Once you step into the magical world of herbs you begin to appreciate their tremendous beauty and scope. You do not need an acre of land for your herb garden, a small plot will suffice.
We could have a nice mixture with herbs that will double up for culinary purposes.
My first choice would be ANGELICA. This is a wonderful majestic herb growing to 5 feet or more. It is biennial, but will self seed. The dried heads are wonderful for arranging and you can candy the stems. The leaves can be added when stewing tart fruits like rhubarb or gooseberry, cutting down on sugar !!!
BERGAMOT is another must with its lovely flowers in scarlet white or mauve for flower arranging or the leaves can be eaten in batter and deep fried making tasty fritters.
One of my favourites is BORAGE. It is one of those plants that is good in the garden, good for its herbal and culinary uses and good for a bit of plant lore. It is an attractive plant with deep blue star-like flowers and black anthers. Borage is a hardy annual and grows to about 2 feet, so should be sown in April or May, where the plants are to grow. They will flower all summer if sown in spring. Its rather prickly stems and leaves grow rapidly and can be ready for use in 8 weeks. Botanically borage is borago officinalis and it gets its name from the Latin word for courage, not without good reason. The plant is 30% potassium and other mineral elements which are associated with increased energy and vigour.
The culinary uses of borage are varied. The fresh blue flower heads look delightful when used to decorate cool summer desserts or drinks. Float them in a flower wine cup or place little sprigs on sorbets or mousses. The flowers can also be candied. The green parts of the plant have a cool cucumber taste and the young leaves can be chopped in salads. Chopped finely it can be added to cream cheese dips, sauces ,egg dishes and in coleslaw. Individual flowers can be frozen in an ice cube and look very pretty in a glass of fruit juice.
Follow the directions on the seed packet. It needs a semi shaded position and prefers a light well drained soil. Borage is not a good plant for containers because it has a long fleshy tap root and resents having a confined root space. It does not like transplanting and is best sown by sprinkling seeds over a vacant patch.
A word of warning: bees love borage but so do wasps. If this worries you do not plant near a path. Borage will self seed freely, the old plant will die but expect to find plenty of seedlings coming up next spring.
I hope I have whetted your appetite, as herbs have such scope in the garden, window box, pots on kitchen windowsill or in a herb garden.
Hazel Wyatt
We could have a nice mixture with herbs that will double up for culinary purposes.
My first choice would be ANGELICA. This is a wonderful majestic herb growing to 5 feet or more. It is biennial, but will self seed. The dried heads are wonderful for arranging and you can candy the stems. The leaves can be added when stewing tart fruits like rhubarb or gooseberry, cutting down on sugar !!!
BERGAMOT is another must with its lovely flowers in scarlet white or mauve for flower arranging or the leaves can be eaten in batter and deep fried making tasty fritters.
One of my favourites is BORAGE. It is one of those plants that is good in the garden, good for its herbal and culinary uses and good for a bit of plant lore. It is an attractive plant with deep blue star-like flowers and black anthers. Borage is a hardy annual and grows to about 2 feet, so should be sown in April or May, where the plants are to grow. They will flower all summer if sown in spring. Its rather prickly stems and leaves grow rapidly and can be ready for use in 8 weeks. Botanically borage is borago officinalis and it gets its name from the Latin word for courage, not without good reason. The plant is 30% potassium and other mineral elements which are associated with increased energy and vigour.
The culinary uses of borage are varied. The fresh blue flower heads look delightful when used to decorate cool summer desserts or drinks. Float them in a flower wine cup or place little sprigs on sorbets or mousses. The flowers can also be candied. The green parts of the plant have a cool cucumber taste and the young leaves can be chopped in salads. Chopped finely it can be added to cream cheese dips, sauces ,egg dishes and in coleslaw. Individual flowers can be frozen in an ice cube and look very pretty in a glass of fruit juice.
Follow the directions on the seed packet. It needs a semi shaded position and prefers a light well drained soil. Borage is not a good plant for containers because it has a long fleshy tap root and resents having a confined root space. It does not like transplanting and is best sown by sprinkling seeds over a vacant patch.
A word of warning: bees love borage but so do wasps. If this worries you do not plant near a path. Borage will self seed freely, the old plant will die but expect to find plenty of seedlings coming up next spring.
I hope I have whetted your appetite, as herbs have such scope in the garden, window box, pots on kitchen windowsill or in a herb garden.
Hazel Wyatt
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