Supernatural Botanicals

Keep the summer going all year long and grow a windowsill herb garden.  Herbs are very easy to grow, great to spice up any breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and looks so pretty in your kitchen.  Find some great containers (flower pots, coffee cups, dip bowls), and make sure they fit in your windowsill securely.  Pick up a good bag of soil and plant some seeds.  Huge wow factor!

Delicious herbs from our Supernatural Garden.   Fresh chives, Rosemary, Dill and peppers.  They are so easy to grow, and there is always an abundance of fresh herbs from the garden.  Not only are they fab for adding kick to your meals, but there are multiple at home spa recipes you can try to even use more of your herbs.  Brilliant!

So it’s May here in Cincinnati, otherwise known as zone 6, and everything in my garden and yard is starting to bloom.  It’s such a beautiful time of the year when plants are such a beautiful spring-green.  The rain has been good this season, thus far.  Here’s what’s happening in my yard.  Having luck in your yard this year? 

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Cilantro.  This gorgeous cilantro has taken root and is spreading quickly.  Good thing, because I’ll need at least a cup of this cilantro this evening for a homemade salsa I’m making.  It makes salsa and Pico de Gallo come to life with freshness.

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Parsley.  I haven’t had a chance to plant this outside yet as I’ve only had it a few days, but it looks great sitting in my kitchen windowsill.  I’d let it grow there all season, but I want it to expand.  I’m going to need a lot more than this to make Italian dishes all summer long. 

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Annabelle Hydrangeas.  These will definitely be the sweetheart of my yard when they are in bloom.  They produce enormous white flowers that are between 8-12″ wide!  They also produce lots of flowers.  Perfect if you like having vases of flowers around your house (like I do.)

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Backyard.  The perfect place to be.  I love it here.  I don’t like that all the grass is worn off under the tire swing, but you try keeping 17 neighbor kids out of your yard.  I surrendered.  They have fun, so what’s a little rough spot in your lawn at the end of the day?  There are bigger fish to fry than that.

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Flowering Cherry Blossom Tree.  I planted this about a month ago.  It accepted its chosen location very well, but I am concerned about some of the leaves…note the top right leaf has tiny holes in it, which appears to be from pests.  I will spray it with organic pest killer this weekend. 

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Dwarf Anjou Pear Tree.  Another freshly planted tree, about a month into the ground.  I cannot wait for fresh fruit! 

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Dwarf Granny Smith Apple Tree.   Planted about a month ago, it’s doing a great job of getting rooted in place.  The fruit trees will be treated organically, of course.

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Dwarf Granny Smith Apple Tree.  Up until about four days ago, I thought this tree was dead.  It has been in the ground for over a month without even a sign of life.  Luckily, I waited before I decided to pull it out of the ground.  Four days ago, I noticed these little stubs.  It’s a beautiful thing!

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Inside of composter.  Okay, brace yourself on this one.  This is the inside of my composter.  You’ll find things like a huge tree root system, coffee grounds, celery, salad, leaves, etc.  This will take almost a year to break down and turn into soil.  But think of the organic material I’ll have for next year, and all the garbage I’ll be saving from the landfills. 

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Earth Machine Composter.  This is the what the composter looks like, tucked back into the corner of my yard.  It blends right in behind a pine tree.  Best of all, I’m helping save the Earth.  Love that!

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Bartlett Pear Tree.   It won’t produce fruit this year, but when it does…yum!  Nothing like eating fruit right from the tree when it’s still warm from the sun.

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Rows of  lettuces.  This is new this year, a raised vegetable bed.  These were all planted this past Saturday from seed, and I took these pictures on Thursday evening.  Less than seven days, and they are sprouting already. 

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Raised vegetable bed.  I’m so excited to add this bed to my yard this year.  Because my yard is filled with bunnies and squirrels, growing veggies on the ground in the traditional method is pure hassle.  A raised bed is a great way to keep out pests , to assure your soil is completely organic, and it spares your back when bending over when gardening.  I have rows of designer lettuces, spinach, strawberries, and tomatoes in this bed.

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Stargazer lilies.  These were planted as bulbs, and have been in the ground for about five weeks now.  These will produce sensational Stargazer lilies throughout the summer.  Perfect for cutting and putting in vases around the house.  Gorgeous in bouquets.   Each stem will produce at least a half dozen huge flowers. 

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Rosemary.  Rosemary just screams “put me on some roasted potatoes!”  This herb will spread out and become a wonderful addition to my Mediterranean meals I make this summer.

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Garden Salsa Peppers.  The first peppers are emerging from the baby flower pods.  Last year my garden salsa pepper plant produced tons of peppers.  If they keep on producing abundantly, I have no problems making salsa every weekend!  Bring it!

