Herbs
There is something about growing herbs that is completely different than growing vegetables or flowers. My love of herbs started with my continued LOVE of lavender. I couldn't (and still can't) get enough of lavender, its scent, and its flavor. But what I ended up learning early is that most herbs are perennials, which was perfect for us as we tried to landscape our yard in a more inexpensive, not so mundane way.
I wasn't one to cook with many herbs either...or so I thought. My naive young mind never fully grasped where herbs and spices actually came from let alone the medicinal powers they have. I will tell you a story that I KNOW my husband will laugh at as he reads this because it just shows how my mind actually worked when I was young. I was dating and living with my husband and his family at this time (around 18 or 19 years old) and he, his mom, and myself were in the kitchen as she was making these ham slider sandwiches. As she was assembling them, she started to coat the top of the buns with a butter and poppy seed mixture. I had never seen poppy seed in a jar before...ever. I've only seen poppy seed on tops of bread. So I said to them, "wow, that's a lot of bread that was scraped..." Of course I was met with two blank looks, completely questioning what I was talking about. So they asked what I meant and I said, "to get all those poppyseeds..." His mom told me the seeds came from poppy flowers and asked where I thought they came from. And so I told her...and him...and have since 35+ years later, have never NEVER lived it down. I told them that I thought they came from bread...like someone baked bread and they popped up at the top of a loaf... Okay, so before you wonder where I even thought that, have you ever made pecan pie? If so, then you know that pecans start at the bottom of the pie and in the baking process, the pecans rise. Well, I thought that bread (never made it in my life at that time) did the same thing; like there was some reaction to the ingredients and poppies popped to the top of a loaf when baking...DO NOT LAUGH!! And now look at me today...buying poppies in a jar!
In my young and naive little mind, I truly wasn't sure where onions and garlic were 'made' when I bought them at the store, nor did I even think about it. Garlic powder and onion powder? I don't even KNOW what my mind thought back then. I did not grow up with any form of gardening skills, nor any form of preserving skills, so I literally had no idea that backyard gardening provided so much of what we bought at stores. It was my husband and his mom who told me that they grow grapes to make jelly and other vegetables to eat. But herbs were something I learned on my own.
Herbs have taken a lot of studying for me. I would buy herb plants at a nursery, bring them home and just plant them. Isn't that what most people do when starting a garden with ZERO experience or knowledge? Well, I learned fast that it would be in my best interest if I wanted to stay married, to learn that some herbs spread...ferociously.
I also learned how herbs work wonderfully in the garden as companion plants to vegetables. Their ability to attract beneficial bugs as well as deter nuisance wildlife. Their colors and textures add such a beautiful variety to a garden filling in spots and giving a healthy and lush appearance to an area void of growth. I also love that some of the herbs stay year round in the garden so it doesn't look dull and drab through fall and winter after the garden harvest and cleanup.
And because of the "spreading" factor of some herbs, I like to grow a lot of them in pots on my deck. Actually, a majority of my potted plants on my deck are herbs. The bees and butterflies love it as well as the hummingbirds.
Of course I am out there seed collecting from as many herbs (flowers and vegetables, too) as I possibly can. The whole life cycle is so rewarding to me especially knowing the healthy measures the plant received to grow.
I've created a link HERE to some great gardeners and planting specialists.
