if what you see in the garden isn't what you imagined in your head and on paper, but having at least a rough plan will save a lot of effort.

Today's usage of herbs is herb butter:

If you've priced herbal butters in specialty markets, you know the prices can be astounding. But, they're surprisingly easy to make and add so much to a gift-basket of muffins or homemade breads.

To create your custom herb butters, simply allow butter to melt to room temperature in a small bowl. Mix in your desired flavors [for a simple chive butter for instance, mix 6 tablespoons softened, unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon chives (I use scissors to snip mine into small pieces) and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice] and place in the fridge to chill and harden. You can use candy molds to make butter pats in interesting shapes, or wrap the slightly chilled butter in plastic wrap and shape it into a roll. This makes interesting circlets of butter when sliced. You can also leave it in the small mixing bowl for a nicely shaped butter mold that will perhaps fit in antique butter dishes. These will keep in the fridge for several weeks, and in the freezer for a few months.

But, What Do I DO With Them?

To some people, planting an herb garden is the equivelent of a dog chasing a car. Once he's caught it, what will he do with it? Many people get carried away with the heady aromas of an herb greenhouse and they end up with plants that have been a great addition to their herb garden, but, now that it's time to harvest them, they draw a blank. It's easy to get so busy with the growing that you forget that the end result of having an herb garden was supposed to include harvesting and using the fruits of your labor.

Whether you plan to use your herbs in the kitchen or on the grill (try putting a simple sprig of rosemary beneath almost any meat on your grill for a delectable smoked-in taste), as an addition to one of your crafting projects (dried herbs make beautiful wreaths, arrangements or stand-alone crafts such as woven lavender bottles etc), or perhaps as health and beauty aids (sage is a great addition to home-made shaving lotions, mouthwashes and gargles), you can likely find a use for almost every herb in your garden.

One of the most important purchases when planning an herb garden will be something that will likely spend very little, if any, time actually in the garden. Books on herbs to add to your gardening library. If you want to invest in only one book, my first choice would the "Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of HERBS" (ISBN# 0-87857-699-1). This book is an herbalist's dream! Chock full of information about growing, harvesting, using and enjoying herbs in almost every possible way. Beautifully illustrated and educational...a hard balance to find! My second personal favorite is "The Herbal Yearbook" byGillian Haslam (ISBN# 1-85833-010-6). This delightful book takes you month-by-month through a year of gardening with herbs. Hundreds of recipes, craft instructions and gardening tips are enhanced by lovely illustrations. Third on my list would be "Herbs for all Seasons" by Rosemary Hemphill (ISBN# 0-670-85041-1). The small size of this book belies the amount of information on its pages. It describes the culinary uses of herbs as well as medicinal qualities, along with (as stated on its jacket) "..new facts and old folklore, recipes and remedies, poetry and pepper."

Our recipe from today comes from the back cover of "Herbs for all Seasons."

Four-Herbs Vinegar

Cut basil, borage, mint and chives just before the plants flower. Bruise the leaves and pack them into a glass jar. Heat white vinegar and pour over the leaves. Cover and infuse for 14 days, shaking occasionally. Strain, then store in glass bottles with screw-top lids.

Opinions are like belly buttons, we all have one. Mine, in this case, would be to use apple-cider or red-wine vinegar. I don't like the taste from white vinegar...and I do like the additional health qualities from true apple-cider vinegar, especially if it has a "mother" (the icky slimy stuff that grows in vinegar. Many people throw away their vinegar when they see that "mother" thinking it has ruined, when in fact it is at its prime for medicinal and health-conscious usage. I also prefer using corks to screw-top lids, but that is truly just a personal preference. I save every pretty or unusual bottle I find (esepcially wine bottles that may have corks that match their label) and reuse them for bottling vinegars. If the label is attractive, I'll simply place my own descriptive label over the portion of the original label that described the previous contents, leaving the artwork and name in place. I also don't like putting heated vinegar over my herb leaves, stems and flowers, I always use room temperature. Sometimes I don't strain the vinegar, but leave it as it was originally bottled. If I strain it, I almost always place a stem or few leaves inside when I rebottle it.

One of my favorite herbal vinegars was made using lemon balm leaves and stems, pineapple sage blossoms and orange mint leaves. After I had packed the herbs in the bottom of the bottle, I poured the bottle half full of apple-cider vinegar, I then placed a curl of both orange and lemon peels and finished filling with the vinegar. After it had been bottled in a dark place for a few months, it had an incredible citrusy taste that made an awesome marinade for grilled chicken breasts. Yum!

