Plant some herbs!

Plant some herbs!
by Bobbi A. Chukran

Fall is the perfect time in central Texas to plant new perennial herbs and some annuals. My "rule" is that if it's not freezing, I can plant herbs.  As long as they are watered well while getting established,  and as long as I don't plop them out into the middle of a blazing lawn with no shade, they'll do fine.  I also divide and move some of my perennials during the fall, too.

We use a lot of our herbs for cooking, but even if you don't cook, it's worthwhile to grow herbs because they attract and support our pollinators.   And they make gorgeous landscape plants when tucked in here and there with the roses or other shrubs.

Honeybee on blooming rosemary plant in a Texas garden

It's still in the upper 90's here, and a few days last week went over 100.  But herbs are tough, and some even like the heat.

Rosemary harvest for drying

This time of year, your best bet is to try and find plants in local nurseries.  It's a bit late to start plants from seeds, although people in central and south Texas can probably get a small crop of basil started and harvested before our first freeze.

Herbs and a small fig tree grow in raised cement block beds in a former garden.

Herbs do very well in raised beds since they don't like to get their "feet" wet.  This photo shows rosemary, a small fig tree, santolina, and potted herbs of various kinds.  The cement blocks were painted with a very thin wash of leftover latex paint.

Lavender in a Texas garden

Herbs like lavender especially like growing in containers and pots.  Be careful not to water them too much, or they'll turn to lavender mush. :-)

Sweet marjoram growing in a Texas garden

One of my favorite herbs is sweet marjoram.  It's kin to oregano, and is not quite as easy to find in nurseries, but is well worth seeking out.  I harvest it in the fall and dry it.  It's an essential ingredient in my secret Italian herbs mixture.  LOL.  OK, it's not THAT secret.  I usually use a mixture of sweet basil, rosemary, oregano and sweet marjoram, depending on what I have at the time.

I hope this has given you a little spark of inspiration to plant a few herbs.  If you're like me, you'll get obsessed with them and expand your garden over the years, adding new plants as you find them.

Feel free to leave comments and questions.  I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Happy trails, and happy gardening!

bobbi ann

What I'm planting....and yes, I'm one of THOSE people!

Dear garden friends,

A plant nursery worker expressed amusement last week when I bought four fruit trees for my back yard. He said, "You must be one of THOSE people." I laughed, because I knew that he meant I was one of those gardeners who don't stop planting during the summer. Never mind that it was 95-degrees yesterday, and hit 107 sometime last week. I know that as long as I water anything I plant until it gets established, AND mulch like nobody's business, the plant will be OK 99.9% of the time.

To wit (love saying that!), I'm copying some of the home decor blogs where they list the chores they've accomplished, and will be listing the plants that I've successfully planted, and some that weren't so successful (very few of them are not.)
Today, I planted:

**three more rosemaries (to replace the water-sucking vampire plants AKA golden euonymous that never took off, even after a year)

**two more lavenders (they do VERY well here)

**three purple coneflowers (echinacea, a gorgeous landscape plant and a great medicinal, to boot)

I also have a Gregg's blue mist plant (which is supposed to be an excellent butterfly plant) and a fig tree to get in the ground, and a little bay laurel to pot up.

Notice a theme? Yes, I'm also one of THOSE gardeners who use lots and lots of herbs for landscaping. Sure, I mix in some annuals, and some Texas native Xeriscape plants, but in general, herbs look great AND we can cook with them. What's NOT to love??

All in all, not bad work for a hot Sunday morning!

Before garden (July 2007)


And now garden (July 2008)


Raised beds are made by simply leaning cedar fence picket boards against stakes pounded into the ground in rough rectangular shapes, then filled with top soil, compost, mulch,shredded leaves, you name it.

dig it!

bobbi c.

Wild bees and rosemary

The Earthly Gardener by Bobbi A. Chukran
February 20, 2007

Dear friends,

I’m sitting gazing out the window to my garden, and am happy to see that my little swarm of wild bees are back! They disappeared for a few months, and I was worried about them. I have no idea where they live, but a beekeeper friend identified them for me soon after they appeared here a few years ago…turns out they are honeybees! He told me he’ll help me capture them and put them into a hive, but I’m not sure I want the responsibility of tending a beehive. The bees seem to be doing fine on their own.



