herbs

Name: Fresh Dill Vegetable Dip
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup mayo; 1/2 cup sour cream; 1/2-2/3 cup Plain Greek yogurt; 1/2 tsp onion powder; 2 cloves garlic, pressed; 1/4 tsp Salt; 2 tbsp fresh dill, minced

by Courtney Leave a Comment

Tips for Growing Rosemary

Herb gardens can be as small or large as you can imagine. Mason jars indoors or a large space in your backyard can both be effective methods of growing some of the most popular herbs. And rosemary definitely falls into the category of popular herbs to grow at home. This woody and resilient herb is a favorite in the kitchen and in home decor, and growing rosemary is actually quite simple. So let’s get down to some tips to help you know how to grow rosemary at home!

Tips for Growing Rosemary

This perennial, evergreen herb is at home in a roast chicken dish or growing on top of a rock wall. It’s a versatile and fragrant herb that can be grown for both beauty, seasoning, herbal remedies, and frankly, a large shrub in some zones.

Rosemary can be grown indoors in a pot on a sunny windowsill, or in most any sunny outdoor location. But growing rosemary isn’t as easy as sticking it in the ground (or a pot) and leaving it. Follow these tips for growing rosemary so you’ll have a successful rosemary plant in your home or garden (or both!).

Location

It’s not just for where to buy a home. Location is incredibly important when it comes to choosing a home for any plant. For growing rosemary, select a location that will receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. (Creating a sun map of your yard will help you know where to plant most everything.) No shady corners of the yard for this woody herb. And because of rosemary’s desire to be in the sun, when growing rosemary indoors, keep the plant away from drafts and don’t allow the plant leaves to touch the window pane.

Rosemary plants will not survive the winter when left outdoors in most zones. However, if you live in zone 7(ish) and above, rosemary that is grown close to the house (and therefore protected from harsh winter conditions and frost) can survive. This will result in a large rosemary shrub growing for years on end. Our rosemary plant was nestled next to our brick house, and the brick, which retains some heat from the day’s sun, and the deep eaves of our house, kept it growing year-round in our zone 8 climate. See the picture below of our rosemary and cucumber plants.

An indoor grown container of rosemary will last indefinitely, but may not reach the size of a plant grown out of doors. (Which may be for the best!)

Seeds or Plants

Start your rosemary from seed or buy a plant at your local store? The choice is yours! Seeds can be sown and grown in pots indoors year around. If planning to grow rosemary outdoors, start seeds in a container 6 weeks prior to the last frost date in your area. Transplant your rosemary seedling outdoors when soil warms to above 70 degrees.

Plants can be purchased if you prefer not to start growing rosemary from seed. Or if you have a friend who has a mature rosemary plant, grab a cutting of new growth and root it. The process is similar to rooting basil, but I’ll share all the details in a post later this week.

Mature Size

Mature rosemary plants can reach a mature size of 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Keep this size in mind when selecting a container or planting outdoors. This doesn’t mean you should start your rosemary in a large container indoors, especially if your plant is small. You can step up your indoor rosemary in to larger containers as it grows.

Rosemary can be kept pruned to a smaller size if desired, but it won’t produce blooms if severely pruned. Pruning can not only help manage the size of your rosemary plant, but you can also prune your plant into creative shapes. I love a Christmas tree shaped rosemary plant during the holidays!

Plant Care

Rosemary enjoys consistent moisture and regular feedings. Use a water soluble plant food mixed at one-half the recommended rate once a week, and water with plain water when the top of soil is dry. This will keep plant well fed and hydrated.

Harvest the youngest stems and leaves for the best flavor. Up to one-third of the plant can be harvested at one time, but allow the plant to recover and produce new growth before harvesting anymore of the herb.

Rosemary, although a hardy and woody herb, can see be susceptible to disease and problems. Powdery mildew and cottony soft rot are two the more likely fungal conditions to negatively affect rosemary plants. These can be avoided by being sure to get your rosemary from healthy stock (go ahead and be picky when you’re at the store), and by avoiding getting water on the leaves when you’re watering.

Use It!

Finally, it’s all well and good to grow rosemary because you like the way it looks and smells, but go ahead and use it. This is something I’ve struggled with myself when it comes to garden herbs. If you’re going to take the time to grow it, plan on using those fresh herbs. It literally takes one minute to walk outside and snip fresh rosemary for your roast or chicken, and nothing compares to the fresh taste of home-grown herbs.

