Perennial Herbs for the Garden

By Peggy Riccio

I love being able to step out into the garden and snip fresh herbs whenever I need them. Yesterday, I was making ham and bean stew in the crockpot. I was inspired to add thyme so I cut off a few sprigs from the thyme growing in the front of the house. I looked around and snipped even more herbs: cutting celery, oregano, sage, and rosemary. Except for the cutting celery, these are perennial herbs that should be in everyone’s garden. They can be tucked in the ornamental bed just like any other perennial plant. In the spring, you can purchase the small plants from a nursery or you can ask a friend for a cutting or division. Once you have them in your garden, you can enjoy them year-round and nothing will bother them, not even deer.

Cutting Celery

Botanically speaking, the cutting celery is a biennial. It puts its energy into foliage the first year and then into flowering and setting seed the next year. In my Zone 7 garden, I can harvest the foliage any time so it acts like a perennial. I am sure it is because the seed drops, germinates, and produces new plants each year. I always grow it in one place, under the dappled shade of a tree and where a tiny stream runs through after it rains. This gives the celery enough moisture. The plant is smaller with thinner stems than store-bought stalk celery (it is the center plant in the bowl in the photo). The taste is like stalk celery but with a peppery, pungent bite. It can be used fresh in a salad, in sandwiches, or sautéed with onions and carrots, which is what I did for the bean stew.

Thyme

Thyme is a perennial shrub with very small leaves (in upper left quadrant in the bowl). It is only about six inches tall, making it a good groundcover. Because the thin wiry stems root easily, it is a great plant to have in order to cut and root stems in the spring to place in containers with summer annuals for the “spiller” effect. Culinary thyme remains green and above ground all winter long. It can be harvested and used in the kitchen any time of the year. There are variegated forms of thyme as well as flavored thymes such as coconut, lemon, and spicy orange. Thyme prefers full sun and well-drained soil. The leaves can be used fresh or dried.

Oregano

Oregano is an herbaceous perennial (in bottom part of bowl). It grows back every spring, reaches about a foot tall, flowers, and then dies back in the fall. Usually though with our mild winters, there are green leaves at the base year-round. In the early spring I cut back the dead flower stalks and remove the debris so fresh new growth can push through. Mine is in full sun and well-drained soil. Oregano is a great plant to have in the garden for the culinary use as well as the flowers. The flowers are small but attract beneficial insects and pollinators. Oregano leaves can be used fresh or dried and we use them for the bean stew, pizza, pasta sauce, poultry rub, and stuffing.

Sage

Sage is a woody shrub, about one to two feet tall. There are many types of sage but if you want to make sure you are purchasing culinary sage, look for Salvia officinalis with grey green leaves. Sage prefers full sun and well-drained soil. The leaves can be used fresh or dried for many dishes such as poultry rub, sausage, stuffing, and root vegetables. You can cut just a few leaves as you need them since they are pungent (top of the bowl).

Rosemary

I have the ‘Arp’ rosemary plant in full sun, on the southern side of the house in well drained soil. It grows so well I trim it back every year to keep it in proportion to the rest of the front garden. Rosemary blooms in the cool months and the purple/blue flowers are edible. The leaves are so flavorful you do not need many of them and they can be used fresh or dried. This plant is easy to propagate by stem cuttings or layering. Rosemary is versatile because the stems or branches can be used as well as the foliage and flowers. Line a platter with branches and then put a roast on top or use them as stirrers in drinks. The leaves can be used in pasta sauce, yeast breads like focaccia, roasted potatoes, poultry rub, and rosemary butter for vegetables (the cuttings are on the right side of the bowl).

This year as you add annuals and flowers to your garden beds, don’t forget to invest in perennial herbs for year round flavor.

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Peggy Riccio is the owner of pegplant.com, an online resource for gardening in the Washington, DC, metro area; president of the Potomac Unit, Herb Society of America; regional director of GardenComm, a professional association of garden communicators; and is the blog administrator for the National Garden Clubs, Inc.

When It Comes to Women’s History Month, The Herb Society of America Could Write Volumes

By Bonnie Porterfield

Of course, there are The Herb Society of America (HSA) founders, but let’s fast forward to those women instrumental in doing the arduous work of jumping through civic, political, and legal hoops to get the National Herb Garden in Washington, DC, started. We have a number of members to thank for doing this work. From the idea first being presented by Edna Cashmore in her 1966 President’s Report for a national garden, to the work on potential sites, garden designs, legal aspects, and fundraising, this was a monumental project.

When Genevieve Jyurovat assumed the HSA Presidency in 1974, legal oversight of a major endeavor was already part of her skill set. In 1966, as Chairman of the Western Reserve Unit (WRU) of The Herb Society of America, Genevieve worked with attorneys, personnel at the Garden Center of Cleveland (now Cleveland Botanical Garden), and City of Cleveland officials to negotiate a long-term agreement for a property to be developed as an herb garden on city property. She successfully navigated the legal maze to establish permanency for an herb garden funded with private donations but located on public land.  

Then, as HSA President, she made almost weekly trips from Hudson, Ohio, to Washington, DC, to consult with attorneys and federal officials on behalf of The Society. According to a tribute to Genevieve written by Past President Madalene Hill,

“These many trips resulted in an agreement between The Society and the Arboretum which in turn culminated in a bill being sent to Congress which would permit the United States Department of Agriculture to accept gifts on behalf of the U.S. National Arboretum. This bill passed the Senate on July 25 and the House on November 4, 1975. The agreement was signed between the Agricultural Research Service and The Herb Society of America in February 1976. Genevieve Jyurovat, with her quiet, soft voiced, low key manner and the iron fist enclosed in a silken glove, had achieved a landmark decision.

Genevieve was the one with the foresight and the will to see that before a penny was raised for the garden, there must be legal underpinnings established to protect such an endeavor. Genevieve was the one with the bulldog tenacity to persevere until her goal was reached. Without her quiet, but persistent efforts to successfully negotiate with the Federal Government, we were in danger perhaps, at some future date of having the National Herb Garden destroyed to provide space for public parking or a building named for the political figure of the day. How could The Society have been so fortunate to have had Genevieve in the right place at the right time?” (The Herb Society of America Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 9, Fall 2000).

