When adding curb appeal to your new Hernando or Citrus County, Florida home, why not add some medicinal herbs to the bunch? Many people grow herbs to add flavor and enhance the taste of cooking, however, herbs are also used for medicinal purposes as well. Adding herbs to your garden will bring beautiful flowers and color to the outside of your home and if you plant them by the front door they add a wonderful aroma as well. You can also plant them in between vegetables and other plants to repel certain insects and pests from the rest of your garden. A few amazing herbs that grow well in the sunny climate of West Central Florida are listed below with just a couple of their medicinal properties.

Catnip - Catnip tea has been used for thousands of years. It can be used to help as a sleep aid, ease menstrual pain and also when applied directly to the skin, makes for a great insect repellant. Let’s not forget, your cat’s will love it, too!

Chamomile - Chamomile has the reputation of a whole-body healer. It can be used as a sleep aid, anxiety relief, digestive aid, menstrual pain, diarrhea, fever, colds, congestion, headaches. You can also grind up some Chamomile flowers, add some water and oatmeal and use it to treat skin irritations such as ulcers, infections, rashes, and burns.

Garlic - Garlic is referred to as the ‘miracle food’ and for good reason, there is not much that this herb can’t do. Garlic has been proven to fight infection, thin the blood, alleviate high blood pressure, lower cholesterol, stimulate the immune system and ear aches. Garlic contains a substance called Allicin, which has anti-bacterial properties that are equivalent to a weak penicillin. However, cooked garlic seems to lessen these effects. So, it seems that taking this herb raw is the way to go. The lingering odors that are associated with garlic is not an old wives tale, it is very, very real. I suggest making a tincture that will lessen the odor and keep your friends around! For cough, flu, and respiratory ailments, you can make a cough syrup out of garlic. Take a pound of fresh garlic, slice it and pour a quart of boiling water over it. Let it sit for 12 hours, and add sugar until you reach the a syrup-like consistency. You can add some honey for a much better taste.

Lemon Balm - Lemon Balm is one of the better tasting herbal teas. It aids in easing congestion and stuffiness when you have the cold or the flu. It’s great for fevers, respiratory infections and stomachaches, it can also calm the nerves and aid in digestion.

Enjoying the benefits of reaping what you sow in your garden can be a fun and wonderful forgotten art. Although many herbs can help us, there are also many that are harmful. Just because herbs are natural does not mean that all of them are safe. Take caution when preparing herbal remedies. Educate yourself or talk to a professional before ingesting any herbs that your body is not familiar with.

Other related articles that you may be interested in

Adding Flowers to Your new Hernando and Citrus County Home
Creating a Butterfly Garden in Hernando and Citrus County
Organic Gardening in Hernando and Citrus County

After purchasing your new piece of real estate in the Hernando and Citrus County Florida area, it’s time to spruce up your yard. Why not make it both beautiful and functional? When preparing to plant all of your pretty new flowers, choose some that are edible. During the hot summer months of West Central Florida try exploring a whole new source of food. Food that has been disguising itself as ‘just pretty flowers’ for years. Yes, it’s true! When picked just before your meal, you can mix them into a green salad, sprinkle them over homemade ice cream or freeze them to add to your summer ‘ade’ of choice, the choices are unlimited.

There are some rules to flower eating, however. Avoid eating flowers from florists, nurseries or picking roadside flowers, these sometimes can be sprayed with pesticides or polluted with exhaust fumes. Orgnically grown is always the best. Use only the petals and eat them in small portions at first to make sure that you don’t have any reaction to the flowers.

Calendula petals, also known as the pot marigold is great for using to accent soups and stews. Just let the petals dry out, they will still keep that orange and yellow color. Nasturtiums are good for salads with their spicy flavor. Nasturtiums grow from seed very easily and are beautiful bedding plants. Pansies are very popular for decorating desserts. With the striking color, they would be a great flower to freeze then add to summer drinks, as well. Bringing the beauty of your garden to your kitchen, somehow just makes the food taste better.

This morning I awoke and proceded with my normal routine. I made the bed, turned on the computer and went outside to water my plants. I started with my herbs and moved on to my vegetables. I was shocked to find a multitude of tiny little grasshoppers having my eggplant for breakfast. Horrified, I ran into the house and quickly made a pot of coffee! No, not to wake myself up, but to spray on my grasshoppers. Yes, it’s true. Grasshoppers do not like coffee. Make a strong pot of coffee let it cool and spray it on your plants. Just to make sure, I also dug a small hole in the ground next to my eggplant and placed a jar with one part molasses and 10 parts water. The sweet smell of the molasses will entice your new green little friends to the jar instead of your plant where they will dive in and drown. Make certain that you clean out your trap daily.

