Carolee's Herb Farm

Carolee's Herb Farm

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Toledo Botanical Herb Garden

Carolee’s August E-Newsletter

     July disappeared at light-speed, leaving many tasks unfinished in the heat of summer.   Weeds were difficult to pull with no rain to soften the ground.  Flowers opened and wilted in the heat making it nearly impossible to keep up with deadheading and seed collecting.  Watering required twice as many hours as usual, and planting anything was ill-advised.  I did take over a thousand lavender cuttings, a month earlier than usual, but it’s harder to root in this heat.  Many of them succumbed to rot, so I’m redoing some varieties and hoping for cooler weather. 
     We had a family gathering in Toledo, Ohio and I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Toledo Botanic Gardens.  Their herb garden is impressive!  See more below.
      August arrived with heat and rain, and more rain, and more rain!  I don’t think we’ve ever had such lush, green lawns in August before.  Of course, when it finally dried enough to mow, the mower broke….isn’t that typical?  And now, we need rain!
     August is the month my grandchildren come to stay for a week, and we had a great time.  Mid-month, I was off to Germany for my daughter’s birthday party and a good visit with the grandchildren.  More about the gardens I saw there below, too.
     Now, I’m back and the month is practically over!  It’s back to lavender cuttings and weeding, picking beans, and trying to squeeze every last bit of summer pleasure into the remaining days of August.
    
Garlic Day—Saturday Sept. 18th
     The hardneck garlic from our garden is curing.  We’ll put a limited quantity out for sale on Garlic Day, Saturday, Sept. 18th.  We’ll be selling it by the half-pound for planting in your gardens in mid-September.  Don’t plant it too early, since we really only want an inch or so of green growth before frost.  It will continue to grow a good root system throughout the autumn, and then go dormant for winter.  Come next spring, sturdy stalks and leaves will grow to feed the bulb.  You’ll have green garlic tops to harvest for salads and stir-fry in June, and big bulbs of zesty garlic to harvest in late July or early August!
     On Garlic Day, we’ll have planting demonstrations, cooking with garlic demonstrations, garlic braiding demonstration, and special garlic refreshments.  Don’t miss it!

Final day of the Season Sale
     Mark Saturday, Sept. 25th on your calendar for our Final Day of the Season Sale!  It’s our biggest sale of the year, with shop items marked down 10, 20, or 30% or even 50%!    Do your Christmas shopping now and save!
     Fall décor will be 40% off, and our French soaps (normally $6/bar will be 3/$15)
     Stock up on essential oils (30% off) so you’ll be able to make fragrant baths, massage oils, laundry scents, incense, body powders & lotions, hand creams, or potpourri for gifts or winter use. 
     We’ll also have a selection of plants that are good for growing indoors this winter, and selected plants in the outdoor sales areas will be discounted 50%!
     Enjoy free cider and doughnuts while you shop.

 

Toledo Botanic Gardens

One of the garden cottages


     If you ever have an opportunity to visit these gardens, please go.  There’s lot more to see than just gardens!  The grounds were a former estate, and encompass a large area.  What enchanted me were the small houses along the edges, a former neighborhood that has been converted to house the various art groups of Toledo.  One home is now the Potters’ Guild, another is the meeting place for the Stained Glass Guild, others house the Photo arts club, artists’ group, garden club, etc. etc.  Each home has a lovely front garden and a back patio area that adjoins the other houses.  Each home has one or more rooms that serve as galleries or sales rooms for the artists’ work.  The large stoned patio area often hosts events and parties.


     There is a lovely Pioneer Garden, surrounding a restored cabin that features varieties of vegetables and flowers that would have been grown in olden days.  Nearby are the Rose Garden and Vegetable Gardens.  A Shade garden meanders under tall trees.   Cross a picturesque bridge to view the lake with planted islands and enter an enchanting area of gardens arranged around the stone shell of the old mansion.  It has a very European feel from one planting to another, especially the long enclosed Perennial Border.  The curving Perennial Garden is lovely, and the Color Garden is outstanding.  The Grand Allee leads to the Hawkins Farmhouse & the greenhouse.
     Of course, my favorite was the Herb Garden.  I’ve seen hundreds, and this one ranks in the top 5!  The espaliered fruit trees along the walls, the artistic use of thymes and topiary along with a skilled color palette make it a garden I want to visit again and again.  The variety of plant material was impressive, too, as well as the use of troughs, fountains, and other garden ornaments. 
     For more information, visit www.toledogarden.org

