Herb Talk

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Herb Talk

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1SDaisy
mrt 22, 2017, 11:34 pm

This is the thread for everybody to speak freely about anything herb-related. Talk can range from favorite herb books, to favorite herbal recipes, to what you're growing in your herb garden this year. Feel free to talk about the herbs you've used in food, as medicine, or in crafts. I'm purposely keeping the topic broad for a more interesting discussion. Looking forward to your replies! :-) Herbs are my favorite subject.

2staffordcastle
mrt 24, 2017, 12:16 am

Hi, SDaisy!
My sister and I are planning on putting in a herb garden this spring, and are currently making our lists of what to put in it. We are planning to do raised beds. First, though, we need to get rid of the blackberries that are currently occupying the space, which will be a pain. (Literally ...)

3SDaisy
mrt 24, 2017, 8:40 am

That's awesome that you're starting an herb garden! LOL We've got lots of blackberries growing wild where I live, too. I love making blackberry jam with them every year, or just eating them fresh. But if I had to choose between blackberries or herbs... I don't know, tough choice. XD

What herbs do you have on your list so far? Is this a culinary herb garden, or a medicinal herb garden?

I need to put my lists together, too. I enjoy trying unique varieties of herbs (I've grown Chocolate Mint, Pineapple Sage, Pineapple Mint, Banana Mint, and Cinnamon Basil), so if you have any recommendations for me to look into, I'd love to hear about them. :-) If you're looking for any herb recommendations for your garden, I'm more than willing to help out. :-)

4fuzzi
mrt 28, 2017, 2:11 pm

Thread is starred, and I'll be back!

5southernbooklady
mrt 28, 2017, 8:50 pm

Over the last few years, as my garden has expanded, I've found myself giving more and more space to herbs and flowers, rather than the straight up vegetable plot I originally intended. At this point I have most of the culinary herbs I use well established, if I can grow them, or as part of my annual potted deck herb garden, for the things I have to coddle or restart every year.

I'm now adding in more medicinal herbs. Our local big annual herb and plant fair is this coming weekend, and I am going to be looking specifically for natives or medicinal things I don't already have: Arnica, Cardamom, Agrimony, etc. It's tricky because I live in a problematic climate -- hot and humid, sandy soil. Not exactly the climate suited to your typical English Physic garden.

6SDaisy
mrt 29, 2017, 12:51 am

>4 fuzzi: So glad to see somebody here so interested in herbs! Thanks for posting! :-)

>5 southernbooklady: Your garden sounds awesome!! I have garden envy, haha. XD What do you use Agrimony for? I've used an arnica gel for external inflammation, but never grown it, although I'd like to try to some time. My garden is mostly culinary, although there are a few exceptions, such as Feverfew, which I've used as a tea for headaches.

7southernbooklady
mrt 29, 2017, 8:38 am

>6 SDaisy: My garden is a work in progress and rather Darwinian -- things have to survive with a measure of benign neglect, because I don't use pesticides and only compost for fertilizer. Every season is a story of unexpected successes and failures. I kind of enjoy the process, really.

Agrimony is in the rose family and is a mild astringent. As a tea it is supposed to be helpful for sore throats and coughs, as a compress applied to the skin it is used to treat inflammation and skin irritation.

It is also, incidentally, a dye plant that can produce a soft yellow color. My mother does a lot of knitting, weaving and fiber arts stuff, and has been adding dye plants to her garden. She mentioned it. She, incidentally, taught and still teaches me anything I know about gardening. Alas, she lives in a completely different climate zone so these days we compare notes more than anything else.

I've never used agrimony, so it would be an experiment. But I have to contend with a lot of skin irritants in my garden -- fire ants, poison ivy, stinging nettle (which I grow on purpose) plus the usual issues that come from tending tomatoes or tobacco. So I thought herbs that could be used to sooth skin inflammation would be a good place to start to build a medicinal garden.

8fuzzi
Bewerkt: mrt 29, 2017, 11:56 am

>6 SDaisy: sure, though I'm not very consistent in my herb gardening.

I have a wheelbarrow planter outside my side entrance, which I try to keep planted in both perennials and annual herbs. Unfortunately it's getting more shade from my Rose of Sharon bushes, so I probably need to move it.

Here's a picture of when I started it:



I try to keep rosemary going. The lavender died, as did the marjoram, catnip, and MINT.