Can you imagine in today’s world how this could be accomplished?

Once Genevieve secured this agreement, she called upon her old friend, Kathrine Patch, for fundraising help. Katherine had assisted Elsetta Barnes, ASLA (one of the first women landscape architects and designer of the current WRHS herb garden), in raising funds for the WRHS herb garden. As the story goes, Elsetta asked Katherine to be the treasurer of this project. “But,” exclaimed Katherine, “I’ve never been treasurer of anything in my life.” “Don’t you pay your bills?” responded Elsetta. “I guess I do,” replied Katherine. And suddenly, Katherine had a new job!  Katherine used this experience to raise the initial funds for the National Herb Garden.

With initial funding secured, together with a matching government contribution of $200,000, it was up to HSA President Betty Rea to lobby Congress to have these matching funds restored when budget cuts threatened the project. (That’s the short version of this part of the story.)

On June 12, 1980, the National Herb Garden was dedicated with Mrs. Albert C. Burrage, one of the founding members of The Herb Society of America, presenting the garden and Joan Mondale, the Vice President of the United State’s wife, accepting on the behalf of the American people.  

From a single idea of a national herb garden to its dedication, the women of The Herb Society of America got the job done. Cheers to these women as we celebrate Women’s History Month.

Photo Credits: 1) National Herb Garden circa 1980 (US National Arboretum archives); 2) Genevieve Jyurovat (The Herb Society of America archives); Katharine Patch (HSA archives); 3) Dr. John Creech (National Arboretum Director), Betty Rea (HSA), Hon. Robert Bergland (USDA Secretary), Eleanor Gambee (HSA), Rubert Cutler (US National Arboretum archives); 4) Mrs. Joan Mondale, Eleanor Gambee, and Anne Burrage at National Herb Garden dedication, June 12, 1980 (US National Arboretum archives).

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Bonnie Porterfield is a forty-three year Life Member of The Herb Society of America and a member of the Western Reserve Unit. She has served in many roles during that time including two terms as Great Lakes District Delegate, Unit Chair, Co-Chair of the Western Reserve Unit’s first symposium and member of the GreenBridges™ and Library Advisory Committees. She is an avid herb gardener, reader, learner, and supporter of local efforts in re-establishing natural areas that promote native plantings.

HSA Webinar: Fairy Gardens Throughout the Ages (and How to Make Your Own)

By Julie Bawden-Davis

Long before humans roamed the forests, fairies are said to have taken up residence in the cavities of trees, forming fairy houses where they took refuge. Dating back to the Middle Ages, fairy folklore says that these little beings possess supernatural powers. 

Many believe that fairies come from the elements—in fact, from Mother Nature herself. For that reason, it makes sense to add fairies to your garden. Even better, adding fairy gardens to your landscape elevates the magic and mystery of your landscape.

How to Make Your Own Fairy Garden

Whether you believe in fairies or not, anyone can make their very own fairy garden. A wide variety of herbs work well in these mini wonderlands. In fact, the diminutive nature of some herbs, like thyme and oregano, makes them fairy garden favorites. 

To create your own container fairy garden using herbs and fairy garden accessories, keep the following tips in mind.

Dream a Little Dream

The first step to creating a magical miniature garden is to dream up what you want the garden to be. A good way to do that is to start with a theme. Just like when you throw a party, knowing the theme allows you to plan and design the garden better.

The theme could be just about anything. Do a little daydreaming, and see what comes to mind. While doing so, ask yourself where you’d like to go if you were a fairy. A mountain retreat, maybe? A secret garden, perhaps? Or how about a beachside resort? The only limits are your imagination, and that’s truly limitless.

Choose Your Fairy

There are a wide variety of fairy figurines available to reside in your fairy garden. The type of figurine you choose can also help dictate the theme. Generally, if you’re planting a small fairy garden, it’s best to choose just one fairy and a supporting character or two like miniature ceramic animals.

Select Accessories

Once you have a theme, the ideal types of accessories quickly spring to mind. Using a cottage garden theme as an example, you will want to look for items such as a white picket fence, miniature stepping stones, a birdbath, and a gazebo or trellis.

Decide on Plants

For your cottage garden, you can’t use large flowering plants like foxglove or larkspur as you’d find in a human-sized landscape, but you can bring flowers to your Lilliputian paradise with small blooming plants like Erodium spp. (stork’s bill, heron’s bill) and miniature roses (Rosa sp.). Many trailing herbs, such as the aptly named ‘Elfin’ thyme, also flower in the spring. Polka Dot Plant (Hypoestes) adds color to your fairy garden all year long.

Pick a Focal Point

The secret to creating a magical miniature garden that captures the attention of humans and fairies is to remember that in fairyland, less is more. For an effective, eye-catching miniature garden, be selective in your accessory and plant choice. Avoid packing too much into your garden, as it will look cluttered. From the handful of items you’ve selected, choose a plant or accessory to which the eye will be drawn. Then design the garden around that focal point.

Add Action and Tell a Story

The way to put life into your fairy garden is to add some action. Set the stage in your fairy garden by creating the illusion that something is going on. The secret is to give the viewer the “idea” of movement. What creates that illusion is how the fairy relates to her (or his) environment.

Think about how you position the fairy in relation to the environment. Is she pointing up at a miniature tree? Or maybe she is interacting with a fellow animal figurine. Position a fairy with her arms outspread facing a little kitty looking up at her intently, and while creating action, a story comes to life. The fairy has looked for her kitty all afternoon long and finally found her!

Whatever you place in the fairy’s line of sight helps tell the story. Putting a fairy boy holding a tipping teacup as he sits talking to his dog is another great way to add action while telling a tale.

Planting, Care, and Maintenance

Choose a container with drainage holes that has enough space to arrange your planned scene and is at least eight inches deep. Use a high-quality potting soil. When choosing plants, ensure all of them are either full sun or shade. 

Plant first, then add accessories. If you are going to put in a path, scoop out a half inch of soil and fill in with gravel or stepping stones. After planting, water well.

