Who can resist beautiful
herbs growing in their garden? They are such a visual sight and their
beneficial health and insect attracting properties will bring not only health
to the medicinal user but also health to the garden. I believe managing a
garden should be as labour reducing as possible which is why I love using a
range of organic control with companion planting to let nature do her
work. Creating an environment at your place that attracts good bugs to
manage the bad make sense for making your job easier. Not only do herbs
look good and manage pest control their benefit extends to various parts
of herbs used in culinary dishes and teas to manage a range of ailments
from digestive issues, insomnia, anxiety and migraine right down to a favourite
of mine; keeping the neighbours cats off the garden - Dogbane. I personally can not go past Living herbs range of herbs and in my research I found the most amazing website with links to all the herbs commonly grown in New Zealand and each are available in your garden centre. Even better - every herb has a detailed fact sheet. You must visit their website www.livingherbs.co.nz for individual plant facts to save reinventing the wheel, as it's all in there. Using recipes given to me can be a fun way to make home remedy sprays for when an infestation gets too much or time allows you to play. Visit my website for a few ideas that you can safely mix up at home under plant doc. The thing I most enjoy about being a modern home gardener is the range of easy point and shoot products available in store, that manage your gardens health without having to invest a lot of valuable research and mixing time yourself. I would at times describe myself as a lazy gardener where I prefer a quick organic solution be it companion planting or ready made spray to allow more time to enjoy the vision of my garden and recreational play with my family in it surrounds. Some favourite herbs grown for visual aesthetics on my list are
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| Pineapple Sage |
Pineapple sage (shown in the background here planted with the zany Dahlia) with it's small red flowers and tropical pineapple scent. I love this planted in a 'reading' spot so I can gently brush pasts its leaves and be taken to another place in my mind.
Common sage - lavender purple flowers show their display in a hot dry sunny position over much of the spring and summer season and combined with their blue grey foliage add colour and grace to the garden especially when planted with ornamental flowers like Dianthus.
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| Lemon Verbena |
A gangly plant if left unclipped but a useful hedge when tamed with regular clipping to prevent it becoming woody and leggy. In summer the foliage gives privacy and a beautiful display of lavender flowers not unlike Wiri Hebes. The small green lemon scented leaves produce are delicious lemon scent as the name suggest. Left to full size the Lemon Verbena will grow up to 3 m tall but with deciduous growth is best not planted at the back of the garden or a 'hole' will be there in winter. I like to grow the ornamental Hardenbergia on a fence or trellis behind Lemon Verbena as it's deep purple flowers pick up the dark purple margins in Verbenas lilac blooms.
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| Globe Artichoke in flower |
You can either love or hate the thistle looking Globe Artichoke. I love the drama it adds in the garden with its large frame standing 1.5 meters high with silver deeply serrated leaves and when left to bloom it's almost sea anemone like flower. They look great planted at the back of a herbaceous border or in the flower garden I love red Alstroemeria, lavender and ornamental Heliotrope with the unmistakable vanilla scent perched in front.
LAVENDER
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| Lavender |
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| Alstromeria |
Herbs however used complete a garden for me and as I research into different varieties I find myself falling in love or intrigue with their uses.
Happy gardening everyone
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