I really need to move it...

Oh, almost forgot, I have planted thyme on the front slope, as a ground cover, between my spreading junipers, and IT CAME BACK, WOO!

From last year, the junipers (ignore the tall weeds that I needed to pull):

9southernbooklady
mrt 29, 2017, 12:07 pm

I have trouble with lavender too.

10harrygbutler
mrt 29, 2017, 12:18 pm

We don't have too many herbs going: both chives and garlic chives, I think; a small patch of lavender; a large patch of mint. I know we had some chocolate mint at one point, but I don't think we have any growing now. We'll likely do a few more this year, but I don't know what Erika has planned.

(The big patch of mint is in the middle of the back yard, mingled with some strawberries, where both escaped from planters while that part of the yard was mostly paved, before I spent the spring two years ago breaking up all the asphalt and concrete. It makes for a nice scent when mowing, but we're going to replace it with our grass/clover mix at some point.)

11fuzzi
mrt 29, 2017, 12:38 pm

>10 harrygbutler: down here we have problems with "onion grass", wild onions/chives that take over lawns. There's a standing joke here: "How do you get rid of onion grass?" "Move!"

I yank the stuff whenever I see it trying to invade...I have enough issues with invasive honeysuckle and privet to keep me busy for generations!

12harrygbutler
mrt 29, 2017, 12:49 pm

>11 fuzzi: We have some chives in the yard here and there, but we're more likely to see dandelions take over. I don't mind the chives mixed in, but I could see a problem with them spreading aggressively.

132wonderY
mrt 29, 2017, 12:52 pm

Beebalm/Bergamot is what I have trouble with keeping from year to year. It's frustrating, because it's a native. I try for the intense colors, and they do fine for one or two seasons and then nothing.

I do have a patch of lavender that comes back in a sheltered spot near my door. It doesn't do so well when I put it in the larger gardens.

I am gladly over-run with my favorite spearmint. My spearmint tea is famous.

And I've found that pineapple sage is a perennial for me; though I've tried it as a tea, and it gives me bellyache. I grow it for the fresh scent and the crazy great floral display at the end of the season.

I'm extremely pleased to have successfully introduced touch-me-not/jewelweed to my ridgetop. It prefers wet bottomland; but I needed it handy for treating poison ivy exposures. It has taken to the fairly dry woodlot behind the house.

14southernbooklady
mrt 29, 2017, 3:20 pm

>13 2wonderY: Does that really work for poison ivy?

152wonderY
Bewerkt: mrt 29, 2017, 3:46 pm

It always has for us. The key is using it as soon as there is exposure. Crush the entire plant and rub it wherever there was contact with PI. The plant juices neutralize the urushiol irritant.

http://www.knowyouroots.com/ijustgottashare/2015/06/03/jewelweed-is-a-great-reme...

"The active ingredient in Jewelweed is a chemical called lawsone, which binds to the same molecular sites in the skin that the urushiol attacks. If Jewelweed is applied quickly enough, it can beat the urushiol to those sites and lock it out. If applied later, the lawsone works to block the action of the allergic resin in the skin and helps heal the rash."

or

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/papers/22766473

"Jewelweed mash was effective in reducing poison ivy dermatitis, supporting ethnobotanical use. However, jewelweed extracts were not effective; and soaps made of these extracts were effective but no more so than jewelweed-free soaps....Perhaps saponins, the soapy component of jewelweed are the effective agents."

16SDaisy
Bewerkt: mrt 29, 2017, 7:35 pm

>7 southernbooklady: "...rather Darwinian". Haha, I like that. I do believe I'm going to steal that joke from you sometime. XD And thanks for the information on Agrimony, it sounds quite interesting! :-D

>9 southernbooklady: My first variety of lavender I grew was Blue Dwarf Lavender, but it died the first year, despite my special care. I got a different variety next, Munsted Lavender, and it not only remained healthy but flourished and was (and still is) a very productive plant with almost more lavender flowers each year than I can even harvest. Maybe you both should try a different variety than what you've been growing. :-)

>11 fuzzi: You know what they say, "One man's weed is another man's herb." I actually like to encourage the growth of wild onions and wild honeysuckle on my property. I've put them both to use, too. I've made a high-potency cough syrup from the chopped bulbs of a dozen or so wild onions and honey, cooked down on the stove and then strained. It was not very palatable, but it sure seemed to work for me. Took away my scratchy throat and soothed it greatly. As for honeysuckle, I've picked the flowers and used them to make a kind of floral honey, which was great spread on toast as a delicacy.