You can also use fresh rosemary to infuse vinegar or oil. Drying rosemary to give to friends or to save for use in winter months (if growing outdoors in a colder climate) are all great ways to use your rosemary, and this way you’re naturally pruning the plant as you use snips here and there.

I’d love to know your favorite way to use rosemary. I love to make a small bundle and place it inside a chicken before roasting, along with half a lemon. I love the subtle flavor that’s infused in the chicken and knowing exactly where my rosemary came from is an invigorating feeling! Let me know your favorite use in the comments below!

Have a great week and happy gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

DIY Mason Jar Herb Planter

There’s something about having fresh herbs at your fingertips that can make all the difference in a meal. An easy Mason Jar Herb Planter will give you delicious fresh herbs, like aromatic garlic chives, rosemary, or basil to use in your tasty savory dishes. And even though wintertime is one of the most challenging times to keep fresh herbs around the house or garden, you’ll be covered! There are some hardier varieties such as parsley, oregano, or rosemary (in certain zones) that can survive outdoors, but what if want some useable herbs and table decor also? Check out my DIY Mason Jar Herb Planter.

Ideas from a Box

I had noticed these mini crates in the craft section of Wal-Mart and thought they were cute. I believe they’re a perfect size for cd’s, but not many of us still keep cds around anymore, so I searched for a use for the mini-crate. Of course, I’d already purchased it at this point because I knew I’d use it for something. (Raise your hand if you have a stash of craft or garden supplies that you just knew you’d use at some point! Me, too!) I’d already purchased one of the larger crates as a book box for our youngest gardener, so I knew it was easy to paint and pretty versatile.

At the time I purchased the crate, the girly gardener was making and selling jars of hot chocolate mix so she could send money to our sponsored child in Kenya. He really wanted a bike, and she was hard at work earning the money for said bike. (She did end up raising the full amount!) I noticed though during this time that in between batches of hot chocolate mix, she was storing the extra jars in the mini-crate. This got me thinking about what I could store in the jars and also have as a functional display piece on our table. The answer: herb planter.

DIY Mason Jar Herb Planter Supplies

Small wooden crate (From Wal-Mart, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby)
Spray Paint of your choice (I used Rustoleum.)
3 Pint Mason Jars (I used regular mouth, since that’s what I had, but the wide mouth would be even better!)
River Rock (or rocks you have laying around)
Brass name tag holders
Herbs of choice (I used rosemary and garlic chives)
Gorilla Glue (optional, see instructions below)

DIY Mason Jar Herb Planter Instructions

Take your small wooden crate outside and use your spray paint color of choice to paint all over and inside the crate. Let the crate dry, then apply a second coat.
Once the crate is dry, gather the rest of the supplies together. Begin by affixing the small brass labels to your box. Using a ruler, measure the front of your box and determine how far apart you want your labels. (Mine were 1 1/2 inches apart.) Use a pencil to mark where each label will go. The labels did come with small screws, which you can certainly use, but since the screws would have come through the other side of the wood pieces, I opted to use Gorilla Glue to adhere my brass labels.
While the labels are drying (if you use the glue), go ahead and begin preparing your mason jars for planting. Take a handful or river rock and place them in the bottom of each Mason jar. This is to promote drainage for your plants.
Then take your chosen herbs and remove them from the plastic containers they came in. You’ll want to gently break apart excess potting mix that won’t fit into the jar and get down to the root system of the plant. Gently push the plants into the jars and add additional potting soil where needed.
Create labels for your brass label holders by cutting small slips of paper from card stock or index cards. Label them with a Sharpie or other permanent marker and slide them into the holders.
Add your mason jar herbs to the crate and display! Keep your herbs watered (but not drowned), and be sure they have plenty of light.

Notes

For a temporary display, choose herbs that you will then be able to take outside and plant in the garden (weather permitting).
Use this for a fun centerpiece for your spring dining table or any table setting.
Once herbs are used, you can repurpose this Mason Jar Herb Planter into fun storage for pens, pencils, and markers, or any other supplies that may need a home. Simply rewrite the labels for whatever you are storing.

