Garden by Design ~4~

I love variety – variety of shape, of scent, of color, of texture.

Echinacea has an incredible 19 varieties – including an two endangered varieties!  Colors ranging from delicately soft whites and yellows, to lovely pinks and purples, unusual greens, and vibrant oranges and reds.

Echinacea grows quite tall, and attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds – and goldfinch in the fall to eat the drying seed heads that you don’t pick!  As they prefer full sun, my thoughts are to put these in the front of the house, along the front of the stairs leading from the bottom driveway up to the top one.  It’s a very steep area that will be quite difficult to cut with the lawnmower..and flowers are prettier anyway, right?

http://www.forestwander.com

I love that they’re so easy to grow – yes, they do love full sun, but they also tolerate the shade.  And as much as they prefer regular watering, they are still drought and heat tolerant.  They’re perennials, which I love!  Like I’ve mentioned before, the less I have to re-plant every year, the better!

With all of those amazing qualities, one would think that would be enough…but no, these beauties aren’t don’t impressing us!  This is like, a superhero of the plant world.  It has so many healing and medicinal properties that this post would go on forever if I were to list them all.  And plus – someone else already did it for me!  Read about it here!  (No, I didn’t realize the above image was from this website when I saved it off Google Images!)

So by planting these regal beauties in my gardens, I can harvest virtually every part of the plant and make salves, tinctures, and teas (among many others) – which will help my family and I stay in good health throughout the year!  …Seems like this one’s a no-brainer…what do you think??

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