At the evil mosquito convention…on your hand!

Okay, we don’t really think that Mosquitoes have complex evil plans that they discuss over a fresh lunch of us, but they really are a hazard to our health and the health of our pets. This is especially so with invasive species like the Aedes aegypti which though its name translates to the Egyptian unpleasantness (roughly) it does not spread West Nile.  However, it does spread such interesting diseases as Dengue fever, Yellow fever, and the Zika virus.  It is also likely to attack during the day, and won’t land on your arm or hand like Malaria or plague carrying mosquito where you can see it and smash it, nope, the Aedes aegypti are ankle-biters, literally!  So what are we to do about these omnipresent summertime pests? Don’t worry, as your local #HelpfulHardware store, we’ve got the tips, tricks, and products to keep you mosquito-free.

An Ounce of prevention…

There are a few sure-fire ways to prevent mosquitoes.  We have rounded up the top tips from both the CDC and the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District.

1. Eliminate the egg-laying habitat. One female mosquito can lay up to 100 eggs at a time. They also need as little as one teaspoon full of water to do so!

-Turn over buckets, old tires, pie dishes, pet dishes, anything that has standing water in it.

-For things like pet dishes, or fountains, make sure the water is moving and/or replace the water at minimum every two days.

– Don’t overlook areas like clogged gutters, or holes in tree trunks. If it can hold water, it can hold mosquitoes.

-For a full checklist of areas check out the Alameda mosquito abatement website here.

2. Make water that can’t be emptied unfriendly to mosquitoes and mosquito larvae.

– If you have a pond or water trough you can introduce mosquitofish (gambusia affinis) into the body of water.

How many fish do I need?

(A word of warning: do not put fish in water bodies that drain into streams or rivers, or in water bodies that contain endangered species! We like our native species and want them to continue.)

   3. Use Mosquito Dunks.  We have been selling these for a long time and they work. The active ingredient is a naturally occurring bacteria that only kills insects, due to the insect’s stomach being alkaline (ours are acidic). They are pet safe which is great, and we try to have them in stock year-round. (If you want more info about the mosquito dunks, check out their website here.)

We carry the multi-pack Sku# 7092935

Too Late, They’re Here!

Don’t panic. These are not the good old days where you would walk outside for a BBQ and walk back in looking like a wiffle ball. There are products to eliminate mosquitoes that are already established and ways to keep yourself safe when you go beyond your mosquito-proofed yard.

1. Mosquito-proof your patio.  We know that you have tried everything to do this, from expensive electronic bug zappers to those magnetic mosquito net door things.  We also know that you ended up with a lot of half-burnt citronella candles (but at least they smelled nice) and lots of mosquito bites. However, there really is a product that will eliminate up to 95% of mosquitoes for 90 days at a time. It’s called the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator.
   

   Get rid of mosquitoes! Our sku #7826761

    

   Here is just a quick glance at the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator: 

   Developed in Mississipi where they know mosquitoes, this product, does not deter mosquitoes like citronella, and it does not indiscriminately kill all flying insects like the bug zappers.

   Is it hard to use?

   This product is easy to prepare and install. You just fill it to the line with water, shake it, and hang it up.

   How does it work?

   Essentially it tricks the adult female mosquitoes into thinking that it is you. It does this by giving off a specific scent that makes the mosquitoes feed on it. The mosquito once fed will die and not be able to lay her eggs.

   How many will I need?

   One box will cover one acre as long as you place them correctly (don’t worry they come with instructions on where to put them).  However, if you already have an infestation then you will want to double up and use two boxes per acre to help cut the heavier population.

   No chemicals, smoke, or hard work?

   No. This really is the product we have been waiting for.  It’s safe around pets and kids.

(If you want more information about the Eradicator, check out their website here.)

     2. Protect yourself when you are away from the house.

For proven protection from both mosquitoes and the native to California: Western black-legged tick (which carries Lyme disease), the CDC, The EPA, The Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District, and the World Health Organization all agree on one ingredient:

DEET. 

                                            Yes, there are other ingredients on all their lists, but DEET is the one present on all of them.  We offer a large array of DEET based insecticides that will give you the protection that you are looking for.

So to sum up: make your outdoor life better, by making life worse for mosquitoes!

 If you have any questions feel free to stop by the store and we will do our best to give you the answers you need and the products you want because that is what being a #HelpfulHardwareStore is all about.

But do you know why we carry beneficial insects?

