Cilantro may be an annual, but it is one of those herbs that self-sows, which means that if you plant it in one spot in the fall, it could pop wherever the wind has blown the seeds the next spring. Read More
After all the hard work we put into our gardens, most gardeners love a chance to show off the results. Read More
One of my earliest memories of childhood is hiding under my grandmother's fig tree, while playing hide and seek. It was an enormous tree, with branches that spread to cover much of the side yard. And every year, my grandmother would go out with a bucket and pick the figs to put up preserves. My brother and I used to get smaller bowls, and we would help pick. Read More
Let's tackle another prolific grower: rosemary. The upright kind gets leggy and looks scraggly if you don't trim it back occasionally. Give it a sunny spot, and your prostrate rosemary will creep out of its bed and half way across your yard if you let it. Read More
I just had a gardener give me some very healthy mint plants today. She said she used her mint for making tea, but didn't know quite what else to do with it. "There's just so much of it," she lamented. Sound familiar? Read More
Many gardens use birdhouses to attract spectacular creatures that add color and movement to the landscape. But have you ever considered adding a bat house? Bats can actually be quite beneficial to your neighborhood. They help solve one of my gardening pet peeves (though this may not be as much of a problem for you as it is for me here in Texas). When the day finally cools off, which should be prime gardening time, that's when the mosquitos show up. In droves. But one bat can eat 10,000 mosquitos a night.* Read More
Do you want to bring your garden into your home in an elegant, permanent way? Consider making a screen printed botanical tea towel based on a photograph of one of your favorite plants. Tea towels can make decorative hangings (or be draped through the handle of your oven door), or simply be used for drying cleaned dishes or covering a tea pot or tea tray. Read More
You can often find scented sugar (sometimes called flavored sugar) at a gourmet shop. But it is such a simple process to scent sucrose, why not add a personal touch-while saving some cash and make your own? Scented sugar is a simple way to dress up any occasion, and jars with the flavoring agents still in them make quite attractive gifts. Read More
If you are thinking about planting a lavender bush, but have heard they are a little difficult to grow, I say go for it anyway. The flowers not only smell restful they are also edible*. One of the most popular ways to add lavender flowers to foods is as part of a mixture known as herbes de Provence. These are among the most expensive spice mixes to buy, but, once you have the lavender flowers, it is easy to blend your own. Read More
There is nothing like the fragrance of hot, homemade bread wafting out of the oven. And that fragrance is even richer and more interesting when there are herbs in the bread. Artisan style breads are easy to make (the long prep time you see in bread recipes is mostly the time it spends rising all on its own, while you can be doing other things). Read More
Dill is a favorite food of the black swallowtail butterfly. So, when you plant dill, it is a good idea to add a few extra plants for the caterpillars to snack on. But the plants can bounce back after the caterpillars make their chrysalises, or the caterpillars may not show up in your yard at all. This can leave you with a lot of dill when the plants get ready to bolt and go to seed, or with a large number of volunteer sprouts the next spring. It also leaves you with the question: What to do with all that . . . dill? Read More
When I found out that a large percentage of commercial dryer sheets contain formaldehyde (along with a host of other toxic chemicals) I stopped using them. But I missed having a soft, fresh scent that told the olfactory part of my brain that the clothes were clean. So I started using dryer sachets, which make my brain even happier, because the clothes never have a "fake" scent. It's easy to make lavender dryer sachets. Read More
It's finally gotten cold outside (winter seems to come to Texas later every year), so my thoughts have turned to soup. These warm, easy to eat concoctions are the very definition of comfort food. But what can you do to turn a basic recipe into a showstopper? Or maybe you just want to make canned soup more palatable. Here are twenty ways to soup up your soup. Read More
Have you ever eaten from the "Lipstick Tree?" Chances are, you have. If you see E160b on a food label, that means you are eating a red dye made from seed coat of annatto (the seeds of the achiote, or lipstick tree). It is used in prepared foods, and to make cheese orange. It is also commonly used to dye margarine and butter yellow.* But why is achiote known as the lipstick tree? And how can you use the seeds in your own cooking? Read More
Have you ever wondered what an herbarium is? (Hint: it's not a style of herb garden.) Or maybe you have seen one of these collections of pressed plant materials and wondered what it is used for beyond personal memories. Herbaria are not only beautiful; they are useful tools in botany. And they have a fascinating history. Read More
All tea (herbal tisanes aside) comes from the same plant (camellia sinensis), but the liquid made from the leaves tastes widely different depending on where it was grown, when it was harvested, and how it was processed and how you brew it. So if you think you don't like tea, ask yourself, "how many teas have I tried?" (If you do already like tea, you may be asking, "How many more teas haven't I tried yet?") Read More
Lately, I have become fascinated with cake pops. The first time I made them (using packaged frosting and candy melts, as so many tutorials directed) they were way too sweet and lacked depth of flavor. So ditched the candy melts in favor of real chocolate and turned to the herb garden for inspiration, designing a rose, cardamom and pistachio cake pop; a basil and strawberry cake pop; and a lemon thyme and lavender cake pop. Read More
Cactus has long been an important vegetable in Mexican and southwestern cooking. It has a flavor that is reminiscent of a bell pepper with the undertones of a green bean. The prickly pear (the variety most often eaten) grows despite even the harshest conditions, making it a popular choice for wild harvesting. Cactus is becoming more popular as a vegetable in other parts of the world. Would you like to give it a try? Read More
Many people consider chives the easiest herb to grow. This may be because they start so easily from seed, and grow into dense grass-like clumps. A little bit of the herb goes a long way, so even a small chives bed can feel like more chives than you will ever be able to use. What can you do to make the most of all those chives? Read More
Oregano is one of those herbs that tends to grow prolifically. This can be a good thing. After all, it is a member of the mint family. It makes a sort of tall carpet, and it covered with tiny blossoms in the spring. But it can easily grow out of its intended bed. If yours gets out of hand, the only thing left to do is start cooking with it. Read More
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