Great info I found here and wanted to share:
http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html
I am new to this forum. All of the herbs that I started indoors either: didn't germinate; didn't get a chance to because a packrat dug up all the seeds; got eaten by the rat after it came up. I actually have 2 cilantros (already going to seed) and two lavender bergamont (no looking good), all in clay pots. But I bought some herbs, so now I am planting them tomorrow. I planted basil tonight by my tomatoes!
So now this forum will be on the top of my list! Looking forward to learning more about herbs.
Tamara
Companion Herbs & Tea Sprays for Insects
Thanks for posting that site, Tamara. I'm printing off their companion planting list now. I also like the Chinese proverb!
I've found that most herb seeds are not that easy to germinate, even without pack rats helping you along. That is, unless you let them go to seed in the garden, and then they like to take over.
What a great site! Thanks for posting it, got it bookmarked...
:)
Amy
Hey Kathleen! these coincidences are getting weird! (she said as she hummed the twilight zone song...)
LOL, oh, you like the Twilight Zone too?
There's a part of Texas in zone 6B? Seriously? I wouldn't have thought that.
I was going to suggest that you try a Spanish Lavender -- might do better in Texas because of the humidity. Then I realized you are talking about Bergamot, of which I know nothing about. (nevermind)
The cilantro will bolt and go to seed when it gets hot. Best bet is to let it, collect the seeds and replant in the fall when the temps start to cool down some.
Anyway, I came in here to check out your link. I just read about wormwood tea for slugs and I'm trying to find out: how much wormwood to cut and steep, if it should be fresh or dried when steeping and how much water to use to cover what area...
Just a side rant here: I really hate it when you look up something in a gardening book somewhere (and this is an organic gardening book that I've seen on just about every gardener's bookshelf) and the brilliant solution it offers is severely lacking useful details. When I write my gardening book, I promise to include the nuts and bolts of the remedies I recommend.
:: steps back down from soap box ::
Applauding wildly - my pet peave, don't tell me what to do and then leave out the details!! American gardening books are the worse at saying this is a good thing to do and then moving on. Not taht I've seen alot of gardening books from other countries, but you have to hope that someone somewhere is putting in the recipes!
Believe me, I'll empty the shelf at the bookstore, spread out every single book I can find and try to find the recipes or directions for some of these "helpful" hints. And then not buy a single thing because NONE of the books really have any useful information. They all tell you how to start something from seed, as if all gardeners always start only with seeds. Feh.
Herb books are the WORST for this. Example: feverfew is great for migraines. But be careful because it can cause canker sores for people who are prone to them.
Ohhhkay. Great. How much is too much? Do you use leaves, stems, roots? How much? If you mix it with Lemon Verbena for flavor, what do the properties of the verbena do to the dosage of the feverfew? None of these questions are ever answered in herb books. I'm finding out things by trial and error and from talking to experienced herbalists who will complain of the same thing.
:: tears hair out ::
Hold your hair together! I have an herbal book WITH recipes, though I don't recall if they are cooking recipes or remedy recipes, so I will look later. Meanwhile, that same site above has a recipe page, here it is, and I will add it above...
http://www.ghorganics.com/page14.html
hope this helps alleviate our pet peeves (mine too)
I think so TamaraFaye... that site had a great recipe for the wormwood tea!
Thanks!
And yes, Zone 6b, sometimes 6a. Texas has 8 subzones: 6a through 9b. Will check on the book later, had a natural gas thingy today, wiped out the whole afternoon...
I will be more of a regular in the Herb forum, now that I am planting some...
handbright, Kathleen,
Check out here:
Architecture from the Twilight Zone http://www.rodserling.com/architecture.htm
Rod Serling's 1968 Binghamton High Commencement Speech http://www.rodserling.com/01281968.htm
Rod Serling's Photo Gallery http://www.rodserling.com/gallery.htm
Rod Serling Postage Stamp http://www.rodserling.com/stamp.htm
Rod Serling News & Print http://www.rodserling.com/newsprint.htm
~* Robin☺
Oh, I'd forgotten that you lived in Binghampton!
Ok, dating myself - when I was a little girl, I stayed overnight with my grandparents on Friday nights and my grandmother and I would watch the Twilight Zone. She spent most of the show saying how she didn't think my mother would approve of it and the rest of the show saying what a handsome young man Rod Serling was!
Ahem, now that we have TOTALLY hi-jacked this thread, the book we are all looking for is (drumroll, please) the Complete Book of Herbs by Lesley Bremness (who is, by the way, English).Look here: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/957/
I bought a copy because Horseshoe said it was one of the best herb books, and I haven't been disappointed.
Here is the book I mentioned:
Mother Nature's Herbal by Judy Griffin, Ph.D. "A fascinating combination of plant lore, herbal rememdies, and cooking recipes."
I purchased it a while back at www.alibris.com I think, it is out of print, so very reasonable. She did a lot of research, really knows her stuff! 372 pages. Hardback. Orginally 19.95
Hijack away, I love the conversation!
Okay guys! I went to my old materia medica book for nurses, way back from 1917. (Now I know why the FDA wants to get control of herbs...) One example:
The recipe (?) for digitalis (better known as digoxin) was basically to go get a few young leaves and a mortar and pestal. But! It depended on where they were growing, and what time of the year. (Since it has been synthasized chemically, the dosages are measured in micrograms...so think- one extra leaf and you could kill someone!)
There are no real rules of thumb for medicinal use of most herbs. While most are really harmless in an overdose, there are some that are really deadly...As far as interactions, well, LOTS of research needs to be done for the drugs we know, much more for the herbs we grow. I try never to forget these seemingly "innocuous" plants are really drugs. Being the cautious type, I personally would halve any amounts of herbs needed in a recipe for healing, unless they were food stuffs.
(and thanks for the twilight zone stuff!)
:)
amy
To know the future, we need only to look into the past...
Hey, i have been using the tomato leaf spray after rains, and it has really kept the moths from laying eggs on my cabbage and broccoli, and no more harlequin bugs either! Still have harlequins on the bok choy that I left to make seed, as I did not spray that. Anyone else have some successes?