15 Reasons To Grow Borage + Ways To Use It

         Written by Elizabeth Waddington

Borage is often mentioned in organic gardening circles. It is considered by many to be a wonderful plant, which can find pride of place in many gardens. But what exactly is so great about this plant? What is borage? What are the reasons to grow it in your garden?

And how exactly should you use it in your garden (and once it is harvested)?

  Read on to find out. 

What is Borage?

Borage is the common name for Borago officinalis. It is also known as starflower.

This is an annual flowering plant. It flowers from around June right through to October in most temperate climates and grows to around two feet in height at a medium rate.

In warmer climes it may even bloom almost continuously for most of the year.

Borage is native to the Mediterranean region and has naturalized elsewhere. It grows very well in gardens across Europe and is also common in kitchen gardens across North America.

The plant is hairy all over its stems and leaves. The flowers are star-like, with five, narrow, triangular-pointed petals. These beautiful flowers are generally blue, though pink flowers are occasionally also observed, and there are also white-flowered cultivars.

The flowers are generally a deeper blue when the plants are grown in poorer soil conditions.

Borage is relatively unfussy when it comes to growing conditions.

It can cope with almost all soil types, including soils low in nutritional content. The plant can also cope with a range of soil pH levels, even very alkaline soils.

It can survive with very free-draining soils and is relatively drought tolerant. And can be grown in full sun, or light or dappled shade.

Borage is best grown from seed. Sow seeds under cover and plant them out once weather has begun to warm, or direct sow seeds where they are to grow after the last frost date in your area.

Sow once, this annual will then readily self-seed if left to its own devices.

 Why Grow Borage in Your Garden?

There are a great many reasons why you should consider growing borage in your garden. It is useful both while it is in growth, and as a crop for harvesting.

Here are just 15 reasons to grow borage in your garden:

1. Borage is an Edible Crop

One of the main reasons to grow borage in your garden is as an edible crop.

You can eat the leaves, raw or cooked, and the flowers, raw, as a garnish or in drinks. The dried stems can also be used for flavoring, and the seeds yield an oil that is particularly high in gamma-linolenic acid. 

We’ll talk a little more about how you can use borage as an edible crop a little later in this article.

Not only does it taste great, it is also a common ingredient in herbal medicine, and can be great for your health. 

A couple of caveats to mention, however: people with liver problems would be best to avoid eating these plants.

And no one should make borage a major part of their diet, as it does contain small quantities of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in tiny quantities.  That said, you will generally find that borage is a useful addition to your home-grown diet. 

2. Borage Looks Beautiful 

Wherever you choose to grow it, borage is beautiful as well as useful. Blooming over a long portion of the year, borage can bring a cheery splash of blue to your garden. Its delicate flowers stand out against a sea of green and can add to the visual amenity of your space.

They can add floral beauty to:

• Your vegetable beds or kitchen garden.
• Dedicated herb gardens.
• A fruit tree guild.
• Planting areas around fruit bushes or fruiting canes (or largely perennial polycultures).
• An ornamental bed or border in your garden.

3. It Self-Seeds Readily So Pops Up Year After Year

One of the interesting things about borage is that, even though it is an annual, it will generally, once planted, remain in your garden for years. Borage, when left to set seed, will generally self-seed very readily.

So once you have planted some in your garden, you should find that it seeds itself and pops up all around your growing areas year after year. 

While self-seeding plants are not always ideal for very neat and tidy gardeners, borage is such a useful plant that gardeners are often happy to let it naturalize around their gardens.

It is worthwhile remembering that self-seeding annuals and a good mixture of perennial plants are ideal for a low-maintenance garden. So, borage can be a great choice for those with limited time, who want to create a garden where there is less to do each year. 

4. Borage is a Dynamic Accumulator

Borage has the ability to dynamically gather nutrients from the soil. This can help reduce nutrient leaching and make sure that nutrients are gathered and stored.

Borage is said to be particularly beneficial in accumulating potassium.

While scientific evidence on dynamic accumulation is often scant, it could be worthwhile considering borage in this capacity. 

 5. So, It Can Also Be Great as Mulch

Since borage captures and stores nutrients (such as potassium) effectively from the soil, it can be beneficial when chopped and dropped around other garden plants as mulch.

Borage can be beneficial as a mulch around a range of common crops and may be particularly beneficial for flowering and fruiting plants. Mulching with organic plant material adds to the nutrients available in the soil for the uptake of other plants. It also improves the soil quality, reduces weeds, and aids in water retention. 