To keep your fairy garden plants within bounds, pinch and prune them on a regular basis. Don’t feed the fairy garden too frequently, as that will cause excessive growth. Keep the plants healthy with an application of a well-balanced, organic fertilizer every two to three months.

Join Julie on Thursday, March 16, at 1pm Eastern for her webinar: Fairy Gardens Throughout the Ages (and How to Make Your Own). Our webinars are free to The Herb Society of America members and $7.50 for guests. Become a member today, and enjoy all of our webinars for free along with access to the webinar library with over fifty program titles. To register, visit https://www.herbsociety.org/hsa-learn/herb-education/hsa-webinars/

Photo Credits: 1) Hidden home in the forest floor (Askoldsb, dreamstime.com); 2) Logs with little doors (C. Moore); 3) Thymus serpyllum (Kingsbrae Gardens, Creative Commons); miniature roses (The Oregonian); Erodium sp. (Macleay Grass Man, Creative Commons); 4) Tree with tiny door (C. Moore); 5) Fairy with cat (J. Bawden-Davis); 6) Fairy with dog (J. Bawden-Davis).

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Julie Bawden-Davis is a bestselling garden author, speaker, and University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Parade.com and The Los Angeles Times, where she had weekly garden columns. She has also written for Better Homes and Gardens, The Orange County Register, The San Francisco Chronicle, Organic Gardening, The American Gardener and Wildflower Magazine. Julie is author of several gardening books, including Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden, Southern California Vegetable Gardening and Southern California Fruit Gardening (SoCal Year-Round Gardening Series), The Strawberry Story: How To Grow Great Berries Year-Round in Southern California, Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, and Reader’s Digest Flower Gardening. She is also founder and publisher of the website, Healthy Houseplants.com. Julie gains inspiration from puttering and planting in her Southern California garden, which was certified in 1999 by the National Wildlife Federation as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.

HSA Webinar: Horticultural Therapy – Improving Health and Wellness

Have you ever said to yourself or others, “My garden is my therapy?” If you have noticed that you feel more relaxed and even rejuvenated after imbibing the beauty, fragrance, and even hard work in your garden, you are not alone! Gardening provides physical exercise, as well as a rewarding intellectual and emotional connection. When recognized on a personal level, it is not a stretch to see how people in a wide variety of care environments who are facing diverse personal challenges can benefit from professionally facilitated horticultural experiences as well.

The profession of horticultural therapy (HT) was formalized in the early 1970s, though people have sought out gardens and gardening activities for respite and health recovery well before then. The practice of horticultural therapy involves a plant-based activity, a horticultural therapist, client(s), and identified treatment goals and objectives. Either in a group or as individuals, clients participate in outdoor or indoor plant-based activities designed to address their particular health or wellness needs. For example, patients in a rehabilitation hospital can work on standing tolerance, dynamic balance, and coordination by transplanting tea herbs into a planter raised to a comfortable standing height. Later in the season, the patients are rewarded with familiar fragrances as they harvest the herbs to make herb teas and learn about the roles relaxation and stress management play in their recovery.

In another example, adults with brain injuries focus on pre-vocational skills, such as following increasingly complex directions, organizing their work space, and social skills needed for interacting appropriately with coworkers and supervisors, all while growing plants for a sale. They could be growing any plants for sale, but the sensory stimulation from herb plants increases motivation and inspires conversation with customers during the plant sale. I have noticed that HT sessions are often so enjoyable, even with focus and hard work, that participants can feel like they are taking a break from therapy. Yet, they realized real progress towards their goals and objectives. 

HT programs are found in diverse organizations addressing a wide range of physical, social, emotional, vocational, and wellness needs for people of all ages. I’ve always said, “If you have seen one horticultural therapy program, you have seen ONE horticultural therapy program!” The flexibility of this field means that programs are unique and creatively designed to fit lots of different organizations–and not all are health care. Most focus on some type of improvement, recovery, or function maintenance ultimately for improved independence and quality of life. Quite often, horticultural therapists co-treat with other clinicians, such as recreation or occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, social workers, and vocational rehabilitation counselors. 

The other by-product of horticultural therapy programs is an environment with lots of plants! Imagine the impact plants have on senior living facilities, psychiatric hospitals, correction and juvenile detention facilities, veterans hospitals, and community support programs for people coping with grief, chronic illness, or cancer. When walking by a “lemon” garden, filled with lemon verbena, lemongrass, lemon basil, lemon thyme, lemon Pelargoniums (scented geraniums), lemon balm, and ‘Lemon Gem’ marigolds, you can hear people talking about all of the different qualities of plants that are all lemon scented. Lemon has long been associated with uplifted feelings, good moods, refreshment, and even more alertness. These plants, and their fragrant qualities, can compliment treatment programs, as well as add appeal to the overall garden. It is safe to say, these plant-rich environments provide benefits to clients, families, visitors, and staff as well! Some programs also sell plants to staff or the public to practice social and vocational skills and raise funds for their programs at the same time. 

I learned about horticultural therapy as a profession from my high school guidance counselor who had read about the field in a book. I never learned what book that was, but I have enjoyed a rewarding career of watching people discover the joy of growing and harvesting plants, making food, or other products from the fruits of their labor, while they have focused, struggled, delighted, and triumphed in their pursuit of self improvement. To learn more about horticultural therapy and how herbs are incorporated into the practice, join our webinar on February 14th, 2023, at 1pm Eastern. It is free for members and $7.50 for non members https://www.herbsociety.org/hsa-learn/herb-education/hsa-webinars/

Photo Credits: 1) Planting an herb garden; 2) Gardening in a raised bed; 3) Potting up plants; 4) Mint cuttings in a baggie; 5) Lemon herbs in a small “container” garden. All photos courtesy of the author.