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Dill.  Okay, so she’s not prettiest girl at the dance.  Dill is not a very attractive herb.  It grows eratically and in awkward shapes.  But, there’s nothing like fresh dill.  It’s superb in dips, in salads, on seafood, and on my infamous cucumber sandwiches.  Delicious when you mix it with lettuces in your salad.

With all the flower bulb and tree planting lately, my poor herb containers sat empty, waiting for me to plant new herbs.  I tackled them over the weekend.  I had such an abundance of Basil last year that I actually couldn’t use it all.  After all, how many times can you make pesto?  I decided this year to only grow things I truly loved, and things that I’m sure I’d use every last drop of. 

I ended up planting Cilantro (for homemade salsas and Pico de Gallo), Dill (for dips, fish and seafood, and appetizers) and Rosemary (the summer wouldn’t be the same without roasted Rosemary potatoes.)  I also planted garden salsa peppers, jalapenos, and pepperoncinis (for the salsa and my pepper-addicted Irishman.) 

Within a month, I anticpate the herbs to be plentiful and vibrant, bright green.  Updates to follow…as per usual. 

Freshly planted Cilantro

Dill, a very unattractive herb, but delicious

Planting extra-fragrant Rosemary

Delicious Dill...I wish it looked as good as it tastes

Cilantro. I'll need this to multiple to the extreme for all my summer cooking

Freshly planted peppers. I had the best luck with Garden Salsa peppers last year

My Ginger got acquainted with the fresh mulch. A bath followed!

Hoping for a lovely herb garden this year

Early spring is the optimal time to plant numerous different flowers and herbs.  Starting in early spring, after the threat of frost, plant flower bulbs and sew herb seeds to yield your yard and home with an endless bounty of flowers and herbs throughout the summer into early fall. 

Not only are herbs a delicious enhancement to your meals, they are also beneficial as natural skincare treatments and sources of aromatherapy.  Basil is known to vigorously grow abundantly all summer long.  Basil (BasilOcimum basilicum) is very good for any type of muscle or nerve pain. Basil is an excellent muscle relaxant and also contains powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic properties as well.

Rosemary can be seeped in boiling water for half hour to extract it’s nutritional value into the water.  When the water has cooled,  it can be poured over the hair as an incredible hair tonic that removes all shampoo and product build up, and leaves your hair smelling wonderful fresh. 

Lavender can be picked straight from the garden and used an aromatherapeutic agent simply by inhaling it’s calming, smoothing scent.  Lavender is thought to relax the mind and quiet the body, and is widely used in spa therapies.

Reminder:  Fall is the time to plant Limelight Hydrangea bushes in your yard for next year’s growing season.

Allow me to save your hands from excruciating pain. Never, ever, ever chop hot peppers without rubber gloves on.  I made the most beautifully delicious fresh Pico de Gallo from my garden tonight.  It was only three peppers….I figured why not?  Pulling the seeds from my Garden Salsa Peppers with my fingers seemed fine…at first.  But as time went on, my hands started to burn from the caspian (the component that brings the heat) in the peppers. 

If you’ve already committed the crime, try hand sanitizer with a high alcohol content.  Dawn dishwashing liquid also helps.  Wash hands over and over.  Avoid contact with any other part of your body….or your husband’s body! 

Bell jars make backyard gardening so easy.  Positioned on top of sunken pots of lettuces, they create a greenhouse-like effect for accelerated growth of plants, and also do double-duty by protecting young growing plants from frost.  They also look beautiful in your garden, making your backyard garden aesthetically more appealing to the eye.

I buy vintage garden bell jars any time I find them.  Although they are glass, they are made of very thick, very hard to break glass.  They are also very heavy, so you won’t have a problem with rabbits or squirrels knocking them over.  They give your garden instant “wow” factor.  It turns a backyard garden into an English garden look-a-like in seconds.  Perfect for lettuces.  Talk about a garden salad!  Super-fresh and delicious.

   One of the best things about summer is having the opportunity to bring the outdoors in.  Old fashioned garden roses are easy to grow, and look amazing in vases all over your home.  Romantic, beautiful, and girly, garden roses can kick up your summer decor in seconds.  

To maintain the look:   Try to choose buds that have not completely bloomed out. This is especially true for roses and other flower blossoms with many layers of petals.  If arranged properly, a flower will continue to bloom a bit after you put it in the vase.  Choose roses that have just started to open, and you will be able to watch them unfold for up to two weeks, instead of just a couple of days.

For more interior design ideas, visit my friend Julia at Hooked on Houses.