Incredible Herb Gardening
I love to garden! I love to grow anything and everything! But I have a real love of herb gardening. I adore the wonderful aromas that I get every time I touch or walk past a group of herbs. I love the way that they make my garden look and I sooooo love the many things that I can do with them!
In the past couple of weeks, my garden harvesting has really ramped up, and two of the plants that I am currently harvesting regularly are chamomile and calendula. I harvest them every other day and today was one of those days. So I thought I might share a little bit of that with my friends! (That’s you)
Why Herb Gardening?
I am always getting questions about how to do this and that around the garden and I love to share that knowledge. (In fact, if asked, I will generally talk your ear off…I get that from my daddy-what a talker!) The plants, about which I get the most questions always seem to be herbs.
I think that has something to do with the general mystique surrounding them. Most people know how to harvest and use fruits and vegetables, however, herbs are a little less common to most gardeners. Yet people use them daily…you just don’t think about it.
Spices and seasonings, teas and garnishes, healing compounds; herb gardening touches most parts of life. The two herbs that I am talking about today are no exception. In fact, they are two of the most useful herbs in the garden and even a black thumb couldn’t mess these guys up!
Chamomile
Chamomile is an extremely versatile medicinal herb due to its disease-fighting antioxidants. It helps to fight anxiety and depression, it is an anti-inflammatory, and it is known to fight insomnia, skin disorders and so much more. This is where you can find further and more in-depth information about all that chamomile can do.
Calendula
Calendula, also known as ‘Pot-Marigold’ is a wonder herb, in my opinion. I use it for just about everything. I make a line of Herbal Healing Salves and Skin Care and Calendula is in almost all of the formulations.
Not only is Calendula a terrific companion in the garden, keeping many pests away from my plants, but it is also simply chock full of skin-healing, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties. It can assist in the healing of so many afflictions, from skin disorders to urinary tract infections to digestion problems and everything in between. This is a link to a terrific piece on the uses of Calendula.
Growing each of these plants from seed is very easy . With the chamomile, you can just throw the seed out in the area where you would like for it to grow. Basic sunlight and watering just like the rest of the garden and these plants just thrive!
Harvesting
So, since I’m a grower, that part is fun and easy for me. Harvesting them is what gave me a little trouble in the beginning. Not because it is difficult in the least, but because I didn’t want to pick off the beautiful flowers! But that’s exactly what you have to do! Once I got over that hump and forced myself to pull them the first time, it became much easier…the more I pull, the more they bloom!
As I mentioned, I harvest the blooms approximately every other day. With the Chamomile, I simply grab hold of the flowering bud at the end of the stems and pull. They come off very easily with no damage to the plant.
With the Calendula, I use scissors and snip the stem down next to an intersection near where there is usually another bud ready to bloom very soon. Calendula is a little sticky and will leave a residue on your fingers when harvesting, but it washes off easily.
Once I get them harvested the next step is drying them. I use a dehydrator, but I know people who use their convection oven on very low temps. You can also use a solar dehydrator, like the one that I built. I just toss the chamomile in a single layer on the trays and they are ready to go.
For the Calendula, I use the scissors again and cut the base of the flower bud. Then I toss them onto the dehydrator trays, also in a single layer. Once the dehydrator is on, I go about my day–more herb gardening!
When they are completely dry, I store them in airtight containers for their next use.
NEVER MISS A THING!!
MORE WAYS TO CONNECT
We also, as a homesteading family, have three additional blogs that might interest you. A Life on the Farm focuses on the more personal side of the homesteading life. We discuss subjects like family, parenting, relationships, homeschooling, cooking, canning and so much more.
Farm Raised Family is basically a hub for everything under the Two Oaks Farmstead umbrella. You can learn a great deal about all parts of the farmstead there. The Farm Raised Family blog focuses on financial matters such as budgeting, saving, and more and on current events affecting families.
You can also have a more in depth look at all that we do by visiting our Two Oaks Farmstead YouTube Channel and be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss a thing!
Farm Life and Freedom is the new podcast we are in the process of launching! It is going to be so much fun! You could also check in with our Farm Life and Family Youtube Channel.
Two Oaks Farmstead is the farm store… the one that holds the umbrella! Check us all out and join us, not only on our blogs and Farm Life and Freedom podcast but come join the fun on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… wherever you get social!