A few other methods to try to rid yourself of these garden pests is a pepper spray using jalapenos, habaneros or any other hot pepper to repel the adults. Include some castile soap in with this concoction. A garlic oil is also effective, combine three ounces of minced garlic cloves with one ounce of mineral oil. Let the oil soak for 24 hours or longer and strain the big pieces out, then mix one teaspoon of fish emulsion with sixteen ounces of water you want to also add one1 tablespoon of castile soap to this mixture. Then slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic oil. Mix 2 tablespoons of garlic oil with 1 pint of water and spray directly to your plants.

To prevent the shocking experience that I had this morning from happening to you, plant “grasshopper repelling” barrier plants around your garden. Plant the herb horehound or cilantro. Grasshoppers are also not big fans of peas or sweet clover. Plant some Calendula flowers, which, by the way can be used as a Saffron substitute. They are also used to add into to salads, egg, or cheese dishes and they have anti-inflammatory properties when applied to the skin. But that’s another blog!

Out of the three species of Hummingbird that hang out in Florida, the ruby-throated hummingbird is the most common. This hummingbird is about 3 inches long and weighs about as much as a penny. Hummingbirds will begin nesting in April and can become agressive during this time, so be sure that you have plenty of blooms for all to come and feed without conflict. Nesting hummingbirds will gather nectar from March until September. Bringing these little gems to your house is just another way to add beauty to your home.

Hummingbirds are attracted to tubular shaped flowers with orange or red blossoms. It’s not that they were born attracted to these bright colors, through trial and error they have found the ones that offer the best goodies. One of the best ways to begin your hummingbird garden is by securing a trellis to a wall and cover it with a trumpet creeper or a coral honeysuckle vine. This will give height to your hummingbird garden. Then add some smaller shrubs. Hummingbirds feed comfortably from blossoms that are 2 feet high or higher. Add some fire bush and coral bean as they are native to Hernando and Citrus counties and will require minimal care. If you plant annuals, you will have to replace them each year. Now just sit back and wait for your new little visitors.

There are many different fence styles. There is wood, stone, brick, vinyl and even bottle, but the cheapest way that I have found to date is the pallet fence. Many outlets that use pallets for shipping will give these away as they are going to be throwing most of them out. You can leave the pallet fence untreated or you can paint or stain it, either way it should last for many years.

Measure the area that you wish to fence off and set out to find your pallets. Your pallets can vary in size but be certain that they are in excellent condition. Use dry hardwood for your posts and add two feet to the length of each post for ground depth. I recommend you treat those two feet plus an extra 6 inches that will be exposed above ground with a water sealer. Then set the posts to the side to dry for at least 48 hours.

To prepare the pallets, you would remove all the boards from the back of the pallet and every other board from the front. Start by digging two holes, two feet deep to secure the poles. Take your extra boards and cut and measure them to a length that would allow you to secure your pallets to each side of the board. For instance, if you are using a 4×4 post, you would cut your boards to approximately 16″ lengths. You then would attach two boards to the post, one at the top and one at the bottom leaving 4″ hanging off each side. These boards will hold the pallets to the post. Continue this process until the fence is complete.

A Pallet Fence is a great way to fence off your garden, bring privacy to your home or give your dog a little space and the cost is next to nothing.

Organic Gardening is not as hard as you would think. Start with the soil. Go down to the County Extension Office. Hernando County office is located at 19490 Oliver Street
Brooksville, FL 34601. In Citrus County, the office is located at 3650 West Sovereign Path, Suite 1, Lecanto, FL 34461. They will give you a soil sampling kit for you to send a sample of your soil to Gainesville, in ten days they will send a report back to you, telling you what your soil needs to make the soil ph balanced and ready for gardending.

Choose hardy plants but choose many different varieties of plants. Too much of the same plant leaves your garden vulnerable to disease. There are many organic ways to rid your garden of pests. Take a cup of tobbaco and a gallon of water and mix together, let sit for 24 hours until mixure looks like weak tea. If the mixture is too dark add some more water. This mixture is great for combating many different types of bugs, but especially caterpillars, aphids, and many types of those nasty worms. Don’t use this solution on peppers, tomatoes or eggplant, the mixture will kill these plants. Soap spray will take out those slugs. You can just use your old, dirty dishwater! These are just a couple of easy homemeade suggestions, there are many more.

