Don't Forget, Herbally Speaking!

Don't forget to cut your herbs and flowers for a summertime bouquet for your dining table or any room in your house.  It has been raining like crazy here.  Flash flooding.  Parts of Pittsburgh closed this morning that haven't closed ever to my knowledge.  I think we have had several inches of rain since this pattern has started.  We got an inch overnight with more to come today and finally tomorrow, the cycle will be broken and we will be drier and sunnier and LESS humid.  The humidity kills me.

I just wanted to also remind you of chores in your herb garden:

You should always be harvesting your herbs for drying, freezing or using fresh BEFORE they flower.

Deadhead annual herbal flowers such as calendulas and nasturtiums to keep them blooming.  I'm just about to cut the last of my chamomile flowers to make tea bags.

Harvest lavender flowers when they are not fully opened for drying or using fresh.

Deadhead spent flowers from roses, sages, rue, chives, dianthus to tidy up your herb garden and possibly get some reblooms.

Cut back herbs that have been damaged by four-lined plant bug.  They are gone for the season.

Make herbal jelly when necessary.

If you are in the northeast or mid-Atlantic areas, you want to start thinking about any herbs that you are going to dig up and bring in for the winter.  Ideally you want to do that about August 15 or so.  I'm always a last minute Nelly, but again, ideally it should be done earlier so the plants can get accumulated to the containers. 

We are having an infestation of a bug that we haven't seen before and it is eating the buds of flowers like phlox.  I haven't been able to get a closeup photo and haven't been able to find it on the web.  The insect world is getting the best of us this year and it might be because of all of the rain.  I'll add to this list and you can jog my memory as well.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.