China Bayles' Book of Days (10 page)

But your garden of the heart doesn’t need to be quite so ambitious. Imagine this: a quiet corner of your garden, perhaps against a wall, with a birdbath, a trellised vine, a garden-art heart on the wall, and a few pieces of heart-shaped yard art. Add several small heart-shaped beds, outlined with bricks, garden edging, perhaps even a low, clipped boxwood edging. Plant some love-in-a-mist and a love-in-a-puff vine against the fence, and paint a “Love Grows in My Garden” sign.

Thyme lends itself to a small, showy garden. You can make a very simple thyme garden by laying out the shape of a heart in a sunny spot. Then lift the sod and till, enrich the soil, and add a border. Fill your heart garden with fragrant creeping thyme transplants,

which will mat together to completely fill the space. Keep the thyme weed-free (medieval monks set their novices to this task, as an exercise in humility), and snip it back occasionally.

Looking for a special Valentine’s gift for a gardening friend? Find a pretty heart-shaped container with drainage holes, suitable for use as a planter. Add a small bag of potting soil, a bag of lightweight drainage medium (small pebbles, foam chips), and a packet of thyme seeds. Wrap, add a bow, and deliver with your heartfelt sentiments.

Read more about designing and planting a theme garden:

Theme Gardens
(Sunset Series), by Hazel White

Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right moment, can be confused with paradise.

—HENRY MITCHELL

FEBRUARY 11

The Guarani Indians had known for centuries about the unique advantages of
kaa he-he
(a native term which translates as “sweet herb”)—long before the invaders from the Old World were lured by the treasures of the New. These native people knew the leaves of the wild stevia shrub (a perennial indigenous to the Amambay Mountain region) to have a sweetening power unlike anything else; they commonly used the
leaves to enhance the taste of bitter
maté
(a tea-
like beverage) and medicinal potions, or simply chewed them for their sweet taste.

—DONNA GATES, THE STEVIA STORY:

A TALE OF INCREDIBLE SWEETNESS & INTRIGUE

A Sweet Secret

Stevia (
Stevia rebaudiana
) is a sweet-tasting calorie-free herb native to Paraguay, a small perennial shrub belonging to the
Chrysanthemum
family. It is said to be ten to fifteen times sweeter than granulated sugar, with several important plusses: It’s nontoxic, does not affect blood sugar levels, and can be used in cooking, with a little experimentation. The “Honey Leaf plant” used to be a well-kept secret, but now the dried herb is available at large natural food stores and on-line. You can grow it in your garden, as well.

GROWING STEVIA

Stevia is difficult to grow from seed, so start with plants, putting them out about the time you’d set out tomatoes. Stevia likes a rich, well-drained soil, so use organic compost generously, mulch to shade the shallow roots, and don’t overwater. Pinch out the tips to produce a bushy plant, and harvest stevia before flowering, for flowering imparts a bitter taste to the leaves. Cut the plant at the base and hang in a warm, airy place. Remove the dry, crisp leaves and sift out stems and branches. Pulverize the leaves and store the powder in lidded jars or zip-top bags.

USING STEVIA

Use stevia in most recipes in place of sugar: 1 teaspoon crushed/powdered leaves equals 1 cup of sugar. Don’t use stevia in baking, because it does not supply the bulk of sugar. Dry stevia may produce an aftertaste, while liquid stevia does not. To make the liquid sweetener, pour one cup boiling water over 1 tablespoon of dried, powdered stevia. Steep for 3-4 minutes, then strain through a coffee filter. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Read more about this interesting herb:

The Stevia Story: A Tale of Incredible Sweetness & Intrigue
, by Donna Gates

Stevia-Sweet Recipes
, by Jerry Goettemoeller

FEBRUARY 12

Today is the feast of Artemis (Diana), the threefold goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity.

Artemisia

The genus of gray and silvery plants named Artemisia were sacred to Artemis. There are some 180 species, all decorative, most medicinal, a few culinary.

CULINARY ARTEMISIAS

• Tarragon:
A. dracunculus
.
Dracunculus
means “little dragon.” Not very pretty to look at, but has a lovely anise flavor. Difficult to grow in Southern gardens.

MEDICINAL ARTEMISIAS

Artemisias have been used medicinally around the world. All are decorative, in various shades of green, pale green, and gray, and make a pretty show in your garden. These are the two most often mentioned, although
A. tridentata
(sagebrush) is widely used by native peoples in the American Southwest.

• Mugwort:
Artemisia vulgaris
. Some say that the common name comes from its use as a flavoring for beer, the people’s beverage. It was used chiefly as a vermifuge (to repel intestinal parasites, hence the name wormwood), but also to stimulate menstruation, as an abortifacient (to induce abortion), and to treat epilepsy, colds, fevers, bronchitis, colic, sciatica, kidney ailments, and indigestion. Also used in dream pillows, in purification smudging, and as an insect repellant. Medieval travelers put mugwort in their shoes.

• Wormwood:
A. absinthium
. A very bitter herb, it was used like mugwort. It was the chief ingredient in absinthe, the infamous emerald liqueur (which also contained the aromatic herbs melissa, anise, marjoram, and angelica). In concentrated form, a volatile poison. Best to use it as a natural pest control, to repel fleas and ants, and in companion plantings.

