In our frenetically paced modern lives, making time for growing herbs and savoring herbal infusions may seem like an anachronism, a quaint throwback to a more unhurried age. But we need such time-tested tonics, places to slow down and enjoy nature's bounty, seemingly more than ever. Read An Herb Garden for Tea Time
Plants & Gardens Blog
Growing Food
-
Garden DesignGrowing Food
An Herb Garden for Tea Time
-
Garden DesignGrowing Food
A Short History of Herb Garden Design
Whatever their design or intent, herb gardens are defined not by their organization but by the plants grown in them. If an herb is a plant with a use as a seasoning, fragrance, dye, fiber, or medicine, then an herb garden is a garden of useful plants. But don't be surprised to find species that have never had any practical application alongside the useful plants in today's ornamental herb gardens—some plants are simply too appealing to be excluded on purely technical grounds. Read A Short History of Herb Garden Design
-
Growing FoodPlant ChoicesSustainable Gardening
Garlic Mustard: A Palatable Pest
Native to Europe, this cool-season biennial is wreaking havoc on deciduous forests from New England west to Wisconsin and south to Tennessee. Read Garlic Mustard: A Palatable Pest
-
Growing Food
Durian—The Real Forbidden Fruit
In The Malay Archipelago, famed Victorian naturalist and evolutionary theorist Alfred Russell Wallace wrote, "To eat durian is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience." Roughly 150 years later, some adventurous members of the science department at BBG, including yours truly, decided to test his assertion. Read Durian—The Real Forbidden Fruit
-
Growing FoodPlant Choices
Saffron Crocus—Conjuring Color and Flavor in the Autumn Garden
Long before flowers were cultivated solely for their good looks, they were grown to serve some practical, or even preternatural, purpose. This was especially true in the good old days of Minoan Crete, about 1500 BC, when a thriving industry and religious iconography grew up around Crocus sativus, the corm better known as saffron crocus. Read Saffron Crocus—Conjuring Color and Flavor in the Autumn Garden
-
Growing FoodPlant Choices
Grape Tomatoes: Giving the Cherries a Run for Their Money
Grape tomatoes combine a number of desirable tomato qualities, including very sweet flavor, firm texture, and at least the semblance of having been ripened on the vine. Read Grape Tomatoes: Giving the Cherries a Run for Their Money
-
Growing FoodPlant Choices
Growing Chile Peppers
You can grow chile peppers just about anywhere in the United States and southern Canada, as long as you prepare your soil, nurture your seedlings properly, and provide the plants with their basic needs. Read Growing Chile Peppers
-
Growing Food
Preserving Chiles
In midsummer, chile peppers mature, begin to ripen, and become more pungent. Some are fiery hot, while others are crisp, slightly sweet with just a hint of heat, and full of flavor. This is the time to put up that prize-winning corn relish, those pickled peppers, salsas of every kind, and hot pepper chutney. Read Preserving Chiles
-
Growing FoodPlant Choices
Lemon Grass: A Very Versatile Herb
Lemon grass is a tropical perennial, native to southern India, but cultivated outdoors in practically all tropical regions. In the United States, it is root-hardy to about USDA Zone 9 (California, central Florida) where it goes dormant during the mild winter. Read Lemon Grass: A Very Versatile Herb
-
Garden DesignGrowing Food
The Four-Square: A Classic Kitchen Garden Design
Like a country kitchen, a four-square kitchen garden evokes thoughts of hearth, home, and abundance. It is a garden design based on a very simple layout that provides a rich, unpretentious display of color, form, and, quite literally, good taste. Read The Four-Square: A Classic Kitchen Garden Design