Mulberry Creek Herb Farm: Herbs, Recipes, Stories, Ideas and other things A-Z

Herbs, Recipes, Stories, Ideas and other things A-Z

Garlic, Hard-neck Music

Allium Sativum

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4a 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 1 Foot
Water: Normal
Flowers: Early Spring
Common Uses:Culinary, Edible Flowers, Medicinal

GROWN IN A 4 PACK TRAY
For those of you who forgot to plant your cloves last fall, we offer a ""cold treated"" hard-neck garlic. It produces about 6-8 cloves per bulb that are easy to separate and peel, with a touch of heat and real garlicky flavor. You'll receive a 4 pack of sprouted large cloves which should be put in the ground immediately, about 8"" apart. In the spring, we remove our flower heads (scapes) that curl above like a pig's tail. Saute them in butter and stink up the kitchen to garlic high heaven. Harvest in July when bottom 3 leaves have dried up. Save the largest cloves for planting next fall, as they will yield the biggest bulbs. Southern growers need to cold treat their bulbs next winter.

Georgetownstarfish

Geranium, Dwarf Pink

Geranium sanguineum 'Nanum'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a
Light: Sun - P. Sun
Height: 2h x 5w inches
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Mini Shrub

Same frilly foliage and magenta pink flowers of other woodland geraniums yet only a half foot high. Great for in-ground" faery gardens, where it will spread slowly by underground runners. Flowers all summer long.

Geranium, Mini Red-Leaf

Geranium sessiliflorum ssp. nov. rubrum

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 9a 9b-11
Light: Sun-P.Sun to Full Sun
Height: 3in. x 8
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Flowers: Late Summer to Middle Summer
Common Uses:Alpine Rockery, Garden Railroads, Groundcover, Miniature/Faery Garden, Ornamental

Joshua would not describe this as firefighter engine red while Mark calls it a rich, red burgundy foliage. In any case, it's an utterly unique color and texture. Similar to a miniature, red leaved rhubarb plant, shrunk down to 3"" tall, with dwarfish, white flowers all summer and fall. A ladybug's patio umbrella.

Geranium, Mini Red-Leaf

Geranium sessiliflorum ssp. nov. rubrum

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a
Light: Sun - P. Sun
Height: 3h x 9w inches
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Mini Shrub

While its color is in high demand in mixed containers, I would not describe it as red, rather a rich burgundy foliage. In any case, it’s an utterly unique color and rough texture. Similar to a ruby leaved rhubarb plant, shrunk to 3 inches tall, with proportionally small, white flowers all summer and fall.

Geranium, Tiny Pink

Geranium dalmaticum

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a
Light: Sun - P. Sun
Height: 2h x 3w inches
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Mini Shrub

A carpet of pink flowers along with drought tolerance is great. Like many geraniums, it puts on a fall foliage display of orange to red, however, this one is distinctly tinier than most. G-Scale Thriller!

Germander

Teucrium chamaedrys

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 1-2 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Bonsai, , Medicinal, , Ornamental

Rose-pink flowers compliment this shiny border shrub. Also known as ""Poor Man's Boxwood,"" it is mandatory in any knot garden. A preferred bonsai candidate, since it takes pruning very well.

Ginger, Galangal Orange

Alpinia officinarum (Lesser)

Cold Tolerance: Zone 9b-11
Light: Sun - P. Shade
Height: 2 feet tall
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Medicinal, Culinary

This 2 foot grassy "Lesser Galangal", native to China, harbors medicinal underground rhizomes used traditionally to warm the body and calm indigestion and nausea like attributes of its cousins, turmeric and ginger.

Ginger, Galangal White

Alpinia galanga

Cold Tolerance: Zone 9b-11
Light: Sun - P. Shade
Height: 3 feet tall
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Culinary, Medicinal

Many like the sweeter, less medicinal flavor of this, "Greater Galangal," especially in Thai food, though there's plenty written of it healing rheumatism to ulcers, bad breath, throat infections, gas and more.

Ginger, Miyoga 5" pots

Zingiber mioga

Cold Tolerance: Zone 7a 7b 8a 9a 9b-11
Light: Sun - P. Shade
Height: 2-3 feet tall
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Edible flowers & shoots

Elegant, cardamon or (forgive me) sweet corn like leaves can hide the delicate sweet & spicy flavorful flowers (shredded as a miso soup garnish) and shoots at its base. Protect from afternoon sun and seek out recipes from its native Japan and South Korea.

Ginger, White / Traditional 5" pots

Zingiber officinale

Cold Tolerance: Zone 9b-11
Light: Sun - P. Shade
Height: 2 - 3 feet tall
Water: Normal
Soil: Sandy-Loamy
Common Uses:Culinary

Ease nausea on your next airplane or boat ride by chewing on the roots of these underground rhizomes. Ginger's related to turmeric, cardamom, and galangal, all of which are powerful, stimulating, warming, edibles. Dig it up in the fall to use in tea, stir-fry and cookies.

Gota Kola, New Zealand Mini

Hydrocotyle nova zealandiae

Cold Tolerance: Zone 6b 7a 7b 8a 9a 9b-11
Light: P.Shade-P.Sun to Shade
Height: 1in. groundcover
Water: Wet
Soil: Organic
Common Uses:Garden Railroads, Groundcover, Houseplants, Miniature/Faery Garden, Shade, Walk About

Tiny dock-foot shaped green leaves taste even better the ""Gota Kola"" and is perfect as a semi-submerged small water gardens or really wet soils.

Gota Kola, Variegated

Hydrocotyl sibthorpioides

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b-11
Light: P.Shade-Sun
Height: 2"" spreading
Water: Wet-Normal
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Common Uses:Baskets, Groundcover, Medicinal, Miniature/Faery Garden, Shade

If conditions are right you can site this polite spreader anywhere. Its variegated, round leaves brighten a shady path (where hardy), or cozy up to ""Impatiens"" in a shady annual basket. Grown in full sun, tuck them in wet soil, around wet bogs and pond edges. We don’t know if it contains the brain strengthener constituents of the non-variegated Gotu Kola but the leaves taste exactly the same.

Gotu Kola

Hydrocotyl asiatica minor

Cold Tolerance: Zone 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b-11
Light: P.Shade-Shade
Height: 3in.
Water: Wet
Soil: Organic
Common Uses:Baskets, Groundcover, Medicinal, Shade, Tea

Scratching her head, a customer told me, ""I just read about Gotu Kola but I can't remember what it was used for."" I smiled and gently replied, ""it's said to improve brain function, particularly, memory."" I have read, (though I can't remember where) ;), you can add 1 tsp dried leaves to 1 cup boiling water daily; or stronger when used for a wound wash to reduce inflammation. Northerners, take indoors or protect.