plant: chamomile

If you’ve been following the Planter “Herbs” series, you may have seen the post about harvesting herbs. After you harvest you must start the process of saving your herbs. Drying your herbs is the best way to preserve your harvest for long-term storage. There are several ways to do this at home. Paper Bag Method The paper bag method is nice because it doesn’t require anything fancy. Place your herbs in a clean paper bag, ensuring not to fill it too much because good air circulation is critical for successful drying....

If you’re growing herbs in your garden, you may wonder when the perfect time to harvest them is. It all depends on which part of the plant you want to use. Plants store their active compounds in different places depending on what stage of growth they are in. Harvest Timelines Harvest aromatic herbs like basil, lemon balm, sage, and oregano just as the flowers are beginning to open. This is when the volatile oil levels are strongest, giving you a more flavorful or potent herb....

Gardens come in many different sizes, and you don’t need a lot of land to tend to one. As long as you have some space for a pot or two (or twenty!), you can grow a whole range of things. Herbs, both culinary and medicinal, can be grown in pots, in the same way you can grow ornamental flowers. Benefits of Growing Herbs in Containers: You don’t need a ton of gardening space....

Winter is becoming a distant memory in the northern Hemisphere, and spring is in the air! And so are the pollen, mold spores, and other irritants that can cause seasonal allergies. While most of us are happy for spring’s arrival, those with seasonal allergies have mixed feelings about the misery the changing season can bring. Allergies can also appear in autumn. Those in the southern hemisphere might be experiencing fall allergies right now....

A good herb garden has herbs that can be used in cooking and herbs that can be used as traditional medicine. A lot of these same herbs can also be used in the spa (or bathroom of course). Check out these herbs for some inspiration: Aloe Aloe deserves a top spot in our herbal body care garden lineup. Many of us reach for aloe after getting too much sun. It’s great at soothing irritated and sun burned skin....

Have you ever wanted to know more about herbs but weren’t sure where to start? Maybe you’re thinking you have to be enrolled at a school of wizardry to learn. Or maybe you have to be a medieval monk to have an apothecary garden. Not at all! The interest in herbalism is growing quickly. Many countries around the world use plants as a form of complementary medicine. There’s no better time than now to start your herbal garden....

So begins our series of various garden plans to inspire you! Today, we’re focusing on an assortment plants that we can use for tea. Whether it’s the fruit, leaves, root, flower, or even the seeds themselves, there’s incredible range in the kind of plants that can be used for a wonderful cup of tea! We’ll be focusing on some of the more common plants in this Growing Guide. Harvesting Some plants may taste better dried or fresh, so experiment!...

The Benefits of Beneficial Insects Natural predation can help take care of pests instead of using chemicals! Not only are pesticides becoming less effective on pests due to developing resistances in the insect populations, they wreak havoc in the environment. Pesticides can ruin the soil and seep into the water sources nearby, causing harm to the local ecosystem. Pesticides also aren’t selective; not only do they kill pests as intended, they’ll also kill beneficial insects and harm creatures that feed on the dead insects....

Many types of plants depend on pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to pollinate their flowers so they can produce fruit and seeds. To get the best harvests possible, there are steps we can take as gardeners to encourage more pollinators to visit our garden. Why are pollinators important in the garden? To understand why pollinators are important in the garden, we first need to understand which plants rely on them....