Herb Garden

The appearance of perennial herbs and the tender shoots of just-planted herb seedlings hold the promise of imparting fragrance and flavor to countless dishes. Then, when the midsummer sun is high, the herb garden flourishes. But an herb garden is generous with its gifts beyond the heat of summer. Chervil is in its prime in the cooler months. Dill seeds sown in spring can be planted once again in late summer for a new crop in the fall. Even in winter, when herbs are at rest, they are still giving, for their bright flavors have been preserved in oils, jams, and dried herbal blends.

The Edible Balcony : Growing Fresh Produce in Small Spaces by Alex Mitchell (Rodale Books, $21.99) is a treat to look at - the shelves loaded with pots of lettuce, basil and thyme, the peas and blackberries scrambling skyward, and yes, even the borage blossoms encased in ice cubes for a cocktail on the balcony after dark. The author, a Londoner and former gardening columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, touches on window boxes, hanging baskets, "10 best easy crops," good pots, salvaged and recycled balconies.

On their honeymoon, the Reeds visited an herb garden in Williamsburg, Va., where husband George bought bride Joanna a gardening book and some herb seeds. That was nearly 51 years ago. Today Joanna Reed single-handedly cares for 11 acres of gardens and fields, including four acres of herbs and flowers, at Longview Farm, her country home in Malvern. They bought the old stone home and four dozen acres shortly before their marriage in 1940, shocking their friends and family who lived in Lower Merion Township.

For 50 years Joanna McQuail Reed has been painting a picture. Her canvas is the 17-acre patch of sun-drenched meadows, gardens and terraces and the cool forest that surround her home at Longview Farm in Charlestown Township. "I came out here to paint but never did. But I feel I paint with my plants," said Reed, a onetime art student who now spends precious daylight hours digging, weeding, edging, trimming and pruning. The twisted tendons of a grapevine ramble across a porch that overlooks an extensive herb garden and a smooth expanse of rich, green lawn - a porch where Reed, 73, sometimes enjoys a cup of tea. A nearby Kentucky coffee-bean tree reaches skyward, the survivor of battles with a lawn mower and a tree-munching pet sheep.

Two tours this weekend will afford passage through picket fences and around stone walls to explore private gardens tucked behind 19th-century homes or sprawled around country estates. In celebration of summer, both the New Hope Historical Society and the Newtown Historic Association are conducting garden tours to help raise money for their preservation efforts. On Saturday, eight gardens in the New Hope- Solebury area are featured in the Town and Country Gardens Tour. On Sunday, the Secret Gardens of Historic Newtown walking tour will include a peek at 10 private gardens in the borough.

You don't have to dig deep to see the work of the Haddonfield Garden Club. It's all over town - in the planter urns along Kings Highway in the business district; in baskets of plantings on the lantern poles at Kings Court; in streetscape plantings; in the herb garden at Greenfield Hall, which houses the Historical Society of Haddonfield; in the fresh flower arrangements on both floors of the library. "Frankly, I can't think of our town without the beauty the garden club brings to it," Mayor Tish Colombi said.

In 1988, the Herb Gatherers began as an informal study group on herbs, with fewer than a dozen members. Today, with more than 50 members of all ages, the group is preparing for its sixth annual Celebration of Herbs, to be held Saturday in Montgomery County. Scented geraniums, edible flowers, everlastings and a wide variety of herbs will be available for sale, many propagated and grown by members of the Gatherers. Proceeds from past celebrations have funded scholarships at Temple University and Delaware Valley College and enabled the group to make a contribution to the herb garden at Pennsbury Manor, Bucks County.

The call came late on a Friday afternoon at Apple Pie Farm. A Washington restaurant needed a large amount of sorrel, an expensive French herb, for a Bastille Day dinner party the following night. Filling the order was no problem. The crew at the farm, on six gently sloping acres in Charlestown, washed, weighed and packed the delicate leaves. By then, though, it was too late to ship the order, so one of the harvesters had to drive to Wilmington, where she hand-delivered the package to the chef, who had driven up from Washington on his motorcycle.

Sanna Cohen, as lean as a breadstick, has ambitious plans for Sannas, her sparkling new restaurant in Manayunk. Space for 40 upstairs, an outdoor chef's table surrounded by the aromas of a ripening herb garden, a nifty wine list. Muhammad Ali said it best. It ain't braggin' if you do it. And Sanna Cohen has been doing it for 20 years, starting as a teen-age dessert wizard, then exploring every corner of the restaurant world. "I have a following," she said, "and they'll come, expecting something a little bigger.

For gardeners and other plant-lovers, here's a sampling of regional events: Bucks County Designer House & Gardens Premier designers & landscapers revitalize an 1850s Dutch Colonial house, barn & pool into a timeless Bucks County estate. Bucks County Designer House & Gardens, 3864 Spring Valley Rd., Doylestown; Reservations recommended: 215-345-2191. www.buckscountydesignerhouse.org/. $20-$25. 5/18. " Burlington County Gardeners Association Plant Faire Plant sale featuring vegetables, herbs & ornamentals.