6. Or On The Compost Heap

As chopped plants, you can also add borage to your compost heap or other composting system. 

As a nitrogen rich green material, which is also high in potassium and other essential plant nutrients, borage can help all the materials in the heap to break down. 

Adding borage to your compost heap can also help make sure you have a nutrient-rich and well-balanced compost at the end of the process. 

7. Or When Used To Make a Liquid Fertilizer for Your Plants

Another way to use chopped borage is to make your own liquid fertilizer or liquid plant feed for your growing areas. Liquid fertilizers can be made using a range of different weeds and garden plants. They can give your crops a quick boost and help maintain fertility in your growing areas.

You can use borage alone or combine it with other weeds from your garden for a nutrient rich weed tea that provides other plants with a wider range of different nutrients. 

8. Borage Helps Break Up and Aerate the Soil

This plant’s roots have a simple structure, but the way in which they penetrate the soil can help to break it up and aerate it.  Borage, therefore, can be a good choice in regions prone to compaction. A cover crop of borage could help to improve the soil quality before other crops are grown. 

And by self-seeding prolifically, borage can help to cover areas of bare soil and fill in patches in your growing areas. The more you can cover soil, the more you will protect the fragile and essential ecosystem it contains. 

9. Borage is Great for Bees

But perhaps the most important function borage fulfils in a garden is as a boon to bees and pollinators.

We are currently in a worrying period of mass extinction. Many bee species and other pollinating insects are endangered. Without these insects, we would not be able to grow much of our food without immense effort. 

It is vital that we protect biodiversity whenever we can.

As gardeners and growers, one of the things we can do is make sure we have flowers in bloom for pollinators throughout the year. Since borage can be in bloom over such a long season, it is a particularly beneficial bee-friendly plant. Bees are also attracted to borage flowers in preference to those of many other plants.

Bees tend to be attracted to purple/ blue flowers, and the simple structure of borage flowers means that the nectar is easy for bees and other pollinators to access. 

10. So, It Also Aids in Effective Pollination

What is great for the bees is great for the gardener or grower too. By planting bee-attractant plants like borage, we can make sure that pollinators are around to pollinate our crops.

Many of the common plants we grow depend on insects for pollination. So planting borage close to those plants can make a big difference to the yields that we get. 

The pollinator attracting properties of borage are one of the main reasons why it makes such a great companion plant for a range of crops. To aid pollination, borage can be a great addition all around your property. 

11. It’s Also a Trap Crop for Aphids

But there are also other reasons why borage is such a good companion plant. One other great thing about borage is that it attracts aphids.

You may not immediately think of this as a good thing. But since it draws aphids to it, this plant can serve as a useful trap crop. Aphids will be drawn preferentially to your borage, which can keep them away from your other crops. 

12. And All Those Aphids Attract Other Beneficial Insects

Another thing to consider is that since they attract aphids and other pest species, they also attract a range of other, more beneficial insects.

Insects like ladybugs and lacewings that prey on aphids will be drawn to their food source.

And having these beneficial bugs in your garden can help maintain a balance in the garden ecosystem overall. 

13. It May Also Deter Certain Pests

While the evidence is largely anecdotal, some gardeners swear that borage can also repel or deter certain pests, such as tomato hornworm, and cabbage moths, for example.

Whether or not borage really does repel these pests, it could be worth a try planting it as a companion plant for vulnerable crops. 

Even if it does not actually repel these pests, borage will still have the other benefits mentioned on this list. 

14. Borage is Great for Birds Too

Once borage goes to seed, the seed also provides food for a range of creatures, including a number of seed-eating bird species, such as finches.

Attracting birds to your garden will help keep the ecosystem in balance, and help maintain a healthy biodiversity in your garden. 

15. Including Backyard Chickens

And wild birds are not the only creatures which could benefit. Your feathered backyard flock will also enjoy eating borage.

It can be a useful addition to your hens’ foraged diet, or can be chopped and tossed into their run to give your chickens a healthy treat. 

15. Companion Planting With Borage So, now you have a much better idea of the reasons to grow borage in your garden, let’s take a little time to explore in a little more depth how you might use it.

The first and most common way to use borage in your garden design is as a companion plant.

Borage is a common companion plant for a wide range of different fruits and vegetables. In fact, borage can be a good ‘nurse’ plant throughout your garden and works well with almost any plant.

In particular, for some of the reasons mentioned above, borage is said to be a particularly good companion plant for:

• Cabbages (and other brassicas)
• Beans
• Cucumber
• Fruit trees (and fruit bushes and canes)
• Squash
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes

For example, borage might be included as part of a polyculture with tomatoes and squash, as in the link below.