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Karen Kennedy has been the Education Coordinator for the Herb Society of America since 2012. She coordinates and moderates monthly educational webinars, gives presentations, manages digital education programs, including three herbal fiction book clubs, and produces educational materials, such as the Herb of the Month program. Karen is a registered horticultural therapist (HT) with over 35 years of HT and wellness programming experience in health care, social service organizations, and public gardens. She has been a faculty member at the Horticultural Therapy Institute since 2002 and served on the board of The American Horticultural Therapy Association. Karen received the AHTA Rhea McCandliss Professional Service Award (1994) and the American Horticultural Society Horticultural Therapy Award (2009). She co-wrote/edited the foundational text, The Profession and Practice of Horticultural Therapy, published in 2019. Karen loves to garden, knit, drink tea, and is a big fan of her daughter’s soccer teams.

 

Herbs and Vegetables Go Together in Garden and Kitchen

By Maryann Readal, Secretary, The Herb Society of America

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted March 9, 2018. We hope it inspires you as you plan your spring gardens!

Recently I attended the Edible Yard Symposium sponsored by my local Master Gardener Association. It seems that a trend now is to plant vegetables and herbs into all of your beds instead of plowing up a special garden for these plants in the back 40. Last year, my husband tried to convince me to plant his peppers among my salvias, his spinach next to my parsley and his green beans on my garden trellis.  Oh no, I said to him then. But this may be the year to give that idea a try.

Garden author Judy Barrett, one of the symposium’s presenters, suggested considering a fruit tree when you have to replace a tree in your yard. You will enjoy the spring flowers and the fruit, she noted — another idea worth trying this year.

No room to garden? Not a problem. Find a large container and plant your herbs or vegetables in that.  Many nurseries make that easy by selling herbs and vegetables already growing in large containers. There is something uniquely satisfying about picking vegetables and herbs that you have grown yourself.

Be on the lookout for plant sales in your area. Many of The Herb Society of America’s units have spring plant sales. A check on the Calendar of Events page on the HSA website may help you locate some of these sales in your area.  These sales are a fantastic opportunity to find unusual plants that do well in your area. And you will find plants that you simply cannot buy in local nurseries and big box stores. Proceeds from these sales go toward scholarships and outreach programs by The Herb Society units.

So….be ready for spring. It IS just around the corner.

The Power of One: A GreenBridges™ Story

by Debbie Boutelier

(Editors’ note: This article originally appeared in a recent HSA newsletter. It has been edited for clarity for this post.)

In a recent GreenBridges™ presentation, I mentioned the power of one several times. I’d like to share a short story about how the power of one worked in my GreenBridges™ garden. My garden was certified a number of years ago, and I have been slowly incorporating more native plants into my landscape. (We all NEED a reason to buy more plants, right???) 

When COVID hit, and we all had to stay home more, I decided it was time to kick my garden projects into full speed and actually complete those projects that had been in the planning stage for a while. (I’m not going to admit how long they were in the planning stage, so don’t ask!) I made a pledge to myself at that time that at least 90% of the plant material to finish these projects would be natives. I knew a lot of our local natives, but it was so much fun researching the lesser known species and then actually finding them. 

Fast forward to this past spring. When the weather started warming up, I noticed more pollinators busy in the garden collecting nectar from the early blooming plants. THEN, I noticed the number of butterflies that were enjoying my garden. Oh my gosh, for several weeks, I would go out into the garden and literally feel like I was in a butterfly house at a botanical garden! The butterflies swarmed around me as I worked in the beds. It made my heart so happy! I wish I had made a video, but I was living in the moment. There were different swallowtails, gulf fritillaries, skippers, hairstreaks, Eastern tailed-blues, sulfurs, American painted ladies, viceroys, buckeyes, and some I did not recognize. I enjoyed their presence immensely. Even though that period was totally glorious, I still have good numbers of the winged beauties visiting daily. 

My granddaughter and I enjoyed raising swallowtail and gulf fritillary caterpillars this summer. We  released 47 swallowtails and nine fritillaries. The swallowtails slowed down after having eaten every morsel of parsley, dill, and fennel in my garden. I saw more fritillaries at that time of the season as they voraciously attacked the passionvine. By the end of the summer, those vines were leafless, but that’s fine with me. I know they will be back next year to provide for the new generations.

I also need to mention the bees. They have also immensely enjoyed the bounty in the garden. Earlier in the season, my granddaughter and I stood under the Vitex trees while they were blooming and listened to the buzzing. The trees were alive with movement and sound! Even though the Vitex agnus-castus is not native to our country, it is still welcome in my garden for the amount of nectar it provides for the winged visitors.

Though just about over, this has been a spectacular gardening season. I truly believe that each of us can make a difference right where we are. The effort is so worth it!

It is easy to get your garden to be a certified GreenBridges™ garden. The application is on The Herb Society of America website: https://www.herbsociety.org/get-involved/greenbridges-initiative.html  Just answer a few questions and take a few pictures to send with the application. We are actively building green bridges across communities, towns, cities, regions, and the entire country. Let your power of one join with the rest to make a huge difference for our native plants and pollinators.

Photo Credits: 1) Pipevine swallowtail (Alabama Butterfly Atlas); 2) Monarch butterfly caterpillar (Christopher Upton, US National Arboretum); 3) Gulf fritillary (TexasEagle, CC BY-NC 2.0); 4) Bee on Echinacea flower (Christopher Upton, US National Arboretum).

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Debbie Boutelier is The Herb Society of America’s GreenBridges™ Chair and HSA Past President. She is an Alabama Advanced Master Gardener and has studied the medicinal uses of herbs for many years, completing a three-year intensive study of the medicinal aspect of herbs at the Appalachian Center of Natural Health. Debbie now teaches nationally and presents seminars and workshops on the many aspects of herbs, organic gardening, nutrition, and other garden related topics. Debbie’s herb passion has led to the creation of her small cottage herb business, Rooted in Thyme Apothecary.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens’ Indigenous Garden

by Erin Presley, Olbrich Botanical Gardens Horticulturist

Olbrich Botanical Gardens is a 16-acre, free admission public garden in Madison, Wisconsin, in the heart of the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk people. The Ho-Chunk, or “People of the Sacred Voice” historically lived in southern Wisconsin, from the far southwestern corner of the state along the Mississippi River nearly up to Green Bay. This is fertile land with rolling hills and scenic bluffs where the Ho-Chunk lived in permanent villages. In fact, their oral tradition simply states, “We have always been here.” 

