Borage Seeds

Days to Maturity: 56 from direct sow

It makes strawberries fruit more heavily, keeps hornworms off the tomatoes, and increases yields of cucumbers, gourds, and other fruiting plants. Borage is more than just a pleasant edible herb. It's a garden guardian, and it belongs in your sunny annual bed as well as the vegetable patch and herb garden.

An annual (or biennial) with handsome small blue blooms as well as long, toothy leaves, Borage Seeds grow quickly and self-sows readily. It needs to be direct sown where it is to grow, because it forms a long taproot that does not transplant well. So after you've transplanted your tomatoes and set your strawberry runners, drop a few seeds in holes ¼ to ½ inch deep and spaced about a foot apart in full sun. Cover with ½-inch of soil, and within 2 weeks you will see green shoots.

Borage flowers in early to midsummer, and the blue blooms make lovely garnishes for salads and cakes. The young leaves have a cucumber flavor, and are quite edible as well, though they can become tougher with maturity. Try them in tea and in potpourri.

But aside from its culinary use, Borage is simply your fruit and vegetables' best friend. It is a bee magnet, and seems to repel several types of predatory pests while simultaneously welcoming "good bugs" into the garden. Strawberries are its boon companion, and it has been shown to increase the yields of this fruit. Tomatoes also benefit. There is simply no place in the sunny garden that borage shouldn't go.

This herb self-sows, so if you want to avoid unwanted seedlings in the spring, choose which plants you allow to go to seed. (Simply snip the bloomheads off the others and remove them from the garden, using the flowers as garnish or flavoring.) Let the others remain through fall, and nature will do the rest.

Borage reaches about 2 feet high, with 1½-inch star-shaped blooms of brilliant azure. We didn't even mention the reason many gardeners grow it: its beautiful ornamental appeal. An all-around must-have for any sunny garden spot.