Over Mother’s Day weekend we took a trip to a local greenhouse and bought some herbs for my herb garden. I’ve been doing a few different herbs here and there, for various reasons. This year of course, what made it an interesting trip was the impact of COVID-19.
We followed social distancing guidelines and wore our masks into the greenhouse. I have glasses, if you have glasses you can understand the immense difficulty I had in picking out my herbs in a moisture rich, warm greenhouse while breathing through a cloth mask. Without my glasses I am for all intents and purposes blind. If I set them down and don’t remember their exact placement, I can’t find them. So, it was definitely an interesting trip.
Another downside this year with the pandemic going on, is that they weren’t as fully stocked and did not have all my usual choices. I was bummed but, found a few of my favorites; herbs that were for sure on my list. The herbs that I received this year for Mother’s day were: oregano, thyme and dill. (I also picked up several strawberry plants this year, but alas they are not herbs and not part of this story).
Currently growing in my garden are: lavender, cat mint, peppermint, sage, and lemon balm. These are all perennials and return year of year to my garden. Some of my reasons for growing these herbs are because they are: plants that repel bugs (especially mosquitoes), plants that I use in cooking, plants that are healthy for our bunny, and/or plants that I can use when infusing oils.
Now, to focus on this year’s additions to my herb garden…
My reasons for growing oregano specifically, are that I do use it to season almost everything I cook…I add it to chicken, ground hamburger, steak, pork chops and more! Like I said, I use it almost every time I cook. According to “The Tenth Acre Farm” folks, “adding lots of fresh oregano to your meals and drinking homemade oregano tea are simple ways to prevent illness”. So, it sounds like I’m doing it right, by adding it into just about everything that goes on the dinner table! It’s also supposed to repel mosquitoes, so it’s growing close to our fire ring area for those summer bonfire evenings! Also, it’s a plant that bunnies can eat and occasionally, I’ll pick a few sprigs for her and put it in to her own little bunny salad.
Next, I chose thyme for many of the same reasons as oregano! Although, I don’t use this one in my cooking as much as oregano. I reserve thyme generally for chicken, turkey and/or Italian types of dishes. It also is supposed to repel insects, and is good for bunnies as well, so she gets this one in her salads too. In reading about thyme on “The Tenth Acre Farm” website, they recommended using thyme in the kitchen as well. “Thyme can be used both fresh and dried in the kitchen. As a culinary herb it is popularly used in a dried poultry herb blend along with rosemary and sage. Or try roasting thyme with potatoes”. Looks like I’ll have to try a little thyme in my potatoes!
And, lastly dill. I have only one reason for choosing this herb. This is the year I conquer refrigerator dill pickles. With my homegrown dill, and some help from my mother-in-law who is the queen of making awesome refrigerator dill pickles!
In doing my research for writing this particular blog, I learned that dill “benefits members of the cabbage family, corn, cucumbers, members of the onion family and lettuce”. But, you should avoid planting it with carrots and tomatoes. Because, “dill attracts wasps, hoverflies, tomato horn worms and honeybees. On the other hand, dill repels aphids, mites, cabbage loopers and squash bugs”. I wanted to share that with you so you could be cautious in where you plant it!
Here are the websites where I found some useful information on the herbs that I have chosen to add to my garden this year:
On my wish list still: rosemary and lemon thyme. Hopefully, I can pick those up somewhere fairly soon!
Comments