Living in a small family, my garden doesn’t need that much yeild. There are no rules that say you have to have a specific place to grow your vegetables. I’m starting my own garden at the moment and have decided to mix my vegetables, my herbs and flowers together throughout the yard. Why not plant your leafy veggies with your flowers? Line your mailbox with beautiful lettuce and marigolds. Plant pole beans around your lamp post. Make your whole yard edible and beautiful!

Now that you’ve purchased your new West Central Florida Home, you will want to spruce up your yard. Your front yard will be the first impression that people will get of your home. Decorating your front yard can be fun and easy.

Line your walkways with a variety of different types of flowers, this will not only add color to your front yard but can also bring in hummingbirds and butterflies. Start a flower bed and design it by size and color. Flower beds can be fun to design, there are so many things that you can add to a flower bed to make it unique. Add a bird bath, a bench, lay some stones down for a pathway, the additions to a flower bed can be endless. Plant trees in your front yard for shade and privacy, but take note of the size of the tree at full growth. You wouldn’t want to plant a large tree to close to the house or the driveway. Some trees have roots that can do some real damage to concrete structures and underground pipes.

Start an herb garden by the front door. Herbs are not only aromatic, medicinal and useful in cooking but some herbs have beautiful flowers that can add a unique beauty to the front entryway. Add a solar powered lamp post to the front yard. Lamp posts not only light up the yard but can be very decorative, as well.

Bringing butterflies into your garden for the purpose of entertainment can provide an enjoyable, therapeutic soothing retreat from your everyday life and this is the time of year that butterflies are looking for food and fun.

To start and maintain a successful butterfly garden is a fairly simple task. All you need is a little bit of room and the right plants. Butterflies rely on two different types of plants. A Host plant and a Larval plant. In other words, you will need a plant that the butterfly will lay eggs on that will provide nourishment for your newly hatched caterpillars and one that will provide food for your adult butterflies. An example of host plants that can survive in the heat of Hernando and Citrus counties would be milkweeds and passion vine. These plants not only can survive in the summer heat of West Central Florida but will provide the needed shade for the beautiful new visitors to your garden. A few choice Larval plants would be Red Pentas, Tropical Salvia, Trailing Lantana and Fire Bush. Tasty treats for the young creepy crawlys. Most herbs are also excellent butterfly attractants and as an added bonus, are useful culinary plants and provide a wonderful aroma to your garden.

A Water source with a fountain for easy access to water for drinking is also necessary for a butterfly garden, not to mention, a nice addition to any garden! If you choose to plant your garden in containers or window boxes, remember they may need more water than in the ground because containers dry out faster.

Now sit back and watch your butterfly garden grow!

Paige

Ready or not fall is here. That means it’s time to think about new plants for the fall season.

Mums are great for containers. The secret to buying mums to to make sure they are in the tight bud stage. That way you’ll be able to enjoy the blooms a lot longer.
Some other ideas for planter containers include marigolds for the great fall color and the Dahlberg daisy is also great for how it flows over the edges.
Make sure your container garden is in a sunny location. Also make sure it gets adequate water and a little bit of fertilizer.

Florida gardening expert Tom MacCubbin discusses some great ideas for fall plantings.

Watch Extra On Gardening with Tom MacCubbin on Saturdays on Bay News 9. The show runs at 53 past the hour, starting at 5:53 p.m.

Not all gardens will have you bending down to plant. You can enjoy the beauty of blooms by looking up.

In this Extra On Gardening, Tom MacCubbin reveals how to create a stunning backyard hanging garden.

If you’re interested in creating your own hanging garden try a blooming variety of plants like Torenia, also known as the Wishbone Flower. Verbena is also great and will cascade over the sides of the basket.

If your basket will be in a shady area, considering using Impatiens. These will cascade and come in a variety of color.

Bacopa - this plant does a lot better in warm weather rather than the hot weather of mid summer.

Directions
To put together your basket, first get a pot with holes in the side where you can hang it or support it in some way. Then just add your plants. Keep plants that cascade towards the outside and plants that grow taller in the middle.

Keep the soil moist, and put in a small amount of slow release fertilizer.