This blog is going to help the new gardener learn about beneficial insects, and hopefully, seasoned pros can learn some interesting things as well!

Okay, the first question newbies tend to have is: I spend a lot of money on insecticide, why would I want to put insects back in my garden?

To fully answer this we need some science. You see your garden needs insects. Some are there to pollinate, without which nothing would repopulate, and you would get no fruit. Some are there to make the soil better, like worm casings (which just sounded better than calling it what it actually is: worm poop that makes your garden soil amazing and helps things grow). And while yes, some are harmful to the garden we want to try and avoid killing everything to get get rid of the few.  One of the most eco-friendly ways to deal with insects who do more harm than good is to introduce beneficial insects (which again sounded better than adorable little death machines that eat other insects).

The second question we get a lot: How do you know what insects to use for what?

The University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program has put together a handy-dandy chart for us on this one:

University of California handy-dandy chart of beneficial predators.

If you click on the chart it will take you to their page, which has a ton of information on specific insects and plants and what to use to protect your garden. And while you see that there are actually a lot of different beneficial predators we only sell three kinds: ladybugs (usually Coccinella septempunctata), Praying Mantis, and Beneficial Nematodes(Steinernema carpocapsae accompanied by Heterorhabditis bacteriophora).

Third question: How do I know which to buy?

This really depends on why you are buying the insects.  Let’s look at the three insects that you will find at most retail nurseries and garden centers (including ours).

Ladybugs:

Depending on where you are in the U.S. you may hear these called ladybugs, ladybirds, or ladybeetles. These are all different names for the same family of bugs the coccinella. Coccinella are great for natural pest control, because their favorite food is aphids, and aphids favorite food is your garden. Or if we are going to be more scientific about it, around 10% of aphids will eat multiple species of plants, and even if you have those 10 percent they will create the most problems on young plants, or on flowering and fruit-bearing plants.  Of course, most gardens being planted by newer gardeners are a)young plants, b)flowering plants, and c)fruit plants.  Aphids harm plants because they suck the sap of the plants, on top of that they are also perfect hosts for a number of different vectors and it can only take a few seconds for them to infect your favorite tomato plant. So an aphid to a plant would be like a vampire to you that also gave you the plague while they sucked your blood.

“scientific” analysis of why Aphids are bad.

Lucky for your plants, aphids have a natural enemy- Ladybugs! To exterminate aphids without using insecticides (which have been found to be pretty ineffective against aphids) simply purchase a container of ladybugs. They will be very cold when you get them. We keep them refrigerated to mimic the conditions of their natural hibernation state. So leave them out in the garden for a few hours and let them warm back up. Around sunset is when you will want to release them to your garden. The most effective way to do this is to open the bag and gently shake them loose at the root of the infected plants.  You want the ladybugs to mate (Although we discourage candles and violin music when releasing them, it might annoy your neighbors) because while they will eat a lot of aphids (some estimate up to 5000 in a lifetime) their larvae will eat even more as they absorb the nutrition necessary to become adult bugs.

Coincidentally, while we think all coccinella are truly superheroes if you were actually looking for the superhero ladybug she and her miraculous (and Cat Noir) can be found here, but as far as we know they will not be able to get rid of aphids in your garden.

Beneficial Nematodes

Nematodes are very, very small worms.  There are also a lot of different ones and not all of them are good for your garden, so make sure that you are purchasing your nematodes from a reputable source (We know one, it’s us!). Nematodes are not like ladybugs which are predatory insects, nematodes are parasitic insects. That means that they kill things like caterpillars, mites, and aphids by burrowing into their bodies and eating them from the inside out. You actually didn’t need to know that we just thought it was cool (probably too many zombie movies when we were kids).  Anyway, most people who know of nematodes think of them like you would any worm, as ground dwellers. While it is true that nematodes are great for traditional gardens since they will stay in the top layers of soil and eat over 250 different insects, they can also be used if you are growing a hydroponic garden.

We know that the first thing most people in our area think of when they hear the words ‘hydroponic garden’ is the cultivation and commerce of cannabis. But we are not most people and are frankly shocked that you would assume that we know anything about growing cannabis (BTW we carry an amazing soil called the Recipe 420 blend, it is organic and made locally by EB Stone check it out here)(We also carry  Zenport snips which make the harvesting of your crop easier on your hands) (Oh, and we carry Humbolt hand soap because we like to make sure our hands don’t have tomato oil on them). We are growing tomatoes in our hydroponic garden and as we know the best tomatoes are those that have no chemicals used on them. However, really potent tomatoes also attract insects. So, we use beneficial nematodes! Yep, in our hydroponic garden, we can still use nematodes.  For more information on how to use them try this article by Simply Hydroponics.

