3 tips for growing Borage

Borage is popular for the garden because it not only looks beautiful with its blue and white flowers but it’s also edible. These tips will tell you everything you need to know to successfully grow this plant in your garden.

Borage is a herb which produces pretty blue flowers adding charm to any yard. It works well in salads too as it’s oval leaves have a refreshing cucumber flavour.

This herb self-seeds so once you plant it, you can count on it sticking around. Its colours add a dash of personality to a herb garden – and any part of yard for that matter. Its colours complement the purples of lavender and sage.

Borage blossoms from late spring. This herb is stunning as a perennial border where it will pleasantly surprise you by appearing somewhere different every year!

Borage is easy to care for. Give it a little water and check for slugs and that’s about it. These tips will set you up:

• Borage grows best in full sun, but it tolerates partial shade in the afternoon.
• It doesn't require fertile soil, but moisture-retentive soil is a definite asset.
• If you direct-seed it in early spring, the plants send up flower stalks in early summer and continue to bloom for several months.
• If you don't want the plant to self-seed, clip off the flowers after they fade.
• Borage often wilts on hot days but will spring back to life when the sun sets. Like many herbs, borage isn't bothered by diseases and is rarely pestered by insects, although slugs will occasionally chew holes in the foliage.
• If you see smooth-edged holes in the leaves, set out a commercial slug trap or a shallow saucer filled with beer at sundown to trap these nocturnal feeders.
• Attracted by the yeasty smell, slugs will climb into the saucer and drown.

Before you add Borage to your yard, these facts and tips on growing the herb will help:

• Borage is easy to grow from seed.
• Chill the seeds in a refrigerator for a week before sowing directly in the garden in early spring.
• Even though established Borage enthusiastically self-seeds, it is not invasive.
• If you have extra seedlings, or if Borage happens to be where it isn't wanted, dig up the seedlings when they're small and transplant them with care.
• Wait for a cloudy day, moisten the soil around a plant several hours in advance, dig a circle 15 centimetres in diameter around the plant, and gently lift the seedling and surrounding soil.
• Transplant immediately, watering the seedling liberally when it has been repositioned.
• Shade the transplant for several days and continue to water regularly. In a week it should be safely settled in.

Borage is a great addition to any yard. It's blue and white colours add character and its fresh-tasting leaves make a tasty ingredient in salad. These 3 tips will help you grow this useful and pretty herb successfully.