Butterflies in the Garden

Butterflies in the Garden

Gardens are a lovely place to enjoy birds, bees and butterflies. Do you want to attract  more butterflies to your garden? Besides being beautiful to watch, butterflies also pollinate our gardens.Butterflies eat liquids that include the juice from fruit and the...
Beer Brewing Herbs

Beer Brewing Herbs

If you like beer you may be interested in growing some of your own ingredients. Hops are the most common herb used in beer and are used for  bittering. They are relatively easy to grow and make a nice vine to grow up your deck or elsewhere.hopsI’ve been...

Yarrow

I am trying to learn more about the native herbs that grow in Colorado so I can rely less on the European herbs that were transplanted here. Did you know that the common yarrow which is native to Colorado has been called ‘field hops’ because it can be used in making...

Brewers Herbs

Beer is an ancient drink (and food) that I happen to be quite fond of. I especially like beer with lots of floral hops. Hops were not always used in beer though, and may not have been used until the 9th century. Before that, a mixture of herbs referred to as gruit was...

Saponins

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)Solanine: a toxic saponin found in the nightshade familySaponins are plant chemicals are used for their detergent-like or cleaning properties. Some of the better known are Saponaria officinalis from Europe and Quillaja saponaria from...