>13 2wonderY: I'm having a bit of a problem with my Bergamot too, but a different kind of problem... it keeps trying to invade the rest of my herb garden! Chocolate Mint is actually giving me the same problem, and every year I pull out any Chocolate Mint stragglers and either relocate them where they belong, throw them out, or pot them and give them away to any friends or family that would like to add them to their garden.

Ooo, Jewelweed! One of my other favorite weed/herbs. I have it growing wild around my place, and I like to use the "gel" on poison ivy, bug bites, rashes, and anything itchy, really. I'd really like to find a way to preserve the gel so that I have it throughout the winter, such as making it into a salve or something, but I'm not sure how to do that. There are several things that interfere with that idea, including the amount of gel needed to do that. Anybody have any ideas how this can be accomplished?

>14 southernbooklady: It seems to!

17staffordcastle
mrt 29, 2017, 8:42 pm

>3 SDaisy:
Here's my list. The first part is herbs I had in my garden when I was in college, and the second part is things I'd like to add now. My sister is also compiling a list.

I. Had these before
Rosemary
Thyme - Old English, Golden, Silver, Wooly
Sage
Salad Burnet
Summer Savory
Winter Savory
Lavender
Marjoram
Oregano
Pennyroyal
Pineapple Sage
Santolina / Lavender cotton
Dittany of Crete
Chamomile (Roman)
Heliotrope
Borage
Lemon Balm
Yarrow

II. Possible new candidates
St. John’s Wort
Clove pinks
Marigolds

As you can see, we are taking a fairly broad interpretation of the word "herb", because this is more or less a Tudor medicinal garden. (With a few extras not known in England in the 16th c.)

18southernbooklady
mrt 29, 2017, 10:12 pm

>16 SDaisy: I got a different variety next, Munsted Lavender, and it not only remained healthy but flourished

My problems with lavender come from living in a hot and humid climate, with acidic soil. English lavender hates both the humidity and the acidity. I can get the Spanish and Provence varieties to grow, but even so they are short-lived perennials and rarely flourish. They tend to get out-competed by things more suited to the climate, so I have to grow lavender in pots if I really want it to succeed at all.

On the other hand, my rosemary is practically a hedge at this point, and the culinary sage, although it gets too woody as it ages, also creeps along the sunniest beds fairly steadily.

And there are things I can grow that I think would be hard in more northern gardens -- bay tree, eucalyptus, lemon grass, lemon verbena, cotton, tobacco... passiflora is a weed in my garden. So for everything I I have trouble with, there are about five others I don't.

19SDaisy
mrt 29, 2017, 11:21 pm

>17 staffordcastle: That's a great list! If you're going to grow Marigolds, I would recommend Calendula officinalis. It is reputed to have all sorts of medicinal benefits. I grow it almost every year, and I use it often in things like an anti-dandruff hair rinse I make, and as a face wash for acne (because it is reportedly antibacterial). The hair rinse (which had a base of apple cider vinegar) worked well, and the facial wash, not as well, but it did something.

What would you use Dittany of Crete for?

>18 southernbooklady: I think Lemon Verbena can grow up north, and I know of one variety of Passiflora that can, but I only wish we could grow Eucalyptus and Lemon Grass up here. I think that rosemary prefers acidic soil... I tried growing it either two or three times, and it died every time. I had a bit of trouble with sage, too, but I think that it finally got established.

20MarthaJeanne
mrt 30, 2017, 1:33 am

Rosemary doesn't like soggy roots. I couldn't keep it alive planted outside in the winter until I moved it to a planter hanging on the fence. With the good drainage it handles the cold well. I have problems with a lot of things that are supposed to be winterhard because our soil gets very waterlogged if we have snow.

Lavenders vary a lot as to how much cold they can take. My favourite has to go into the greenhouse every winter.



This was my first plant. It did not survive.

