What in the heck is it?

Several months back, as I was planning my garden, I was very interested in companion planting and learned that borage grows well with tomatoes. I had never heard of borage, but found some seeds at the store, so I decided to go ahead and include them in my garden. Wow! What a plant! Often people ask me "what the heck is it?" when I point it out in my garden. I did a little research and thought I'd share it with you.

First of all, borage is edible--the leaves are most tasty when young. The plant is hairy all over and the consistency is a little strange to get used to, but the leaves taste like cucumber and make a great addition to salads. The flowers are edible too. Second of all, when you plant this in your garden, make sure you leave a lot of room for it to grow. Though the flowers are tiny, the plant itself can grow up to two or three feet tall and just as wide! Bees love the flowers, which is another added bonus if you are growing organically.

Grown as an herb, this plant is popular in Europe, and it is most often used in Germany, Spain, and Italy. In Germany the popular Frankfurter Grüne Soβe (Gruene Sosse) uses borage along with many other herbs.

Perhaps most importantly, at least in my mind, borage grows well with tomatoes. It is said that borage repels the tomato worm and makes tomatoes taste better if grown together. In my garden I have a ring of borage intermixed with nasturtiums, marigolds, and basil (all also make excellent tomato companions) surrounding four tomato plants. Whether they taste better will be the subject for a later post!