There’s nothing more like a love letter from the planet than self-seeding pop-up borage. It’s hard to say what it is that makes them the delight that they are -is it that they are edible? That they can be frozen in an ice cube to create joy in a cold drink? The vivid blue color or the way the pollinators love them? Or is it just that they appear where they want to, when they want to?
These turned up in my potato bed, and is still blooming in mid-October.
Borago officinalis is native to the mediterranean, but it self-seeds happily here in New England. Sometimes called bee bread or star flower, the blue of these flowers is vivid and cannot fail to capture the eye’s attention. Pliny the Elder called Borage a euphorosinum —a plant that elicits a feeling of euphoria. Consumed for centuries, the blue can be used as a dye and of course this lovely flower attracts bees to your garden.
Kat Maier notes that borage is a salty, mineral dense, oily herb, popular as a remedy for inflammation brought on by dry states.
For me, a perfect blue star flower suspended in my ice cube gives me joy. That’s enough for me.
Every spring Resilient Roots of Cape Cod offers Shiitake Mushroom cultivation workshops. We took one in April 2025, and the photo above is the result.
We brought home two oak logs, which we’d inoculated in the workshop, placed them under a cedar tree, and mostly forgot about them except for occasionally aiming the hose at them.
After a recent rainstorm, we noticed a couple of mushrooms on them—mostly gone by, but mushrooms nonetheless. So I dug out the instructions the Resilient Roots staff provided, which offered instructions for taking spore prints to positively identify mushrooms and “forcing” them, which means submerging them for 24 hours in cold water to shock the mycelium into blooming.
Why take a spore print of a mushroom that has grown from a purposefully inoculated log? Well, it’s remotely possible that some other fungi could have hijacked my mushroom log. Unlikely! But worth taking a print.
We set the log out to bloom and an adorable set of mushrooms appeared on our logs as seen above.
tender home-grown mushrooms ready to cook
There were delicious and truly fresher and firmer than anything I’ve bought.
this close up of a cross section of one of the mushrooms shows how beautiful they were
The total time from inoculation to bloom was about 17 months, but Resilient Roots says they can be forced 14 months after creating them.
If you enjoy these sorts of experiments or just love growing your own food give it a whirl!
the common weed st johns wort is known for its healing ability, and pollinators love it too.
The first couple of years we lived here there was no St Johns Wort in our yard. It’s a common weed – Hypericum perforatum – in these parts, and has good medicinal value. Used to support against depressive mood and for its healing benefits, it’s become famous. That said, it accelerates the metabolism of pharmaceuticals, which makes internal use contraindicated for folks on meds.
I complained to no one in particular the summer before last about its absence here in my garden, and wondered aloud where I could find enough to make some oil. The following summer a few St Johns Wort plants appeared in a few spots around the garden. And this year – pow! There were many. Who says we don’t get what we ask for? The savvy gardener has raised an eyebrow here and said “yes. And next year it’s all you’ll have in your garden!” But it does pull out easily enough.
So at around July 4th I harvested the flowers that have come to our yard. There was enough to make both oil and tincture. The tincture can be taken internally or used in liniment, and the oil can be used as it is or in a salve or liniment to support healing of the skin and pain relief. I use the tincture in formulas to support mood and I make healing salves regularly. In years past I’ve ordered both from Mountain Rose Herbs, who make wonderful organic products.
collecting St John’s wort is easy to do, and leaves your fingers stained red.
St Johns Wort only flowers once in the year, and not for very long. Miss your opportunity and wait another year.
When the time to strain the flowers came, the color was the deep red color St John’s Wort should be – an indication of the oil’s medicinal value. The tincture has an even redder, darker hue.
St Johns Wort oil and tincture are red.
Today I combined the St Johns Wort oil with Arnica flower oil and birch essential oil to make a salve for muscle and joint pain and stiffness.
There’s been so much growing in the garden this year- herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit to admire, enjoy, water, and harvest….. and the wildlife the flowers attract – yellow finches, monarch and other butterflies, and hummingbirds… along with the less affable chipmunks and voles, has been its own story. But the flowers take center stage for everyone. Sunflowers, Wood Betony, Oregano, Sage, Calendula, morning glories, marshmallow, fennel, daisies, rudbeckia, echinacea, yarrow,, zinnia, lavender, and others… medicine for the mind, body, and soul.
A pot of nasturtium has become a favorite haunt of the local hummingbirds. When they appear on the deck visiting the flowers everything and everyone stops to watch and listen to them. They bring their kind of own medicine, too.
