herbs

How to grow herbs and create an herb garden, including planting, harvesting and curing garlic. And: Which oregano is best; how to grow and preserve a year of parsley, basil and other green herbs. All these and more herb gardening topics to browse.

giveaway: talking calendula, salads, and beneficial insects with frank morton of wild garden seed

January 26, 2013 By margaret 275 Comments

HE’S A GO-TO GUY when other seed companies want something special, but when Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed seeks inspiration, he listens to the plants. “The plants showed me what they could do,” Morton says, “and what we could do together.” From his start as a “salad guy” growing greens for restaurants, Morton watched as new traits surfaced, and evolved into a lettuce breeder. From there the plants (and his financially practical wife, Karen) nudged him to become a seed company that grows everything it sells.

He also publishes what is “famously the world’s latest seed catalog” to drop each year, but he’s making no excuses. While other companies are sending out theirs, the Mortons are harvesting the seed those companies ordered from Wild Garden. I’ve bought some gift certificates to share with you—and also gleaned a few of Morton’s plant lessons: about calendula, beneficial insects, and how home gardeners wanting to know just which lettuce to grow can set up their very own seed trial. [read more…]

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giveaway: horizon herbs’ richo cech on the world’s basils, eastern spring wildflowers, and more

January 20, 2013 By margaret 303 Comments

IF YOU DON’T HEAR FROM ME for a month or three, don’t worry: I simply got lost on a magical mystery tour of the Horizon Herbs website and catalog, a global collection that the Cech family of Williams, Oregon, has been growing organically and selling since 1985. I’ve purchased some gift certificates to share with you—but most exciting, I had the pleasure of a Q&A with Horizon founder and herbalist/seedsman Richo Cech, on matters ranging from the world’s basils to medicinal Eastern woodland wildflowers. [read more…]

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a whopper! the seed-grown banana shallot

January 17, 2013 By margaret 19 Comments

banana shallot or echalion YOU NEVER KNOW what will show up on your doorstep here in my rural community. I leave beans and squash for Jane down the road; Robin leaves me things pertaining to our common pursuit of mice that invade our very old stone foundations. (Her last “gift” was pecan-flavored “trappers’ paste,” I kid you not). My other neighbor’s dog–or so the card signed with a pawprint said–left me chocolate once, in a gift bag hung on my gate. But Deb, up the hill, outdoes us all. Deb leaves dirigibles. You know: like the Hindenburg—but of shallots, that is. “What in the world is that?” I asked in my email reply after the hefty thing had landed (pictured above, with two good-sized onions and a coffee cup for scale). And Deb emailed back thus: [read more…]

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overwintering rosemary, indoors and out

October 18, 2012 By margaret 38 Comments

THIS ONE COMES UP EVERY FALL (especially from gardeners in Zones less favorable for it than 7ish): How do I keep my rosemary plant happy all winter? The answer: Cool sunshine—that rarest of indoor conditions in a heated house in the year’s darkest days, and not a guaranteed steady diet weather-wise outdoors many places, either. How to accommodate Rosmarinus officinalis, outdoors or in. [read more…]

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how to grow garlic, a q&a with filaree farm (and win their classic book on my favorite allium)

September 28, 2012 By margaret 577 Comments

MY FIRST EXPLORATION INTO growing garlic was also my first encounter with Filaree Farm. I hate to confess how long it has been since I first read “Growing Great Garlic,” the popular book by Filaree’s founding farmer, Ron Engeland (hint: publication date, 1991). Today, it’s Alley Swiss who farms the venerable Filaree acreage in Okanogan, Washington, where organically grown seed garlic has been produced for 25 years. In between his daunting chore list—Alley harvests more than 20,000 pounds of Allium sativum a season, representing a staggering 100-plus varieties from around the world—he made time to answer all my garlic-growing questions, from the best varieties for various regions, tastes from hot to mild, and more. (And to spice up the deal: I bought some copies of “Growing Great Garlic” and a couple of gift certificates for seed garlic to share with you!) [read more…]