Category Archives: Herb Everything

Blog posts and herbal experiences

My Patio

Posted on September 23, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

2 New Coleus

Red Head (Solenostemon hybrida)
Versa Crimson Gold Coleus ( Solenostemon scutellarioides)

Red Head coleus

I combined these two coleus in hanging baskets that had late afternoon shade. Generally these plants were left on their own. I cut them back only twice during the growing season.

Red Head is truest red color in the Ball coleus collection. I like these newer coleus that can take the heat and hold their henna color in both full sun and part shade.

The Versa Coleus series includes Crimson Gold. These coleus were neglected, not fertilized, and inconsistently watered in hanging baskets. The bicolor leaves held their color, were vigorous, and quickly branched into a full mounded hanging basket.

All coleus will be gone with the first freeze, but till then, these plants provide bright, bold color on the patio.

Bright color all season

I’ll be using more coleus in my gardens because, unlike flowers, you get bold, season-long color.

If I can get bright , fade proof red in my garden all summer, I am inclined to plant it again next year. Most folks look at a garden at a distance. They just see the red. And this Ball Horticultural trial plant is a long lasting, fade proof busrt of red in my garden from spring till frost. Look for it next spring.


Most of my trial plants went in containers like this.

Coleus gave my garden bright season-long color.

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, My Gardens, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Product reviews

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Cute as a Baby Bell

Posted on September 16, 2010 by | Comments Off on Cute as a Baby Bell

Bright and crisp

These little peppers are crisp and sweet. I ate the first ripe pepper right in the garden. I’m growing a few  chilies and several different mild or bell peppers.  These mini bell pepper plants are compact and heavy producers. Baby bells are a good choice for growing in containers.

There are truly a rainbow of colors for bell peppers. Try something new, like Baby Bells, beautiful in the garden and tasty in recipes. The green peppers are not as sweet and sometimes more bitter than the red, yellow or orange peppers. Bell peppers are at their sweetest when allowed to ripen on the plant in full sun.

Red peppers also have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers. Bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamins C and A. One raw pepper provides more vitamin C than one cup of orange juice.

Red Baby Bells

The red and yellow baby bell peppers are beautiful together on an antipasto plate or in a big summer salad.  This pepper seed is easy to find in several catalogs.

I got my seed at Renee’s Garden. I like that both the red and yellow peppers came in one seed pack. After all, how many pepper plants does a home gardener need?

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Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Product reviews

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Homemade Sun-dried Tomatoes

Posted on August 26, 2010 by | Comments Off on Homemade Sun-dried Tomatoes

Try Tomaccio Tomatoes

The most prolific tomato in my garden is ‘Tomaccio’™.

Cluster after cluster until frost.

‘Tomaccio’™ originated at Hishtil Nurseries in Israel as the result of a 12 year breeding program using wild Peruvian tomato species to create the world’s finest, sweetest snack tomato, fresh or dried. Europeans in France and Germany have been growing and enjoying tomato ‘tomaccio’ for several years.

These tomato plants are huge, about 7′ tall, so I trimmed the tomato plant and hung some of the tomato vines to dry to show you how to do it. Tomaccio are the first tomatoes to ripen, continuously producing cluster after cluster of fruit.

Bargain sun-dried tomatoes

I’ve been drying cherry tomatoes for many years because I love the intense tomato flavor in winter soups, on pizza, and in spaghetti sauce. Tomaccio are rich and sweet fresh off the vine, drying simply intensifies their flavor.

Living next the Mississippi River, the air is usually too humid for fruits to dry naturally, but a 5-tray food dehydrator makes fast work of drying cherry tomatoes. I cut each tomato in half and fill the trays in a single layer.

You can also dry tomatoes in an oven on 100-degree F for about 3 hours. Snack on the dried tomaccio or store in a plastic zipper bag in the freezer.

C. Raker & Sons partnered with the Israeli firm Hishtil to bring Tomaccio to the United States. Look for Tomaccio plants at independent garden centers next spring, or visit www.raker.com to find a retail source near you.

As a member of the Garden Writers Association, I had the opportunity to trial Tomaccio this summer. These plants are prolific. I think I am getting more tomatoes from a single Tomaccio plant than I would from three or four cherry or pear tomato plants. That’s more produce in less garden space.

Plants will grow to 9'

The plants continue to grow and produce sweet cherry tomatoes. Later, I’ll have more details about drying Tomaccio.