There’s no feeling like watching a bumble bee on flowering st johns wort or a giant sunflower; radiating the pure joy of doing what comes naturally, of things going right, of the natural abundance of summer and the flowering season.
the common weed st johns wort is known for its healing ability, and pollinators love it too.
Fleeting, magical moments.
This week the sun was shining just before the wildfire smoke blew in. Calendula stood nodding in the morning sun.
calendula is used for it’s healing power in skin and tea remedies
Wood betony, covered in happy pollinators and graceful in the morning light, looked magical. Mint grew tall, absolutely at large and threatening a takeover of the garden, it’s soft leaves rising into the sun and flanked by a regiment of lemon balm.
Wood betony is a perennial herb used as a nervine. Graceful purple spires of flowers bloom in July in the Northeast of America.
So I joined the bees and their pollinator friends in the garden, collecting calendula, wood betony, peppermint, plantain, and lemon balm to dry for teas.
Many people have asked me how to make salve, so I thought I’d revisit an old post that details how to make an all purpose healing salve. The same process can be used for a simpler salve of just calendula or any infused oil.
In this salve we’ll use a blend of st john’s wort flowers, comfrey leaf, and calendula flowers.
calendula flowers are healing for the skin and the gut
Popular for its healing properties and lovely color, calendula is often an ingredient in salves. Cuts, bruises, stings, and abrasions all benefit from this herb, which stimulates blood flow to the surface of the skin. Infuse it in oil by filling a jar with the fresh flowers, covering in olive oil, and setting in the sun for a few weeks. Instructions here.
St John’s wort, widely considered a weed, helps to heal the skin and is used to treat depression
Saint John’s wort is a traditional remedy for wound treatment. Known for accelerating tissue regeneration, repairing nerve damage and reducing scarring.
Comfrey is mineral rich and can help heal the skin quickly
An extremely active wound healer, comfrey is rich in allantoin, which is a constituent that speeds the proliferation of new skin cells. An excellent burn remedy, it’s also used fresh as a poultice for sprains, stings, and even bone breaks.
To make the salve, create the infused oils and then combine with with beeswax:
1 part st. john’s wort leaf and flower
1 part comfrey leaf
1 part calendula flowers
olive oil (or sunflower oil)
beeswax
salve ingredients
Step 1: Place each of the herbs in a glass jar and cover with 1-2 inches of olive oil. Place in a sunny window and let infuse for 2-3 weeks (I have left mine a little longer). Strain and rebottle. label and date.
Step 2: To make the salve strain the oil. For each cup of herbal oil add 1/4 cup beeswax. heat the oil and beeswax together over very low heat to melt the beeswax. The beeswax will thicken as it cools.
you can use a double boiler like this to make salve
To check for firmness do a quick consistency test: place 1 tablespoon of the mixture in the freezer for a minute or two. Check to be sure its the firmness you want; for harder salve, add more beeswax, for softer salve, add more oil.
When you are happy with the consistency of the salve remove from heat and pour into glass jars or tins. Store in a cool dry place.
And spring has arrived in North America after our long stormy winter. Where I’m from it’s been heaps of snow, long power outages, broken trees, financial stresses.
But daffodils have emerged. Forsythia are just starting to spark. We had a whole 2 days of ceasefire. There’s a Ken Burns documentary about Henry David Thoreau that evokes a spirit of possibility and personal journey airing on PBS. So.
We begin again. Reintend. Plant seeds. Create space, find forgiveness, make grace. Forgive what didn’t quite come to be. Renew belief, renew resolve. Because a new season is arriving all full of longer days and possibility.
To that end, I planted seeds that were meant to be planted last year… or even in 2024. I’ll see if they sprout.
Some people are getting married. Some people are starting businesses. Some people are finding a spiritual space in their minds and hearts, or pivoting toward spending their days with an eye toward developing their own vision.
Still, as if winter hasn’t passed, might not pass, I keep hearing so much about what’s wrong right now. It’s true, there’s a lot that isn’t going right. But when wasn’t that true? There’s always something that is stealing the moment’s joy, or could do. You don’t have to dig far to read or hear stories that remind us of how much we have to be grateful for.
We can claim joy back if we have the courage to. Earned or unearned, we can always just take it back to ourselves. And as if to remind us, spring has returned. Again!
I once knew a person who was bound early in his life for Spain. I think just for a while. I asked him about his intention for his trip – was I asking about his career? I hadn’t meant to. His answer: ‘Same as everyone. I want to be fabulous.’
Over the years I’ve thought about his answer, its rightness, and how we say no to ourselves.