21tardis
mrt 30, 2017, 1:43 pm

I have had good luck with lavender. Many years ago I took a fantastic herb-growing course at a local botanic garden and came home after the last class with a hundred or so little plants, one of which was lavender. I planted it in a raised bed on the south side of the house, and it has thrived ever since, to the point of little seedlings sprouting between the paving blocks around the bed. I always carefully transplant them to a proper bed and some have even survived. I'm fairly sure it's Munstead, which is one of the hardiest types. Thing is, I live in zone 3 (Ag Canada ratings - similar but not exactly the same as USDA zones) so there's no way it should grow here. I attribute success to the raised bed and the microclimate on that side of the house.

Other herbs I still have from that class: Southernwood, French tarragon, garlic chives, oregano, and a very tough thyme. Many of the others were annual/bienniel/too tender for our climate. Every year I replace sage, lemon balm and a few others that should be hardy but never make it, and although I bring the rosemary and bay laurel in over the winter, I always end up killing them by underwatering. Houseplants are not my thing.

22southernbooklady
mrt 30, 2017, 3:53 pm

>21 tardis: I attribute success to the raised bed and the microclimate on that side of the house.

My mother does this with the same results in her zone 5 garden. Like you, though, she has to bring the rosemary in or treat it as an annual. Conversely, I often have to treat thyme as an annual where I live, because it hates my hot and humid summers, and often just melts away.

23justmum
mrt 30, 2017, 6:26 pm

>1 SDaisy: What a great idea - I love growing herbs.

24justmum
mrt 30, 2017, 6:29 pm

>8 fuzzi: What a lovely idea to use an old wheelbarrow. They will grow better if you put each separate herb in it's own pot and just stand the pots in the barrow. trust me - they're not often keen on being mixed.

25justmum
mrt 30, 2017, 6:35 pm

>7 southernbooklady: Aloe vera is an indoor plant here but you may be able to grow it outside. It's soothing. Dock leaves rubbed on a nettle sting will take the sting sensation away. Usually you find Dock growing near nettles. They can be used in soup and tea (the nettles)

26MarthaJeanne
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2017, 6:54 pm

>25 justmum: Sage also works against nettle sting if you rub it on soon enough. You want to crush the leaves enough to make a green mark on the skin. But it has to be right away.

27muddy21
mrt 30, 2017, 7:05 pm

One of my sons worked at a garden center last summer. At the end of the season he brought home loads of herb plants that were destined for the compost bins. Some we planted out (some under board covers for the winter, some not), some are overwintering in their pots in our cellar, some are overwintering in their pots in a protected outside location with windbreaks and some sunlight. We live in Zone 5 southeastern New Hampshire and have only had occasional snow cover this winter so it will be interesting to see what has survived if spring ever arrives (they're predicting 8"-10" of new snow tomorrow night and Saturday - a very late snowfall for us)!

28SDaisy
mrt 31, 2017, 11:12 pm

Oh my, I never expected so much great feedback! I'm happy to see so many people interested in herbs. It's great to hear what y'all are growing or planning on growing. I'm so sorry if I'm unable to reply to all of you individually, but I'll do my best!

>10 harrygbutler: Ooo, I love Chocolate Mint! It may not be where you'd planted it, but before you buy another plant to replace it, you may want to check the area around it. It often relocates itself up to four feet away from where you originally planted it... or at least mine does, haha. It's actually quite hard to get rid of it!

>20 MarthaJeanne: & >26 MarthaJeanne: Thanks for the information, that's interesting. And thanks for the Sage info, too. I didn't know that. :-)

>21 tardis: That's really cool that you still have some of those herbs. And a hundred or so plants! Wow, you must have had a really great herb garden! What do you use your Southernwood for?

>23 justmum: Thanks! Glad you like it. :-D

>27 muddy21: That's awesome about all the herbs! One of the few things I like better than herbs, is free herbs, haha. I'm in Zone 6, so we get rough winters too, but it's finally starting to look like spring out here. Sorry to hear about the coming snow, I hope you (and your garden!) stay safe. :-)

29tardis
apr 1, 2017, 2:28 pm

>28 SDaisy: I don't actually use many herbs beyond the culinary ones, but most are attractive in their own right.

Southernwood is very pretty and the leaves are aromatic. It's an artemisia so has that beautiful fine, texture and silvery colour. Our season isn't long enough for it to flower, but apparently the flowers are not very showy anyway. My faithful Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs suggests that leaves are useful for discouraging clothes moths, leaves added to a bath are aromatic and soothing, a decoction made from southernwood and barley is good against acne, it's nice in herb wreaths, and you can boil up the branches for a yellow dye for wool.