Although I am an avid gardener, I don’t always have the touch for indoor plants. So, I love it when I find an easy way to grow plants indoors, and have a fun way to display them like my DIY Hanging Succulent Planter. I’d love to know if you try this project and what herbs you decided to try! Comment below and let everyone know what tasty and fresh herbs you’ll be using. Have a great week and happy gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Root Basil from Cuttings

Free plants!! If you’re a gardener or a plant lover, then the offer of free plants is something you can’t turn down very easily. I’ll be honest. I can’t usually turn down the offer of reduced price plants either. I always think I can make them bloom again or nurse them back to health. This doesn’t always work out (the poor clearance lime tree could attest to this if it was still alive.) However, free plants, as in those from cuttings, are a fantastic way to increase your harvest!

Why Root Basil?

You could simply let your basil plant grow, enjoying the fresh leaves in your summer dishes. But why not share the love with others and create more plants for your own garden space? And if you’re pruning your basil plants, which will give you a more abundant harvest, then you already have the perfect cuttings for rooting. So rooting basil from cuttings gives you a way to use those cuttings if you aren’t planning to use the pruned off pieces in a recipe immediately.

The Process of Rooting

Recently, my master gardener class had an entire lesson on the topic of propagation, which is what rooting is technically called. Propagation means the process of growing new plants and this can be from a variety of sources, including cuttings, seeds, or other plant parts. For propagating basil, all that’s needed is a basil stem with enough length to be able to submerge in water, without the leaves getting wet. And when you use one part of plant to create a new plant, you’re guaranteed that the plant will be exactly like the parent plant.

While that may seem obvious, in some hybrid plants, seeds that are saved from the plant to be used the next year will not necessarily have the same traits as the parent plant. So, if you like the variety of basil you’re growing, snip off a bit and get to rooting!

How to Root Basil

Begin by using a well developed basil plant. If your basil plant is large enough to prune, then it’s large enough to take cuttings for rooting. You’ll want to take a cutting that has a good stem length on it.
Take your cutting and place it in a jar of clean water. I usually only fill the jar up enough so it’s covering the bottom 1/2 inch of stem.
Keep your stem submerged for 5-7 days, replacing water every other day to keep it fresh. You should begin to see small roots forming after just a few days.
Once the roots have reached 2 inches long, you can remove them from the jar of water and plant them in moist potting soil, or take them as they are to a friend!

Rooting basil is a simple garden task that can yield fantastic rewards for both you and your gardening friends and neighbors. It’s also an easy way to get into plant propagation. Even if you’ve had difficulty propagating plants from seed, trying rooting will give you success and perhaps a confidence boost. I think rooting this way is much easier than starting seeds at home!

And rooting basil (or other plants) this way is a fun project to do with kids. It could even lend itself toward a science fair project if you have a child who is at that age. Perhaps consider rooting in water versus moist potting soil (there are some plants that actually do better going straight into soil). Or add a little rooting powder to one and not another. The possibilities are endless!

I’d love to know if you’ve rooted plants in the past, and what has worked well for you! Comment below and let me know if there’s something I should be trying out. Have a great week!

by Courtney 4 Comments

Tips for Growing Mint

Mint is fragrant perennial plant that can be grown indoors as a houseplant or outdoors in the garden. The versatile plant can be used in culinary applications, for medicinal purposes, to freshen the air or breath, keep bugs at bay, or simply to look at. The many varieties of mint, including peppermint: (Mentha x piperita), spearmint (Mentha spicata), pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) and citrus mint (Mentha x piperita var. citrata) all have one thing in common – a square stem.

Use these tips for growing mint so you can start enjoying this fragrant plant right away!Planting Location

Mint will tolerate some shade and prefers a moist, loamy soil when being grown outdoors. And since it’s a great deterrent for insects, it’s perfect for placing around a patio or other outdoor seating area. Your guests will thank you!

The plant releases its fragrance when touched, so using it as a border plant at walkways or by other high foot traffic areas will fill the air with minty fresh aroma. What could be more welcoming than that?

In the garden, mint is an ideal companion plant for cabbage and tomatoes, the scent repels many pests including deer. For smaller gardens, I suggest growing mint in pots. It spreads very quickly, and a container can help to contain its vigorous growth so it doesn’t take over.

