go herban.

I often feel this tug to live far out from all the chaos of the city. A few acres of land, peace and quiet, and infinite possibilities for horticultural freedom in my yard! Then I think about the great connectivity we have in the city. Friends stop by because they're in the area. My daughter & I can take spontaneous walks with neighbors. We have great jobs that aren't over an hour away. We interact with ethnic & socio-economic diversity. We can grab legitimately good Mediterranean, or Vietnamese, or Indian, or farm-to-table food with friends any time we want to. And the city is ALIVE. I love that.

So once I snap back to reality, my goal is to find ways to integrate those dreamy aspects I love about that wide open space into the more limited space I have at home. One great way to do this is through planting a variety of herbs in my urban yard. They are versatile, useful, and add to the biodiversity in my area. In addition, many herbs are easy to grow, perennial, cold-hardy, or a combination of these traits. Beneficial AND easy? That's a win-win for my urban lifestyle.

Sometimes I think I only benefit from herbs that I use to add or enhance the flavor in my food. But in addition to delicious flavor, herbs are handy for the following reasons too:

* Food for bees
* Attracting beneficial insects to your garden or landscape
* Deter unwanted insects (ex. lemongrass for mosquitos)
* Medicinal use (teas, tinctures, poultices, infused oils)
* Used as cut flowers or as greenery in arrangements
* Beautify your landscape
* Aromatic (perfumes, cover odors)
* For coloring as a dye
* Grown indoors as plant therapy (Read here about the physical and mental benefits of indoor plants.)

{chives can have beautiful flowers like these}

Now that you're completely convinced that growing herbs in an urban setting is absolutely a grand idea, here are some great herbs to get started with...

borage
Borage refills with nectar every 2 minutes, so it is great for attracting and feeding honey bees and other beneficial pollinators. It's easy to grow from seed and has small but beautiful blue flowers. Borage can be applied externally as a poultice for inflammatory swellings, or taken internally as a diuretic, for fever or pulmonary issues, and to promote activity in the kidneys (Mrs. M. Grieve, A Modern Herbal: https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/borage66.html).

downside: Borage is an annual, so it will only stick around for one growing season.

 {image from http://honeylove.org/tag/borage/}

rosemary
Rosemary is great for culinary use. I love to use it on roasted root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots) or even in a cocktail. Its sprigs can be used in flower arrangements as aromatic greenery. This herb also helps relieve indigestion, muscle pain and arthritis, and even sweetens the breath. It is a cold-hardy perennial, which makes it easy to grow and keep alive for multiple years of enjoyment.

downside: It's best to grow this one from cuttings. Seeds are slow to germinate.

lavender
Lavender flowers and leaves can be used for cooking. This Provencal-inspired recipe is delicious (I can personally attest!): http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Roasted-Potato-With-Lavender. While that potato recipe uses the leaves, this beautiful hot toddy utilizes the lavender flowers: http://www.decotartelette.com/lavender-orange-hot-toddy/.

The U.S. Lavender Growers Association states that bees love lavender in bloom, so if you keep bees or just want to bring these beneficial pollinators into your garden, lavender is a great way to do it! Lavender also calms & relaxes and is used in aromatherapy (by your masseuse & on your cold towel after hot yoga <so amazing>). It eases pain, and is an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory.

downside: Lavender can be tricky to grow in the Southeast because it does not tolerate excessive soil moisture of humidity.

{image from decotartelette.com of the hot toddy recipe linked above}

There are so many more herbs that may be the perfect fit for your region of the country, your lifestyle (indoor, in containers, in the ground), and your desires (medicinal, culinary, aromatic). The Herb Society of America, founded in 1933, has an online Beginner's Guide that may help you get started: http://www.herbsociety.org/herbs/beginners-guide.html.

On your own...
Herbal tinctures have been used for generations to help with issues like digestion. They're very easy to make and half a long shelf life. I love this tutorial on how to make them by Wellness Mama: http://wellnessmama.com/8168/herbal-tinctures/



Links / Sources:
Dr. Julia Kornegay, North Carolina State University Department of Horticulture - lectures from HS 205 (Home Food Production)

http://www.healthline.com/health/importance-plants-home
http://honeylove.org
http://www.herbsociety.org
http://www.decotartelette.com
http://uslavender.org
http://wellnessmama.com/
http://botanical.com/

soil: building a plant's home. (part 2)

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is good soil. Even if you have the funds to purchase organically enriched, fertile loam in bulk, a growing season will deplete the soil of its nutrients and you'll need to replenish them.

