HERBS & OTHER PLANTS

Hyssop
Japanese Spinach
Juniper
Lambs Ear

HYSSOP

An excellant strewing herb, the growing plant somewhat resembles larkspur from a distance, and smells some what like camphor. There are several types and they all like full sun but can handle some shade. The roots can be divided; it is a perennial. Slips may be taken nearly anytime. It is a semi-evergreen, and grows from 2 to 3 ft high.

A few of the flowers can be added to a salad. They should be picked when the flower is very young, in the bursting bud phase. The leaves can be picked whenever. Just don't strip the plant. Some people use a pinch of it to spice up fruit pies and a bit with fatty foods to aid digestion.

It is supposed to be useful as a poultice on bruises and the healing of abrasions. It was thought to be an asstringent and considered to be a holy herb.

I've heard that it is good to plant it by cabbage as some of the bugs that bother cabbage are attracted to it instead of the cabbage.

Hyssop was used in Europe in the knot gardens. I am not that good a gardner, nor have I the time to keep a knot garden clipped! I wish!!!

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JAPANESE SPINACH

If you like good fresh Spinach and would like to have it through-out the hot summer and have a fence or a trellis to grow some on,then here is your best bet.. (I had a birm that I planted mine on and it grow up over a stump that I created the birm to cover!) .[Aug 2000 update... stump rotted out, lowered birm, moved spinach to a trellaced area!]

Japenese Spinach is an oriental plant that tasts almost exactly conventional spinach. Unlike spinach , which is a cool weather plant and will bolt in the heat, this plant thrives even in the hot Texas summers. The hand sized , heart shaped leaves are a deep green and rather thick, with a red stem growing along a red-brown vine. At each leaf axil a cluster of tiny blooms appear on a rather long stem. It seems almost like magic that they turn so quickly into clusters of little purple fruits. They are similar to tiny little clusters of grapes or more like the seedof Poke Weed! I shouldn't think that they are edible..I don't know..but I don't eat anything I'm not sure of. With this heavy harvest of seed, the plant really is a good propagator!

The leaves can be used raw or cooked. They may seem a bit harsh for a raw salad as the leaf is not as delicate as the fresh spinach leaf. It would be well worth trying because of the length of time it is available.

JUNIPER


I have never had a juniper but I had a neighbor who had some and the scent is very nice. It, like pine or cedar, gives a fine scent when burned. They make a good light and fragrance.

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LAMBS EAR


I have some Lambs Ear in my garden but haven't learned its herbal qualities as yet.

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 Last updated 4/17/08
http://geocities.datacellar.net/tvksi/herb20.htm
© 1996 by Leona Halley Henderson

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