Planting Mint

Start with small plants and plant two, two feet apart in the selected outdoor location. Plants will spread via underground rhizomes and horizontal runners and fill in a barren area within a couple of years, much like lemon balm.

For growing indoors, containers of mint should be placed in a bright location, but not in direct sunlight. Mint will bring a pop of bright color to the space and a lovely scent as well.

Plant Size

The mature size for mint will be around two feet tall and four feet wide. The plant can be trained to grow vertically and used as a ground cover if needed. The plant top can be pinched out to keep it at any height desired, or use your mint on a regular basis to keep the plant size under control. Regularly pinching the top out will keep container grown mint bushy and compact. Mint produces tiny flowers if left unpruned.

Caring for Mint

Growing mint is easy and the plants are almost maintenance free. Apply a two inch layer of organic mulch around plants to help keep soil moist, especially during hot and dry summer months.

Mint plants start out slow the first year of planting, but will soon take over an area if not controlled. The underground runners and rhizomes spread quickly to start new plants, fortunately the roots are very shallow and mint can easily be controlled by pulling up unwanted plants. A physical barrier, like a walkway or landscape timbers, will keep the growing mint within the desired boundary.

Uses for Mint

Growing mint puts a versatile, flavorful, fragrant herbal plant right at your fingertips. Pinch a leaf off and chew it to freshen breath. Add a sprig to your favorite beverage for a refreshing flavor and to relieve stress and tension. Use mint cubes in iced tea or mint juleps (here’s a fantastic recipe). Brooklyn Farm Girl has a great recipe for drying your own mint leaves for tea. Mint is also fantastic herb used to season meat for roasting or grilling, so give it a try and play around with its versatile flavor!

Storing Mint

Mint can be stored for use later in a variety of ways. Crush leaves and place one in each compartment of an ice cube tray, then fill with water and freeze. Or dry the mint leaves for storing with your other dried herbs.

Overall, mint is useful both indoors and out, so don’t let it’s habit of wanting to spread keep you from planting it. Since it can be easily controlled, plant some mint in your flower beds or containers and reap the tasty and anxiety relieving benefits all year long!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

Fresh Dill Vegetable Dip

Fresh Dill Dip

I absolutely love growing herbs in the garden. Fresh dill, basil, and oregano are some of my favorites! The thought of using fresh herbs instead of dried has always appealed to me. My struggle lies in knowing what to do with all of the different herbs. In the past, the fresh dill I’ve grown has usually only been used in pickles. And while there’s nothing wrong with fresh dill pickles, I always had more dill than the pickles needed.

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. This simply means any purchases made through links on this page go to support this blog at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Eating Fresh Vegetables

Several years ago I’d read a snippet from Jessica Seinfeld about how her kids were always “starving” just before dinner. Her solution to the problem included putting out fresh cut veggies and dip or hummus. Even if the kids filled up on this pre-dinner snack, it was all raw veggies! I loved this idea for my own family, but many of the dips at the grocery store are filled with 20+ ingredients and some I couldn’t pronounce. No good.

So how could I solve both my problems of having too much dill and providing my kiddos with a dip that they liked and encouraged them to eat vegetables? Fresh Dill Dip.

Fresh and Lighter

I knew fresh dill dip would have to contain dill, but many creamy dips are filled primarily with mayonnaise and sour cream. While I still used both mayo and sour cream, I wanted to lighten my fresh dill dip, so I incorporated greek yogurt. It has a lot of the the tang of sour cream minus the fat, but the added benefits of probiotics. And one of my favorite homemade ranch recipes calls for fresh, raw garlic, and I love the bite it gives. So I knew I wanted to include fresh garlic in this recipe. Fresh dill and garlic? A match made in heaven.

Here’s what you’ll need for my Fresh Dill Dip:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use Duke’s, because it’s the best.)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2-2/3 cup Greek yogurt (I used non-fat)

2 cloves garlic (minced or pressed)

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp salt (I used pink Himalayan)

2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Steps:

Combine mayo, sour cream, and yogurt in a medium sized bowl and stir well. Using a garlic press, add two cloves of garlic to the yogurt mix (or mince the garlic if you don’t have a press). Stir again.
Add in the onion powder, salt, and fresh dill. (Remove the dill from the larger stem; the stem is tough and you don’t want to include it in the dip.) Stir well.
Cover bowl and refrigerate dip for at least one hour before serving. I usually make it a day in advance. Serve with freshly cut vegetables, pita bread, or anything else you can get your hands on!