A Companion Planting Trio @ thespruce.com

Using Borage in Crop Rotation/ As a Cover Crop

Another way to incorporate borage into your garden plan is to use it as a green manure or cover crop, which gathers nutrients, protects the soil and attracts beneficial wildlife before being chopped and dropped to feed the soil ready for the next crop in rotation. 

Using Borage as an Edible Crop

Borage is such a useful plant in the garden, while growing and when harvested, that you may not immediately turn your attention to its uses elsewhere on your homestead.

But whatever else you choose to do with it, it is worthwhile keeping a few plants aside to use in your kitchen.

As mentioned above, borage can also be a useful edible crop. So how can be use it?

Here are a few examples demonstrating the different ways that the leaves and flowers can be used:

Borage Recipes

Mixed Herb Salad With Borage @ food.com.

Cucumber Salad With Borage Flowers @ allrecipes.com.

Cucumber and Borage Canapés @ growntocook.com.

Sandwiches @ food.com.

Borage Cucumber Salad Dressing @ tasteofhome.com.

Raita @ sophies-table.com.

Pasta With Borage @ eatsmarter.com.

Quiche @ ladittatrice.wordpress.com.

Borage Leaf, Pea and Mint Soup @ theseasonaltable.co.uk.

What is more, borage is also used in a number of different drinks. It is a common garnish for the UK drink ‘Pimms’ and for lemonade.

For cool cocktails in summer, you can freeze borage flowers in ice cubes then add them to your beverages.

Borage is also used to make a soothing tea.

Traditionally, borage tea is used as a herbal remedy for depression and melancholia.

In herbal medicine, an infusion is taken internally to treat fevers, chest problems and kidney problems.

It is also used in the regulation of female cycles and to promote good heart health. (Though if you plan on using herbal remedies on a regular basis, it is always best to work with a qualified herbal medicine practitioner.)

Other Uses for Borage

Borage is also used externally in herbal medicine to treat inflammatory swellings. You can make a poultice to sooth the skin.

Borage Poultice @ herbclass.com.

If the seeds are harvested, these can be used to create borage oil, which is extremely rich in gamma-linolenic acid (an essential fatty acid) also known as vitamin F. Borage oil has been shown to have a beneficial effect for those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

Borage oil can also be used in making soap, and in making a range of other skin care products. You can also simply add a few leaves or flowers to a number of other soap recipes, such as the one below:

Cucumber and Borage Soap @ thenerdyfarmwife.com.

Finally, borage flowers can be used to make a dye – either for edible recipes, or for dyeing fabric. The flowers work especially well for blue dyes when frozen.

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to give borage some space in your garden. So why not get some seeds and plant some in your garden! 

Sweet Scent, Strong Vines: A Guide to Growing Honeysuckle

Trumpet Honeysuckle

Looking to charm the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds?  Honeysuckle is perfect for you.  With its sweet scent, vibrant blooms and easy-going nature Honeysuckle is a garden favorite.  There are about 180 identified species that are characterized by long, trumpet-shaped flowers in bright red, orange and yellow colors, most with yellow centers. 

Heaven Scent Honeysuckle

 

Native Honeysuckles are an essential food source for many Lepidoptera species.  In addition to providing nectar and pollen, the plants are critical larval hosts for species like the Snowberry Clear Wing Moth, which mimics the look of a giant bumble bee. 

Two popular varieties are the Trumpet Honeysuckle and the Heaven Scent Honeysuckle.  Beware of the invasive Japanese Honeysuckle.

The 'Trumpet Honeysuckle' (Sempervirens) or 'Coral' Honeysuckle is known for its brilliant red to orange trumpet flowers that bloom profusely from Spring into Summer.  The foliage is bluish-green and slightly leathery.  This plant is not only decorative but also non-invasive, making it a favorite among native plant growers. However, it is non-fragrant, sadly!!                                       

The 'Heaven Scent' Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum is a deciduous vine loved for its highly fragrant, creamy pink and yellow flowers that open in midsummer and continue through early Fall.  Its blooms are very fragrant in the evening making it an interesting addition near patios or walkways.  The green foliage provides a dense backdrop, and red berries may follow the flowers.  It also serves as a host plant for the larvae of the Admiral butterfly and the Twenty-Plume moth.   