I have one square (4' by 4') dedicated herb garden with perennial cooking herbs: thyme, lemon thyme, chives, garlic chives, french tarragon, sage, sorrel, and oregano. To these I add as needed the tender perennials and the stuff that needs to winter indoors, like lemon balm, sage, rosemary and bay laurel. The lavender is against the house on the south side, between the larger vegetable beds. I have beebalm, horseradish, echinacea, anise hyssop, sweet cicely, catmint, and catnip among the ornamentals. The pear tree is underplanted with mint. In the vegetable garden I plant lots of basil (can't have too much!), borage, dill, garlic, parsley, and savory.

Nasturtums and calendula get fitted in where I can - sometimes pots, sometimes the vegetable garden.

Lovage was banished for being unmanageably large, although it was quite beautiful and I wouldn't mind finding another spot for it. It would have to go in one of the ornamental beds, though. maybe if I do a re-vamp of the front yard this year...

Sweet Cicely is impossible to get rid of - self-seeds like crazy and has a very resilient tap root, but the flowers are pretty, the green seeds taste like licorice and the leaves are a nice fresh green. I try to keep it at the back of the border so I can hack it down to the ground periodically.

This is my herb garden (from a couple of years ago, I think)

30southernbooklady
apr 1, 2017, 3:36 pm

>29 tardis: Do you put up your herbs for the winter? Or just enjoy them while you have them?

31tardis
apr 1, 2017, 3:42 pm

>30 southernbooklady: Mostly enjoy them while I have them, although I do make and freeze pesto from the basil, make mint jelly, and use the dill in pickling. Parsley freezes fairly well, too. Sometimes I'll dry a bit of something.

33justmum
apr 1, 2017, 5:17 pm

>26 MarthaJeanne: Thanks i didn't know about that one - i just use sage to make sage and onion stuffing to eat with roast chicken. it's delicious.

34SDaisy
apr 2, 2017, 1:06 am

>29 tardis: Why, what a beautiful garden! Mine has so many "wild herbs" mingling in with the purposely grown ones that, ahem, many may consider it to be full of weeds. Haha. XD You must spent a lot of time managing your quaint herb garden!

>31 tardis: By the way, if it isn't too much of a bother, would you mind sharing your Mint Jelly recipe with me? I've considered making for the past couple years, but this year I'd really like to try. Thanks so much! :-)

>32 staffordcastle: Thanks so much for sharing that with us. What a lovely poem! I like a lot of what Kipling writes. :-)

35tardis
apr 2, 2017, 10:51 am

>34 SDaisy: Reading and gardening are the top two things I do for fun, and I've been in this house for over 30 years, so I've had a lot of time to get things how I like them, and the amount of work the herb garden takes is minor. The stuff in the perennial beds and veg garden takes more, but as I say, it's fun for me so I don't add it up :)

Mint jelly recipe - this is an old recipe so measurements are not metric and some adjustments are needed because things have changed. Text in brackets are my modifications.

1 cup fresh mint leaves and stems, firmly packed. (Sometimes I use more).
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.
1 cup water
3.5 cups sugar
1/2 bottle (3 fl. oz) liquid fruit pectin (I use one pouch of Certo liquid now)
4 drops green food colouring (optional - I do NOT use this)

Don't take the leaves off the stems. Wash mint well, drain and put in large saucepan. Bruise well with bottom of a glass tumbler (is easier to strain it later if you don't chop the leaves)
Add vinegar, water, and sugar. Over high heat, bring to a full, rolling boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add pectin and food colouring and return to full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard 30 seconds, then remove from heat and skim off foam. Pour through a fine sieve into hot, sterilized jars, then seal. Makes about 2 pints.

Of course you can also google any number of tasty-looking recipes.

36southernbooklady
apr 2, 2017, 12:54 pm

Back from my annual visit to our local herb fair -- it raises money for our farmer's market so I always plan to buy a few things to show my support. Plus, some of my favorite local nurseries that do organic and native plants always show up there. Here's what I came back with:

Spanish Lavender
Tansy
Joe pye weed
Valerian
Burdock
Feverfew
Rosemary (upright, for a new front hedge)
Eucalyptus
Greek Oregano
Nepeta
Mexican Mint Marigold
Wild Strawberry

I talked to some of my favorite growers about jewelweed, but none of them try to propagate it. All of them insisted it can just be dug up and put wherever poison ivy is and it will establish itself. So I guess in the fall I'll start looking around for the flowers and see what I can do.

