Scratch and Sniff Plants

Dany: Mary from Nelson’s is here to talk about scratch and sniff gardening. Got a lot of cool plants here. What you got?

Mary: I have first off, wonderful cilantro. So I’m going to hand this to you. I want you to do a little scratch and sniff on that guy.

Dany: Scratch and sniff. So cilantro is an annual.

Mary: Cilantro is an annual. It’s pretty much all about planting it at the right time. Cilantro is great for using in Mexican dishes.

Dany: Yeah, smells like salsa.

Mary: Yes. Smells like wonderful salsa. So I love this plant. It’s super easy to grow.

Dany: That was nice, that was nice. So we have these basils here.

Mary: Yes. You want to get a good sniff in on that guy?

Dany: Scratch and sniff. So why am I scratching this before smelling it?

Mary: Because it releases the oils in the leaf. And that’s where you get that good heavy aroma from it.

Dany: That is so good.

Mary: So basils, you got a dead head a lot of the basils. Which basically just getting rid of the seeding part. That way you get more leaves coming out of it, more production out of it.

Dany: And the more you can, even if you can beat the flower to the punch, then that’s even better flavor that stays in the leaves.

Mary: That’s true.

Dany: Now one cool thing about Australian basil, right, barely even flowers at all.

Mary: Yeah. So that makes it a really good one for novice gardeners. If you can’t go out into your garden once a week, that’s a really good one to have in there. Because you’re not out there every day.

Dany: And then we got some grass.

Mary: That’s lemongrass.

Dany: Oh, lemongrass. Scratch and sniff time.

Mary: Scratch and sniff time. What does it smell like, Dany?

Dany: Smells like lemons.

Mary: I wonder why it’s called lemongrass then?

Dany: Because it smells like lemon.

Mary: Yeah.

Dany: No.

Mary: So lemongrass is wonderful. It has medicinal purposes. You can of course cook with it.

Dany: That smells really good.

Mary: And it’s great to just have an ornamental thing, keeps away mosquitoes.

Dany: How tall will this get?

Mary: It’ll get pretty tall. So I would say, it’s going to top out three, four feet sometimes. A big thing with this one is about every two years you’re going to have to divide it.

Dany: Okay, yeah. Just make little smaller clumps and get a few more lemon grasses.

Mary: Exactly.

Dany: One of our old favorites, rosemary. I know this one.

Mary: Yes. One of my personal favorites. Rose and then Mary in there, so.

Dany: Nice, yes.

Mary: Rosemary is great. It just needs a really good well draining soil.

Dany: Okay. And that’s going to be true for lavender as well.

Mary: Same thing for lavender. Get that soil, get a little bit of sand in there, or expanded shale. That’ll let that moisture seep out of there. Keep those plants happy.

Dany: A lot of times these too, you don’t want to plant them right by the house because it traps the humidity.

Mary: Yes.

Dany: But what a great festival. So is this is also a good way to get kids gardening?

Mary: Yes. It’s a great way to get kids out there. My son’s only nine months old and I had him out there yesterday with the cilantro. He took it in his hands and he put it up to his mouth and he ate it. But she still smelled it.

Dany: That’s awesome. Well cool. Well for more great info, go a HomeShowGardenPros.com.