DECORATIVE ARTEMISIAS

Their cool, crisp silver foliage makes these plants a delight in the garden and useful in wreaths and dried arrangements. A landscaping bonus: deer don’t like the bitter taste!

• Silver King and Silver Queen: varieties of
A. ludoviciana

• Powys Castle:
A. arborescens
, one of my favorite artemisias

• Dusty Miller:
A. stelleriana
, mostly grown as an annual

• Southernwood:
A. abrotanum
, green and ferny. Especially useful as a border or green groundcover. Also used as a moth repellant

• Desert sage: A.
palmeri,
used in purification smudging

Learn how to grow and use artemisia:

The Rodale Herb Book
, edited by William H. Hylton

FEBRUARY 13

I am fully and intensely aware that plants are conscious of love and respond to it as they do to nothing else.

—CELIA THAXTER (1835-1894)

Love Charms

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so you might want to brush up on your herbal love lore. For centuries, plants have been important to lovers, for a whole bouquet of reasons! Here are a few you might not have thought of:

• Honeysuckle. The scent of honeysuckle was thought to induce erotic dreams; hence, many parents forbade their daughters to bring it into the house.

• Periwinkle. It was believed that people who ate periwinkle leaves together would fall in love. Another potion, less tasty: powdered periwinkle, houseleek, earthworms.

• Bay. If you want to dream of your future lover, pin five bay leaves to the four corners and the center of your pillow, before you go to bed tonight. Be sure to repeat the traditional charm (it won’t work if you don’t): St. Valentine, be kind to me, in dreams let me my true love see.

• Cornflower. A lover was advised to put a cornflower into his lapel. If the color stayed true-blue, the young lady would be his; if it faded, he’d lost her. Goethe’s Faust illustrates:

Now gentle flower, I pray thee tell
If my lover loves me, and loves me well,
So may the fall of the morning dew
Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue.

• Yarrow. A lady hoping to attract a reluctant lover was advised to walk through a patch of yarrow, barefoot at midnight under a full moon. She was to pick some blossoms (with her eyes shut), then take them home and put them under her bed. If the flowers were still fresh, it was a sign that her lover would come around to the idea before long; if the flowers were dry, she should think about looking for another fellow.

• A two-leaf clover in your shoe could predict your mate:

A clover of two, a clover of two,
Put it in your right shoe.
The first young man you meet,
In field or lane or street,
You’ll have him or one of his name.

Learn how to use herbal love charms:

Love Potions: A Book of Charms and Omens
, by Josephine Addison

In the floral calendar, today’s flower: yellow crocus.

FEBRUARY 14

Today is Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Is an Herb, Too!

We’re not the first civilization to believe that chocolate is a gift of the gods. The Mayans worshipped the cacao plant (
Theobroma cacao
), used its beans as currency, and brewed them into a medicinal drink called
xocolatl
. The Aztecs believed that the god of agriculture carried the plant to earth. Clever folks: they mixed it with chile peppers and used it as an aphrodisiac.

The Spanish explorers knew a good thing when they saw it, and took the cacao beans home to make a drink for their wealthy patrons, who naturally added sugar to sweeten the bitter brew. Doctors prescribed the new drink for everything from tuberculosis to intestinal parasites and sexual dysfunction. The French feared that chocolate might raise passions to an uncontrollable frenzy (you know those French), but the Brits loved it enough to take the risk, and before long, London was chock-full of chocolate houses. Chocolate-loving English emigrants took the confection with them to North America, and before you knew it, we had Hershey’s. More recently, scientists have learned that chocolate has twice as many antioxidants as red wine, that it relaxes blood vessels and reduces the risk of blood clotting—and that it triggers the same brain responses as falling in love. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

MCQUAID’S HOT ’N’ SPICY CHOCOLATE

This wintertime drink, reminiscent of the Aztec’s
xocolatl
, combines two of McQuaid’s favorite herbs, chocolate and chile pepper—both reputed to have aphrodisiac properties, perfect for a Valentine’s Day evening.

½ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon fine-ground chile powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups water
6 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
whipped cream
nutmeg
8 cinnamon sticks

Blend dry ingredients together in a large saucepan. Add water, stirring, and simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in milk and reheat. Whisk in vanilla and pour into warm mugs. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg, and add a cinnamon stir stick. Makes 8 1-cup servings.

Read more about the mysteries of chocolate:

Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
, by Mort Rosenblum

FEBRUARY 15

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent . . . If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.

—THERESE OF LISIEUX

The Violet: “A Fine, Pleasing Plant of Venus”

According to Greek mythology, violets helped the god Zeus out of a bind. You see, he fell in love with a priestess named Io. When Zeus’ long-suffering wife, Hera, found out about this illicit affair, she was understandably miffed. To keep Io out of his wife’s way, Zeus turned the young lady into a white heifer. To give her something to eat, he created a field of violets for her—and while he was at it, he sent a bunch of violets to Hera, as an apology. The flowers soothed the jealous goddess, suggesting to the Greeks that these pretty blossoms might have a therapeutic, calming effect. It wasn’t long before violets were being used everywhere as a fragrant sleep aid.