37SDaisy
apr 3, 2017, 11:43 pm

>35 tardis: Thank you so much for the recipe, that's a lot of help. :-D I recently formed a recipe group here on LT, and I was wondering... would it be okay with you if I post this recipe on it? I'd love to start a "Mint Recipes" topic. Thanks again!

>36 southernbooklady: That's really cool! I grow lots of Feverfew. It is touted as being very effective for headaches, and personal experience seems to go along with that. But I wouldn't recommend the leaves to be chewed or eaten, as some say, because it has been linked to mouth ulcers if used for a long time. I don't know of any side effects, however, from drinking a tea made of 1 t. dried leaves to 1 cup water, sipped throughout the day. That's what I'd do. :-) Hope your plants grow well for you!

38tardis
apr 4, 2017, 12:06 am

>37 SDaisy: Sure, not like it's a sekrit family treasure recipe :)

39SDaisy
apr 5, 2017, 3:43 pm

>38 tardis: Thanks again!

40nikolabaf
apr 6, 2017, 3:51 am

Deze gebruiker is verwijderd als spam.

41fuzzi
Bewerkt: apr 6, 2017, 12:45 pm

>16 SDaisy: there are any number of plants that I would love to grow, but here they take on invasion tendencies, and so have to be treated harshly. I love Star of Bethlehem, but it will take over my gardens as well as my yard, so I dig it out whenever it rears its beautiful head. :(

>24 justmum: thanks for that suggestion. I had some spearmint contained in a pot so it would not take over the wheelbarrow, and it eventually died. I've never been able to kill it before.

42southernbooklady
apr 6, 2017, 12:49 pm

>41 fuzzi: I love Star of Bethlehem, but it will take over my gardens as well as my yard

Passiflora for me. I am ruthless about pulling it up. Even so, it gets everywhere.

43fuzzi
apr 6, 2017, 5:38 pm

>42 southernbooklady: I've not seen any of that, though I have one Clematis that looks similar. It stays well-contained next to the front porch.

44southernbooklady
apr 6, 2017, 6:28 pm

I let it come up on the garden fence, because bees adore it and it is a native medicinal. But contained it is not, and if I let it go in the garden it will overgrown everything in its path. It's like my own personal kudzu.

45fuzzi
apr 6, 2017, 7:04 pm

>44 southernbooklady: like kudzu? Ew, you have my sympathy!

46SDaisy
apr 6, 2017, 11:53 pm

I just started some herb seeds in pots indoors: Comfrey and Catnip. I've grown Catnip before, but never Comfrey, so hopefully that does well. Any growing tips?

>41 fuzzi: I know exactly what you mean! :-( I feel the same way about yanking out all the Chocolate Mint stragglers, but what else can you do? You don't want it to choke out the rest of the garden! But I'll bet ya some of your friends and neighbors would really appreciate a nice potted Star of Bethlehem plant. :-)

>44 southernbooklady: I have the seeds to one variety of Passiflora that can supposedly grow here, but never have I grown them. I'd really like to try some time, though. Such pretty flowers, and with such medicinal effects! Two great reasons to grow it. With such an over-abundance, what do you do with it all? Have you ever tried using it for anything?

47southernbooklady
apr 7, 2017, 9:30 am

>46 SDaisy: I don't really use it for anything. I did once in the name of experimentation try the fruits (bland), and once made a tea (not bland, but I'm too addicted to green and black teas to really take to most herbal teas, mint, lemon and ginger being the notable exceptions), but on the whole it exists in the garden as a draw for pollinators and hummingbirds. Since it is native to the area, I regard it as more helpful than harmful, and really, in the scrubby undeveloped land nearby it can be found growing in the fields and wending its way around the horsemint, butterfly weed, elderberry, and beautyberry that all are native at the edges of open woods.

The only reason its a problem in the garden is that nothing out-competes it in the composted soil I work in for the vegetables. Also, I think it must propagate by runners or something, because pulling it up usually breaks the stem underground and it will come up again.