One surprise…they LOVE rosemary! My rosemary plants bloom off and on year-round here, and I never thought about that being a good source of pollen, or nectar. Apparently the bees think otherwise. I see a handful of them swarming the plant this morning, but last August there were thousands out there. The idea of rosemary-flavored honey is intriguing, I will admit.

I was glad to see the bees in the garden because they help the plants with pollination. One reason I have a totally organic garden is so that the beneficial insects can thrive in it and aren’t killed off by pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Too many of our native pollinators are disappearing because of widespread spraying of crops. For me, that’s reason enough to go organic.

Until tomorrow….dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 bobbi a. chukran.

Signs of Spring!

The Earthly Gardener by Bobbi A. Chukran
March 1, 2007

Dear friends,

Somebody asked about the rosemary bush that was attracting all the bees. Here’s a photo of it, in my garden. It’s happy here in this Hill Country soil that is so much like the Mediterranean soil where rosemary is native. This bush is about 8 years old, and is only one of over a dozen I have in my garden area.



I also got a shot of the first bulb to bloom here, a grape hyacinth. It was planted four years ago, and comes up like clockwork every February/early March.



dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 by bobbi a. chukran. all rights reserved.

More on the disappearing bees...

The Earthly Gardener by Bobbi A. Chukran
March 20, 2007

It seems that I was one of the first to report on the disappearing bees story, a few weeks ago. Since then, the story has blazed across the ‘net like wildfire, and many experts are getting worried that there might not be enough bees to pollinate all the food crops in the US. This is a serious matter!

I’m getting news items from all over the US. It seems that garden groups, and beekeeping groups, are urging home gardeners to keep a hive or two of bees. I’ll admit that the idea crosses my mind every once in while, but I really didn’t want more chores to do around here. As is, it’s a full time job taking care of the garden, house, cats and Husband . But now it might make sense for me to do so.

Sure, I have a swarm of honeybees that stay around my garden. They love the rosemary, especially, and were “on the job” with my blooming fruit trees. I’m not sure where they live, though…perhaps in a dead tree on the property. A friend suggested they might live in the walls of my house. Eeek. Of course, I’m really curious about where they are hiding the honey.



All I know is that the swarm has gotten larger over the last five years when they appeared here. I hope they stick around, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they do. Which means being extra careful in the garden. We never spray anything in or near our property, but I also want to make sure they have a good supply of blooming plants for them to forage on. That, and a good water supply.

I’m not suggesting everyone rush out and start a beehive, although, if you can, that would be great! But you can do other things….do not spray pesticides in your gardens, make sure there’s at least a small water source (see my previous article about the low cost birdbath), and plant things that bees love. They really love the rosemary, that would be a good start!

Until tomorrow,

dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright © 2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran all rights reserved to text and photos.

Husband's Homemade Hummingbird Food

The Earthly Garden by Bobbi A. Chukran
March 27, 2007

Mornin’ earthly gardeners!

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about hummingbirds, and just dug up this great link with lots of information about them on the Bird Watchers Digest website. Great site, BTW!

I also got questions about Husband’s Homemade Hummer Food, so he shared his (very easy) recipe with ya’ll:
Boil a quart of water and mix in one cup sugar, stir until dissolved. Let cool until you can put your finger in it. Pour this into feeders, hang the feeders in a protected spot away from pets, and stand back! Our feeders each hold one quart, but we only fill them halfway each time. We change them twice a week or refill sooner if needed, and it’s important to keep mold and other gunk like that from growing in the sugar water. Every week or so in the high hummer summer season, we clean the feeders using just a few drops of vinegar in a lot of water, scrubbing with a brush if necessary. Then rinse very well.

We don’t use red dye in our food; it’s just not necessary, and I’d hate to harm the birds. Most feeders either have red tips on the ends of the tubes, or red disks at the bottom, and these are sufficient to attract the birds.

Growing lots of red flowers and vines and things that have red blooms will also help you attract hummingbirds. And then there’s the blooming rosemary bush, which they love!

Until next time, go attract some hummers to your garden, and

dig it!

bobbi c.
All text and photos are copyright ©2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights reserved.