My kids love this, and they’ll eat raw veggies by the boatload if they can dip them in this fresh dill dip. It’s the perfect addition to any cookout, dinner party, or any occasion where a healthy snack is needed. And you’ll be using up some of those fresh herbs from the garden. I’ll be posting next week on using dill again for quick pickles, so stay tuned.

I’d love to know if you have any suggestions for using up garden fresh dill. Please comment below. Have a great week and happy gardening!

Fresh Dill Vegetable Dip

Yum

Coursecondiment
CuisineSouthern

Prep Time

5 minutes

Passive Time

1 hour

Prep Time

5 minutes

Passive Time

1 hour

Fresh Dill Vegetable Dip

Yum

Coursecondiment
CuisineSouthern

Prep Time

5 minutes

Passive Time

1 hour

Prep Time

5 minutes

Passive Time

1 hour

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2-2/3 cup Plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tbsp fresh dill, minced

Servings:

Instructions

Combine mayo, sour cream, and yogurt in a medium sized bowl and stir well. Using a garlic press, add two cloves of garlic to the yogurt mix (or mince the garlic if you don't have a press). Stir again.
Add in the onion powder, salt, and fresh dill. (Remove the dill from the larger stem; the stem is tough and you don't want to include it in the dip.) Stir well.
Cover bowl and refrigerate dip for at least one hour before serving. I usually make it a day in advance. Serve with freshly cut vegetables, pita bread, or anything else you can get your hands on!

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by Courtney Leave a Comment

Basil and Sage Butter (Compound Butter)

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. This simply means any purchases made through links on this page go to support this blog at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Butta makes everything betta! Those are true words to live by, and between the Girly Gardener and myself, we could buy stock in Kerrygold butter. It’s pretty much perfect for everything… toasted bagels, steamed veggies, freshly grilled steak. Boom! This is also the time of year when I’m trying to use or save as many herbs from the garden as I can. And while drying or freezing herbs is an option, I love to use them in compound butters.

Compound Butter?

What is compound butter? These are essentially butters with added ingredients, such as herbs, seasonings, fruits, etc. There are any number of flavor combinations that you could create with whatever herbs you have on hand (basil and sage, rosemary and garlic, oregano and thyme). Obviously, you want to make sure the flavors will blend well together. (No spearmint and dill, ok?) Many times simply using the power of smell can help you determine what combines well. Hold your herb combo up to your nose, and if the smell doesn’t suit your fancy, then you may want to rethink it.

Another great bonus of creating these specialty butters is that they make wonderful gifts for friends or hosts. Simply take a roll of your freshly seasoned butter, wrap it in kraft paper, tie the ends in string, and top it with a gift tag. Thoughtful gift…check! You can also include some suggestions for how to use the butter on the back of the tag. Here are some ideas:

Spread on fresh bread, toast, etc.
Place generous pat on a steak fresh off the grill.
Use in place of butter on a grilled cheese.
Melt a pat on warm, steamed veggies.
Spread on hamburger bun, toast on grill, enjoy.

Herb Compound Butter

Grab 1 cup (2 sticks) of your favorite unsalted butter and let it come to room temperature. This makes it easier to blend in your herbs.
Decide which herb/seasoning combination you’re going to use and chop them finely. 1-2 tablespoons of each herb works nicely.
Cream two sticks of room temperature butter in a large bowl. Add in herbs and other seasonings if using, and mix well.
Lay out a piece of plastic wrap and spoon butter mixture on top.
Wrap butter in plastic wrap, creating a cylinder shape. Fold over excess plastic wrap on ends and place butter in fridge to firm up.
To use, simply unwrap butter and spread generously!

Basil and Sage Herb Butter:

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 Tbsp finely chopped basil

2 Tbsp finely chopped sage

2 cloves garlic minced

Cream room temperature butter. Add in chopped herbs and garlic. Mix well. Place on plastic wrap. Roll tightly, sealing ends. Place in fridge until ready to use.

