Hi, hi! I'm Holly Capelli, a backyard gardener and urban homesteader in the Pacific Northwest.
And, boy are we in full swing now with the garden.
We've got hundreds of starts finally planted in the garden and the surrounding gardens, that we grew indoors and in the greenhouse
We still have handfuls to go and plenty of seeds to sow.
But while we're still in this planting mode, we are also already in harvesting mode! Which is super exciting.
Of course we have that early springtime veg like cauliflower and broccoli that we've been able to collect.
But, we're really concentrating right now on edible flowers and herbs! Those are the first harvests that I really get to play with.
Edible flowers have so many uses, not just, of course, to eat them fresh, but once they're dried you can turn them into all kinds of magical things.
You can press them and craft with them or decorate baked good later with them.
You can make infused oils with your dried flowers that you can later use to create salves and lotions and soaps and all kinds of amazing home made beauty care products.
So, those are a collection that I absolutely love to gather.
Lavender and violas, for example are some of my favorites.
Another thing that we are collecting are herbs! Herbs are always some of the first to pop up and get going,
and we want to gather them and dry them before they flower to kind of preserve that best flavor.
Right now in my zone, thyme is trying to flower, and so it's 'thyme' to get the thyme, and start drying that
Our oregano is also really looking lush and beautiful as well as our lemon balms, and mints coming back into season.
And so, it's a perfect time to start gathering and drying herbs to store for the year.
I'd love to take you a long with me and show you what I've got growing in the garden and what I'm harvesting and preserving now,
so let's go check it out!
But before we do, please do be sure to hit that subscribe button and notification bell if you haven't already, so that you don't miss any great upcoming videos from Kellogg Garden.
Violas and pansies. They're the first to make the appearance in the garden of the edible flowers, and they're my favorite.
I use them in everything. I decorate butter with them, bakes goods with them, I bake them on cookies,
I put them in salads, we press them, I make vinegar out of them, we do crafts with them.
There's just so many things you can do with these beautiful little flowers.
Here is another edible flower that we are harvesting right now, calendula.
This is such a handy, versatile, beautiful flower.
This particular variety is called pacific beauty and as you can see, she loves it here in the pacific northwest.
I grew these from seed last year, and we had a mild winter, and so they survived the winter and that's why they've come back and doubled in their blooms. And, we're already harvesting.
These flowers love to be picked often. I'm picking them every other day.
We're also deadheading any that we're missing because you don't want it to go to seed.
If you continue to pick these flowers throughout the season, they will continue to flower for you!
And, they're used in cooking, beauty products, and medicinal uses.
They are amazing.
You want to harvest them when the dew is dry and the flowers are open because you don't want to wash them.
You just want to lay them out on a screen and dry them, and I'll show you how I do that.
But this is a wonderful flower to add to your garden.
Not to mention, incredibly useful. It attracts all kinds of helpful insects like bees, and ladybugs, and it's really a welcomed addition to the garden.
Here's another one ready to harvest!
Spanish lavender. I prefer english lavender for my culinary uses, that's not quite in bloom yet.
Spanish lavender is very strong.
And, it's great in infused oils, and it's good for potpourris, and soaps, so I use it for more crafting purposes.
Absolutely beautiful, and the bees love the blooms.
So, I'm not quick to harvest too much, because I'm happy to see the bees this time of year, and I want them to get to work.
I'll just take a tiny bit at a time here.
This is our main herb garden.
We do have herbs planted all throughout our property and all over in every garden box.
But, I do like having one spot designated for herbs as well.
So, we've got them packed in here.
We've got some tarragon ready to be harvested. We've got rosemary, several different clumps in here.
Also, ready to go, some golden oregano. Chives, with plenty of blossoms on them for chive blossom vinegar.
We've got thyme everywhere. And as I mentioned, that's starting to flower so you know it's 'thyme' to do it.
That's some beautiful sage, I've got a couple different sages in here.
Some more oregano, which I will harvest today, it's also ready.
And then in the back there is some lemon balm, which we will get.
Chocolate mint is coming back, chamomile, and regular mint.
I have those in the back so that I can chop at them when they start to get to invasive.
But, I like them to be free, do their thing.
So, there's plenty of herbs here to already start collecting and drying for my kitchen collection.
As you can see, between the edible flowers and the herbs, we already have a lot to get harvesting.
So, I've got my bowl, my scissors, and I'll see if I can wrangle a kid or two to help me too, and we'll go collect up some stuff.
We're making good progress! We've got lemon balm, chocolate mint, spanish lavender, oregano, thyme, and chives so far.
Oof, we've got our work cut out for us..
And, we're not even to the flowers yet.
We did it! We collected up a beautiful harvest.
All of this just just from our backyard, all ready. And the real fun hasn't even really begun.
We've got the spanish lavender, oregano, chives and chive blossoms, calendula, thyme, lemon balm, chocolate mint, and a big, beautiful bowl of panies and violas.
Now I get to take it in the house and play with it.
Thanks so much for joining me on this little tour of my garden collections and creations.
I hope it, in some way, inspires you to get growing, collecting, and creating your own.
We'll see you next time! Happy Gardening.