Types of chives & Alliums + Egg Salad Recipe
Egg salad is good at anytime of the day, but I think it makes for a perfect brunch. It’s a seasonally appropriate dish in the spring as well. When people lived off the land more than they do now, eggs were usually in over abundance in the spring. Egg salad is a good way to use up a lot of eggs. Add in some fresh chopped herbs and you can vary its seasonings. Fresh tarragon, dill, or chives I think are very fitting.
Chives are one of my favorite herbs. They certainly add a kick on top of a baked potato. Chives are in flower right now, and those flowers are edible! They have a lighter flavor than the actual chive.
There are several types of chives. Chives are part of the onion, or Allium, family, which makes them a nice ornamental plant too. They grow from a bulb underground. The chives we typically find are Allium schoenoprasum. The leaf and the flower stalks are all edible. They flower purple and are most commonly found at garden centers in the herb section. I have not had luck starting these from seed, unless the seed I ordered was bad. Chives are delicate and should be used as a fresh herb or garnish.
Then you have Garlic or Chinese chives, Allium tuberosum. They also grow from a bulb underground. The leaves are flat, but the flower stalks are round. It flowers white later in the summer, and is always covered in pollinators! I grew these easily from seed and they do reseed around the garden quite well. They can be cooked like a vegetable and used in stir-fry. They have a light garlic flavor and can be used similarly to the other chive. These chives can also be used as a fresh herb.
Scallions, also known as green onions, are different than chives, but they are still in the Allium family. They are also known as bunching onions, Allium fistulosum, which is the name you’ll look for if purchasing seed. Scallions are the green parts of young onions, which grow by roots in the ground. I love scallions on top of soups or Mexican casseroles.
I love them all and it’s worthwhile growing all of them for different uses and flavors. I keep all these in my garden plus shallots (Allium cepa aggregatum), garlic (Allium sativum), and regular onions (Allium cepa)! Beyond that, there are ornamental alliums too such as ‘Millennium’, and the spring flowering Allium bulbs such as ‘Globemaster’.
This short lesson in Alliums may have you hungry, so whip up some egg salad and look up some Allium species you may want to grow in your garden.
Egg Salad Recipe
- 1 dozen eggs, hardboiled
- 1/3 cup mayonaise
- 1 T yellow or dijon mustard
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 2 T Chives
- S&P to taste
Fertilize Spring Flowering Bulbs
Here in my area of Kentucky, daffodils, crocus, and spring Iris are flowering! Tulips and hyacinths are also on the rise.
Spring flowering bulbs are hungry harbingers of spring. They will benefit from being fertilized in the spring while the green is emerging or when they just start to flower.
Tulips in particular can be finicky, you really have to pick the right variety for them to persist in the garden. Some varieties, if planted in an ideal setting, can persist a little longer than expected. That being said, tulips definitely benefit from fertilization each spring.
Just pull back the mulch and apply an all purpose organic fertilizer of your choice at the recommended rate. I use Bio-Tone.
Book Review: New Small Garden by Noel Kingsbury
New Small Garden by Noel Kingsbury published in 2016 published by Frances Lincoln.
This is one of my favorite garden design books. I’ve checked it out several times from my local library.
Noel Kingsbury is a famous British garden designer and has written quite a few books. He is largely known for his naturalistic planting design and his collaborations with Piet Oudolf.
In this book, Kingsbury goes through different elements of garden design and how to use them within a small garden space. Kingsbury also gives tips on how to use plants to accentuate form, shape, and texture throughout the garden.
There are some plant recommendations at the end of the book. Some of the plants may not be pertinent choices for the US. Some of the plants I would consider planting in my region. I personally tend to gloss over plant recommendation lists because I like to choose native plants to my region above other plant choices. However, there are only a few pages in this book with plant recommendations.
The style throughout this book is mostly contemporary, but the plantings are lush and little on the wilder side. There is a small section of the book devoted to container plantings and edible plants in small spaces.