This butter is perfect on toast or as the outside butter on a grilled cheese. Amazing!!

by Courtney 59 Comments

How to Prune Basil for Larger Yields

What could possibly come close to the smell of basil in the summer? Just rubbing a leaf and holding it to your nose can give you daydreams of pasta (or licorice… depending on the variety of your basil). Basil reigns as my favorite herb to have in the garden because it’s super easy to grow, and it usually seeds, so I have volunteers popping up the next spring (win!). And if you’re worried that basil is difficult to grow, there’s no need to fear. I can guide you through the entire process of growing basil from seed, watering, pruning, and finally serving it up in both sweet and savory dishes all in my Basil: From Seed to Table guide. Basil is one of the hardiest and easiest to grow herbs for the summer garden.

Whether in a container or in your actual garden, basil can produce an amazing harvest with just one plant. And not only do these fantastic plants provide you with fresh basil leaves, but at the end of the season, when your plant produces tiny white flowers, you’ll be providing the pollinators in your garden with an abundant food source. But before we get there, let’s talk about a crucial element for abundant basil. Knowing how to prune basil will give you the biggest harvest in the neighborhood. Not that growing and pruning basil is a competition, but… it could be, right? Challenge accepted.

Why Prune Basil?

My basil plants haven’t always been abundant growers. I share in Basil: From Seed to Table that after the first few years of tall, skinny basil plants, I finally realized there must be something I’m missing. Other basil plants on tv all seemed huge, but I was stuck with skinny plants. Maybe more fertilizer was the trick? No, though they did certainly grow taller. And despite my watering and hovering, no changes other than height were happening.

Finally, when thinking about pruning as a help for other summer growers (like tomatoes), I caught on to the idea of pruning basil. And wow! What a difference a little pruning can make! Just a few snips per plant makes the difference between one batch of pesto and enough pesto to share with the neighbors. Trust me; your neighbors want you to prune your basil plants. Pruning is beneficial for all types of plants, including tomatoes and blueberries. Pruning gives plants a chance to focus on producing more of what you’ll actually consume, and less of what you don’t need.

So how do you go from paltry to robust with your basil plants? Even if your thumb is closer to black than green, It’s really quite simple! And I’m going to show you how:

How to Prune Basil

Ideally, you’d start pruning when your basil plant is still pretty small, with only one or two stems (6-8 leaves) off of the main plant. If you’ve waited a bit longer, then I would suggest not pruning all the way down near the base, but rather on a higher stem. First, find a stem that has a leaf on each side and leaves growing in “the middle.”
With a good set of pruning shears (or your thumb nail if you’re in a pinch), cut the middle growth close to its base. What you’re doing here is encouraging the plant to focus on those two side branches by getting rid of what was in the middle. It’s all about distributing the plant’s energy where you want it to go. The same is true for many plants in the garden, including tomatoes. Find out how to prune tomatoes, here!
Use the basil that you’ve pruned off for a nice caprese salad or a bright pop to the top of your next pasta meal. If the stem portion you’ve cut off is long enough, you can also put it in a small container with water and let it root. Then you’ll have more basil plants! In the meantime, those two leaves you left behind will grow and flourish. You can see below one of the stems I pruned about a month ago. Both of those side leaves are now growing leaves of their own, and your harvest has almost doubled simply because you pruned with one tiny snip.
You can repeat this pruning process with several stems, but don’t go crazy, especially if your basil plant is a little larger. You don’t want to shock the plant, so start with pruning two stems, and then in a week or two prune a bit more if needed. On average, I only prune my basil plants two or three times during the season, and as you’ll see in my video below, my basil plants get pretty large. There’s plenty of basil for me and my friends and neighbors!

Our tiny basil plant that we bought at our local plant sale has now blossomed into a full and productive plant, and this is really with only one pruning so far. You can also had rich compost to the soil around your plant to encourage growth as well. With our basil cuttings, we’ve had several caprese salads, and my food processor is begging me to make some pesto, and of course, basil is easy to dry and use later. If you love basil as much as I do, then check out my book Basil: From Seed to Table which will show you what varieties of basil you can grow and how to do it successfully, including pruning, harvesting, and using!

I’d love to know your favorite uses for fresh basil, and if you’ve found pruning helpful for you as well. Happy Gardening!

Want to see how it’s done?

Click here to watch the How to Prune Basil video.

