Read about our herb garden at The Herbal Dispensary

This page will be updated as the growing season progresses and will hopefully provide you with inspiration to start your own herb garden.  Herb plants are available from The Herbal Dispensary, with the best selection during the spring and summer months.

21/09/ 2010
The herb garden at The Herbal Dispensary is a new project, one that is growing this spring. The hard landscaping has been done during the winter and is now finished. Some plants are in the ground, already in are the buxus around the edges of the beds to shape the form of the garden. Also in are some cuttings from my old garden.  The roses that were transplanted in August are now showing green buds, a good success, I was told by a gardener once that you can't kill roses, so I was keen to move these as they are the old fashioned rose that gives the beautiful red rose-hips, so suitable for rose-hip tea or rose-hip syrup.

Now that the soil is warming up, seeds will soon be directly planted into the ground. Seedlings planted in trays and already germinated are chamomile, borage, lemongrass, white sage, echinacea, burdock, calendula and bergamot. These seedlings will need to be pricked out and planted into their own pots, a job for next week.

24/09/10
Planted out into the garden yesterday coriander, oregano, chives, rocket, fennel, chervil and parsley. Our garden is very sheltered, even from the strongest winds, so we can plant early, it could be a little early for some of you in colder areas to plant coriander, but it does prefer to be planted in some shade, so it doesn't bolt and go to seed to soon.

5/11/10
Wow, we have been so busy there has been no entry for a while!. The herb garden is looking fantastic with the soil warming and the recent rain the plants are really settling in now and growing well. Last night for dinner we picked fresh rocket for a salad and dill and chervil to make a very easy quick herb butter to go with fresh fish from Raglan. Using fresh herbs daily in your diet is a great way to stimulate digestion, improve mineral and vitamin absorption and improve the taste of your meals.  Growing well in the garden now are all the culinary herbs: coriander, oregano, basil, chervil, dill, chives, marjoram, thyme, and mint.

We have now opened our garden to the public and as I write this I can hear children out there playing, such a lovely sound to hear while at work. Recently planted in the garden are burdock, borage, calendula and chamomile, seedlings that were sown back in October.

14/12/10
Out in the garden early this morning picking chamomile flowers and calendula flowers which will be dried and used in  herbal teas and also for herbal oils. These are from seeds sown in late September, so only about 3 months from seed to picking which is great. I expect these plants to last throughout the summer and will need to pick the flowers every day as they are at their best. The best time to pick herbs for drying is in the morning after the dew has dried, but before it gets to hot. Flowers should be laid out on cane trays or similar where there is good air flow but out of direct sun. When the flowers are dry, they can be stored in brown paper bags or in jars out of direct sunlight.  If you are picking leafy herbs like parsley, dill, bay or rosemary etc, you can tie them in small bunches and hang them out of direct sun, where there is good air flow.  Depending on the time of year these bunches could dry within days. For storing leafy herbs, you can also put them in paper bags or strip the herb of the stem and put into jars.

22/01/11
Last week we pulled out the coriander plants that we left to go to seed, the seed heads will be placed in a brown paper bag and shaken to collect the seeds, which will then be used in cooking. Also harvested were fennel bulbs which we used in a lovely herbal risotto, a good handful each of tarragon, parsley, fennel, basil, chives also went into the pot, giving a very simple but delicious dish.  Culinary herbs are very easy to add to any dish and you can certainly add generous helpings to create some wonderful flavours.  Planted last week were basil plants, coriander, echinacea, comfrey, lemon grass and white sage.  The echinacea, lemon grass and white sage were grown from seed and are now good sized plants.  These plants will still get enough growth before the winter to establish well and have a good root system for the dormant period.