The area around Madison, known as Dejope or “Four Lakes,” is especially significant for the Ho-Chunk because of its abundant fresh water and resources. This land proved equally attractive to white settlers, and the Ho-Chunk were forcibly removed and Madison’s extensive lakeshore was quickly developed. In the early 1900s, Madison attorney and philanthropist Michael B. Olbrich recognized how private development would soon limit everyday people’s access to the lakes, and in 1921, he purchased over half a mile of Lake Monona shoreline property. He envisioned a sweeping park with gardens, a respite from busy workaday life, allowing everyone to be nourished by “something of the grace and beauty that nature intended us all to share.” Over the decades, additional property was purchased and consolidated within the city of Madison’s park system, and the first gardens were developed starting in the 1950s.    

Especially in Olbrich’s Herb Garden, it’s vitally important that we grow, show, and interpret plants that all types of people identify with. Herb lovers know that edible plants can act as a universal language, uniting people and making them feel at home across cultural borders. In this spirit, the Herb Garden has hosted many creative collaborative gardens over the years. Most recently, an Indian-style garden created with owners of an Ayurvedic spa oozed tropical flair with ginger and turmeric, eggplant, bitter melon, and elephant ears. 

Our partnership with Ho-Chunk tribal members began in 2020 as we brainstormed with Indigenous chefs and food activists, community organizers, and university professionals and students to envision an interactive Indigenous Garden. A walk through the “Three Sisters Living Tunnel” would invite guests to immerse themselves in dangling beans and towering corn and sunflowers. An integral part of the project would involve fun activities to draw in community members and give everyone a taste of Ho-Chunk culture.

We started with a literal “taste” when we hosted two milkweed soup samplings in summer 2021. Not many people know that the unopened flower buds of common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, are edible! Ho-Chunk people celebrate them as a seasonal food known as mahic (maw-HEENCH), collected in bud before they open and turn pink, and incorporated into a brothy soup with green beans, ham or bacon (optional), and, arguably, the best part—tiny dumplings. 

Our interns foraged for milkweed buds, carefully scouting for and avoiding buds that already had tiny monarch eggs clinging to them. Once picked, the buds are soaked in salt water to clean them and to leach some of the milky latex before making the soup (see recipe below). The sample sessions were a hit with over 300 people served and great conversations wafting through the garden! A woman told us how she missed the sound of the Ho-Chunk language since her husband of many years, a Ho-Chunk man, had passed, and came hoping to hear the language spoken. A veteran related his visit to France to honor the graves of Ho-Chunk soldiers he had fought with. And, a 20-something Ho-Chunk guy from the neighborhood popped in just saying, “Hey, cool, I saw on Facebook you were serving mahic!” 

We also wanted to highlight the endangered Ho-Chunk language, since there are only 200 fluent speakers and only 50 are the older people who grew up speaking Ho-Chunk. At Olbrich, we are lucky to have on our staff Rita Peters, a 24-year-old college student of Ho-Chunk and Menomonee descent. Rita, known as Xoropasaignga (hodo-pa-SIGN-ga) or Bald Eagle Woman, is at the heart of the Indigenous Garden. She does everything from sowing seeds and harvesting sweetgrass to developing events and educational seminars. Rita worked with her aunt, a language apprentice, to create bilingual signage that even links to a YouTube recording of the words being spoken aloud. Here is the link to the video: Ho-Chunk language plant name recording from Olbrich YouTube channel

We had a hot summer, so with occasional irrigation, the garden grew to unimagined heights! The sunflowers topped out at 16 feet, with Ho-Chunk red flint corn—sourced from the Ho-Chunk Department of Natural Resources—not far behind. As harvest season approached, we planned for our fall celebration, a drop-in sweetgrass braiding activity. 

Sweetgrass, Hierochloe odorata, is a fine textured, running grass that likes moist conditions in full sun. It is difficult to contain in most garden situations, so commercial growers or hobbyists typically grow it in raised beds, but at Olbrich, we have a large colony that inhabits our rain garden. The bluish green leaf blades grow to about 12 inches long by mid-June and carry an intoxicating fragrance reminiscent of vanilla. The grass is harvested and dried, then made into baskets or braids. Sweetgrass, known as cemanasge (CHAY-ma-nas-gay), is used ceremonially in Native cultures, but it is also appropriate for anyone to carry in a more everyday fashion. A sweetgrass braid is always made with good intention and then can be carried in any place that benefits from an infusion of positive energy, protection, and fragrance! So, we were able to teach people to make their own braid and also to show off the fruits of our harvest. 

As winter approached, we carefully saved seeds for the Indigenous Garden in 2022. Our milkweed soup day in early June attracted more than 330 guests! This year we are extending the Garden’s reach by collaborating with Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison, the biggest employer of Indigenous people in our area. We hope that partnerships like these will create an ever-growing network as Olbrich continues to focus our efforts on ensuring that everyone feels at home in these beautiful gardens here in Dejope. 

To learn more about the Indigenous Garden check out these additional links:

PBS Wisconsin recording of Indigenous Garden presentation by Erin and Rita

Media coverage from local TV station

MILKWEED SOUP:

Ho-Chunk people celebrate the foraging season for common milkweed flower buds, known as mahic in the Ho-Chunk language. The mahic is cooked up into a delicious brothy soup with other vegetables and tiny dumplings!

Prep the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca):

Pick milkweed flower buds prior to flowering before they turn pink, usually around mid-late June. Once they turn pink they become bitter. Only take about one fourth of the buds to leave plenty for butterflies. You can use the buds and the tiny top set of leaves.  Wash well, then soak in salted water for at least half an hour, rinse, and drain.  Milkweed can be frozen for use later in the year. 

Prepare the soup:

Use equal parts of water or broth and milkweed flower buds.  You can add other vegetables (green beans, corn, carrots) or ham/bacon.  Bring broth to a boil and add milkweed or other veggies.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes until milkweed and veggies are tender.