The kind in my garden is very common in the area, and is called, locally, "Maypop," P. incarnata.

48SDaisy
apr 21, 2017, 6:05 am

I just sprouted a comfrey plant, and I tried to grow some catnip too, but it never came up. While not really an herb, I'm also growing a few goji plants from seed, which is a new one for me. Anybody here ever use goji berries in anything other than juice? There don't seem to be that many other uses for it.

>47 southernbooklady: Thanks for the info! :-)

49MegEynons
apr 26, 2017, 10:39 am

My favorite herb has become rosemary. I used to askew it for its tendency to be too harsh. But? I have found many uses and it does take my cooking to the next level. My current favorite is oven roasted garlic rosemary potatoes. Easy and yummy.

I have tried to maintain a plant, but the winters are too harsh here. I tried planting in pots and bringing them into a cool basement to over winter, but that failed as well.

50muddy21
apr 26, 2017, 12:26 pm

I finally cleared the dead leaves and winter debris away from the herb spiral I started building last year. I'm in New Hampshire (Zone 5) so didn't really expect to see much still alive but uncovered a surprising amount of green! A number of parsley plants came through as well as a couple of chamomile. It doesn't look like any of the rosemary survived but that was pretty much expected. It's still cool at night so I thought I'd wait a bit before actually pulling things out of the ground.

51MarthaJeanne
apr 26, 2017, 2:13 pm

>50 muddy21: I'd wait until after your last frost date to pull anything. Mint, for example, come up again long after other things are going strong.

You do know that parsley is a biennial? It will try to flower this year, and then die.

52muddy21
apr 26, 2017, 3:46 pm

>51 MarthaJeanne: Yes, thanks, I did know about parsley but I'm pleased that I get to enjoy the second year - it's more than I expected and I will give the others plenty of time to see whether there's any life left in them. I must admit that I keep my mint in pots - I'm worried about the potential for rampages in unwanted areas if I put them in the ground!

53MarthaJeanne
apr 26, 2017, 4:23 pm

I did manage to kill an area of a rather foul mint when we moved in here, but it took a few years and a lot of effort. I make sure my current 8 varieties don't get loose.

54SDaisy
apr 28, 2017, 3:57 pm

>49 MegEynons: Mmm, oven roasted garlic rosemary potatoes... that sounds so good! Would you be willing to share your recipe for that with me on my new group, The Recipe Group? It sounds delicious! By the way, I was just cleaning out my garden and discovered that my rosemary plant didn't make it over the winter, either. :-( It seems I just can't keep that herb more than a year!

>50 muddy21: It's great that your herbs mostly came back! I've been thinking about possibly growing chamomile this year... which would you recommend, Roman chamomile or German chamomile.

>51 MarthaJeanne: Good advice!

>52 muddy21: It's smart to keep mint in pots. I learned my lesson the hard way about that, haha. Now I have my chocolate mint in a huge clay pot, which I then buried in the ground in the perennial portion of my herb garden. It keeps it somewhat controlled, but even so it keeps trying to creep out over the edges.

55SDaisy
mei 7, 2017, 10:59 pm

>49 MegEynons: Thanks so much for sharing your recipe on my group, it really looks delicious! The extra recipe for chives sour cream also looks marvelous. :-)

56SDaisy
mei 21, 2017, 5:46 pm

I recently picked up some new herbs for my garden: Lemon Balm, Primrose, and Apple Mint. I'm really looking forward to making teas with the first and last of these. Also, I planted some Bouquet Dill from seed. I love using the fresh leaves in potato salad, and the seeds in all sorts of stuff. Has anybody else planted any new herbs lately?

57MarthaJeanne
Bewerkt: mei 21, 2017, 5:58 pm

>56 SDaisy: Lemon balm selfseeds, so try to limit flowering or be prepared to weed it out of your beds. I have to admit that I have more or less let mine run wild, but I am brutal about pulling it when I want space for something new.

One of my next chores is harvesting celery leaf, tarragon, oregano, and chervil for the freezer. I could add balm to a mixture, but freezing by itself seems silly as there is so much of it most of the year.

58SDaisy
mei 22, 2017, 12:30 am

>57 MarthaJeanne: Thanks for the Lemon Balm tips, I appreciate it. :-)

You can always dry the Lemon Balm leaves and use it as a loose-leaf tea. I hear it's very tasty that way, and it's a good way to store it, if that is what you're looking for. It would make nice gifts, too. :-) What kinds of foods do you use Chervil in? I have some seeds to grow it, but I never have because I'm unfamiliar with how to use it.