HARRISBURG - There's a flower arrangement on the table in the private breakfast room at the Governor's Residence, so homespun it's positively chic, and Susan Corbett, Pennsylvania's first lady, volunteers the names of every bloom. "There's tansy, and that's Gaillardia , and mint, and I believe those are . . . ," she pauses. " 'Stella d'Oro' daylilies. " Good job! Corbett, 62, known mostly for her involvement in the arts, has another interest that competes for time and attention, and you'd better believe she'd pay a lot more attention if she only had the time.

For gardeners and other plant-lovers, here's a sampling of regional events: Bucks County Designer House & Gardens Premier designers & landscapers revitalize an 1850s Dutch Colonial house, barn & pool into a timeless Bucks County estate. Bucks County Designer House & Gardens, 3864 Spring Valley Rd., Doylestown; Reservations recommended: 215-345-2191. www.buckscountydesignerhouse.org/. $20-$25. 5/18. " Burlington County Gardeners Association Plant Faire Plant sale featuring vegetables, herbs & ornamentals.

The Edible Balcony : Growing Fresh Produce in Small Spaces by Alex Mitchell (Rodale Books, $21.99) is a treat to look at - the shelves loaded with pots of lettuce, basil and thyme, the peas and blackberries scrambling skyward, and yes, even the borage blossoms encased in ice cubes for a cocktail on the balcony after dark. The author, a Londoner and former gardening columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, touches on window boxes, hanging baskets, "10 best easy crops," good pots, salvaged and recycled balconies.

There's an old saying: If you need something done, ask a busy person. But you don't even have to ask Charlotte Ewer. She has just taken it upon herself to create or rejuvenate five gardens at Normandy Farms Estates in Blue Bell, where she has lived for the last six years. Everybody knows Ewer by her trademark bandanna, by her wagons filled with watering cans and tools, and by her industrious presence in the flower beds and courtyards of this luxurious life-care community set on 100 acres.

You don't have to dig deep to see the work of the Haddonfield Garden Club. It's all over town - in the planter urns along Kings Highway in the business district; in baskets of plantings on the lantern poles at Kings Court; in streetscape plantings; in the herb garden at Greenfield Hall, which houses the Historical Society of Haddonfield; in the fresh flower arrangements on both floors of the library. "Frankly, I can't think of our town without the beauty the garden club brings to it," Mayor Tish Colombi said.

Sanna Cohen, as lean as a breadstick, has ambitious plans for Sannas, her sparkling new restaurant in Manayunk. Space for 40 upstairs, an outdoor chef's table surrounded by the aromas of a ripening herb garden, a nifty wine list. Muhammad Ali said it best. It ain't braggin' if you do it. And Sanna Cohen has been doing it for 20 years, starting as a teen-age dessert wizard, then exploring every corner of the restaurant world. "I have a following," she said, "and they'll come, expecting something a little bigger.

The appearance of perennial herbs and the tender shoots of just-planted herb seedlings hold the promise of imparting fragrance and flavor to countless dishes. Then, when the midsummer sun is high, the herb garden flourishes. But an herb garden is generous with its gifts beyond the heat of summer. Chervil is in its prime in the cooler months. Dill seeds sown in spring can be planted once again in late summer for a new crop in the fall. Even in winter, when herbs are at rest, they are still giving, for their bright flavors have been preserved in oils, jams, and dried herbal blends.

Stephanie Cohen would like to change people's minds about native plants. Native species, or plants that grow naturally in woodlands, meadows, wetlands and other habitats in North America, are too often thought of in narrow terms, Cohen says. Generally, people think of herbs, or wildflowers, or something you grow in a wild part of the garden. "They think of meadows," Cohen says. So Cohen, a teacher in the landscape department at the Ambler campus of Temple University, decided to launch a fall gardening project designed to offer a new perspective on native plants.

Two tours this weekend will afford passage through picket fences and around stone walls to explore private gardens tucked behind 19th-century homes or sprawled around country estates. In celebration of summer, both the New Hope Historical Society and the Newtown Historic Association are conducting garden tours to help raise money for their preservation efforts. On Saturday, eight gardens in the New Hope- Solebury area are featured in the Town and Country Gardens Tour. On Sunday, the Secret Gardens of Historic Newtown walking tour will include a peek at 10 private gardens in the borough.

In 1988, the Herb Gatherers began as an informal study group on herbs, with fewer than a dozen members. Today, with more than 50 members of all ages, the group is preparing for its sixth annual Celebration of Herbs, to be held Saturday in Montgomery County. Scented geraniums, edible flowers, everlastings and a wide variety of herbs will be available for sale, many propagated and grown by members of the Gatherers. Proceeds from past celebrations have funded scholarships at Temple University and Delaware Valley College and enabled the group to make a contribution to the herb garden at Pennsbury Manor, Bucks County.