July 6, 2019 - Issue #416

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The most common ways to preserve herbs are drying and freezing. You can also make herb-based sauces. Try one or more of these methods so you can enjoy that fresh-picked flavor year-round.

Patio gardens soften the transition between indoors and outdoors by bringing plants into outdoor living areas. This might involve something as simple as setting up a few window boxes on an apartment balcony, or as elaborate as enclosing an entire porch with trellised vines, potted trees and shrubs, hanging baskets, and containers filled with annual and perennial flowers.

Fresh figs are soft, sweet and creamy. They can be used in baking, to sweeten meats or in desserts. The fruits are high in iron, fiber, potassium and calcium. They can also be used as a laxative, so don't go overboard when munching on these fruits. The trees can be grown outdoors in warm climates or in containers in colder climates. Either way a few trees will produce more figs than you'll ever be able to eat.

Once you've harvesting your herbs for tea, here's how to blend and brew up a healthy pot of tea.

If you love to cook, especially with fresh herbs, then you must have a culinary herb garden. Nothing beats the flavor of freshly picked herbs in soups, stews, sauces, casseroles, pastas, salads and many other dishes.

A meadow of mixed flowers and native grasses can replace your lawn, cover a slope, or enhance a roadside. Most meadows require much less water and fertilizer than lawns do, and they rarely need mowing. For best results, prepare the soil thoroughly before planting.

If you'd like a low-maintenance flower garden, your most important work will be done with pencil, paper, and some reference materials.