Dumplings:

Dumplings or gnocchi are a fun addition!  Small dumplings can be made with a pinch of water mixed with a pinch of flour and rolled into a small dumpling about the size of a fingernail.  Toss individual dumplings into the soup as it simmers and cook 20 minutes until the middle of the dumpling is cooked. 

Photo Credits:1) Indigenous Garden exhibit at Olbrich Botanical Gardens’ Herb Garden; 2) Visitors learning about the Indigenous Garden; 3-5) Green milkweed flower buds on the plant, picked, and prepared as soup; 6) Interpretive sign with English and Hooca̧k words for various plants; 7) Three sisters (corn, beans, and squash); 8) Ho-chunk red flint corn; 9) Tall sunflowers; 10) Sweetgrass harvest for braiding workshop; 11) Rita makes mahic, milkweed soup. All photos courtesy of the author.

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Erin Presley left her heart at Olbrich Botanical Gardens while interning there in 2005.  After earning a B.S. in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison she gardened for nearly a decade in the private sector before returning to Olbrich in 2014, where she manages the Herb, Woodland, and Pond Gardens. In addition to teaching at OBG, Erin loves talking about plants and collaborating with herb societies and master gardeners. She has appeared on the PBS series Let’s Grow Stuff and Wisconsin Public Radio’s Garden Talk, and is a contributor to the print and online content of Fine Gardening magazine.

The Feeling of Harvests to Come

by Beth Schreibman Gehring

“After Lammas Day, corn ripens as much by night as by day.” – Author unknown

The ancient origins of the word Lammas comes from the Old English hlaf, “loaf,” and maesse, “mass” or “feast.” Through the centuries, “loaf-mass” became the celebration that many of us know today as Lammas Day, although some refer to this day as Lughnasadh.

Lammas Day or Lughnasadh (August 1st or 2nd) marks the beginning of the harvest season, and is a time to give thanks and count our blessings for the rich and ancient fertility of the land. Our ancestors, people who tended to and revered the land for their very survival, spent this day together, gathering and preparing grains to bake sacred loaves that marked what would hopefully be the beginning of an abundant harvest season. It was a beautiful celebration of nature’s bounty and on this day still, loaves of bread are baked from the first-ripened grain and brought to churches all around the world to be consecrated. Some cultures still call this day “The Feast of Bread.”

In Ireland, it is still completely customary to give lovely baskets of freshly picked blueberries to your sweetheart to honor this ancient harvest festival. Many begin to make sweet meads and ales on this day, another way of preserving the abundance of the ripening fruits. Kneading and baking lovely breads and baking old fashioned fruit-filled pies are a traditional Lughnasadh activity. You might try to make a delicious blueberry boxty, which is a traditional shredded potato pancake topped with butter, sugar, and a fresh blueberry compote!

There is still an ancient county fair held in Ballycastle Ireland called the Auld Lammas Fair. This fair is held every year on the last Monday and Tuesday of August and is associated with the Lammas harvest festival. It has taken place for nearly 400 years, and it dates back to the 17th century. Interestingly enough, this timing is familiar to us. So many of our own county fairs are held during this time, and it is lovely to think that we are continuing these ancient celebrations from a time when legend and magic blended with everyday life well into our own time. A brief video of the fair can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zfmrT-OdU

Lughnasadh was named for the ancient Celtic god Lugh, who has long been associated with the powerful energies of fire and the sun. This was the time to begin preparing for the cold and barren winter months, by harvesting the first grains and beginning the long and arduous process of preserving meats, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables so that there would hopefully be enough to eat as long as the cold weather endured. It would be easy enough to know whether the coming days would be of feast or famine because one look at the branches and vines would tell you what you could expect. Very often the harvest would be scarce, and new plans would have to be made and resources parceled and shared with the entire community.

However you celebrate it this year, Lammas or Lughnasadh begins on the first of August, falling halfway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. I celebrate this day as a harvest celebration, sometimes by myself and sometimes with my neighbors. It is always such a beautiful time of year. The first soft fruits and vegetables have begun to ripen and the trees are heavily laden with lavish canopies of pears, plums, apples, and more.  It is high summer and the days are slowly beginning to shorten, but the warm evening air is always filled with such sweet garden scents and the coming promise of autumn’s abundance. Everywhere you turn or step, the hum of honeybees and other pollinators surrounds you. At night, all of the fireflies begin to dance around, lighting up the sky and making even the oldest of us long to catch a bit of that light for a minute in a glass mason jar, the same way we did when we were children.

In these modern days, it’s easy to forget just how dependent we are upon the whims of our climate with its quick and violent changes. I am reminded of this right now because most of my fruit trees, which are usually quite abundant, are just not producing. One badly timed snowstorm in the middle of springtime’s full bloom destroyed almost everything but the late blooming apple blossoms. Because of the extreme cold and ice prior to that storm there were less dandelions than normal, and because the dandelions are the first food sources of spring, there were no bees for quite some time. My potager is really beautiful this year but alas, my orchard is bearing very little fruit.

Centuries ago, I would be relying on my community to help feed my family in a time when my harvest failed, but with supermarkets to rely upon we live with a false sense of security about our food. That being said, climate change and its hazardous impact upon our food system is no longer an abstract concept. Extremes in temperatures, drought, and wind patterns are forcing us to study the phenology of our personal and public landscapes so that we can make decisions based upon an almost unknown and uncertain future.

During this time of Lammas or the first harvest, which is traditionally a time of celebration, I think that we have an amazing opportunity to join hands with our communities and co-create our futures.

I was reminded of this just recently when I was in New York City visiting my daughter-in-law. We were walking her dog past a school and I was thrilled to see a beautiful children’s herb and vegetable garden, playful and colorful but very beautifully planted and obviously well-tended. When I asked her about it, she told me that it was her nephew Romans’ school!

Right before I left, I asked him if he got to work in it. He told me excitedly that he did and he loved to plant in it, that it was a “really special place for him”. He told me about his preschool graduation in the garden and the dancing they did in it. I was practically moved to tears thinking about it, this young beautiful child that I know and love and his connection to the land through this city garden.

