Planning the Garden

I don’t know about you, but I have a major case of spring fever! I’ve organized and reorganized my seed collection about a zillion times, have baby broccoli sprouting in my basement and a bunch of winter-sown herbs in milk jugs on my back porch. Soon, I can start sowing lettuce, spinach & carrots and put my spring onions and peas in the ground. Then it will be time to start the 20+ varieties of heirloom tomatoes I want to grow this year, a (hopefully) dazzling array of peppers and a whole pile of flowers. Winter is almost over. Yippee!

Since I’ve gotten some emails from people asking about planning the garden, I thought I’d add a few brief answers and resource links in this post so that the information will be easily accessible to all.

Before you read further though, I am NOT an expert. Be sure to consult other sources before planting something, to make sure it’s appropriate for your zone. I’m in zone 7a, so anything I say is based off of that. (Here’s a handy USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to find out what yours is.) Read, read, read and read some more. One of my favorite resources is a stack of Organic Gardening magazines from the 1980′s I bought off of ebay. And of course, there’s always the library and our trusty friend Google.

The most common questions I’ve received are: how do I start growing herbs and what are the best types to grow?

I’d first like to suggest that you scope out your local nurseries and home improvement stores. That’s where I found my initial plants: rosemary, lemon balm, lavender, sage and thyme. My local farmer’s market also had a lovely selection of harder to find, organic varieties in the early spring. All of these were well suited to the area I live in.

Echinacea (coneflower) plants are pretty commonly offered for sale as well. The flower heads, seeds, and leaves can all be harvested for medicinal use. (The roots can be harvested as well, but you’ll sacrifice the plant to do so.)

If you choose to plant seeds, you might want to start with some of the easier-to-grow varieties. My favorite places to buy herb seeds are: Baker Creek Heirlooms and Horizon Herbs.

Spilanthes and Calendula are two great ones to start with since they aren’t too picky about their soil (at least in my experience) and reseed freely. This year, my Ball’s Improved Calendula kept blooming well into the winter and only stopped a few weeks ago (the end of January.) That’s one tough flower!

I like Spilanthes for my homemade cold & flu tincture. Calendula petals can be dried and infused in olive oil to be used in a wide range of products from lip balms, creams, salves… you can even sprinkle the petals in a salad for a burst of color. (Less imaginative family members of the male gender might complain about their salad looking too “girly”, but just ignore them!)

Another great one is milk thistle. It tends to reseed itself all over my garden. Be aware that the leaves are prickly! You can grind the seeds up and take to improve liver health. This is a fantastic herb – especially if you’re prone to waking up around 2 or 3 a.m. and you’re not sure why. Try taking some in the evening and see if it helps your sleep!

Some herbs are a bit tricky to start from seed (my initial travails with rosemary and lavender come to mind.) For those, you might want to try your hand at winter-sowing. I’m just experimenting with it this year, but you can read more at the WinterSown.org page. Basically, you turn milk cartons (or other recyclables) into mini-greenhouses, stick them outside and let nature do its chilling/warming thing. In the spring, the seeds will start sprouting. No need to fool with expensive grow lights or greenhouses. Sounds great to me! I’ll report later in the season how the plants turn out. (Update: pretty awesome! I thought nothing was happening to them, but when spring came – I had seedlings!!)

A good site to learn about growing herbs is: Growing Herbs for Beginners. They have video lessons that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home. It’s completely free! Check out their Facebook page as well.

It’s actually rather difficult to narrow down my list of favorite herbs to what is ‘best to grow’…. I have a variety growing in my gardens and many more I plan to plant so I’m not really sure yet! Plus what grows great here, might very well grow poorly or not at all in your area.

My most helpful suggestion would be to get a great herbal resource (Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech is an excellent one) and peruse through the pages, noting which herbs sound interesting. Then, hop online and do a search via google and/or the Horizon Herbs website and find out the growing requirements. Order some seeds/plants and just start growing! After a lot of trial and error, you’ll find out which types you like best and which ones you’d rather not grow anymore.

That’s all I’ve got time for today (still wading through piles of homework), but hopefully in the next week or two I can get more soap recipes up plus I have a new honey candy recipe in the works!

Until then, Happy Dreaming of Spring!