Medicinal Herb Cultivation

January 19, 2016

9 Tips for Planning the Herb Garden of Your Dreams

As you peer into the future, imagine how you might interact with your dream garden. Take a moment to write down all the reasons you wish to grow herbs, and how you might incorporate their medicine and beauty into your life. Then, think about how your garden will evolve with time, and which needs are the most important. Will it be a place of refuge, with secret nooks, replete with peaceful statues and comfortable seating nestled under verdant arbors? Do you envision your gardens as an inspirational educational setting, with wide paths and ample signage for visitors? Is your goal to grow herbs for your own apothecary and kitchen or do you have an herbal products business?

January 3, 2015

Herbal Finishing Salts and White Sage

Herb-infused finishing salts are a delightful alchemy between earth and sea, plant and mineral. Surprisingly easy to conjure up, and beautiful to behold, herbal salts provide an easy way to preserve excess fresh culinary herbs. They are called finishing salts because they are added to a dish after it is prepared.

March 6, 2014

The Top Ten Medicinal Herbs for the Garden

In an ideal world, we would each have our personal list of top ten garden herbs, tailored to our particular climate and health concerns. My hope is that this information inspires you, as jumping board of sorts, in creating your own unique dream medicinal herb garden.

February 18, 2013

Growing Medicinal Herbs in Containers

The reasons for growing plants in containers are many: it often provides the sole means for growing herbs or vegetables when tending a garden is simply not possible, or when the available ground is contaminated. Containers can also help to create a mini-microclimate, such as: well-drained soil, moist soil or even a water garden.

January 17, 2013

Guidelines to Growing Medicinal Herbs from Seed

No matter how many years I plant seeds and watch them grow into mature plants, I am still awed. I feel an utter child-like excitement when I see the first sign of a sprouting seed poking out of the soil. Germinating seeds are a universal symbol of hope and renewal, ushering in the joy and promise of spring.

December 13, 2012

Lavender’s Medicinal and Aromatherapy Uses and Lavender Truffles

Lavender's Medicinal and Aromatherapy Uses and Lavender TrufflesWritten and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor - There are few scents in this world that evoke the feeling of clean - lavender is one of them. Its common and scientific name originates from lavare, the Latin word for wash or bathe. Lavender was popular as a linen-washing herb [...]

November 22, 2012

Roselle Hibiscus Pomegranate Fire Cider and the Medicine and Cultivation of Hibiscus

I try not to foster any regrets in life. But I must confess that I waited too many years to plant hibiscus, thinking the temperate climate unsuitable for its success, and for that, I am sorry. It is, in fact, easy to grow and harvest if you have the right variety and get a head start on the season.

November 15, 2012

Calendula’s Herbal & Edible Uses: How to Grow, Gather, and Prepare Calendula as Food and Medicine

Calendula officinalis is one of the easiest-to-grow medicinal herbs and so versatile in its healing properties that it invariably finds its way into the hearts and gardens of all herb lovers. It is typically grown as an annual, but can be cultivated as a short-lived perennial in warmer climes (Zone 8-10).

August 10, 2012

Passionflower – Ecology, Cultivation, Botany, and Medicinal and Edible Uses

Passionflower is ecologically intriguing, drop-dead gorgeous, and an incredibly useful herbal medicine and wild edible. So I introduce this passionflower materia medica with some ecological, botanical, and cultivation snippets specific to this amazingly charismatic native vine, and hope that you wont skip this juiciness for the medicinal information.

July 25, 2012

Mountain Gardens and Joe Hollis

Mountain Gardens and Joe HollisWritten and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor Joe Hollis Joe Hollis and Mountain Gardens just celebrated forty years of partnership. Mountain Gardens is a botanical sanctuary in a small sheltered cove bordered by National Forest and nestled under the massive Black Mountains, including the largest mountain in the East, Mount Mitchell. [...]