Herbs to Decorate Your Garden

It does not take a lot of space to have an herb garden. A few stalks of dill, a root of tarragon, a marjoram clump, some sweet basil, and Italian parsley are some great plants to use for salads and dishes. They are often planted next to a vegetable garden. However, did you consider using herbs as part of your garden décor?

Herbs That Leave a Lasting Scent

Try growing catmint, hyssop, lavender and rosemary together to make a lovely border. Great ideas of herbs that perfume the air when walked on and crushed are burnet, thyme and mint.

A special warning on mint, which I discovered the hard way. Though very aromatic, this plant is also very aggressive and invasive. Since I garden naturally, I try to situate my herbs and plants in areas where they thrive without becoming a problem later on. In this case, I have it planted between the back step and a patio stone to keep it contained. Even then, it has actually wrapped around the step and is growing in the cracks in the walkway! I still love how it fills an otherwise empty space, but I have to watch it closely.

Some herbs work great as vines. If you grow the “hop” vine, it can hang over a fence or wind its way over an arbor, and it produces masses of green foliage and flowers that fall into clusters. This great herb is overlooked in many gardens.

Rue is also an herb of rare beauty and elegance. Its delicately cut foliage shines with metallic lights that increase in luster as the season advances. Grow rue with pink phlox and michaelmas daisies for a lovely show in your garden. Make sure that you wear gloves when you handle rue, since the oil in the leaves bothers some people’s skin.

Drying Herbs For the Home

To dry herbs for winter use, cut off the tops of the leafy varieties in midsummer and wash them in with cold water. Hang them up just long enough for the drops of water to evaporate, then tie the stems together and place them in a paper bag with stem ends at the opening. Close the bag with a rubber band. Use a paper clip as a hook through the band and place the other hooked end over your line where you are going to hang the herbs to dry indoors.

After 2 or 3 weeks, remove them from the paper bags, crumble the leaves and place on a shallow pan. Dry them out further in the oven with the setting at “warm” or at least not over 100 degrees. Some herb enthusiasts dry them by spreading them out on trays or sheets of hardware cloth covered with cheese cloth and place in a dry area.

To dry seed heads, allow them to grow until seeds are mature and ready to drop from the plant. Cut seed heads on a very dry day and spread them on clean paper (not newspaper). It is better to keep them in the sun the first day as little insects, which may have been living in the heads, will leave as the seeds dry out. Store the herbs in glass jars or other airtight containers in a cool place.

Read more of Ena’s organic gardening tips at Goorganicgardening.com

Brighten Your Shade Garden!

If you venture into the shaded areas of your garden, you may find that there are lots of interesting places to cultivate plants. Shade can work wonders in your landscaping plans. It protects plants as well as people from the scorching sun. It also lowers temperatures and it’s a welcome spot to sit when you have been working out in the sun all day.

Many gardeners are reluctant to try to develop any plant life in a shady garden, convinced that nothing will grow there, but there are lots of great options. You can find plants for semi-shade or deep shade. Even if you don’t want to grow anything in the shade, you could feature garden statuary or a water container, perhaps with a fountain, which would also attract birds to the area.

Working in the Shade

All shade is not equal. As the sun moves through the trees, different areas of the garden take on a new look. For example, an area that is dark in the morning may be bathed in sunlight by afternoon. Areas that lie beneath deciduous trees are often deeply shaded in summer. However, in the spring it could support a wide variety of spring bulbs.

Keep shaded areas well watered, but do not let them get too wet. Under trees that take up most of the moisture, regularly enrich the soil with fertilizer such as your garden compost to help to sustain other plants. Hostas and ferns are the most likely choices for shade, and with hundreds of hostas to choose from, you could have an abundance of forms and textures. Try planting your hostas with Sweet Cicely. This is a ground-cover plant, quite aggressive, but grows very tiny white flowers all over its green foliage and is very pretty. Also consider the colors that you use, as shade will negate dark colors, including purple, blue and maroon. Large areas of dark green foliage make a shady area look even darker.

I like to use creams and whites, especially those plants with variegated leaves. They can look stunning in shade. Try spotted Bethlehem Sage, which would otherwise disappear in a sunny border. Also consider an all-white grouping to really brighten up the area. Try white Bleeding Hearts, Solomon’s Seal, white Hydrangeas or even the summer annual Browalia that comes in shades of blue and white. Astilbes are another good choice, and if you combine their feathery texture with dwarf Azaleas or even the lovely leaves of Lady’s Mantle, you will have a very interesting shady garden.

So don’t let that shady garden just sit there idly doing nothing. Get it growing and enjoy!

Post contributed by Ena Clewes. Read her organic gardening book, “How to Master Organic Gardening”