Where Can I Buy Them?

Herb greenhouses are becoming fewer and farther between with rising costs of maintaining a year-round greenhouse. When you do find a specialty greenhouse, don't expect a lot of bargains. Although herbs are easily grown and will thrive in places where most plants would toss up their branches and die, growing them on a large enough scale to open to the public can be very costly. You may find your pocketbook can't provide you with all of the plants you dream of to make your herb garden chock full of everything that catches your eye.

If your thumb isn't completely brown, you should be able to grow a lot of your herbs from seeds. Seed packets are relatively inexpensive and with a little bit of knowledge, proper tools and equipment and a little bit of luck, you may be able to not only fill your own garden to overflowing, but share some with friends as well. What a lovely way to fill a Saturday afternoon, swapping herb plants with friends and neighbors. Perhaps members of your garden club would be interested in combining orders so that you can each afford a great quantity.

Below is a list of some of the most popular herb catalogs:

• http://www.sandymushherbs.com/ Located in North Carolina, Sandy Mush Herbs offers a wide selection of herb plants, seeds and books. They are open to the public occasionally, and are a nice addition to a visit to Ashville's points of interest.
• http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/ Mountain Valley Growers, in Squaw Valley, CA offers certified organic herb and other perennial plants.
• http://www.seedsofchange.com/ All Seeds of Change seed packets are certified organic, and are a true link to the past.
• http://www.goodwincreekgardens.com/ Goodwin Creek, located in Williams, OR has a free print catalog offering herb plants, seeds and books
• http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/ One of my personal favorites, Nichols (also in Oregon) has a vast selection of herbs and rare seeds at affordable prices.
• Visit my neighbor, Larry Chandler of Sand Mountain Herbs near Fyffe, Alabama http://www.sandmountainherbs.com/ and be impressed by the variety of unique seeds he offers!
• I've personally visited White Flower Farms in Litchfield, Connecticut, and it was a lovely respite after a two-day drive. You can order a copy of their catalog at http://search.whiteflowerfarm.com/cgi-local/cataloguerequest.pl.
• http://www.gardeningplaces.com/seeds.htm This is just a good basic list of garden suppliers across the country

OK, now the gauntlet has been tossed. Go forth and buy seeds, plant seeds, harvest bounty. But, along the way, don't forget to relax and ENJOY!

Welcome to my Garden!

Glad you could stop by to rest a while and inhale the scents of my herbs and heirloom flowers. Have a seat in the old wooden swing over there, and close your eyes for a bit. What could be nicer than to spend an afternoon lulled to sleep by the warmth of the sun and the sounds of birdsong, being rocked by the gentle breeze.

Herb gardens don't plan themselves, or plant themselves or even grow entirely on their own (although they are certainly more hardy and time-effective than most other types of garden) so it's not going to be all about relaxing and keeping our feet up while we sip lemonade (or mint julep, this IS the south after all!) but it will be all about enjoyment. The excitement of going through seed catalogs and dreaming big dreams, the heady thrill of watching plants spreading roots and foliage as they get to know their new home, the overwhelmingly enticing scents of newly harvested herbs awaiting their final destination, and the joy of creating something special in which you have an investment of time from its very conception.

Creating and enjoying an herb garden is a bit like having a child. You first must decide if you have the time and energy to not only plan and implement, but to nurture throughout the years. It takes dedication, knowledge and a true love of what you are doing, but the end result will be something that will give you a lifetime of joy and will repay you tenfold for every moment's investment.

This blog is the precursor of what I hope will become the bi-monthly newsletter for our herb business which we plan to open in early spring 2009. We will be covering every aspect of herb gardening from planting to harvesting and beyond. Each installment will end with a special recipe or directions for a craft project starring something from our herb garden.

I'm looking forward to learning with you and from you. Please share your ideas and knowledge. If you'd like to become a regular contributor, please send me an email at cedarbrookfarm@gmail.com and I'll include you on our author's roster.

So, here's a snappy salute with a gardening trowel in hand as I make my way to the piles of dirt and mulch and rows of happy plants that is what I hope will continue to be a refuge for my family as it grows, taking us away from the everyday cares and stresses of life. Even if we never harvest a leaf or cut a blossom, just having a place to "scratch and sniff" and perhaps do a little grazing, makes an herb garden worth the effort.

Happy Gardening!