In my last post, I talked briefly on the importance of good soil. It can be a controversial topic in America (organic vs. conventional farming, etc.), so I encourage you to do some research on your own to decide where you stand on the issue of what we put into our soil... and therefore into our foods, and into our bodies.

If you're like me and are interested in ways to enrich your home garden soil without the aid of synthetic or chemical fertilizers, here are some practical ways to do so.

COMPOSTING

{photo above: our home compost "center" made by my husband}

Composting is a great way to add organic matter into your soil. It also has other benefits, like making good use of kitchen scraps, fall leaves, and grass clipping that you'd usually have to find an alternative way of disposing.

How does composting work? Composting is "controlling the natural decay of organic matter by providing the right conditions for composting critters to convert yard trimmings into a product that can be returned to your landscape and garden. Tiny organisms (mainly bacteria, fungi and protozoa) break down garden and landscape trimmings in a moist, aerobic (oxygen demanding) environment. The final product in a dark, crumbly form of decomposed organic matter." (Clemson University Cooperative Extension, website linked below).

You don't have to have an ornate or robust compost bin or system for this to work. In fact, all you need to do is tend to the following "key components" as described by Dr. Julia Kornegay of NC State's Horticulture faculty:

1. Carbon/nitrogen relationship: Keep a carbon to nitrogen ratio between 25:1 and 30:1. You can achieve this desired ratio by keeping a 1:1 ratio of "brown" to "green" compost. Brown includes fall leaves, wood chips, shredded paper, & twigs. Green includes grass clippings, kitchen fruit & vegetable scraps, and weeds.

2. Air: turn your compost frequently to let air in.

3. Water: make sure compost receives sufficient water to keep compost moist.

4. Particle size: Shred or chip materials before adding them into your pile.

5. Temperature: Increase caused by active microbial decomposition of organic matter. A proper carbon to nitrogen ratio will keep temperatures high and kill off pathogens.

Composting can be applied as a solid or a compost tea can be created if you have a limited supply of compost. {Check out this great video on how to make compost tea here!}


ORGANIC FERTILIZER
Animal manure is nature's fertilizer. Before the advent of synthetic fertilizers, farmers and gardeners used animal manure to enhance crop fertility and soil quality. It's important to use only dropping from plant-eating animals (no carnivores!). 

If you're not into keeping animals around for their manure - or that's just impossible in the apartment complex you live in - you can purchase organic fertilizers from your local gardening supply store.


VERMICULTURE (aka vermicomposting)

Vermiculture is a great option if you don't have much space. It's essentially a mix of composting & manure: you allow earthworms to feed on your compost and break it down for you. Fun fact: "Worms consume up to 50 percent of their own body weight in food each day," according to an article by Jennifer Pocock on "How Vermicomposting Works." That yields a lot of ready to use compost!

{photo by Anthony Masterson / Getty Images, taken from this online article: http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm}

CROP ROTATION
Monoculture is bad for the soil. Planting ONLY one crop in the same plot of land, over and over again, depletes the soil of nutrients. 

I've been so inspired by reading some of Klaas Martens' story in Dan Barber's The Third Plate. Klaas is an organic grain farmer in Pen Yan, NY. He says, "The secret to great-tasting wheat is that it's not about the wheat. It's about the soil." And what is one major way he rejuvenates his soil? Crop rotation.

Even though he is farming wheat, he's planting cover crops, legumes (to fix nitrogen), rye to suppress weeds, and more. The goal is to create a home in the soil in which his wheat can thrive. Read more about his story in this brief New York Times article by Dan Barber: "What Farm-to-Table Got Wrong." 


COVER CROPS
Cover crops, like alfalfa, clover, or hairy vetch. These can be grown in your garden bed or field in the off-season. Plant them in the fall and then till into the soil in early spring.


WOOD ASH
Wood Ash from a fire pit or fireplace can be added to your soil to add nutrients and absorb toxins, according to gardening advisor Karen Thurber. Wood ash will also raise the soil pH, so can be used as an amendment to adjust your pH.

I hope you'll be able to utilize some of these methods in your home garden to enrich your soil without the use of chemicals!


Links / Sources:
Clemson Cooperative Extension Home & Garden Information Center: "Composting" http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/compost_mulch/hgic1600.html

"Enrich Garden Soil in 4 Ways" by Karen Thurber
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/enrich-garden-soil-in-4-ways#b

"How Vermicomposting Works" by Jennifer Pocock
http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm