Start a Home Business with Herbs!
(Page 2 of 4)
March/April 1979
By the Mother Earth News editors
Phyllis sold small pillows filled with fragrant herbs, packages of potpourri and herbal wreaths. And (at the suggestion of a store owner) she tied the sweet-smelling — but seemingly useless — stems of her different plants into small bundles with red and green yarn, put an assortment into plastic bags, labeled the packages "Fireplace Fun With Fragrances," and watched the "worthless" stems sell out in a week!
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Though other stores, too, now want her products, Phyllis still supplies only 12 outlets and has no immediate plans to expand. "I don't seek new markets at all," she says. "I can barely keep up with the ones I have now. After all, it takes time and patience to prepare the soil and plant, grow and dry the herbs. I just can't increase my production fast enough."
The Herb Beds
But Phyllis Shaudys's inability to meet the demand for her products is certainly not the result of a lack of effort! In the summers of '76 and '77, for example, this energetic woman established three new herb beds. Last spring, she added a fourth, plus a big rose garden. She also planted her old vegetable garden in southernwood this past fall — and, as plans stand, Herbal Acres should continue to grow bigger each year.
"Not that you need much room for herbs," Phyllis explains. "Three of my beds are only 15-by-30 feet, and the other two are 5-by-45 feet. But you do need a sunny, well-drained, sweet soil for every herb except the water-loving members of the mint family."
Of course, the herbs that you might grow will depend a lot on where you live, but here are some of Phyllis's favorites: lavender ("buy two or three plants and propagate them"), roses ("the more the better"), peppermint, applemint, spearmint, pineapple mint, orange mint, pennyroyal ("these mints are the basis of my "sweet pillow," and they'll spread rapidly if you water them regularly"), bergamot, catnip, chamomile, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, rue, sage, the southernwoods ("camphor and lemon are best"), tansy, French and lemon thyme, wormwood, basil, marjoram, summer savory, and rose and lemon-scented geraniums.
Phyllis also points out that flowers of all types — even if they have no scent of their own — will add color to potpourris. She uses mostly marigolds, roses, lavender, geraniums and bachelor's buttons.