We need to keep asking ourselves in this time of earth changes – what is it we value personally and for our families? For our unborn grandchildren? For future generations that we’ll never know? What do we want to manifest in our lives? What is our vision for the future of our public lands and our gardens? Lammas is a time to set our intentions for all the harvests to come.

I feel that gardening gives us a precious and tangible gift for creating beauty both in the landscape that surrounds us and the landscape within us. It’s as if the sunshine, water, and soil are just symbols for the thoughts, feelings, and actions that, when properly tended to, ensure the same richness of experience in life as a well-tended garden, bringing to our senses the most wonderful sights, tastes, and smells!

Whether you’re a solitary gardener or a community gardener, we are all connected through the soil, sunshine, wind, and rain. We are all connected through our dreams of our beautiful gardens, large or small. We all depend on the same resources and they are not infinite. I feel compelled to take a moment today to give thanks for the harvest, and to remember those who have gone before us, who have traditionally worked the land and brought forth its abundance for our pleasure.

Wishing all of you a blessed Lammas filled with an abundance of everything and everyone that you love.

Photo Credits: 1) Loaves of bread (Canva.com); 2) Basket of blueberries (Canva.com); 3) Breaking bread with friends in my community garden after a long morning weeding together (courtesy of author);  4) Part of my potager, or kitchen,  garden (courtesy of author); 5) Roman talking to me about how much he loved his school garden (courtesy of author); 6) The Children’s garden in the Queens Preschool (courtesy of author); 7) Cornfield at sunrise (Canva.com)

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Beth Schreibman Gehring is a lover of all things green, delicious, growing, beautiful, magical, and fragrant. She’s also a lifestyle blogger, storyteller, and occasional wedding and party planner who uses an ever-changing seasonal palette of love, life, and food to help her readers and clients fall madly in love with their lives! Beth lives and works with Jim, her husband of 40 years, and is owned by 17 full sets of vintage dishes, hundreds of books, two cats, one dog, a horse, a swarm of wild honeybees, a garden full of herbs, fruit, vegetables, and old rambling roses, too many bottles of vintage perfume and very soon, a flock of heirloom chickens! In 2014 she took a stab at writing a book called Stirring the senses: How to Fall Madly in Love with Your Life and Make Everyday a Day for Candles & Wine. Available on Amazon! Join her in her gardens at https://bethschreibmangehring.substack.com/

Celebrating the Summer Solstice

by Beth Schreibman Gehring

Of all the times during the year that we celebrate the changing seasons, I think that two of my favorite days are the summer and winter solstices, two holidays that happen approximately six months apart. Winter solstice eve enchants me; the deep and dark quiet of that long peaceful night takes me inward in a way that encourages me to relax and rest. The summer solstice, on the other hand, is a thoroughly magical and playful day that marks both the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

The summer solstice easily provides an evening that’s perfect for a twilight celebration in the garden, with nothing but the fireflies and candles for illumination. It’s the perfect night to stay up late and bathe in the stars. For those of us who believe that there are indeed fairies living in our gardens, this is the perfect time to bake them little sweet cakes made with milk and honey, covered with candied violas and nasturtium blossoms.

Summer solstice is the time when we honor the gift of sunlight. The official start of summer for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, this day is celebrated north of the equator all over the world and in so many different ways. It always takes place at this time of the year, falling between June 20th and June 22nd. All around the globe, from Stonehenge in England to the mountains in Austria and all throughout the Scandinavian countries, huge fires are lit with reverence, accompanied by drumming circles, singing, and joyous dancing. This is all done in honor of our beautiful planet and the interconnectedness we share with the fiery star so necessary for our continuing existence here on earth. When the solstice returns, we rejoice in the arrival of long summer days and hot summer nights as we celebrate the warmth and life-giving power of the sun.

Although traditionally the summer solstice is a time that we revel in the first day of summer’s warmth and joy, the most important thing that we do on this day is to begin to get our stillrooms, pantries, and larders ready for the coming winter months. After all, this celebration has everything to do with feasting on the food that we’ve grown and are beginning to harvest to keep us fed all through the coming harsh seasons.

This is the time of year that my garden is overflowing with butterflies and honeybees, the weather is usually perfect, and I’m generally filled with an overwhelming optimism. Like so many of you, at this time of the year I just can’t stay out of my gardens. I spend the days collecting the rose petals from my roses to make teas, syrups, jams, infused honeys, and linen waters, along with the sage blossoms, lavenders, and mints that are blooming so abundantly in June.

There are so many wonderful rituals associated with the summer solstice. For gardeners like us, this has long been considered the day that is commonly set aside to begin the harvest, as there is a longstanding belief that this is the time when our fresh herbs contain the most flavor and “medicine”. For me, and I know for so many of you, our gardens that provide the herbs for our crafts, medicines, and culinary blends have always been at the center of our seasonal celebrations. Dandelions, pine trees, holly, lilacs, daffodils, snowdrops, pumpkins, corn stalks, and sunflowers are some of the more obvious plants visible to us during the everchanging seasons. However, it is our most useful herbs, plants like parsley, chives, lavender, sage, rosemary, calendula, comfrey, hyssop, thyme, and dill that have traditionally been the stars of the summer solstice celebrations, whether we use them in foods, herbal medicines, or love spells. They are the workhorses of our herb gardens, and they sustain us through every season.

This is a wonderful day to make some delicious chutneys, jams, or jellies full of sun ripened fruit to capture the light and magic of the solstice energy for those cold long nights in winter when you need a bit of sunshine the most. I love the feelings that run through me when I crack open a jar of my raspberry and rose jam in February to spread on warmed scones with clotted cream and a pot of Earl Grey tea. I can taste the warm sun and the juice of the fresh berries I’ve picked if I just close my eyes for a minute. I don’t think there’s any stronger magic than that.

I traditionally celebrate this day with a small glass of homemade elderflower cordial, as well as strawberry and rose petal infused wine to drink as the longest day of the year draws to a close. I love to light a beautiful fire late in the evening to welcome in the summer months, and I love to do that in the company of my family and closest friends, a mandolin, a fiddle, and a few guitars. 