If you are using nematodes in a more traditional tomato garden (we really like tomatoes) this article from the University of California has step by step instructions on how to properly distribute them in your garden.

Mantis

We are going to be honest with you because we believe that giving people wrong information goes against our mission statement to be “the most helpful hardware store in the community we serve”. Praying mantis are really cool insects, but they are bad beneficial predators.  Simply put they eat too many different types of pests including one of their favorites, bees.  They also don’t produce more larvae if there is an abundance of food like ladybugs do, so any pest eating they do is too small scale to effect something like an aphid infestation.  They are not useless though like we said they are really cool and have been found in art and theology for thousands of years.  They are also great to buy if you want to watch an insects life cycle as you buy the eggs and when warm they will hatch into larvae and then grow into adult mantises. This makes them great for science fair projects or just the entomology minded. However, don’t let them hatch in your house. We have had people do that thinking it would be cool to watch. It was cool to watch, right up until they found a full-blown mantis infestation in their living rooms. When people ask for them, we are quick to point out that ladybugs will do a better job if they are purchasing them for getting rid of garden pests. If you want a more scientific run-down on mantis we suggest this cool article by Professor R.L. Doutt published by the University of California Vegetable Research and Information Center.

One more thing, If you are looking for the superhero Mantis we suggest that you try out your local comic store, (let us know what your favorite local comic store is BTW we are looking for a good one).

Let’s get a few things out of the way right away:

-When you read 90% of blogs on roses (including this one) they are about hybrids

-Hybrid roses are easier to grow, have stronger scents, and larger blooms

-Hybrids are hardier than heirloom roses and thus better for beginners.

-Heirloom roses look very different than what we typically think of as roses, they to hybrid roses are as pugs are to wolves.  We love heirloom roses though and if you want to venture into that world we recommend this blogger:https://judyscottagegarden.blogspot.com/2013/06/what-is-heirloom-rose.html (p.s. In case we have any secret admirers out their our favorite heirloom type are Bourbons or Damask )

Roses are red?

  …and blue, and yellow, and lavender, and orange, and black, and really any color you can think of you can now find in a hybrid rose.  Here is the first tip, don’t go crazy buying a rose bush in every color.  Pick one or two to start.  How to decide well it’s a bit more complicated than just picking your favorite color, but remember that like anything that you are doing for yourself, you will be happier if you pick something that you truly enjoy as opposed to picking it for some archaic meaning (yellow=friendship, red=passion, white=purity, pink=puppy love, orange=jealousy) .  We are going to start with a Neal Diamond Rose, because we happen to have that in stock right now and even though it looks like this now:

It will end up like this:

We love the multi-color reds and the traditional rose shaped petals.  It makes us happy to look at and that is the point.  Unless you are planting an apothecary garden (in which case you don’t want hybrids (but should read our witches garden blog here)) roses are an ornamental flower, they should make you happy.

A bushel, a basket, a climbing vine?

Okay, next what type of rose do you want, there are lots of different words that you will see about rose “types” they have to do with the shape of the petals and how many colors the blooms have, and how thick the thorns are, but the first thing you want to decide is do you want a rose bush which has long cut-able stems, a rose tree which has a single base and the stems are higher up on the plant, or a climbing rose, which as the name suggests need support to climb up.

  This is simply a matter of space and effort.  What you will usually find at nursery’s (including ours) are either rose plants with long stems or climbing roses.  A rose plant can be quite large and take up a large amount of your garden if properly cared for, make sure that you have the space for this, think at least a 2’diameter space.

a climbing rose will not take up as much space, but you will need some sort of support for this, trellis are a good option as are arches, fences, and rails. Just remember that even these roses have thorns so unless you really don’t like visitors, don’t let them crawl up the stair railings to your front door.

What’s a Bare root?

This is the other important decision that you have to make when you are buying your rose. Bare root is what you might find at Costco or other big boxy stores.  These roses are not in soil and are currently dormat.  It makes them easier to ship, but also makes it harder for the beginning gardener.  Bare root roses must be put into the ground almost immediately, and because you have to help them out by activating their roots will take a few more amendments to get them going.