 

The EGA Park in Erfurt, Germany
     If you want to see flowers, flowers, flowers go to the Egapark in Erfurt, Germany, home to Europe’ largest ornamental flowerbed.  Ega Park is home to the German Gardening Museum as well as dozens of gardens.  Nearby a wonderful glass house with large areas for cacti and desert plants, a butterfly house & tropicals, orchids, and a roomy café awaits.  There is a typical small German farm that serves as a petting zoo and educational experience for children, as well as a huge playground. 
    

One of the gardens at Egapark

For the best overview, ride the small train that travels through the gardens.  You’ll have a chance to see all the large areas, and pick those that interest you most.  Seeing all the gardens in a single day would be impossible.  One can also climb the historic Cyriakburg Castle tower (circa 1480) for an overview.  The Japanese Garden is award winning, and is one of the best I’ve seen.  It also included the largest slugs I’ve ever seen, as big around as my thumb and at least 4” long!
    The large floral topiaries put Disney to shame.  The Color Gardens had planting combinations that just made you want to go home and rip your gardens out to start over!  The Miniature Garden was a study in dwarf conifers and stone troughs.  The Rose Garden is a masterpiece of horticultural architecture, covering a terraced hillside of over 28,000 sq. meters with eight themed rose garden, aviaries and fountains.
     One of my favorite areas included 60 typical German “allotment” gardens.  These are plots planted by city dwellers with no space to garden at their homes.  Normally, one sees these allotment gardens along railways, in “empty” lots, or at the outskirts of towns and villages.  Each plot has a small shed for storing tools, chairs, grills, etc.  The plots are packed with vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers.  Often there is a grape arbor, a hedge of blackberries, or fruit trees.  The plots at Ega Park were certainly a testament to the amount of food that can be grown in a small space, and showed the industry and typical tidiness of the German gardener.
     There are glass-sided buildings that display floral arrangements and the newest offerings of German garden manufacturers, which become sales booths during events, and there are lots of cafes and restaurants throughout the grounds.


   

Gorgeous buldings in downtown Erfurt

Once a part of East Germany, the charming town of Erfurt is a photographer’s delight.  The beautiful buildings, fountains, parks, shops, and plantings are postcards just waiting to be printed!  Filled with interesting shops, antiques, and restaurants around picturesque plazas, it is easy to navigate by foot or streetcar.  Erfurt is home to KiKa, Germany’s top children’s television station.  My grandchildren were delighted to find statues of their favorite characters sprinkled around the town.
    

Herb shop in Erfurt

For more information on this horticultural delight, visit www.egapark-erfurt.de

We’re Up-potting Perennials
     We’re up-potting perennials in the sales areas this week, and I’m going to begin major planting in the gardens as soon as it rains.  If there are plants you’ve been thinking about purchasing, do it now!  Once we up-pot, of course we also up-price to cover the additional pot size and potting soil, plus labor.  And, once I plant them in the gardens, they are no longer for sale!  So, do your shopping soon so you won’t be disappointed.  As I go through the sales area, I’ll also be adding lots of plants to the “FREE” area, so don’t forget to look in the white baby bed. 

It’s PLANTING time!
     September is a great time to plant perennials, and we still have a lovely selection.  I actually do most of my perennial planting now, since I just don’t have time in spring!  Fix those bare spots in your garden, or beef up an area that lacks color with easy-care perennials or flowering shrubs.  Get them in soon, so they’ll have time to anchor their roots before the ground freezes.  Keep them watered, mulch them well after the ground freezes, and they will reward you with years of blooms.
     Autumn is also a good time to prepare new beds.  Remove sod, if necessary, spade deeply, work amendments into the soil, and mulch.  The bed is ready when it is time to plant fall bulbs, and ready for planting perennials around the clumps of bulbs next spring.  You’ll have all winter to dream and plan the new plantings.

