Perennials Herbs to add to your landscape this Fall

Here are three Perennial herbs that you can plant in your fall garden so you can enjoy the flowers and eating them next year.

Edible flowers are a great addition to the landscape.  They have long-lasting flowers that not only add to the look of the garden space, but also add great flavors colors, and scents to your food dishes.  These three are easy to grow and simple to use. 

Perennials are a great plant to add to the garden at the end of the season so they can establish over winter and emerge for your enjoyment in Spring.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

I recommend Common Chives, rather than Garlic chives.  Common Chives flower first thing in the spring when few other things are flowering and the flowers can be used a number of ways.  I love to make herbal vinegar with my chive blossoms.  It is a lovely pink color with the gentlest flavor of onion,  You can also crumble the flowers into a salad or to flavor oil dipping sauces. Later when the flowers are finished you can sprinkle the chopped leaves sprinkled over baked potatoes, salads or pizza.

Add them to your landscape where you want a change in texture as the thin blade-like leaves will fountain out as the plant gets older.

Chives are great in vinegar and salads as an edible flower and you can find several recipes on this blog.

Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)

Bee balm is a wonderful perennial for drawing pollinators into your garden, but did you know it is an edible ornamental? Both the leaves and flowers are edible and have a strong, oregano-like flavor. You might also detect notes of mint, as this perennial is in the mint family. Don’t let the fact that they are in the mint family fool you—these are non-running, clump-forming, petite perennials for the front of the border or herb garden.

Another common name for bee balm is bergamot, as an herbal tea is is a great substitute for the bergamot oil in black tea that flavors Earl Grey.   The leaves or flowers of Monarda didyma can also be used fresh, chopped finely like you would use fresh oregano to flavor pasta dishes, in salad dressings or on your homemade pizza.

To use Bee Balm in recipes, check out these posts.

English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

Like bee balm, lavender is another plant we tend to think of mostly as an ornamental flowering perennial rather than an edible herb. You’ll find a number of different species at the garden center, but English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, is the one often used in recipes and garden. It tastes much like it smells—sweet and floral-like. Its fresh or dried flowers can be used in marinades and cooking blends, sprinkled over ice cream, steeped in lemonade or cocktails, or used to flavor shortbread cookies and other baked goods.

The plant must be well mulched in winter to come back the following year, but the tall flower spikes with purple buds and flowers can bloom from June to September. When not blocking it has a needle-shape leaf in a silver-gray color that adds a bit of scent and texture to your garden landscape.

So try out these perennials and plant them now in the fall and enjoy them next year to their fullest and most tasty.

Check out recipes with this herb here on the blog.

Scented Geraniums - Tea Ideas for the Month of September

This time I want to discuss making tea with Scented geraniums.  So many folks think they are only for show, but I find they are great to make edibles with.

Scented geraniums are of the genus Pelargonium, also called storksbill.  They were imported to England from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa in 1632. The rose-scented varieties are grown for making perfume as a substitute for attar of Roses.

Old-Fashioned Rose Scented Geranium

Roper's Lemon Rose Geranium

While many species and cultivars of scented geraniums are used in cooking, the three most common are peppermint, (Pelegorium tomentosum) rose (P. graveolens or Old Fashioned Rose) and lemon.  The lemon coming in a number of different varieties from Mable Grey, to Rober's Lemon Rose, Hillary Lemon and lemon crispum (P. crispum). Although not known for their medicinal properties, scented geraniums can bring great scents to a beverage.

Gray Lady Plymouth - a lemon-scented geranium

Fresh leaves have more flavor than dried ones, so this time of year when I am cutting the Geraniums back before bringing them indoors for winter is a great time to make tea blends with them.  Use 1 tsp dried or 1 Tablespoon fresh crumbled leaves to one cup of hot water.  

To start here is a tea recipe using many different leaves to give a broad flavor.

Geranium Leaf Tea

• 2 rose geranium leaves
• 3 peppermint geranium leaves
• 1 Mable Grey geranium leaf
• 2 Lemon Rose geranium leaves

Place the crumpled leaves in a pot and cover with 2 cups of hot water and allow to steep 5 to 7 minutes.  Strain into a cup and enjoy this light-colored tea with a few sweet sugar cookies for a wonderful afternoon pick-me-up.

Here is a spicy tea recipe that is great made with rose or lemon rose geranium leaves.

Rose Geranium Black Tea

• 1 tsp black tea of your choice
• 1 -3 whole cloves
• 2 crumbled fresh rose geranium leaves

place all items in a tea ball or coffee filter tied closed and steep in a mug of boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes.  Don't leave too long or the clove overpower everything else.

