Grow your own - Herbs & Veggies & Fruit

This is the second in a series about my kitchen garden. 

Living in Florida gives me the unique opportunity to grow all those sun loving herbs and it's always fun to discover something new and interesting - not to mention it is healthy and frugal to grow your own! 

This year, at the Green Thumb Festival I found red raspberries, blackberries and surprising to me blueberries, suitable to our climate.

Garlic chives in my garden.

The grower recommended a pot for the red raspberries instead of planting them in our sandy soil. The small blueberry bush would do fine in a pot too. The blackberries, a thornless variety with an interesting name something like Black Indian (lost the tag) would be less demanding and could be planted in the garden.

I placed the red raspberries under the old oak tree where they will be in dappled shade. The raspberry seems to like it's spot and is growing and even starting to spread.

I wonder how long it will take before I can harvest my own organic raspberries. 

 Red Raspberries - looking fine - so far.

Every year I replenish or try out a few new herbs and the Green Thumb Festival is a great place to find interesting varieties. It is a very entertaining annual festival with everything from fancy orchids to organic coffee.

I was thrilled to find some healthy looking Lemon Verbena along with Sage, a Fern leaf Lavender and an African Basil plant to round off this years herb selection in my kitchen garden.

All of them are doing well.

Here is a little progress report. The pretty pink blooming plant is the same sage as the larger plant below. The leaves are thick - very soft and very fuzzy.

SAGE - it seems to like it's new place in my kitchen garden.

The tomatoes are ripening too - in my kitchen garden.

So are the peppers - a mild and a spicy variety.

They look almost ready to pick!

No Kitchen Garden would be complete without Rosemary.

I have five plants in various parts of my garden, two of them in pots.

This Christmas I received this Rosemary plant as a gift, shaped like a Christmas tree. It is losing it's shape and I am debating whether I should continue to cut it into shape. I think I might:)

Rosemary is the perfect herb for anyone just starting out to learn to cook with herbs. It's super easy to grow, give it a nice pot in the sun, tell it how wonderful it smells and don't forget to caress it's leaves.:)

It doesn't like soggy feet, so don't over water it, but it's rather forgiving if you forget to water it.

We like rosemary in garlic mashed potatoes for added flavor. It's the best herbal accompaniment to pork dishes and I love it with salmon too. Just cut a sprig, wash well and lay it on the fish or your pork roast or pork chops, remove before serving, the flavor will impart itself during the cooking process.

Tip: For mashed potatoes, take a large sprig and hold it upside down. Then remove all the rosemary leaves at once by pulling upwards in one swift motion. Then chop the rosemary as fine as you like it and add to your mashed potatoes.

Tip: To give leftover potatoes a bit of pizazz, slice and saute in olive oil with chopped rosemary.

Rosemary is known to energize and help with tension headaches. A relaxing bath with a handful of rosemary thrown in the bathwater will have you feeling refreshed in no time.

There are as many uses for rosemary as there are for lavender, anything from soap and shampoo to culinary uses to tea.....

Left image: Mature rosemary plant in my garden.

Parsley is another easy herb to grow. Here in Florida it likes some shade in the summer. Just place in good soil or in a pot and water frequently - fertilize on occasion. That's all there is to it!

 

PARSLEY

Culinary use - just snip off as many leaves as you like for your soup, salad or tomato sauce.

Discard the stems. I like my leaves whole, but you can chop the leaves if you like and throw into your pot. Easy!

NASTURTIUMS - pretty variegated leaves make for an interesting looking salad.

Like Salad? Spice it up with the addition of pretty and peppery tasting leaves of nasturtiums.

The flowers are edible too - go ahead and add them whole for a cool look or chop or grind the flowers into fine yellow or orange powder.

PURSLANE - more salad greenery.

I have to tell you that this is my first experience with purslane. My friend Jackie shared a few pieces with me and I'm amazed at how easy it is to grow.

Purslane really needs no attention, I placed it in a couple of different pots to see which spot and condition it would like best. The answer is full sun and water once a week. It's growing like a weed:)

I think this will be one of those gifts that keep on giving. I haven't eaten it yet, since it is still a small plant, but if anyone has any recipe suggestions just let me know.

Thank you for coming along for a tour of my kitchen garden today - it was my pleasure!

All images taken by Rose H in with an Olympus D-540 digital camera in my garden. 

Mosaic brick - " Snake in the garden of eatin' "

Made by me for my kitchen garden.