Goldflame Honeysuckle

While not a native, ‘Goldflame Honeysuckle’ (Lonicera × heckrottii) is a cultivated hybrid that provides many benefits similar to natives. It is non-invasive, produces highly fragrant, nectar-rich flowers that are excellent for attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.

Honeysuckles are susceptible to powdery mildew, aphids, scale insects and caterpillars. Honeysuckle aphids are small grey-green colored.  They feed on new growth, causing leaves to curl and twigs to form stunted “witch’s brooms” (clustered deformed twigs). They are particularly damaging to Tatarian Honeysuckle.  

Aphids are often managed by natural predators, but if they return yearly, apply insecticidal soap.  Pruning and on occasion, chemical intervention may be required to save the plant. 

Honeysuckles will grow in light shade and full sun.  You are likely to get more blooms if  you plant in a location with 6 hours of sunshine per day and most varieties are hardy to USDA Zones 4-9. 

Resources:

https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/vines-in-the-landscape-goldflame-honeysuckle

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lonicera-sempervirens

Spotlight on Hardy Geraniums

Geraniums often bring visions of Grandma’s garden with their robust, scented foliage and dazzling flower heads. These geraniums are annuals for most regions and belong to a separate genus in the Geranium family known as Pelargoniums. Today, however, we are going to take a look at another type of perennial geranium in the same plant family known as hardy geraniums or cranesbills.

Max Frei Bloody Cranesbil first bloom of the season

Hardy geraniums come in a variety of growth habits, flower color and bloom time.  They can be hardy for zones 5-81.  Geranium flowers have 5 sepals, 5 petals and stamens in groups of 52.  Some are long season repeat bloomers while others give a flush of blooms once a season.  The leaves are lobed and can have varying degrees of dissection between cultivars.   Some cultivars have foliage that turns a beautiful red color in the fall, extending their season of interest.   

Rozanne Geranium using Gaura as a support

One of the best known varieties of cranesbill geranium is Rozanne with its purple-blue flowers.   Rozanne is a vigorous perennial that plays well with other plants, using them as support as it winds and weaves its way around. It has a growth spread of up to 3 feet3 but can be sheared back to rejuvenate if it begins to appear leggy. It blooms from late spring through autumn.   

In contrast to its more vigorous
growing cousin, Max Frei Bloody cranesbill grows in a tidy, mounding clump of 12-18 inches with small bright magenta flowers against its rich green foliage. A perfect front-of-the-border perennial.   The foliage turns brilliant red in the fall extending its season of interest.  

There are also varieties of hardy geraniums that have deep dark foliage such as midnight ghost with its chocolatey brown leaves, wine colored stems and white flowers.  In all, there are around 300 different cultivars4 of hardy geraniums and many of the lesser known varieties can be purchased online as bareroot plants.  They are wonderful plants that can add a pop of color to a garden or be used in a mass planting for ground cover.  

1. Cranesbill, Hardy Geranium

https://extension.illinois.edu/flowers/cranesbill-hardy-geranium

2. The Genus Geranium:  https://canr.udel.edu/udbg/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2024/02/Geranium-Featured-Plant-Article.pdf

3. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ the 2008 Perennial of the Year

https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/geranium-rozanne-the-2008-perennial-of-the-year/

4. Hardy Geraniums for Northern Gardens

https://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no22_geraniums.pdf

Container Gardening - Tomatoes...and more!

Container vegetable gardening is an accessible and rewarding way to grow your own food, whether you have a sprawling backyard or just a sunny balcony. Choosing the right vessel is the foundation of a successful container garden. Most vegetables need at least 12 inches of depth, and larger is generally better. A 5-gallon container works for compact plants, while tomatoes thrive in 10 to 15-gallon pots.

Make sure every container has drainage holes to prevent waterlogged roots. Skip regular garden soil, which compacts easily in pots. Instead, use a high-quality potting mix blended with compost for nutrients and perlite or vermiculite to keep it light and well-draining.

When it comes to what to grow, a classic and productive combination is tomatoes, basil and pollinator-friendly flowers. Tomatoes are a container garden staple.

“Compact” or "patio" varieties do especially well in pots. Look for “determinate” tomatoes if you seed start or purchasing starts for your container. These are the type of tomatoes that mature to a certain height and won’t overwhelm a container/small space. Basil is a natural companion plant that repels certain pests and thrives in the same sunny, warm conditions as tomatoes. Tuck in a few flowers like marigolds, nasturtiums, or zinnias to attract bees and butterflies, which are essential for pollinating your tomatoes and keeping your garden productive.