Another great way to get the flavor of scented geraniums into your tea is to make geranium sugar.

This is created by layering the leaves with granulated sugar in a container for about 2 weeks, then removing the now desiccated (totally dried out) leaves for sugar free of herb bits, which makes a wonderful flavored addition to coffee, tea, and lemonade.

Harvesting the herbs in the time of Virgo

I am a Virgo and this time of year I look up herbs for the Virgo to see what pops up on Google.  This year I found this great website with herbs and magick that is just so interesting.  I recommend taking a look.

The blog post was written by Alexis Cummingfolk and what I found as I searched around the site was a folksy conversation about herbs that was refreshing to read and wonderfully informative.

http://www.wortsandcunning.com/

What I loved about the post I found first, that caused me to want to look around more, was a list of seasonal reflections.  This list of questions caused me to pause and access, which I believe was the whole purpose.  I sometimes do not do that on a daily basis like I should and when I am coaxed to do so, I take it as a universal sign to get into alignment.

Here are the questions that she posted and here is the actual post I am referring too. 

Blog — Worts + Cunning Apothecary | Intersectional Herbalism + Magickal Arts (wortsandcunning.com)

http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog?category=astroherbology

I have included my answers to the first question and I suggest you try this exercise for yourself…

What does the land feel like, look like, smell like this season?

What is coming to the surface from within me?

What is receding within me?

What am I feeling grateful for?

What am I grieving for or feeling challenged by?

What am I feeling inspired and where is it calling me to this season?

What am I calling to me?

What am I called to give?

 

What does the land feel like, look like, smell like this season?

 

I was out in the herb garden, so the wind was coming from the northeast across the forest preserve into the herb garden bringing with it the smell of water and trees that mingled with the scent of the herbs stimulated by the bright sun and the stiff breeze.  All the herbs are tall, at least those I have not yet cut, because of the recent rain they all had a growth spurt.

When I walk down the rows I brush my fingers over the herbs to release the scents and give my fingers a lovely perfume.  Harvesting is my favorite herb activity.  I get to touch the herbs, feel the softness or stiffness of the leaves and enjoy the buzz of the pollinators, who I do disturb with my cutting.  The heat in the drying shed is intense and I sweat a lot as I bundle and hang the herbs.  But the frequent and day-long sun means I can harvest even more in a couple days as the cut branches dry quickly.

The herbs wave in a natural and soothing way in the wind.  It looks like an undulating blanket when you gaze at the lemon balm clumps or the tall tarragon that flops over this time of year from its own weight.  The sage wiggles because the stiff woody stems don’t really bend much while the lavender waves back and forth allowing me to see the difference between lavender and rosemary because the rosemary tends to stand still in a breeze, while the softer stem of lavender moves like a dancer. From a distance, the long needle-shaped leaves look similar until there is a wind.

Lavender

Summer Savory

I harvested the annuals today because their life is short now and they want to make seed, so I cut them strongly.  The basil was at its licorice best today and the purple basil was especially pungent.  I know vinegar making is in my future. The holy basil crop is a bit sparse this year.  The earwigs enjoyed it more than any other herb in the garden. Then the soap mixture I sprayed it with caused the sun to fry the leaves that were not eaten. However, my thyme plants are very happy and the scent is strong even in the heat of the day which makes my nose sing.  I also harvested the summer savory.  It gets spindly this time of year, but the leaves are plentiful and the flavor is finally reaching its apex.  I chew on a branch of it to keep me from being thirsty. 

Lemon Verbena

I finished my day by harvesting lemon verbena.  I cannot bring into the house all the plants I grow so this tender perennial will die away in the cold Illinois winter, but for now it’s heady with the scent of lemon and the leaves are large and bright green and asking to be stroked to release the fragrance, which I oblige.

Wild Garden Shower Soap - Bath Blend of the Month

It is harvest time.  I spend hours out harvesting my herbs before the last of the season.  After a long evening in the chill of September, I want a long, hot shower.

Wild Garden Shower Soap

• ½ cup distilled water
• ½ cup orange flower water
• 1 Tbls peppermint
• 1 Tbls Chamomile
• 1 Tbls rose petals
• 1 Tbls orange blossoms
• ½ Tbls unscented glycerin soap
• 1 tsp castor oil

Combine the waters in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and add herbs. Steep 1 hour. Strain. Reheat water gently.  Add soap and castor oil.  Let cool to room temperature.  Bottle it up and use every day.  This stuff is gentle enough for everyday use.