The International Herb Association has announced the Herb of the Year for 2012…the rose.
The Herb of the Year™ Program, started by IHA’s Horticulture Committee Selections are made based on the herb being outstanding in at least two of the three major categories: culinary, medicinal, or ornamental.
This means that herbal organizations around the world will work together to educate the public throughout the year about the selected herb.
Even in our own backyard here in Nashville, Tn, the Herb Society of Nashville is doing it’s part in educating the public and by participating in a trial planting at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum’s herb garden with the rose Rosa sp. ‘Katy Road’.
Other common names include Katy road pink, Audace, Bucbi, and Carefee Beauty.
Below is a video explaining more about it from Petals From the Past catalog. I’ve never ordered from them and this is not an affiliate link but I thought you might like to see it in order to learn more about it’s growing habits.
I do know that the Nashville Herb Society will have a few ‘Katy Road’ plants for sale at their annual plant sale on April 21st at the Nashville State Fairgrounds. Get there early!
It’s early spring and I’m reminded why I love my gardens so much. Designing a garden using the square foot gardening method is easy and it makes gardening fun. You can have success even if you are a beginner gardener using this method.
One thing I love about this method is that It’s so easy to work the soil. The other thing I love about this type of gardening is the fact that there is no tilling required to start these gardens. Simply lay your cardboard or paper down on top of your grass, place the soil mix, called Mel’s Mix, in the square and you’re ready to plant.
As long as you have 5 or 6 hours of sun in your yard or on your porch, it’s feasible to get your garden up and ready to plant in a day. We love having our garden on our back porch. That way, it’s easy to step out and get a few herbs and veggies planted when you have a few extra minutes.
Putting your garden on your deck means you have a few extra steps involved because you need to elevate it onto legs. The bottom is made of plywood with holes drilled every square foot to allow drainage. Using 6 x 6 posts makes this garden sturdy and ready for a great harvest.
Go ahead and try this easy garden design method using the square foot gardening method. I know you will love it as much as our family does.
Virginia sweet spire ‘Henry Garnet’ is your “go to” plant if you want a really awesome deciduous shrub that is cold and heat hardy, pest free, grows 3-5 feet tall, and is fragrant.
I fell in love with this beautiful shrub, with it’s early-summer white flowers, when we first planted it several years ago.
Not only does it give you cheerful blooms in spring, it also gives you season long interest when its leaves turn a rich purple in the autumn.
Use it in sun or shade, wet or dry soils and in combination with shade-loving perennials. It’s wonderful to have a spring blooming shrub that isn’t picky about where you put it.
It’s also nice that it can take the hot, humid summers here in the Mid South.
The variety ‘Henry’s Garnet’ is currently taking the market by storm because of it’s compact form, larger flowers, and more intense autumn color. It is also said that this variety is a bit hardier than the regular Itea virginica
Virginia sweet spire does well in hardiness zones 5-9 and blooms from May-June.
You won’t regret giving this plant a try. It’s even recommended by Tracy Disabato-Aust in her recent book entitled
50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants: Though But Beautiful Plants Anyone Can Grow
I think we have just about all 50 of the plants she recommends in her book and I have to say she is spot on with her recommendations.
Go ahead and try Virginia sweet spire in your garden if you want an easy to care for plant that won’t take over your garden. Tracy recommends pairing it with
Anemone hupehensis
‘September Charm’ or as an underplanting to serviceberry trees. We used it successfully at the end of our perennial bed right next to our Oak leaf hydrangeas as seen in the picture below
Imagine strolling through your garden in the early morning and seeing healthy lush flowers, plants and veggies with the fresh morning dew on them.
A stroll to our urn garden
Nice thought isn’t it?
But can it be a reality?
You bet it can!
When you put the wonders of worm castings, also called vermicomposting or green fertilizer, to work in your garden, you can be on your way to achieving the garden of your dreams.
Sound a little too far fetched?
Take a look at the results from the Ohio University Study.
Vermicomposts can have dramatic effects on the germination, growth, flowering, fruiting, and yields of crops independent of the availability of nutrients.
Test consistently showed that plants reacted favorably to the addition of worm castings in a ratio of 20% to 40% substitution rate. In addition, it was recommended not to substitute the entire soil mixture for vermicompost because of the high amounts of inorganic salts in 100% worm castings.
Worm castings have a good moisture-holding capacity.
They have a high and diverse microbial and enzymatic activity making for healthy plants!
The microorganisms found in worm castings have large amounts of plant growth hormones and plant growth regulators which increase microbial activity. This helps the nutrients in the soil to be readily absorbed into the plant.
Compost “tea” which are liquid extracts from worm castings, can promote plant growth when the are watered around plants.
Using the “tea” also suppressed the occurrence of pests such as caterpillars, cucumber beetles, medley bugs, aphids and spider mites. It also decreased the insects reproduction rates.
Tips For Buying Worm Castings Locally in Your Area
If you are ready to start putting the power of wigglers to work in your own garden, the best bet is to try to find a local supplier that offers worm castings for sale in bulk. Greathouse Landscape in Nashville, Tn is a great example of a local supplier with excellent organic worm castings for sale for both retail and wholesale.
Here’s a pretty cool video Greathouse produced.
What I look for when buying worm castings in bulk or in bags, is to find out if the mixture is truly organic.
Just because a product is “natural” doesn’t mean it’s “organic.”
In the case of worm castings, if the worms were feed an “organic” diet then their castings are considered organic. Believe me, you don’t want to buy expensive “natural” compost just to find out that it’s not really “organic.”