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, My Gardens

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La Crema sage for fashionistas.

Posted on August 20, 2010 by | 1 comment

IN THE HERB GARDEN

Flavorful Bicolor sage

Hort Couture is a company that offers “the most sought after new plants and genetics from the world’s best breeders and plants people,” according to their website. One of their more popular plant collections is Culinary Couture, a line of fashionable heirloom vegetables and herbs.

So far, I’ve grown the following plants with panache this summer: Salvia officinalis ‘La Crema’, ‘Black Krim’ (an heirloom tomato) and the worldwide hit ‘ Tomaccio’ (a new dried snack tomato). I’ll share the results of my tomatoes later this year. (It will be more than a month before I’ll have dried tomatoes and a final report.)

One of my favorite herbs from Culinary Couture is ‘La Crema’, a fragrant, variegated sage that is currently thriving in my Zone 6 garden. Reminiscent of the familiar common garden sage, ‘La Crema’ is aromatic and beautiful enough to be in the flower garden.

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Look for ‘La Crema’ in independent garden centers next spring.
It is thriving in my humid, Zone 6 garden.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

What I’m most excited about is using this flavorful herb in my family’s cornbread and sage dressing this Thanksgiving. I suggest that you use this sage as you would any other garden sage. Low-growing sage can grow as a border plant in a perennial garden. In spring, blue sage flowers appear about the time chives have blossomed. The flowers also make a pretty bouquet or can be used as an edible garnish.

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Photos by Patsy Bell Hobson

Hort Couture is the fastest growing plant brand in North America. Their plant collections include Avant Garde Annuals, Prêt a Porter Perennials, Tres Chic Tropicals, Culinary Couture and Sunny Succulents. ‘La Crema’ is from C. Raker & Sons, a wholesale plant propagation specialist based in Litchfield, Michigan. C. Raker & Sons is in partnership with Hort Couture, the fashionistas of the plant world.

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Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Have you ever bought herbs from Hort Couture? What do you think of their products?

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Grow Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ From Seed

Posted on June 27, 2010 by | 3 comments

PBHobson2 Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

Chard is becoming a favorite summer green for home gardeners. It’s beautiful! And, long after the cool season, when greens such as spinach have faded from my Zone 6 garden, chard is the one that steadily produces fresh greens for my favorite salads.

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Make tomato and swiss chard soup this summer.
Photo by Robyn Lee/Courtesy Flickr

Grow and Cook with Swiss Chard

Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ was honored as an All-America Selections (AAS) winner in 1998. When buying herb and vegetable seeds, I look for seeds that are AAS winners, which are selected based on their superior performance. AAS winners will also grow most anywhere in North America. The All-America Selections® logo tells me that I can grow this plant easily from seed.

Swiss chard, or chard, is a beet that is usually selected for its leaf production, not for its root formation. Plant chard seeds a week or two before your favorite salad greens, such as spinach, bolt. When you pull up these greens your chard seedlings will be well on their way. Also, by the time tomatoes are ripe and ready, lettuce will be long gone from your garden. Instead, grow young chard leaves as a lettuce substitute. I use it in the summer’s best sandwich: the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, or the BLT.

Many cooks remove chard’s colorful stems, which can be yellow, gold, orange, pink, red or white, and cook them separately before adding greens to the mix. (The stems take longer to cook.) Cut off the outer leaves 1 1/2 inches above the ground when they are young and tender, which is when they are about 8 to 10 inches tall. Larger leaves can be cooked and used as you would use spinach. If you like spinach, you will like this hardy and more earthy-flavored relative.

Fill your garden with Swiss chard whereever you find an empty space. It grows well in containers and is pretty enough to grow in a flower bed. Swiss chard is loaded with vitamins A, C, and contain vitamin B, calcium, iron and phosphorus. Like most greens, chard is very low in calories. And unlike most vegetables, it has a slightly higher sodium content than most leafy greens.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

Burpee has generously agreed to give away three seed packets of Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ to my Herb Companion readers. Winners will be selected at random. Details below.

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• Post a comment below: Share your experience with Swiss chard. Do you currently grow this plant? What would you like to use it for? 

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It’s dill pickle season

Posted on June 27, 2010 by | Comments Off on It’s dill pickle season

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.com and read her travel writings at Ozarks Travel Examiner.

Best known for pickling, dill (Anethum graveolens) is also a good herb for succession planting. If making dill pickles is on your Summer To-Do List, try this variety: dill ‘Dukat’. This variety, which is bred in Denmark, has finely cut leaves that stay fresh longer than other varieties.

