About Herby Gardens
Welcome to Hereby Gardens, a place where you’ll find inspiration and practical knowledge on backyard farming, herbalism, and family-friendly recipes. Here, I share how to grow your own food, create meals from the garden, and make healing herbal remedies. You’re in the right place if you’re looking for gardening tips, seasonal recipes, or natural remedies. Thank you for being here, and I’m so happy to share this journey with you 💚
Meet Kate
I’m a backyard farmer and herbalist sharing my family’s favorite recipes, gardening lessons, and herbal medicine.
Tour My Garden
Baby Bunnies
I found these cute babies tucked away under one of my oregano plants this year. A lot of gardeners consider wild rabbits pests, but I’m happy to share my space with them. They’ve chewed up my carrot tops and decimated a lettuce patch or two, but I still love seeing them hopping around my yard. They are just too cute to be mad at.
I’ve noticed over the years that they love to eat poppy flowers and dandelions, so I make sure to have plenty around for them.
Swallowtail Caterpillar
This is the caterpillar of the Eastern Black Swallowtail. I usually find them all over my flowering dill plants, but this year, there were a few on my carrot tops. I leave them alone and let them do their thing.
The adult butterflies are stunning and important pollinators. I often see them feeding on my zinnias, bee balm, and echinacea flowers.
American Elderberry
This is the American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) that I bought from a local nursery a few years ago. This year (2024) was the first year it bloomed, and I was able to harvest a few ounces of flowers and about a pound of berries.
These bushes can grow to about 12 feet tall but mine is about 7 feet in height right now.
Oats
The common oat plant (Avena sativa) is incredibly versatile, and I grow it for its many uses. I use it as a cover crop in new garden beds or in spring before planting summer crops. I also make milky oat tincture, oat straw tea, homemade oat milk, oat bread, and oatmeal.
My oat plants are always covered in damselflies (see photo). They are beautiful, and beneficial to the garden like dragonflies.
Tomatoes
What’s a garden without tomatoes?
Year after year, my most prolific growers are cherry tomatoes. They produce well into September, as long as I can keep the blight at bay. I also grow other varieties like Roma, San Marzano, Carolina Gold, and Cherokee Purple. My favorite varieties, however, are Black Cherry and Cherokee Purple – they have the best flavor!
Root Vegetables - Carrots, Beets, and Radishes
2024 was one of my best harvest years for root veggies. I grew pounds and pounds of potatoes, carrots, and radishes. My beets didn’t do as well, but c’est la vie.
I let a few of the radishes go to flower and was able to collect several hundred (yes, several hundred!) seeds for next year.