But spring has come. There’s a new moon in Aries this week. Maybe we should all say yes. Maybe we should all make a little space for being fabulous, in our own rights, just as we are. No change required.
Skullcap is effective for relieving anxiety, calming anger, clearing the head.
Likely the most common request I’ve had for herbal support has been for the relief of anxiety and stress. Speaking for myself, stress, tension, and anxiety have been a condition for which I’ve sought an antidote over the years.
Enter Skullcap.
Skullcap is well known in herbalism as an effective relief for anxiety, stress and muscle tension, especially in the neck, shoulders, and head. Herbal Reality, an excellent source for all things herbal, also notes it is used for the relief of angry hot states and as a support in addiction withdrawl. It’s beneficial for those dealing with tension headaches or TMJ.
Taken as a tea or in tincture form, it’s a reliable way to calm the mind during the day because it does not bring on drowsiness. And combined with Passionflower, Hops, or Wild Lettuce it becomes a sleep formula, lending it’s calming and relaxing effects to the hypnotic effects of these other herbs.
In a tea it has a mild flavor, so it’s easy to add to any loose tea you are drinking or to have on its own. Native to North America, it grows readily in moist places.
It’s a good friend to have along in a dosing bottle of tincture to take the edge off on stressful days… I can personally vouch for it’s effectiveness!
Skullcap is safe for folks of all ages, is gentle, and benefits teenagers who are often anxious. The dose is 5-30 drops of tincture a day or 3-6 grams of dried leaves and flowers in a tea. You can find this delightful herb at Mountain Rose herbs or you can easily grow it in your backyard in a sunny moist spot. Take care to get the right variety – Scutellaria lateriflora – if you choose to grow it yourself!
Skullcap, Scutellaria lateriflora and also called Mad Dog skullcap growing happily in my backyard.
This little thyme plant is a cutting from one of my garden plants. A joyful little being in my kitchen window, it gives me a warm feeling in my heart to see it there leaning toward the winter sun. It’s getting leggy and could use a trim to encourage a fuller, bushier look.
Thyme is culinary, medicinal, and ornamental. Aromatic, warming, and delicious, it’s stimulating for digestion and makes an amazing steam to treat cold and flu. Soothing, safe for adults and kids, it helps prevent respiratory infections.
And it’s adorable. Look at those precious little leaves.
It’s also easy to grow. To bring my little friend inside, I just took a snipping of one of my plants, dipped it in rooting hormone purchased at a garden center, and popped it into moist potting soil. I kept it moist in the window while it established some roots and voila! In the garden it likes a moist sunny spot.
Chamomile blooms right around the height of the sun’s arc, beginning before the summer solstice in the Northeast
Thoughts of chamomile seem apropos of the moment. Calming and helpful with digestion and anxiety, chamomile is, in its small but lovely way, an antidote to the fever pitch of the news this summer.
It’s easy to grow, not picky, not overly flashy or showy; in fact its a bit ordinary. All it asks for is a sunny spot and a bit of water during a dry spell. In return it gives a profusion of cheerful blossoms all summer long that you can snip and dry for tea or put into alcohol to tincture for the same benefits. Simple, lovely.
chamomile grows alongside roses and peonies in my garden, giving me cheerful blooms all summer.
Wishing everyone a bit of sunny calm today on the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
That last piece of leftover pie I had for breakfast this morning left me thinking “I need a cup of peppermint tea.” Too many sweets over the last few days has taken a toll.
I drink peppermint tea whenever my stomach’s unhappy. Peppermint, the binomial name is Mentha piperita, is known to have other health benefits but it’s enough for me that that it tastes great and soothes my stomach. It’s fabulous after dinner with honey (and maybe even a dollop of cream) for a sweet treat, too.
To make it:
Boil water
Pop a peppermint tea bag into a mug of the boiling water.
Cover the tea – this keeps those volatile oils in your teacup. You can use a little dessert plate over the cup if you don’t have a proper teacup.
Let the tea steep for at least 5 minutes (10-15 minutes is better).
Enjoy the mint on its own or add honey or milk if that appeals.
You can buy peppermint tea bags at the grocery. Or you can grow it! It’s easy… so easy, in fact, that it will spread if left alone.
The peppermint show above is in my garden. Peppermint is perennial. If you plant it in good soil it will grow in sun or part shade. It isn’t fussy and I’ve never needed to water it once it was established, though it thrives with periodic watering. But be careful! It will take over your garden if you let it!
To make tea just cut the stems and hang them up to dry or use a dehydrator.