Want to know how to grow basil from start to finish? (Including saving and recipes!!) Grab my book, Basil: From Seed to Table, today! You’ll know exactly what variety to grow, how to make it thrive, and then how to use it in delicious savory and sweet recipes! All for the price of a cup of coffee. It’s the easiest and fastest way to learn all about one of the world’s most popular herbs! Click the image below for all the details.

by Courtney Leave a Comment

Lemon Balm Simple Syrup

Have you ever broken off a piece of rosemary and rubbed it slowly between your fingers, releasing that glorious scent? That earthly smell would undoubtedly stay on your fingers until the next time you washed your hands. And how soothing and calming it smells! Surrounding myself with the scent of fresh herbs ranks pretty high as one of my favorite things about gardening. Lemon balm is no exception! It’s fruity lemon scent is fantastic to have around for anxiety ridden moments, and for light flavor added to tea and other drinks. That makes this lemon balm simple syrup a perfect way to use this versatile herb!

As a young girl, I can distinctly remember all of the herbs growing outside of my Granny’s back door. Standing in the soft dirt off of her carport is where I was introduced to the heavenly scent of lemon basil for the first time; I had no idea such a thing existed! Her rosemary, to this day, is an enormous bush that tries its best to overrun anything else in the vicinity (and truthfully, that’s one thing I love about that herb… it’s hard to kill).

Mint, lavender, spearmint, thyme, oregano… the list goes on. These incredible and fragrant herbs provide such richness to our simple kitchen dishes, and they can be sown and tended in your very own yard, balcony, or patio. And if you are blessed with more than you can use in a season, many can be dried and saved to use later. The herb I’m highlighting today was new to me until a few years ago, and it’s light citrusy scent gives it the name of lemon balm.

What is lemon balm?

I stumbled upon this lovely little plant while nosing through the garden center at Lowe’s. My husband was off in plumbing or lumber, and I was letting my nose do the leading to whatever suited my fancy. I grabbed this pot of lemon balm simply because it smelled, well, like lemon! Not nearly as strong as a cut lemon, but more of a citrusy burst when the leaves are rubbed. I’ve come to learn that it’s also super easy to grow, and it has lasted through the winter.

What can you do with lemon balm?

I asked this very same question after it took off like a weed in the herb garden. My kids were obsessed with picking its leaves and rubbing them while playing in the yard. So for a while, its purpose was entertaining the kids. But as far as practical uses go, you can use the leaves in a number of ways, including brewing with tea or on their own, garnish, low flower arrangements, and my favorite- simple syrup. It’s also reported that lemon balm can help curb anxiety when it’s brewed and consumed, but I am in no way an herbal expert. (And I honestly rub it between my fingers and breathe it in when I’m feeling anxious and stressed. It helps!)

Simple Syrup

If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant or been a bartender, then simple syrup is your friend. It’s a quick way to add sugar to a drink without worrying about whether it will dissolve. Simple syrup can be made with so many different flavors that the possibilities really are endless. This past summer, a local restaurant was offering drinks with a house-made strawberry simple syrup… yes, please! So, here’s the basic simple syrup recipe (so feel free to sub in any other herb of your choosing); use it for sweetening tea (iced or hot) or any other beverage you choose!

Lemon Balm Simple Syrup

2 cups water

1 cup sugar (note: if you’d like a thicker syrup for cocktails, use 2 cups sugar.)

1 cup torn lemon balm

clean glass jar (I love these Swing Top Glass Jars!)

In a medium pot, warm water over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir occasionally until the sugar has completely dissolved. (The water will once again be clear when the sugar has dissolved.)

Take your lemon balm leaves off of the stem, and tear the leaves into smaller pieces.

Stuff (very technical term) your torn lemon balm leaves into your glass jar, and slowly pour in the warm syrup. Allow the syrup to cool completely on the counter before putting on the cap and storing in the fridge. Let your syrup sit for several days in the fridge before using it, and if you like a more intense lemon flavor (the lemon balm has quite a gentle taste) then feel free to add a slice of lemon to your jar. Drizzle your simple syrup to the beverage of your choice and enjoy!

I know you’re going to love this easy lemon balm simple syrup as an addition to your teas and cocktails. I’d love to know if you’ve ever created a flavored simple syrup before! I’m always looking for new ways to spice up drinks and use herbs! Have a great week and happy gardening!

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Simple Syrup

Lemon Balm Simple Syrup

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