Chicory
     Chicory (Cichorium intybus) has been grown long before Biblical times. Its name comes from the Greek kichore, which means salad or root vegetable.  In olden days, it was also called “succory.”  There is a legend that says Succory was a lovely maiden that the Sun wished to marry.  Because she refused, he changed her into a plant destined to always face him from sunrise to sunset.  Because of this powerful love story, in some cultures, chicory is used as an aphrodisiac. 
    Lore says that one should never speak while harvesting chicory for magical or medicinal purposes.  It was once thought to aid fertility and fading eyesight.  It was also believed that a leaf would open locked doors if it was rolled and placed in the keyhole, so  the plant was often linked to thieves and gypsies. It was said a plant would spring up wherever a thief or gypsy trod.  It’s pretty blue flowers often line roadways.
     The young leaves are often used in salads.  Some scholars believe it was one of the “bitter herbs” of the original Passover feast.  It is a relative of wild lettuce, and was an important food crop in Egyptian, Greek and Roman times.  There are several varieties of chicory.  Some are more compact and produce the blanched heads, called chicons, which are popular in Europe.
     The bitter root can be scrubbed and roasted until it turns a rich, chocolate brown.  Then it is ground and used as a coffee substitute, or as an additive to coffee that is still quite popular in France and New Orleans.
    In the language of flowers, it is the symbol of frugality.  Other common folk names for chicory are “ragged sailors,” which refers to the fringed sea-blue flowers.  Occasionally, my plants will sprout a pink flower or two.  At the famous herb garden in Sissinghurst, England there grows an entire bed of chicory with pink flowers!
    Medicinally, chicory was believed to be beneficial for kidney stones, urinary tract, and liver disorders.
     Chicory is an easy-to-grow perennial.  Because it has a long taproot, plant it in loose, well-drained soil.  It will thrive in full sun or light shade, growing about three feet in height.  If it is allowed to produce seed, chicory will self-seed abundantly.  Harvest leaves in spring, and again in autumn from new growth.

 Pear, Chicory and Anise Hyssop Salad
     In the heat of summer, salads always hit the spot.  Right now, with the chicory producing lots of tender, new leaves and the anise hyssop flowering to beat the frosts, this salad is a winner!  It’s from my new book, Herbal Choices!   Callie adds dried cranberries or fresh pomegranate seeds for the Thanksgiving holidays!
     For each serving, toast 2 T. chopped almonds in ½ tsp. hot oil in small skillet over high heat.  Stir and watch carefully so they just toast, not burn or blacken.  Set aside to cool.  For each serving place into an individual bowl approximately 1 c. washed chicory (you can substitute any green:  dandelion, spinach, romaine, endive, or a mixture but the new-growth chicory is perfect this time of year)  Add ½ a ripe pear per bowl, sliced  and 2 tsp. finely chopped anise hyssop leaves and flowers sprinkled on top. (Choose young, tender flowers, not those setting seed.)
     Make a dressing (per serving) of 1 ½ T. balsamic vinegar and 2 T. olive oil, whisking well.  Add freshly ground pepper, and pour over salad.  Sprinkle with toasted almonds.

Coming in the September E-Newsletter:
     More on my trip to Germany, including the fascinating Woad Houses and a visit to a lovely German garden center.  I’ll also be reporting on the Garden Writers’ of America conference in Dallas, Texas next month.
   
Upcoming Events:
Sun., Sept. 12  “Gourd Basket” Workshop—only a few spaces left!
Sat., Sept. 18               Garlic Day
Sat., Sept 25  Final Day Open House


**************************** Barn E-Coupon**************************
$10 off any $50 purchase in the Big Barn Gift Shop!  Can be a single item, or combined items totally at least $50.   Does not include live plants or outdoor items, only items from the Barn.  Limit 1 coupon per customer.  Cannot be combined with other discounts.   Valid through Sept. 17th, 2010

***************************Cottage E Coupon t***********************
20% off any item in the Cottage….pictures, candles, signs, décor!   Limit 1 coupon per customer.  Valid through Sept. 17, 2010.  Cannot be combined with other discounts.


*************************Plant E-Coupon***************************
All tender perennials, buy one get one free with coupon (limit 10 free plants per person).  This includes scented geraniums, lemon verbena, rosemary, begonias, and many more! Valid till  Sept. 18, 2010.  Cannot be combined with other discounts.
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