   The alternative to a bare root is a potted rose.  We have these and if you are a beginner gardener, or if you are not exactly sure where you want to plant your rose, this is the way to go.  These plants are not dormant, and you will see some of them flowering right now, like this one:

The other plus is that since they are in a container, you can place them where you think you want them before planting them and make sure of your space.

I’ve heard that roses can be grown from cuttings…

  …yes, consider this blog ‘Roses 101’, growing from cuttings would then be a senior level class, we are not going to discuss it here.  But if you really want to know we suggest:https://www.gardentech.com/blog/how-to-guides/growing-roses-from-cuttings

You mentioned amendments?

       Roses like all plants have very specific nutritional needs.  Luckily roses are a very popular plant and most good planting mixes (for flowers) will have the amendments needed to grow roses. If you are not sure, or if you are planting bare root, use a soil blend specifically for roses. For a specific reccomendation come into the store and talk to one of our garden experts. We can help you determine what kind of soil you currently have, and what you will need to add for a good rose enviroment.

Roses also like to be fed.  We have a notion that all plants like to be fed, but this is not strictly true.  Some plants (like bromeliads) will die if you feed them because they are not set up for that.  Roses however like the TLC of a feeding.  We recommend a good feeding when your plant gets established after planting so about 2-3 weeks after you plant it.   If you already have a rose plant give it a good feeding in early spring before the buds open.  At the very least you will want to re-feed after your first crop of flowers starts to fall off.  Modern hybrids though (like our Chicago Peace) need regular feedings and a good rule of thumb is about once a month.

Roses of course will also need watering, but be careful and don’t over water your rose bush.  Roses are susceptible to leaf rot.  When watering water the roots and the base of the plant not the bush itself.  Water deeply, but only once the top 3” of soil is dry.  Roses benefit greatly from a good drip irrigation system as this will keep the soil moist but not wet, and keep the moisture off of the leaves.  For more on drip irrigation stop by and talk to one of our plant experts or read our blog next month!

Oh no bugs!

          Yes, roses are prone to aphids, but we have a solution that is as beautiful as the rose itself, ladybugs.  Ladybugs feed off of aphids and add beauty to your garden.  Remember that in a healthy garden you will need some bugs so don’t freak out just because you see something crawling.  If you want to know if what you see should worry you or not check out this great resource for diagnosing and solving common problems with roses: https://extension.illinois.edu/roses/disease.cfm

A note on ladybugs, when you buy them from us they are in a state of hibernation:

  Don’t:  just immediately take them outside and shake them onto the ground

Do: Lay the bag in the garden in shade until evening so that they can gradually wake up.

Don’t: Apply them in the middle of the day and expect it to work.

Do: Wait until evening and then gently shake the bag at the roots of the affected plants.

If you decide to use praying mantis instead there is one really important thing that you need to know:

  -It seems like it would be cool to watch all those hundreds of eggs hatch and it is, outside.  Do Not Hatch Them Indoors. You have no idea how many people do this and then come back trying to figure out how to rid their house of the hundreds of praying mantis now infesting their house.

Now What?

Now enjoy your roses.  Remember that if you want bigger blooms you want to thin out buds so the bush focuses more resources on the buds you leave.  You want to cut a rose off right before it opens.  It will open in a vase and then you don’t have to worry about deadheading.   If you let your roses stay you will need to deadhead once a rose is done blooming.  Either cutting or deadheading you want to cut as far down on the stem as you can before you hit a junction with another branch.  Then cut right about the leaf junction.  Here is a handy-dandy diagram.

In the very early spring (so now if you have them) prune your roses.  Using a rose pruner and rose gauntlets (we have both of these in stock) cut off all the brown stalks.  You can’t really over prune a hybrid rose, but you also don’t need to prune it back as severely as you would have if you were working with heirloom roses. They should look something like the following plants when you are done.

That’s it?

Yes, those are the basics of growing hybrid roses.  Looking for a particular rose?  Come in and ask.  We have a large variety available through our growers and there is a good chance that we can get what you want.  We have it on good authority that if you want to impress our HR manager you will want to grow Don Juans, or Taboos, but she’s weird so there is that.

Even you can fix a split tree trunk, says Michelle Leopold, the mom of our three Mom & Pop Stores, Marin Ace, Laurel Ace, and Standard 5&10 Ace Hardware… “If I can do it, you can too!”

After several years of coaxing and deer-resistant sprays, Michelle’s lemon tree blossoms finally became fruit this winter – so much that the trunk split in two from the weight! (Want a good blog about feeding and caring for your tree check out this one)

Michelle went into our store to talk to some of our helpful hardware people. She knew that she needed stakes, but luckily our helpful gardener had some additional advice for her.

