herbs

I mentioned in a previous post that I’d like to grow herbs in our yard for culinary and medicinal use. I find herbs really neat. I think they have a lot more value and use than most people realize, and I’ve definitely seen my body respond very well to echinacea, goldenseal, garlic, cayenne, ginger root, chamomile, and mint. I have a whole lot to learn though.

While ordering some heirloom vegetable seeds for the garden, I started reading about the herb seeds My Patriot Supply had to offer as well, and some of their descriptions and uses. You could say I got slightly carried away. I think sometimes I go on these tangents of learning about a new topic… what can I say? I like learning and the internet makes it so easy.

So, I ended up ordering a ton of herb seeds to try growing and using, in addition to the book Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health. I liked the book, although I’d like to read some others to compare information. Hers seems a little more focused on recipes using herbs (I know, I should have gotten that from the title), but I’d also like to have a reference book with just a simple explanation of each herb and what it’s good for (which hers also includes, but didn’t have every herb I had bought). I’m not convinced I’ll get around to making fancy herb concoctions and teas that often with her recipes. But maybe someday.

I still have this goal/dream/idea that at some point I’ll plant a ton of herbs together somewhere in the yard and it will be a beautiful spattering of wild flowers and amazing scents… but for now (and since winter is approaching) I just planted some echinacea, chamomile, and borage in an old plastic planter that the previous owner of this house left behind :). But I love the idea of planting some useful herb plants that flower among your landscaping–not only pretty (like the echinacea a.k.a. purple coneflower above), but also practical!

Here’s a not-so-great picture of my borage seeds sprouting up. They look happy 🙂

puppy Bear

It’s such a beautiful day today. Sunny and a little fall chill in the air, which my husband loves. I sat outside with Bear, our black lab puppy, for a while on my lunch break (I work from home), and he had a great time running around, eating fallen leaves, getting lost in bushes, and being a pup. He’s hit that age where he needs more activity. We might have to start running with him soon. He’s already faster than me at 12 weeks, but my husband can slightly outrun him still.

I recently got into the idea of growing my own medicinal herbs like echinacea, etc. instead of paying big bucks for them at the pharmacy. I’d like to plant lots of herbs in the back yard, but we need to train Bear not to run all over the flowers and eat whatever plants he finds interesting. He’s been snacking on all those green berries that pop up from that green grassy border plant (agh, what’s it called again?) and so far he hasn’t been showing any negative affects… but he needs to learn not to eat random wild berries! I think some of the herbs I’d like to plant might be bad for him to eat, so we’ll see how it goes. If he can’t learn that by spring, I’ll have to keep them in pots for now.

Silly puppy. Every time we go outside he tries to quickly grab a stick or piece of mulch to stealthily carry back inside in his mouth on the way back in. We aren’t fooled. 🙂 In the photo above, you can see him chewing on some mulch, with dirt on his face, and crushing my hosta plants. He’s too cute for his own good.