Last Updated on April 15, 2024 by Real Men Sow
The Borage, also known as “Borago officinalis” is an outdoor plant often visited by bees, they’re easy to grow and have beautiful blue flowers. They’re not only beautiful, but they are also a great addition to your garden because of their gardening and health benefits. Here are the key reasons why growing borage is a great plant in your garden.
Growing Borage is a Great Companion Plant
Borage can be grown as a companion plant to tomatoes, squash, strawberries, and cabbage. This is associated with a decrease in leaf-eating caterpillars like cabbage whites. Borage is a large, broad-leaved, aggressive plant that can bully smaller plants. It’s, therefore, a poor companion plant due to its spatial characteristics.
Where Should You Plant Borage?
Borage should be planted at the opposite ends of a cucumber bed to provide a partial solution. There are yellow-and-black beetles that can spread disease and weaken cucumbers. The beetles that were found on cucumbers between borage plants were much lower than usual. This may have been due to large numbers of bumblebees flying over the cucumbers. Although bumblebees don’t seem to be interested in cucumber beetles, the risk of collisions with tanker bumblebees made it difficult for smaller insects to avoid the area.
Borage can bloom for several weeks if older flowers are removed. You can also push tattered plants back by trimming them halfway through the summer. Borage plants that are healthy will shed many black seeds. You can expect to see volunteers for at least two years after they have grown. Borage seedlings that you have self-sown are easy to move and can be pulled and composted.
Growing Borage for Useful Seed Oil
The Borage Seed oil is made from ground borage seeds and contains added enzymes. Borage seed oil can be used internally to treat persistently itchy skin. There are also studies that suggest that borage seed oil reduces inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis.
It’s ability to treat persistent dermatitis provided some people with results and some without. But it was established that taking a borage seed oil capsule twice a day is quite safe provided you are not taking prescription blood thinners, and borage seed oil delivers three times the gamma-linolenic acid of primrose oil. Some people may experience a problem with their ability to mobilize this hormone-like nutrient. This can be caused by a defect in the body of some people who have chronic skin conditions.