“You should use foam-padded wires to secure the trunk between the posts And it’s good to lace the wire through the holes in the stake”, he suggested. He also reminded her that she would need a mallet or hammer to drive the stakes in securely.

Michelle had no problem hammering in the stakes near the tree trunk and then used the wire to tie the overloaded trunk to the new supports.

Voila, the lemon tree is standing on its own again! And just in time for cold season (Mom suggests fresh-squeezed lemon in hot water with honey to soothe coughs and sore throats! Her plucky assistant suggests adding a shot of whiskey to that but to each (and by each, the Smithsonian is on her side here) their own!

Here at Laurel we are super passionate about bees!  We like all sorts of bees.  We even like the letter B!  Seriously though, we have committed to fight for our pollinators, because we know that without them, there would be no us.  We plant pollinator gardens at home and we carry many bee friendly plants at the store.  We only carry plants that are all neonictinoids free. You will also find bee friendly gardening products in the store, just look for the “Our Water, Our World” signage (for more info on Our Water, Our World click here).

If you want to help the bees out, here are some great ideas for your bee garden:

The California Poppy– We don’t carry these as seedlings because they are so easy to start from seed.  We even have a simple seed bomb recipe that we use to cover large areas:

The 411 Poppy seed bomb: 4 parts organic clay, 1 part organic compost, 1 part poppy seeds

-Knead ingredients together, Rolls into ½” balls, let dry 24-48 hours, Toss onto that dry lot out back.

Pumpkin, Squash, Zucchini– Honey Bees and Squash bees love these members of the gourd family.  The best part is that these are not only good for bees, but good for us as well. Aside from the nutritional, decorative, and fun value of these plants, they also happen to be California natives which is always a better choice environmentally. Check out the Stan’s Kitchen (our sibling store) recipe page for a great idea on what to do with all those zucchini (other than just sneak it onto your neighbors porch)

Sunflowers– This is another California native that grew up alongside California bees.  The sunflower is such an easy and vital plant in a bee garden that there is a whole program centered on just getting people to plant more sunflowers.  If you are interested you can find that information here.

Salvia (a.k.a sage) – The word salvia means ‘to heal’.   With that, it’s pleasant aroma, alleged cleansing properties, and multiple uses in the kitchen, this is a great plant for a bee garden.  Some sage is native to California, just check the labels if you are trying to plant native.

Lavender– lavender has become such a part of our lives that it is easy to forget that this is not a California native plant.  And while all manner of bees love it remember that like most strong smelling substances a lot of people (including the one writing this blog) are allergic to lavender.  That being said, this is by far the easiest and most consistent plant on the list and if you are a novice gardener, lavender is going to give you the most bang for your buck, both in overall aesthetic appeal and in bee health.

This is just a small sampling of plants that are good for your bee garden. If you want more advice stop by and talk to one of our garden staff, or attend one of our yearly pollinator events, where we invite local beekeepers to come and teach us all on how to take care of our little pollinating pals.

New gardeners are always baffled by the plethora of choices when it comes to dirt.  In this blog we are going to see if we can’t bring some clarification to the topic.

First things first: It’s not dirt.  The word dirt in fact means something that will make you filthy.  No, really look it up.  When we are gardening what we want to talk about is soil.  Soil, is specifically the medium that plants grow in and it’s important to remember that because all plants grow in a slightly different medium, which is one of the reasons that there are so many choices.  So let’s look at each of the three broad categories.

Top Soil: Top soil is what you want if you are planting directly into the ground.  It is essentially decayed organic materials and sediment that sits on top of the natural bedrock.  You may wonder if it occurs naturally why you need to buy it.  That is a good question.  The thing is that a lot of the plants that we tend to grow in our gardens are non-native, and take a lot of nutrients each growing season.  So, our natural top soil may not have the nutrients left that you need for what you want to grow. The other thing is depending on what made up the top soil, your soil will have different acidity levels.  This is neither good nor bad as asparagus needs a high alkaline soil, but watermelon needs a more acidic soil. A good top soil mix will try and level the playing field as it were, it will help bring your soil back to neutral by balancing all the common nutrients plants need and you can then add or subtract ph and nutrients depending on what you want yo grow.  We highly recommend the E.B. Stone Top soil plus.  It is made in California for California gardens which is important, because like most things a healthy garden is all about location.