59m.belljackson
mei 23, 2017, 3:47 pm

>48 SDaisy:

Comfrey planted in variable shade near bird bath has grown and naturalized strongly here in southern Wisconsin. Beautiful, but not recommended anymore for the tea we drank in the 60s.

Re: plants in pots > sure wish that my lovely bamboo, lily of the valley, orange day lilies, & tall ferns had ALL been planted in pots. They continue to surge across the lawn and into all of the gardens.

The latest non toxic weed killer in a catalogue is a $250 portable steamer - since that's far out of our budget, I'm simply pouring boiling water on the ferns. Their root system rivals bamboo and returns
with a vengeance. Yes, I hate to do this kind of murder, but they are impossible to get out of fragile iris and other beds. Pulling them up does not work unless you can dig deep and follow the root systems to the source.

Better ideas are welcome!

We have chives, peppermint, and catnip growing happily.

602wonderY
mei 23, 2017, 4:28 pm

I've got a couple of notorious spreaders placed in the gardens - I've taken older beat-up 5 gallon buckets, removed the handle and the bottom of the bucket, and sunk them into the garden. You can start a hole and then pound the bucket down to near ground level - place a board across the top and beat with a mallet. So far, lemon balm and mountain mint have been unable to spread their goodness. I didn't do that with other of the mints and they are much more trouble.

61southernbooklady
mei 23, 2017, 4:47 pm

My monster spreader is bronze fennel, which not only gets to be as high as 5 feet tall, often in clumps, but also overwinters easily and spreads with absolutely no trouble. It also out paces all the caterpillars that like to eat it -- nothing beats this plant down! At this point I ruthlessly pull up any seedlings I see, but it is coming up in the yard now, and is impervious to the push reel mower I use, so I am expecting to have a meadow of the stuff before too long.

62MarthaJeanne
mei 23, 2017, 5:02 pm

The time I decided to get rid of a mint, I first put down several layers of newspaper, then built up a small raised bed to hold down the paper. For the next few years I pulled any mint that showed around the edges of the bed. Eventually the mint gave up.

About the same time 9 years ago, I cut down a wisteria that was growing up into the roof. Besides, the neighbor said that she always got headaches when it blossomed. So I cut it off, and even tried to dig up some of the root. It hasn't sent up any feelers this year - yet. But I have since planted mints in special stones with slits in the bottom, so any sprouting stems have to first find the right place, then grow up through about 30 cm of mint roots before they reach the light. I expect to have to keep pulling a few times a month again this year.

63SDaisy
Bewerkt: jul 22, 2017, 12:07 am

>59 m.belljackson: Thank you for the comfrey information, I appreciate it. My comfrey quickly grew from a weak little seedling to an awfully nice-looking, healthy plant. I never heard of it being drank as a tea before, though. That's an interesting piece of trivia, thanks.
As extreme as this sounds, the best non-toxic weed killer I can think of is a goat or two, even a small Nubian goat. XD Seriously, they eat EVERYTHING! Haha, okay, that may not be the kind of tip you were looking for. ;-)

>60 2wonderY: Great idea! I usually just use large pots and do the same thing, but old buckets might work even better.

>61 southernbooklady: Would you believe that I just got some bronze fennel, and I didn't even think of burying it in a pot when I planted it? It's just a small plant right now, but I'll have to watch it and make sure I don't have the same problem you're having.

64MarthaJeanne
jul 22, 2017, 1:51 am

I just looked up bronze fennel and potting it wouldn't help. It's a self-seeder, so to prevent spreading you have to deadhead before the seeds ripen.

Two other self-seeders that I am dealing with are lemonbalm and oregano. I have them all over the garden, and have to keep pulling them up where I don't want them. For me borage also sefseeds, but just enough to keep a few plants around.

Oh, and the wisteria is still trying.

65SDaisy
feb 17, 2018, 11:00 pm

>64 MarthaJeanne::
Thanks for the tip! I did end up deadheading it when it went to seed, so I shouldn't have to worry about that, although if I missed a few seeds that's no biggy... I could always use a couple more plants around. :-)

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