Tuesday, May 22, 2007




The garden is looking very nice. The dirt in the yard is really no good for growing anything, so everything is in raised beds. Some are 8 ft. x 2 ft. and some 6 ft. x 2 ft. There's a 4x4 ft square bed in the middle. Following the square foot garden techniques, I've planted most of the beds. We'll be busy in the fall putting all the veggies up and drying all the herbs. I've planted chamomile and lemon balm in pots along the fence. Lemon balm is in the mint family and will spread to anywhere in the garden it wants to. There is no containing it unless it is literally in a container. It is a perennial and comes back year after year, spreading throughout the garden if you let it. The chamomile is an annual and therefore dies every year. It self seeds though and will also spread everywhere if you give it half a chance. They are both used as a tea that will calm an upset stomach, help you sleep and make you feel a little relaxed. The lemony flavor of the lemon balm blends nicely with the chamomile. Plain chamomile is so gentle and safe, it can be given to young children. No herbal products should ever be given internally to a child under the age of one due to the risk of botulism . Both lemon balm and chamomile can be purchased as a bulk tea, a bulk herb or tea bags. The bulk chamomile is available at my website at www.giftofgod.ispeedway.com.

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