The Sweet Life Gardener : The Foxglove

Hey Sweet Lifers! There’s something pretty awesome about studying plants in your garden, and I hope over this past year, you have learned a bit more than you already knew about the history, uses and benefits of growing herbs and vegetables in your home gardens. I have always been struck by the cottage...

The Sweet Life Gardener Lemon Grass

By Alisa Murray www.alisamurray.com Hey Sweet Lifers! Hope y’all are digging in and prepping those beds for some Fall harvesting. I have prepped and added nutrients to all of my beds and will start sprinkling some seeds over the next few weeks for radishes, beets, carrots and collards. One of my favorites...

The Sweet Life Gardener – Artichoke

Hey Sweet Lifers! I must say for anyone who tried to keep a garden growing during this heat wave we have had – CONGRATS! I admit I cleared the beds and prepped them for fall and perhaps even this spring. With the critters nibbling whatever they can to stay sustained in this heat, I left the celery and...

The Sweet Life Gardener – Chives

Hey Sweet Lifers! One of the easiest to grow and certainly a lovely addition to any garden is chives. They are, with reference to taste, the lightest of the onion family. They are also one of the oldest herbs as they have been cultivated for 5,000 years.  Culinarily speaking there’s nothing better on a...

The Sweet Life Gardener Cilantro

Hey Sweet Lifers!  I love cilantro!  I use it in all meals starting with on my eggs for breakfast, in my pasta dishes and with every meat.  I tried growing it over the past several years, and every time I tried, it would look real nice for about two weeks, and then it would either bolt or die. I had...

The Sweet Life Gardener – Catnip

By Alisa Murray Hey Sweet Lifers! There’s one herb in my garden that is appreciated more than any other by my Sweet Life cats, and it is, of course, catnip. I planted a small amount of it at the edge of the steps a few years back, and now it is a huge plant that brings so much joy. Catnip’s history...

The Sweet Life Gardener – Aloe Vera

By Alisa Murray Hey Sweet Lifers! About ten years ago, a neighbor asked me if I would like some aloe vera for my garden. I was barely wet under the ears with my gardening skills, and I planted the tiny little things under a tree out in what is now the Sweet Life Garden. Over the years those “little” aloe...

The Glorious Dandelion

Hey Sweet Lifers! Recently, I saw a post from a dear friend regarding a perished bee having fallen prey to the hand of an unscrupulous person who thought it swell to put pesticides on their dandelions. Dandelions are not weeds! In the spring, they are some of the first flowers to feed the waking up insects...

The Sweet Life Gardener Burnet

By Alisa Murray www.alisamurray.com Hey Sweet Lifers! There are many things I love about having a garden. One is the ability to walk outside and pick fresh daily items to use for my recipes. I suppose if I did not love to cook this would not be as pleasurable. What I love perhaps the most is when I can...

The Sweet Life Gardener Calendula

Hey Sweet Lifers! Hope y’all had a marvelous and merry holiday! There are many flowers that serve as both a beauty and as a handy helper to plant in your garden. One of these is calendula, also known as Pot – Marigold and Poor Man’s Saffron. It is, in my opinion one of the “major must have’s” for...

The Sweet Life Gardener: Tarragon

Tarragon has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes for approximately 600 years. The Mongols used it to help them sleep, in lieu of teeth brushing and in their dishes. In the tenth century, as they made their way conquering, they most likely brought it with them to Italy. History has it that St....

The Sweet Life Gardener: Parsley

Hey Sweet Lifers! Of all the herbs I grow, parsley is the one that I can never get enough of. I grow it everywhere, and as soon as the root forms, I move it to the main garden so it can flower and spread it’s seeds for even more! Parsely is a member of the Apiaceae family, along with celery and carrots....

The Sweet Life Gardener: Sage

Hey Sweet Lifers! This summer has really poured a lot of hurting on the garden. We have  set records by having the hottest one since 1913. As you can imagine some herbs survive and even thrive in that kind of temperatures, while others said “adios!”  Because I do so much cooking, preserving and making...