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Hanging herb garden hung by the window to grow in Brooklyn.
Photo by Dory Komfeld/Courtesy Flickr

I like this newer variety of dill. It is pretty enough to plant in a sunny flower garden and it’s more compact than taller, older varieties. This is one of the few herbs that I enjoy to use both the ferny leaves and the seeds. Those beautiful lacey leaves are often referred to as dill weed. After this member of the carrot family has bloomed and set seed, cut it and hang it upside down in a paper bag to collect seed.

8 June Caterpillar
While the black swallowtail butterfly is a caterpillar, it feeds on dill.
Photo by Ken Pomerance/Courtesy Flickr

I suggest that you start this plant from seed—it has a long tap root, which means that transplanting it will have limited success. Plant a few seeds every two weeks to extend your season of fresh dill and to grow more than you need to share with local butterflies. Grateful butterflies will enjoy finding this smaller, more compact variety in your garden and caterpillars will appreciate its ready supply. It’s a well known fact that dill (as well as parsley and fennel) will attract butterflies to your garden.

To preserve, freeze your dill plant by cutting the branches into sections short enough to fit into heavy plastic freezer bags. Do not chop the leaves into bits until it is ready to use. This will brighten the fragrance and flavor when you use it in any recipe. Dill will keep in the freezer for about six months.

8 June Dill and Garlic
Use dill and garlic to make homemade pickles.
Photo by Sarah Reid

Use dill for more than pickles and dilly beans. Try a little dill in a favorite biscuit recipe. If you are serving pre-made biscuits, brush a little dill-infused butter on them. Also, I couldn’t make potato salad without dill weed.

This dill seed is easy to find. I bought my seeds at Renee’s Garden, Burpee and Nichols Garden Nursery online catalogs; several other companies also sell dill seed. But if you don’t want to find them on your own, enter my garden giveaway!

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Book Review: Tomatoes Garlic Basil

Posted on June 23, 2010 by | Comments Off on Book Review: Tomatoes Garlic Basil

PBHobson2 Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at and read her travel writings.

In my Zone 6 garden there are always three kinds of tomatoes: a paste tomato for sauces, a cherry tomato, because these small tomatoes are always the first to ripen (and later, when the big tomatoes are producing, these small ones will be dried), and a big, meaty tomato for eating fresh (and for bragging rights). I love tomatoes and when I saw Tomatoes Garlic Basil (St. Lynn’s Press, 2010), I judged the book by its cover. It is beautiful. Eventually, I was tempted to open the paperback tribute to the garden and kitchen’s favorite produce and I’m glad that I did. The book only gets better!

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Tomatoes, garlic and basil are the holy trinity of the vegetable garden.

Doug Oster’s Tomatoes Garlic Basil is a love letter about our favorite home garden produce. If you are one of the millions of backyard gardeners who grow tomatoes, this book is for you. Tomatoes are the star of the show. And, just like most gardens, basil and garlic have strong supporting roles in the book that magnify the magic of home grown tomatoes.

The book will not overwhelm you with soil science and plant genetics. It will give you some good advice about soil preparation and plant selection. The pleasure of reading this book grows as Oster offers us many choices with these three simple garden staples.

Like most gardeners, Oster is generous in sharing his experience and recipes. If you are new to gardening, try the simple combination of these three plants. He also encourages people who do not have garden space and shares some planting options. Each chapter begins with a garden or food quote that ties into the chapter. In Chapter 2, I was inspired by “Summer Celebrations” and looked forward to incorporating some of his ideas as I create new traditions for my own family. And by the time you get to the great advice in Chapter 9, which is about soil preparation and weed control, Oster will feel like an old neighbor

Oster is still on the big adventure of trying some different tomato plants every year as well as growing his favorites. It’s a good idea and you will never run out of tomato varieties to try. After reading this book you will be able to speak about basil and garlic as well as tomatoes with any home gardener.

This book would make a great gift for either a new or experienced gardener, as well as for the recipients of your produce bounty. (I recommend you buy the print version to enjoy the artful photographs.) The only difficult part is deciding whether to put this book with my cookbooks or on the shelf with the gardening books. I decided to take the book into the kitchen and try the recipes with my own fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil.

I enjoyed the humorous and serious gardening stories and there are plenty of artsy photographs throughout the book. I will definitely put Doug’s recipes and gardening tips to use this summer.