Another good feature of this book is that it gives importance to being environmentally conscious. There’s design ideas on how to incorporate rain gardens, drainage swales, and permeable surfaces. I really like the section that encourages the use of salvaged and recycled materials in the garden.
This post originally appeared on http://www.EARTHeim.com. There may be links to products in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links. This is at no cost to you and you don’t need to do anything. All opinions are my own.
Egg Carton Easter Wreath DIY
If you eat eggs, you’re likely to get egg cartons you throw away or don’t know what to do with. There are many crafty ideas out there on how to reuse egg cartons, from using as organizational storage boxes to small crafts.
Click Image for Pinterest Board
In a magazine I saw an egg carton that was made into a tray to hold jewelry. Something from that article inspired me to think that an egg carton would make a cute spring wreath. I got out a couple of cartons and scissors and started putting together a wreath and this is what I came up with.
It makes a fun craft to do with kids, especially in a classroom setting, and is inexpensive. It can be decorated anyway you like. You can use craft supplies you already have on hand too.
You will need
- 2 paperboard egg cartons
- Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks
- Scissors
- Paint & paintbrush
- Decorative elements of your choice
Instructions
Step 1. Trim off the lid and closing flap. Then trim the points that stick up between each individual egg cup.
Step 2. Cut the tray into 4 pieces as shown.
Step 3. Arrange the 4 pieces as shown.
Step 4. After you have completed Steps 1-3 for both egg cartons, arrange them into a wreath shape as shown. Then take each piece and trim the edges to make them smoother.
Step 5. Hot glue each section together. Apply the glue at the top of the egg cups and hold together until it sets.
Step 6. Take the lid, and cut into strips. You can use these strips to reinforce the wreath by gluing them across the sections on the back.
Step 7. Paint the wreath front and back with the desired color/s. Spraypaint would make this faster. I used a paint sample from Lowes I already had.
Step 8. Add your decorative elements!
This original content first appeared at http://www.EARTHeim.com. All rights reserved.
The Potager: Kitchen Gardens
A kitchen garden is a space to grow food with herbs and edible and non-edible flowers mixed in. In France, a kitchen garden is called a ‘potager’ (pow-tuh-jei). When I think of the word ‘potager’ I envision a small edible garden that’s pretty, organized, and a welcoming space.
A kitchen garden should be fun and exciting. It does not have to resemble a big rectangular plot we till and plant rows of crops in every year. It can be small, stylish, and planted in any pattern.
Helpful Link: Brooklyn Botanic Garden- Potager Gardens
Growing your own food right at home can be a satisfying experience. Besides growing nutritious fresh food, it has other benefits to health. It’s a reason to get outside, get some light some exercise, and focus on something that requires you to be in the moment.
There are plenty of chances for creativity while growing a kitchen garden, such as figuring how to arrange the plants and what to do with all the food, herbs, and flowers after harvest. Too much fresh sage? Learn how to dry it and save it to make Thanksgiving stuffing.
Herbs are easy to incorporate since most are smaller and shorter than the fruiting plants. A kitchen garden could be planted with herbs alone. I built an herb spiral for one of my clients, where many different types herbs could be planted.
A kitchen garden is a way to spruce up a potentially unused area around your house. It can be located in an outdoor space near your kitchen, but can be anywhere as long as it’s easy to access. Raised beds make edible gardening easier, but the garden can be grown in the ground too.
Intermixing fruiting plants with herbs and flowers has other benefits. Flowers can be cut for bouquets to liven up the kitchen table. All the flowers from the plants invite bees, butterflies, and beetles, which we want to pollinate our food. Even though I don’t use much basil, I grow tons of it each year, just to simply please the pollinators.
EARTHeim offers consultations and garden coaching if you’d like to learn how to set up your own kitchen garden as a diy-er. I also offer design and installation services for kitchen gardens.
An upcoming book you may be interested in, ‘Kitchen Garden Revival’ will be coming out in April, written by Nicole Burke. Read the Article on Southern Living Here about her.
This post originally appeared on http://www.EARTHeim.com. There may be links to products in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links. This is at no cost to you and you don’t need to do anything. All opinions are my own.