All flowering herbs are now in full bloom and the bees and bumble bees are loving our garden, at any time during the day you can see a large number of both in the garden.  Great for pollination and a good indication that our bee hives will go well. Herbs flowering now include marshmallow, valerian, feverfew, chamomile, chives, dandelion, pineapple sage, catmint, st john's wort, sorrel, rose, yarrow, evening primrose, thyme, borgae, calendula, fennel, oregano, parsley, nettle and heartsease.  While we are picking some of the flowers we are also letting some plants follow their natural rhythm,  when picking any herbal material always remember to leave some for the plant, it is also a good practice to give thanks before picking. 

3/9/11
Well the winter has passed us by, and as you can tell from the above entries (or lack of) there has not been a lot of activity in the garden. Things are starting to happen though. Just these week, I have been doing some propagating of some soft wood cuttings from the herbs in the garden and planting some seeds. The herbs that we were propagating are: the mints, peppermint and common garden mint, feverfew, oregano, peppermint gerainum, apple geranium and motherwort.
It is amazing to see after just one years growth in our new garden that these plants are self seeding in the garden, and are producing enough stock to propagate from. I have also sown a tray of micro-greens and have them sitting in a warm spot to grow: they will be a nice addition to our salads. It is time to start thinking about cleaning your seed trays and getting your seedling mix/potting mix and seeds organised for a successful season in the garden.
Although it is warming up, it may still be a little early for the more tender seeds unless you have a very sheltered spot or glasshouse to start them in.  So hold back a little longer, read all the catalogues and get inspired for a busy summer in the garden.
Looking out the window to the herb garden we still have flowers on the pineapple sage, the borage and the feverfew. 
The little daphane bush that we planted under the native pukka is flowering as is the lovely purple violet, that is spreading a lovely carpet of green leaves in our shady patch. It is such a delight to be able to wander out and pick a little bunch of flowers for our shop counter.

19/01/12
Our first garden update for the year!
The holiday season has been great in the shop, we've been really busy looking after our Raglan visitors and customers.  The weather has been good for the garden with rain and warm days and the growth is phenomenal.
           

We're about to start harvesting our leafy herbs such as lemon verbena, red sage, wormwood, white sage, yarrow, tansy, lemon balm  and rosemary.
We will also be harvesting our culinary herbs such as  thyme, oregano, parsley, lovage, and mint.
Picking culinary herbs often helps with continued growth of the plants and provides plenty of material to make bouquet garni.
A bouquet garni is a bunch of herbs used to flavour a soup, stew or casserole. 
It will turn a plain dish into an excellent meal, help with digestion and provide valuable antioxidants to your meal.
A simple bouquet garni is made of parsley (including the stalks), thyme, and a bay leaf.
You can add any other culinary herbs that you'd like to use such as oregano or lovage.
         
It would be nice to make a selection of different bouquet garni to use for specific dishes.
To make a bouquet garni you can dry the herbs individually and then tie them into bunches/bags.
Or you may like to make your individual bunches with your selected herbs and hang them to dry in a warm, dry, (not too sunny) spot.

24/2/2012
Rosemary and Lemongrass
Yesterday we made harvested rosemary to make rosemary vinegar: you can read about how to make it in our blog:http://www.meadowsweetherbs.blogspot.co.nz
We have not done any new plantings in the herb garden, mostly due to time and the fact that the soil is quite dry, however it is still okay to get another round of plants in such as parsley, corriander, sage, thyme etc (this will depend on your climate) but you can always plant up pots and put them in a sheltered spot for the rest of the summer and autumn.
We also harvested a lovely crop of lemongrass, I have recently discovered the secret of how to grow lemongrass from a lovely cambodian lady who visited our garden. When she visited my plants were doing okay, but they were not fantastic. Here's what she told me to do: take out all the dead growth, and feed heavily. So I did that and put a really good amount of sheep pellets around each plant. The growth since then (about 2 months ago) has been amazing, hence we were able to pick a lush and bountiful crop which we will do again before the end of summer.
She also gave me some tips on how to propagate lemongrass, which I will share with you once I have mastered it myself.