Medicinal Herb Garden

This summer I planted more herbs in my medicinal herb garden and culinary herb garden than in the past. Here are some late season photos. As you can see, I’m still harvesting calendula blossoms 🙂

Several honey bees were buzzing around the garden collecting pollen as I was clipping the blossoms. I don’t know what’s more surprising – that I’m still harvesting calendula, or that bees are still collecting pollen.

Please click on images to enlarge.

Drying Herbs

I have two “herb lines” that I use to dry most of the herbs that I grow and forage. Some herbs are too delicate to hang, so I lay them on trays. I find that delicate herbs dry quickly. I typically dry calendula blossoms, red clover, and garlic scapes in my Excalibur Dehydrator because otherwise they take forever to completely dry out. Apparently their 9 tray dehydrator isn’t offered with stainless steel trays anymore, but you can still purchase them separately.

Storing Dried Herbs

Store dried herbs in glass jars with tight fitting lids; label with the name and date. For best results keep them in a dark, cool, location.

Wildcrafting

This summer I was fortunate to wildcraft a large bounty of red clover blossoms from my yard and also from a neighbor’s yard. In total, I dried five quarts!

I also foraged and dried at least a gallon of nettle leaves, and a half gallon of mullein leaves.

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If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Drying Calendula Two Methods, Drying Paprika, and What to do with Garlic Scapes.

Do you also grow a medicinal herb garden, or a culinary herb garden? Drop a comment below and share your ideas.