Sowing and Planting of Barage

Borage, also known as starflower, is a wonderful addition to your herb garden. The plant can grow to a height of 60-90 cm and blooms beautifully with light blue star-shaped flowers. It is an easy-to-grow herb and certainly suitable for the novice gardener. It is often grown in vegetable gardens as the flowers entice pollinators. The flowers are also edible, beautiful as decoration in a salad or herb butter.

Growing Borage from Seeds

Borage, also known as starflower, is a herbaceous plant that probably gets its name from the fact that the leaves of the plant look like those of cucumbers and also taste like them. Borage is native to Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Nowadays it can be found a lot in gardens and vegetable gardens, also because of the fact that it forms beautiful flowers. It is an annual, aromatic and medicinal plant.

Sowing and planting of borage

Borage can be sown in open ground from March to June. It is important that the soil is moist. Sow either in rows, with a row spacing of 30 cm, or scatter the seed, using about 30 seeds (± 0.5 grams) per m². If necessary, you can thin out the plants slightly after the seeds have emerged.

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Position and soil for Borage

Borage prefers a sunny to semi-shaded spot in the garden. It can also be grown in planting pots or containers, so you can put it on your terras or balcony. To prevent the stems from breaking off if there is high wind, it is advisable to place the plant in a more sheltered spot in the garden or to support it a bit with, for example, the help of bamboo sticks. For this herb, a loose, moist, but well-drained soil is ideal. A soil that is too firm can be loosened before sowing and mixed with sand or potting soil. Furthermore, it makes few demands on the soil and can be grown in almost any garden.

How to care for your borage plants

Regular watering is the most important thing in the cultivation of borage. It is an easy herb to grow and requires little care.

When and how to harvest borage?

As soon as the plant starts to flower, it can be harvested. The leaves and flowers are eatable and can both be used.

How to preserve borage

After harvesting, borage can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days in a well-sealed container. To extend the shelf life, you can add the leaves and flowers to oil or vinegar. Make sure it's well covered and nothing floats and start to get mouldy. You can also dry and freeze borage, but it will lose some of its flavour.

Is borage healthy?

Borage is basically healthy. It contains, among other things, a lot of vitamins. But use it in moderation since there are studies that have shown that it contains a very small amount of toxic substance. Pregnant women and children should not eat this herb.

Borage seeds in our collection

In our range we have both organic borage seeds and regular borage seeds. We also have a microgreens variety.

Tips to grow borage

Bees, bumblebees and ants also love borage. The bees and bumblebees are important for pollinating (vegetable) plants and the ants for dragging the seeds.

This is because attached to the seeds is a fleshy structure, called elaisome, which serves as food for ants. The flowers of borage can be used to make a tasty herb vinegar. To do this, add the flowers to the vinegar and let it steep for a few weeks. Stir every day. This gives the vinegar a pink color and tastes like the herb.

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