The nurseries around my house do not offer this particular basil variety. I had to go to Ohio to find it. So if you are fortunate enough to live near a good nursery that carries a variety of herbs, you may be able to get 'Minette'. It is better than even 'Spicy Globe'. It keeps its shape and is very prolific! Here is the 'Minette' early on in the garden. It's the fourth plant from the left. The little round mound.
Several years ago when we opened e-mail addresses, I decided that I would not use my real name, but an herb. It was easy to pick the herb, lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) was it. Cedron is Spanish for lemon verbena. It was the herb of the princess (Maria Louisa, wife of King Charles IV of Spain). Don't confuse it with lemon grass. It is a plant of American origin (that is Chile). It is a perennial in tropical areas that can reach to ten feet high. It is a tender perennial for us in the north. We always have it on our kitchen windowsill in the winter. When you bring it in, it will play dead and lose its leaves. Use them for tea, in a tea bread (recipe follows) or in potpourri. You should water it every week to ten days. Then in December cut it back to about three or four inches. In February it will resprout and by the time it is ready to go outside in May, you will have a plant like the one in the photo above.
This is a favorite edible flower from Peru, the nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) flowers and leaves are both edible. They were grown by kings such as Louis XIV of France and President Thomas Jefferson grew them also. The flowers and leaves have a peppery taste. The flowers shown in the picture below are from the 'Whirlybird' series because they do not have a spur. A little crook in the back of the flower is the spur. It can hide insects taking a nap, small ants in particular! They grow very easily in well drained soil and do not need fertilizer because that will lead to more leaves than flowers. The plants are very easily grown from seed so it would be a good one to plant with your kids. The variegated leaf is from the 'Alaska' series. Sometimes the leaves get as big as doilies and I have used them as such on an appetizer platter. One of my favorite ways to eat the flowers is filled with guacamole. Don't forget to take out the reproductive parts of the flower before eating and only eat organically grown flowers. They are a great fall flowering plant until a hard frost comes along. 
Here is one of my favorite annual flowers from Peru. They are on British time because instead of blooming at 4:00 o'clock as their name implies, they bloom at 11:00 A.M! Four o'clocks are fragrant, easy to plant from seed and are a staple in our garden. They would be a good flower for children to plant and grow. They come in white, yellow and this magenta color. They bloom from late July through frost. The seeds are big and black, drop to the ground and reseed easily if they like the spot. Annuals bridge the gap between perennials in the garden. Don't forget to plant them!
Well, the hummingbird has continued to visit the pineapple sage and butterfly bushes in our garden. She even tried to get something from the tansy! I hope you can see it in the bottom left of the picture on the butterfly bush 'Black Knight'. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Here in the garden we have many insects and birds and also butterflies. I always look forward to seeing monarches on the butterfly bushes in the front and back gardens. It means the end of the summer because they are off to faraway Mexico. They are a great addition to the garden.
I am an herb plant collector. We have a lot of herb plants that reside in our basement and garage in the winter. This is a Peruvian salvia called Salvia discolor 'Andean Silver'. The blooms are black and the leaves are green with a white backing. It may be one that is dug up and placed in a pot for the winter. Not what my husband wants to hear! You can find this plant at Companion Plants and Well-Sweep Herb Farm. 
They come in other colors, including 'Tangerine Gem' and 'Orange Gem'. I bought one of the other varieties. The 'Lemon Gem' was the runt and it has come on gangbusters over the other variety. They are as I mentioned an edible flower. I decorate my pasta salad with cherry tomatoes and 'Lemon Gem' marigold flowers. A very pretty combination. You need to remember to eat only organically grown flowers and only eat the petals, not the pollen in the center of the flower. This flower also makes a lovely hedge of flowers when placed together in a row. Enjoy these last days of summer!
There is a beautiful rose bush that I love and couldn't be without in my garden. It is called 'The Fairy'. I got mine through Heirloom Roses in Oregon. I looked at their website and found they have two sports of 'The Fairy'. One called 'Crystal Fairy' that is a white sport and the other is called 'Lovely Fairy' which is a lightly fragrant deep pink or light red (in cool weather). There was a third called 'Fairy Queen' which is a double dark pink to red polyantha rose. Here are a couple pictures of my 'Fairy'. They are wonderful in a tussie mussie and also to decorate a cake or a dessert platter. Remember they are an edible flower. Make sure you remove the pollen and other reproductive parts and the white heel at the base of the petal.
Sterilize a quart jar for 10 minutes with boiling water, then add your herbs and white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar. I would not use white distilled vinegar. Only use that kind of vinegar for cleaning. I also would not use apple cider vinegar either.
As I was wandering in my garden the other day, I came upon one of my favorite herbal flowers, bee balm Monarda didyma. It is also known as bergamot and oswego tea. It is a native American herb. It is a hardy perennial that grows to about 3 feet tall. It likes full sun, but it can take partial shade. It comes in several different colors, pink, purple, magenta, red and white. I have red in great numbers because it is a favorite of the hummingbirds. When the kids trick or treat at my house, their parents want to know what the lovely smell is and it is usually the bee balm. It has very fragrant leaves that you can use in tea, fruit salads or potpourri. Its roots are rhizomes and are very easily divided and moved when you want it in several different places in your garden. It can be cut back once it blooms and it may rebloom. It can get powdery mildew. The bee balm in the picture is 'Jacob Kline' not as prone to mildew. Enjoy these last days of summer!
Several years ago I was visiting Well Sweep Herb Farm in New Jersey and brought home a Cestrum nocturnum (Night Blooming Jasmine). It has been glorious all summer and then my husband transplanted it just after it bloomed the first time and it set all new flowers and it has been blooming since. It is a very special plant. Just close your eyes and imagine the most wonderful jasmine smell in the world.
At the end of the time you stir the vegetables to get some of the tomato pulp and color into the juice. It is pretty watery as you will see, but it can be used where broth is needed in a recipe or as a simple soup with maybe some herbs that you freeze for the winter to brighten the flavor. The "paste" left in the basket can be strained through a food mill, but I just put it in pint jars as it was like very chunky stewed tomatoes. 
I just love this time of year! I know I keep saying this but today was an outstanding day in the herb garden. I talked briefly about the beneficial insects in a previous post and there is no other group that is more beneficial than bees. Here is a bee enjoying the tansy in my herb garden. We keep the tansy in check by taking most of it out late in the year each year so it doesn't have a chance to take over. It works quite well. I haven't forgotten about the mystery herb. I'll talk about that tomorrow.