Just like the winter solstice, the celebratory nature of the summer solstice  is a terrific excuse to throw a party and it definitely doesn’t need to (and probably shouldn’t!) be a formal gathering. I remember having a terrific solstice gathering on my farm in Burton about 30 years ago. It was set way in the back pastures with a rustic old picnic table set with mixed up patterns of china, old linen, and some beat up old candelabras. We hung lanterns in the trees, and on the tables there were antique blue mason jars filled with wildflowers spilling out everywhere. The grass was high and waving gently in the soft summer breezes, which scented everything with the glorious aroma of sun-warmed hay. Nothing on the table matched and it was absolutely enchanting and wildly beautiful.

The food was simple – fresh pea soup with mint, summer salads filled with fresh herbs, and a really delicious roast chicken with a sweet curry sauce. We drank many carafes of viognier infused with rose petals, raspberries, and basil while my horses and dogs wandered around curiously. For dessert we had drippy strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and iced coffee infused with fresh spearmint and cream.

It was a truly memorable evening full of friendship and celebration, and the most important ingredients that we served were on platters that were full of love and laughter. We built a bonfire and threw handfuls of lavender, rose petals, sage, mint, and fennel into the flames while making plenty of good wishes. When I put out the fire in the early hours I felt so satiated, and oddly a part of something ancient as if I’d been doing this very ritual for many centuries. It was an incredible feeling of connectedness to the many who had walked this path long before me.

Celebrating the summer solstice has been done for so much of recorded human history and probably longer before that. Fundamentally, we are not that much different than we were centuries ago. When you scratch the surface of what it means to be alive, now more than ever, we need our magic, our celebrations, and each other. We still need the moon and the sun to survive. We need our gardens and the wisdom of the old ways that allow us to survive in times good and bad. We only need to look back to the last couple of years to understand these simple gifts. Light. Water. Good soil. Warmth. Enough mason jars. Good health. Food, and the most important ingredient  of all…love.

May your summer be full of blessings and your gardens always alive with the joyful song of the honeybees.

Wishing you all the loveliest longest day of the year.

Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of the author, except Midsummer Eve by Edward Robert Hughes (public domain).

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Beth Schreibman Gehring is a lover of all things green, delicious, growing, beautiful, magical, and fragrant. She’s also a lifestyle blogger, storyteller, and occasional wedding and party planner who uses an ever-changing seasonal palette of love, life, and food to help her readers and clients fall madly in love with their lives! Beth lives and works with Jim, her husband of 40 years, and is owned by 17 full sets of vintage dishes, hundreds of books, two cats, one dog, a horse, a swarm of wild honeybees, a garden full of herbs, fruit, vegetables, and old rambling roses, too many bottles of vintage perfume and very soon, a flock of heirloom chickens! In 2014 she took a stab at writing a book called Stirring the senses: How to Fall Madly in Love with Your Life and Make Everyday a Day for Candles & Wine. Available on Amazon! Join her in her gardens at https://bethschreibmangehring.substack.com/

 

 

My Poison Garden

by Linda S Lange

It all began innocently enough, I suppose.

I mean, it’s not as if I sat down with my garden journal one morning and said, “I believe I’ll plant a poison garden over there…with some foxglove, say, and a bit of aconite for that lovely blue color.” Truly, I don’t remember how it started. But Agatha Christie may be to blame. Miss Marple, probably.

I’ve been a mystery reader for as long as I’ve been a gardener: Nancy Drew under the Christmas tree and puddling in the tomato plants with my grandmother. The two just grew up together, mysteries and gardens—organically, as it were. But it wasn’t until I had my own garden in Denver that I began to notice that some of the poisons in those mystery stories—especially those with a gardening connection—came from plants that I was growing in my backyard! Innocently enough, I probably chose them for the lovely flowers, or perhaps because I subconsciously recognized the name from a story.

After awhile, however, it became more deliberate—choosing and cultivating those specimens that carried a sinister back story, and studying the properties of seed or leaf or root, often with my fellow Rocky Mountain Unit members. Reading Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles mysteries and, of course, Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants. More recently, with the HSA’s Herbal Fiction Book Clubs, Sarah Penner’s Lost Apothecary and A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup. It’s such a delight to learn that something I’ve been growing for years has a dark side!

Eventually, it became a point of mischievous pride. “Did you know those morning glories are poisonous?…Or those lovely lilies of the valley?”  Amusing to watch the innocent garden visitor step back and look around carefully.

“Of course you want to wait until the elderberries (Sambucus) are fully ripe, and even then…Take care if you brush against the rue (Ruta graveolens), it’s sometimes an irritant. Rhubarb (Rheum) leaves, of course, but did you know about Caladium and elephant ear (Colocasia)?…The yew trees (Taxus spp.) are actually my neighbor’s.”

“Let me show you the fall crocus! No saffron from this one. Colchicum autumnale is a whole different family and very bad news in the kitchen!”

The thing is, so many of our common garden plants can be “irritating, obnoxious, or downright deadly,” to borrow a phrase from Amy Stewart. What’s been the most fun about deliberately cultivating known sources of poison is learning about them myself and sharing the message that our gardens are not always as innocent as we might think. Often it’s just a matter of the dose or preparation that differentiates a health benefit from something more deadly – like the heart medicine digitalis from foxglove or cancer treatment, Taxol, from the yew.

Sound plant identification is critical, of course. My initial source is usually Thomas J. Elpel’s Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, An Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families of North America (2013).  And it’s fair to say – again – that I’m a gardener.  I’m growing these things for fun and not for use! I drink coffee from the supermarket, and rarely – if ever – tea from my garden.

Photo Credits: 1) Larkspur (Delphinium sp.) in the foreground as a stand-in for wolf’s bane (Aconitum sp.); 2) Datura sp. and Ipomoea sp.; 3) Black elderberry (Sambucus sp.), elephant ears (Colocasia sp.), and lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis); 4) Down the garden path; 5) Author with morning glories. All photos courtesy of the author.

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Linda “Lin” Lange is a gardener, avid mystery buff, and incoming president of The Herb Society of America. So far, at least, she doesn’t think anyone has been poisoned in her Denver garden, but several visitors have been observed to step back a bit when the plants are identified and her husband is very cautious about harvesting.