With the right size pot, a good quality potting mix, and a thoughtful combination of plants like tomatoes, basil, and pollinator flowers, you can create a thriving mini-garden almost anywhere. Keep up with watering — containers dry out faster than garden beds — and you'll be rewarded with a beautiful, productive space all season long.

For even more information on other vegetables and plants to grow in pots, go here: 
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/container-gardening-grow-vegetables-even-without-yard-space

Pruning Lilacs on the Old Homestead - What I Learned...

Before Pruning

It is late winter in the Treasure Valley, and you live in a rural area in an older home. The poplars have aged out and there are several stumps in the yard. The silver maples bordering the pasture are taking over. The cottonwoods are huge and messy. You play pick up sticks after every storm. The sumac is long and leggy and the one and the only lilac has been ignored for a long time. It attacks you when you mow and is curling under the eaves. There is a plan to paint the house this summer, so a plan is required to minimize the lilac’s size, so I began my research!

The best time to prune a lilac is in the spring a month after it blooms. This gives the plant plenty of time to develop buds for the following year. If flowering is your main priority, this is a good time to prune.

Lilacs can also tolerate a “hard prune” also known as rejuvenation pruning when dormant, which is cutting all the old stems to within 6-12 inches from the ground. In the spring new stems will grow. The advantage to this is that it really does not require much skill. The disadvantage is that it could take up to 3 years to bloom again.  This is best for lilacs that are overgrown and no longer flowering.

Selective heading cuts are best for managing the size of the lilac. Heading cuts are made by pruning the terminal part of 30% of younger stems back to a bud. This will help maintain its natural shape.

An alternative to the “hard prune” is to thin the oldest lilac stems by 30% also known as renewal pruning, using the “Three-year Plan”, when dormant to open up the shrub and contain it in its allotted space. This will also increase light penetration and air circulation.

 This is what I chose. I planned to prune 30%, but not to top it using the following steps:

After Pruning

1.Remove dead and diseased limbs. Remove the debris. It already looks better.
2. Remove crossing branches.
3. Working from bottom, thin 30% of stems to open up the tree.

I laid a tarp on the ground for clippings and tried to evaluate how much I had removed. It has been suggested to me to take a picture before and after pruning to help determine when I had reached my 30% goal, remembering that 30% is an ‘eyeball’ estimate. Less is more as they say. There is always next year.

Leafed out and Bloomed!

How does the lilac look? Better, but not perfect. Leafing out will help it a lot. I checked it yesterday (03/26/26) and it is starting to leaf out, and I can see buds on the branches. If there is not hard freeze, it will bloom this season. Some sources advise fertilizing and mulching after pruning, but there was a substantial mulch of cottonwood leaves around it, and I can fertilize once water is available.

Conclusion: Reading about pruning and doing it are two different things. It didn’t turn out to be as daunting as I had feared. 

Organic Gardening – What are the Benefits?

An organic gardener promotes natural ecosystems, focuses on soil health, composting and biodiversity.  They also avoid synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms.  What are the benefits of gardening this way?  Can I still get a bountiful crop of food from my home garden if I use these methods? Here's some guidelines!

Environmental benefits include building the soil, avoiding harmful chemicals, using nature as a teacher and protecting our pollinators.  Did you know that our pollinators are responsible for 1 out of 3 bites of food that we eat!  

What about soil building?  Using compost is an excellent way to introduce organic matter into the soil.  This feeds the microorganisms in the soil and helps the soil to be healthy and full of the nutrition your plants need to thrive.  What about using nature as a teacher?  We learn from hands-on experience, our successes and our mistakes.  

In the Treasure Valley, organic gardening offers unique regional benefits due to the area’s semi-arid climate and alkaline soils. By incorporating organic matter like compost, gardeners can improve soil structure, increase water retention, and reduce the need for frequent irrigation during hot, dry summers. 

Mulching is especially helpful in conserving moisture and regulating soil temperature. Additionally, choosing drought-tolerant and native plants can lead to more resilient gardens that thrive with fewer inputs. 

What about insect and disease control?  While there are safe, organic products to use in your home garden, there are also things you can do to prevent diseases and manage the insects in your garden.  Timing matters when planting and when using organic products to help your plants thrive.  Prevention is also key.  Pay attention to your garden, this way you can stop a small problem from becoming a big problem.  Educate yourself on what to look for.  Practice, experience and learning from others will help you to start implementing some of these practices in your own home garden.

Organic gardening is a great way to familiarize yourself with how things grow, when plants might need some help to thrive, and why our pollinators and our soil are so important to the success of gardening.