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!

Sweet Basil

Everything about growing, harvesting, and preserving basil may be found in this great little book by Story Publishing.

In Growing and Using Basil, by Ellen Ogden, tells you how to cook with basil whether it is the sweet, purple, opal, lemon, cinnamon,anise, holy, or any other type of basil.

Lot’s of great recipies to go along with it too.

Here’s one of my favorites.

Lemon Basil Rice

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 sweet red pepper, finely chopped
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1/2 cup lemon basil leaf
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2 1/2 cups chicken broth or water

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion until golden. Add the red pepper and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the lemon basil, by leaf, and parsley. Stir in the broth or water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender.

Basil is so easy to grow you will want to try as many varieties as you can.

For more information on growing and using herbs, including basil, visit our website and sign up for our newsletter in order to get an instant download of our newest e-book entitled Herbs for your Health: How to Grow and Use Them

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.

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

Virginia sweet spire

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.

You may like the video of the Christmas trees at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum that I made. Be sure and plan a visit to see the decorated Christmas trees soon before the season is over.

Here you can see a traditional Christmas Tree Themes using red, green, and gold.  This is one of the trees at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum in 2009.

Through the years, our family has enjoyed collecting ornaments from places we have visited during the year. It’s a fun thing to do when we’re traveling and it’s fun to reminisce about the area and our trip when we hang our treasured ornament on the tree.

For more Christmas decorating ideas, visit our website at www.flowers-plants-gardening-advice.com. Check out the pink Christmas tree while your there!

One of the most popular recipes that use basil as the main ingredient is for Tomato Basil Soup. It’s a great, tasty way to use some of your basil that’s ready to harvest in your garden.

Here’s the recipe to get you on your way.

Tomato Basil Soup Recipe

Ingredients

# 2 teaspoons olive oil
# 2 garlic cloves, minced
# 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
# 1/2 teaspoon salt
# 3 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
# 2 cups fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
# Basil leaves (optional for garnish)

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in the broth, salt, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes. Stir in basil. Place half of the soup in a blender; process until smooth. Pour pureed soup into a bowl, and repeat procedure with remaining soup. Garnish with basil leaves, if desired.

Still have more basil to harvest? Try some Basil Beer Bread or Thai Basil Chicken.

Learn how easy it is to grow your own sweet basil.  It’s fun!

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.

Want to see more gardens while your here?  Visit our web site at www.MidSouthGardeningAdvice.com and learn more about Carnton Plantation, and Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum complete with pictures and videos.

Learn more about growing roses from our web site here

Upload a picture and tell us your experience here. It will become a page on our website…so come on and get published!

More than 10,000 people have visited Cheekwood’s outdoor exhibits in the past two weeks and there’s a good reason for that.

As you can see from the picture to the right, compliments from the Chihuly website , you can see how dazzling these sculptures are.

Through the idea of team work in glass blowing, Chihuly and his team of master glass blowers have explored such themes as Baskets, Cylinders, Seaforms, Fire and many more. Read more about how this incredible team uses their passion and gifts to create some of the most magnificent works in the world in the book from our Amazon affiliate entitled Team Chihuly

Chihuly’s works are becoming more and more autobiographical. For instance, the Basket series reminds him of woven Northwest Coast Indian baskets he saw in 1977. And his designs of abstract flower forms comes from his memories of his mothers garden in Tocoma and his other series’ Niijima Floats, Seaforms, and even the Chandaliers remind him of his childhood.

As a gardener, I’m especially interested in the beautiful book Chihuly Gardens & Glass.  As one editorial reviewer notes…’The brilliance of color and form of the glass, and the plants it is set among, creates a new reality within the conservatory.”  This book makes a wonderful tabletop book and gift for any art or flower lover.

The more you know about this great abstract glass blower, the more you will appreciate the gorgeous displays at Cheekwood Museum and Botanical Garden and at the Frist Center. I found a whole page at Amazon dedicated to Chihuly and his works. Below is the link from Amazon where you may purchase these books and DVD’s before you go.

Visit the Dale Chihuly Page at Amazon.com

If you go, let us know how you like it and of course let us know how you like the books!

Learn more about the gardens at Cheekwood on our website and see videos from a recent visit. The video’s aren’t of Chihuly (apparently you have to pay big bucks to do that!) but I think you will enjoy them just the same!

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