Tagged: Edible Plants

Tricolor culinary sage

Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Hummingbird Gardening / Propagation / Summer Color Plants / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Sage ‘The Savior’

  “Why should a man die in whose garden grows sage? Against the power of death there is not medicine in our gardens But Sage calms the nerves, takes away hand Tremors, and helps cure fever. Sage, castoreum, lavender, primrose, Nasturtium, and athanasia cure paralytic parts of the body. O sage the savior, of nature the conciliator!” From the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum ca 1100-1200 CE   The name Salvia officinalis, designating our common culinary sage, derives its species name from...

Carbon Garden / Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Holiday Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Pollinators / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Mythical Rosemary

  Mythical Rosemary The woody, green fragrance of rosemary brings happiness.  Rosemary has served as food, fragrance, medicine, as a religious tool, and as a favorite garden plant for millennia. It is considered a sacred and magical herb, associated both with Aphrodite and with Mother Mary.  Rosemary has been planted in monastery, temple, medicinal and royal gardens over many centuries. Known now as Salvia rosmarinus, rather than the Rosmarinus officinalis we all learned, rosemary has one of the longest cultural...

Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Pollinators / Spring / Summer / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Magical Thyme

  “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,  Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:” William Shakespeare, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Magical Thyme If you are wanting to conjure a bit of magic in your...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Carbon Garden / Climate Change / climate change / Conservation / Edible Plants / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Nuisance Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

A History of Our War With Plants

  “I use only native plants, native to the planet Earth.  I am using indigenous plants; they are indigenous to this part of the universe.” Bill Mollison, Founder and Director of The Permaculture Institute     In the Beginning… Let’s begin with the obvious:  we live within an ever-changing ecosystem.  Europeans came to North America more than four centuries ago, cutting trees, planting fields, building homes and roads.  Native Americans also cut trees, built homes, planted fields, hunted, and lived...

Carbon Garden / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

A Tea Story: Past and Future

The Long Story of Tea in America Have you ever wondered where your tea comes from?  Tea is one of those everyday things that we can always find at the grocery or convenience store.  You may remember that tea was imported to Boston in the Colonial era.  Maybe you also remember the story of how colonists, dressed as Native Americans, dumped the British East India Company’s cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor in December 1773 to protest unfairly high...

Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Climbing Vines in Coastal Virginia

  Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate.  Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day.  They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb.  Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds.  While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...

Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Propagation / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Landscaping With Herbs Part III: Annual, Biennial and Tender Perennial Herbs

Benefits of Garden Herbs Herbs attract hummingbirds and butterflies like few other plants.  It is worth planting a few herbs whether you plan to harvest and cook with them or not because they are tough, easy to grow, and beautiful.  They come with side benefits; their essential oils not only offer fragrance and flavor, but they also deter grazers.  If you have watched deer chew your roses and impatiens like deer candy, know that your herbs will survive their curiosity. ...

Beneficial Insects / Container Gardens / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Invasive Plants / Perennial Care / Permaculture / Sustainable Gardening / Tender Perennials / Vegetable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Landscaping With Herbs Part II:  Deciduous Perennial Herbs

What is an Herb? Why is mint an herb, but clover isn’t?  Have you ever given it much thought?  Botanically, any plant with a soft stem, that dies back in winter, is ‘herbaceous.’  Were you give a stack of a dozen cards, each with the name and picture of a plant, could you sort them into ‘herbs’ and ‘not herbs’? If asked, most of us could probably name at least five herbs.  Those used in cooking, like basil and thyme...

Beneficial Insects / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Sustainable Gardening / Therapeutic Gardening / Wildlife Gardening / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Landscaping with Herbs in Williamsburg

  Once upon a time, I found herb gardening a topic of mystique and mystery.  Maybe it was the herb gardening books I found, with their illustrations of medieval knot gardens, and the cute little pots of culinary herbs grown on the wide, sunny windowsill of someone’s gourmet kitchen.  Or maybe it was learning that many herbs prefer a Mediterranean climate with dry, rocky soil and lots of sunshine.  How could I replicate that in Virginia? It may have been...

Carbon Garden / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Native Trees / Organic Vegetable Gardening / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Natural Plant Fertilizers for Your Garden

  How do you fertilize your garden without buying any fertilizer?  That is a key question for gardeners and farmers throughout the world today, as it was a key concern for our ancestors who couldn’t purchase commercial fertilizers for their fields.   Soil must be fed to remain productive.   Many popular crops, like corn and cotton, deplete the soil after just a few years.  Our ancestors learned to use many natural fertilizers to keep their soil productive.   The Importance of...