Planting Mix: Planting mix is kind of a middle ground if you will.  You can use it in pots and you can use it directly in your garden. It is formulated for outside usage.  So, why wouldn’t you always choose planting mix when it can do everything?  Like most compromises planting mix is a great neutral start.  However, you will need to add fertilizer and nutrients with it to a garden bed, and you will need to be more mindful of drainage in potted plants and raised beds.  However, if you are just starting out, or if you do a lot of both in-ground and container gardening, then you will want planting mix.  We again recommend the E.B. stone organic planting mix, for the same reasons that it was developed in California for California gardens.  It is also certified organic, which is better for your plants and for you.

Potting Soil: Potting soil is exactly what it sounds like. If what you mostly do is plant things in containers you want potting soil.  If you are planting something inside, you want potting soil.  Potting soils often don’t have anything that we would normally call soil in them.  Because they are formulated to help keep roots from rotting, they have a lot of airy ingredients that will help with drainage, and tend to have a lot more nutrients because the plants will not be able to pull anything out of the ground.  In this case we recommend the Greenall potting soil.  They also have a certified organic blend if you would rather do that.  We love container gardening and have tried every new trend from pallet gardens and square foot gardening to fairy gardens and found object planters.  We have always used the Greenall potting soil land it has never disappointed us.

We know that you want a chart that says: if you’re growing this then buy this.  But gardening doesn’t really work that way.  It is a science and different plants do need different nutrients and environments.  But in terms of your soil, it’s best to consider your location and choose a basic soil and then balance the soil depending on the plant with fertilizers and plant foods.  Which we will discuss in another post.

Have you always wanted to plant an herb garden but you weren’t really sure what to plant, how to take care of it, or how to use the product?  We will occasionally be posting blogs about either specific herbs or types of herb gardens.  On this post we are going to tackle the witches garden.  First a little history:  Herbs, as you probably know, have been used by humans for thyme (see what we did there) immemorial.  Herbs, have been used to flavor food and create medicines as far back as the beginnings of human civilization, turning up over and over again in the archaeological record.  But most of these herbs were not “gardened” in the way that we think about it, but rather cultivated in an in-situ gardening/foraging system.  Once formal gardens became a thing herbs were always the star.  When we think of herb gardens, we now, tend to think of the middle ages and witches gardens, which either helped witches or helped the wise women of the village, depending on your viewpoint.

So, what’s in a witch garden and why is it there?  Also can you plant one?  Read on.

A basic witch garden contains:

Rosemary- To keep out evil plant it at the four corners of the garden.

Thyme- To shorten grief.

Lavender-Cultivated and carried to bring you love.

Sage- To bring wisdom and clarity.

Mint- To bring forth love and fertility.

Basil– Planted by the front door, or gate to bring you wealth.

Parsley- To show strength and gain power.

The funny thing about calling this a witch garden is that all of these plants have culinary properties.  In fact even the term “witch” garden is of later usage and what you really have is a traditional British cottage garden.  And while some of these plants do have proven medicinal value, most of us are just using them to make things taste better.  So let’s try that again:

A basic herb garden contains:

Rosemary– Great with meat. Sprinkle some fresh on chicken or roast before you put them in the oven. Add some dried to soup and stew

Thyme– Is a good flavor to balance strong cheeses.  It’s great for baking as well to bring a fresh flavor to biscuits and bread.

Lavender– Makes a good room spray to help with deodorizing.  Also good in candy and ice cream. It makes a very calming tea.

Sage- Perfect for fowl.  Dried powdered sage is amazing on turkey.  In fact, it is the main ingredient in most turkey spice mixes.  But have you tried it in an omelette with fresh garden tomatoes and sharp cheddar?

Mint- From ice cream and candy we all know mint.  But, you have never had mint until you have muddled it with equal parts bourbon and  simple syrup then poured it into a copper mug.

Basil- Most people think pesto when they think about basil, but there are so many more uses. One of our favorites is basil mayonnaise.  It is amazing on chicken sandwiches, and adds depth of flavor to vegetarian sandwiches.

Parsley- Did you know that it’s on your plate at restaurants, because it is a natural breath mint?  It is also good in stews and soups just pluck the leaves fresh from the stalk and drop it in.

To answer your final question, yes, we carry all of these amazing plants.  We can also special order them for you if you don’t see what you are looking for.  If you have a small space stop by and talk to one of our helpful hardware people about pots and indoor herb gardens.  We promise that the knowledge that they have is almost, well, magical.