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Cherry tomatoes are heavy producers.

Book Details
• Tomatoes Garlic Basil: The Simple Pleasures of Growing and Cooking Your Garden’s Most Versatile Veggies by Doug Oster
• Paperback: 272 pages.
• Publisher: St. Lynn’s Press; 1st edition, ISBN-10: 0981961517 and ISBN-13: 978-0981961514
• See Doug Oster’s Blog at http://www.dougoster.com/books/ to read “My favorite story from Tomatoes Garlic Basil.”

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2010

Posted on June 18, 2010 by | Comments Off on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2010

I love June.

Yes, there are lots of day lilies and cone flowers.

Day Lilies are bright and cheerful and at their best in June.

Everything in the garden is green and healthy. Later in the summer, plants get dusty and wilted or chewed and burned up by bugs and heat. There are lots of day lilies and cone flowers  in full bloom. The roses haven’t been attacked by the Japanese beetles yet.

Cone flowers ablaze, different varieties bloom at different times, extending the season

Before I share  my flowers, I wanted to show you this unobtrusive drip irrigation system for all 12 of the hanging baskets. Most of these plants are annuals and trial plants that are fun varieties new to me.

a thin black tube carries the water overhead

Raddish flowers

Spring raddishes hung on till the summer heat, then bolted, bloomed and are setting seed.  With all the beautiful flowers, sometimes it’s easy to overlook the  little blooms in the herb and vegetable garden. I’m focusing on edible blooms and vegetable flowers this Bloom Day.


Raddish seed pods look like little bean pods.

Herbs are at their best now and growing fast. Many, like this lilac colored geranium are edible.  Add the petals to a garden salad or,  garnish a dessert plate with these little flowers.

I vowed to keep the zucchini  in control this year. Harvesting squash blossoms, to stuff and fry is a tasty way to keep this beautiful vegetable from over populating the kitchen counter. Harvest these baby squash for grilling.

enjoy fried squash blossoms or grill baby zukes.

attracts bees

Nepeta, or catmint, is a member of the mint family.

Catmint (Nepeta), is a member of the mint family. It is easy to grow, has few pests or problems and attracts loads of pollinators to the garden. A few of these petit little blooms sprinkled on top of a dessert or a salad would be festive.

Carbon tomato plant is loaded with yellow blooms.

Growing fast, and delicate blooming while little fingerlings are growing in the ground.

onion flowers add a very mild, touch of onion flavor.

Onion flowers add just a hint of onion to poppy seed dressing, potato salad, rice wine vinegar or herb butter.

This rose was just begging to be photographed before the Japanese beetles invade.

And finally, these Jackson and Perkins roses just begged to be photographed before the Japanese beetles arrive. And, really it’s nice to end on a rosy note.

Thank you for visiting, please come again.

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‘Gigante Italian’ Parsley, Not Just Garnish

Posted on May 16, 2010 by | Comments Off on ‘Gigante Italian’ Parsley, Not Just Garnish

by Patsy Bell Hobson

Tags: Giveaway, Parsley, Italian Parsley, Preservation Tips, Harvest Tips

I’ve never lived where parsley grew as a biennial. Parsley has always been an annual in my garden. Until last summer.

Fresh parsley grows early spring until late fall

Instead of it growing about a foot tall, it grew to about three feet. Then, this overachiever bloomed. That’s when its family tree became apparent.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a member of the carrot family. When it blooms, the family resemblance to its cousin, Queen Ann’s Lace (Daucus carota), is striking.

This year, volunteer parsley have appeared where the giant grew and self-seeded last summer. The self-seeded plants came weeks ahead of the seeds I sowed. If you are content to let the parsley grow where ever it wants, you won’t have to disturb the fussy tap-root.

Allow parsley to self seed for an earlier harvest.

Chop parsley and combine with room temp butter. Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

How To Preserve Parsley

• Wash and chop the leaves. Fill an ice cube tray with the leaves. Add water (or vegetable broth) to fill the cups of a plastic ice-cube tray. Place in freezer until the cubes are frozen. Pop the cubes out and store in an airtight container in your freezer. Thaw when needed by dropping a cube into soup or sauce.

• You can make a parsley pesto in the same way you make your favorite version of basil pesto. Dry parsley if you must, but its color is dull and the flavor is similar to notebook paper.