You definitely want your “green” fertilizer hormone and pesticide free.
Also, if you’re buying bulk worm castings, you want to be sure it is weed free. Ask your supplier how it is being stored. If it’s been covered, then it should be fine.
Conclusion
It’s hard to beat the fact that worm castings are order-free, harmless to pets and family, won’t burn plants, helps reduce the need for irrigation, reduces the occurrence of insects and disease, and produce gorgeous healthy blooms and delicious veggies.
If you’re a country music fan and are in town for the CMA Awards, be sure and go by and see the rose collection named for many famous music stars and their songs at the Music City Gardens in downtown Nashville, Tn. Names like Ring of Fire, Rocky Top, Tennessee Waltz, Pam Tillis, Barbara Mandrell, Amy Grant and many more are included in the list of roses named in the garden. Our own Nashville Rose Society is to thank for this fun garden.
The Music City Garden is located at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Demonbreun in the Hall of Fame Park -just in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Get driving directions here.
Costmary is also known as “Bible leaf” and “sweet Mary” and it has become one of my favorite herbs. This hardy, large, and decorative plant with light green leaves nearly a foot long. The flowers are small and yellow and the leaves taste minty. Use them to season meat, cake and in teas.
A good background plant, growing as high as 5 feet, costmary requires thinning. It does best if partially shaded. Although you can start costmary from seed, root division is the best method of propagation.
Not always an easy herb to find, it’s worth the extra effort. Its charming appearance and sweet fragrance along with its history is filled with fascinating tales from all over the globe. Especially interesting is its special place in Christianity.
In colonial times, the costmary leaf served as a bookmark in the bibles and prayerbooks of many devout churchgoers. When the sermon became long and boring and drowsiness set in, the sleepy listener treated themselves to the minty flavor of the costmary leaves in an effort to stay awake. Thus the name “Bible leaf” grew popular.
For more gardening advice and information on growing costmary herb and other herbs, visit our website and download our free e-book entitled Herbs for your Health: How to Grow and Use Them when you sign up for our gardening newsletter
It’s easy to see why coreopsis, and especially the ‘Moonbeam’ cultivar, won the Perennial Plant Association’s ‘Plant of the Year’ award in 1992 and why it remains one of the top ten best-selling perennials for gardeners in zones 3 to 9. With pretty daisy-like flat blossoms atop thread-like green leaves, this deciduous perennial grows to about 18 inches tall by 12 to 18 inches wide so planting it in the front of the bed is preferred.
The only maintenance required for this plant is to deadhead to keep the blooms coming all summer long. At the end of the growing season, simply cut it back to about 6 inches. Next spring your plant will start all over again!
The easiest and quickest way to find the seeds you want to plant this year is through online catalogs. Seed companies like Select Seeds, Gurneys, Henry Fields and more make it fun and easy to select the best varieties for your area. They even group them together so that if you want to find seeds for a fragrance garden, cottage garden, edible garden, perennials, foliage or container plants, you’ll find great pictures and growing information.
One caution though. Be sure not to get too carried away with your choices especially when ordering vegetable packets. Only grow what you and your family can reasonably eat.
Echinacea is one of the best herbs to use to stimulate your immune system because it stimulates antibody production. Recent research has found that it also promotes rapid healing of wounds and has antiviral and antibacterial properties.
It’s very easy to grow. The narrow-leaf variety, such as the Tennessee coneflower, is the best variety to use in making tinctures.
Tinctures are simply made from alcohol and powdered herbs. The alcohol extracts the herbs’ active ingredients. Mix 1/2 cup powdered dried herbs with 2 cups (500 ml) brandy, vodka, or gin. Mix ingredients together in a glass bottle and allow to steep in a warm place for several weeks, shaking occasionally. Strain, then store in a cool, dark place. Use about 9 drops either straight or mixed in 1 cup (250 ml) of hot water. These keep a long time because of their alcohol content. (Encyclopedia of Herb Gardening)
Plant in zones 3-8 in full sun. Echinacea is drought tolerant once it’s established. Add it to your potager garden or your perennial border.
Grab a free download of our newest book Herbs For Your Health: How to grow and use them by visiting our website at Mid South Gardening Advice.com
In a recent article of Tennessee Greentimes, a magazine published by the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association, graduate student Richard Gualandi wrote an interesting article about the once thought to be extinct Tennessee coneflower or Echinacea tennisseensis.
We have successfully grown this for the past two years in our own garden and would highly recommend it to anyone. We had to spray it with Deer and Rabbit Off to keep the pesky animals from eating to the ground (which is what they did the first year).
Here are a few things I learned from the article and from growing them ourselves.
The Tennessee coneflower was the second plant to be listed on the U.S. Endangered Species list but continues to be threatened by development and habitat destruction.
Few of these plants remain in the wild despite conservation efforts
Coneflowers in general are tough and adapt well to most any type of soil as long as you have good drainage and full sun.
Butterflies and the yellow finch love this flower (and any other coneflower for that matter)
The Tennessee coneflower is smaller than purple coneflowers with a height of about 2′.
Collection from the wild is illegal. Look for it at your local garden center.
Propagates easily from seed by means of stratification methods. May cross pollinate when planted next to other coneflowers.
We agree with the author that this flower is a rare gem in its native habitat and it should be planted in more gardens not only so others may enjoy it, but also to “be a part in preserving the volunteer state’s natural history.”
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