• Parsley butter will also preserve the color and flavor better than drying and freezes well. Read Herbal Butters and Oils: Garden Herb Butter to learn more.

Remove the stems in recipes calling for fresh parsley.

I always plant and grow twice as much parley as I need because parsley is a wonderful choice for attracting black swallowtail butterflies. Curley and flat-leaf parsley have a very high vitamin C content. It also contains vitamin A, B1, B2, calcium, iron, and anti-inflammatory flavonoids.

Other herbs in a butterfly garden should include dill and fennel.

Parsley, dill and fennel are taking over my Zone 6 garden. If you let these herbs self-seed they will come up earlier and hardier than the seeds you sow this spring. If you are not obsessed with growing plants in straight lines or rows, the self-sown plants are a bargain. They don’t all come up at once, which will extend your harvest season.

Seed Packet Giveaway!

Flat leaf parsley photo by Renees Garden

My “Free Seed Packet” giveaways are attracting readers to this Herb Companion Blog and, the seed companies are very generous. I love introducing you to some of my favorite seed sources. In addition to the volunteer parsley, I am growing Italian ‘Gigante’ parsley from Renee’s Garden.

There are a lot of new herb gardeners out there. So, when I mention seed sources, they consistently deliver the products they advertise on time with a generous seed count. Their seeds thrive in my garden. Renee’s Garden has volunteered three packets of Italian ‘Gigante’ parsley to give away. It is not too late to plant seed. Just be mindful of the moisture and never let the soil or seedlings dry out.

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Grow vegetables for soup

Posted on April 25, 2010 by | Comments Off on Grow vegetables for soup

I’m fanning through the seed catalogs, looking for seed that will eventually become my favorite dishes. Such as gazpacho, ratatouille or tabouli.

I seldom use a recipe without tweaking it a little. This is The Cook’s Garden’s recipe for Vegetable Soup. I am sharing the recipe with you because I like the idea of harvesting all these beautiful vegetables from my garden. It is on their website along with many other tried and true recipes for your garden bounty.
Add a can of chick peas or any vegetable you like and skip the ones you don’t.

Vegetable Soup

The idea, which you can see as you read the ingredients in the following link, is to grow your own soup vegetables and harvest, store or preserve your very own veggies. Your hard work will be rewarded by your delicious home garden medly.

Ingredients: Click here for the list of ingredients: Ingredients For Vegetable Soup. The herbs in this recipe (garlic, bay and basil) are merely suggestions for an herb gardener. Add many more herbs if desired. (Click here for the full recipe: Vegetable Soup.)

Directions: To prepare this soup, saute cut meat, minced garlic, onions and chopped celery in olive oil and add cup of stock as ingredients cook. Transfer ingredients to a large soup pot and add remaining ingredients. Cook under low heat for many hours. (You can fork test the vegetables for tenderness.) Soup can be thickened easily by using cornstarch or pre-sifted flour. When serving, remove bay leaves. Leftovers are a bonus. A quart of this soup in your freezer is a perfect too-tired-to-cook meal that is much more tempting than fast-food.
Vegetable soup is a medley of your garden.
Make some version of this as your signature soup.
Photo courtesy The Cook’s Garden

My Tweaks: Right before that last hour of cooking, take out enough soup to fill a container and freeze for later. Potatoes and carrots should not be completely cooked through; they will finish cooking when you reheat the soup. Season this portion of the vegetable soup with herbs when you reheat. Herbs are also best added during the last hour of cooking. Add a salt-free, all-purpose combination of bouquet garni. Bouquet garni, it is a traditional French herb combination of savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano dill, marjoram sage and tarragon. If you are unfamiliar with this herb combination, only add a teaspoon to your soup. With this big batch of vegetables, I would probably start with a tablespoon of bouquet garni, or a similar combination of these individual herbs. Also, you can skip the beef or chicken if you like. The Cook’s Garden has several great recipes on their website that will showcase your vegetable harvest at its very best.
Broccoli romanesco is the color of broccoli and has the texture of cauliflower.
Photo courtesy The Cook’s Garden

At first, I was drawn to The Cook’s Garden catalog by their broccoli romanesco. This vegetable is an heirloom that has been around a long time but is new to me. I try something new in my garden every year, and this year I chose broccoli romanesco.

I found broccoli romanesco seeds at The Cook’s Garden, Territorial Seed Company, Seed Savers and several other seed sources. Although broccoli and cauliflower have always been a challenge, I’m going to give it a try this spring.

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