The Herb Cottage Nursery

is a rural nursery in Lavaca County, TX. I focus on herb plants of all kinds, seasonal vegetable seedlings and a great and varied selection of succulents and cacti. We are one of only a handful of nurseries selling Olive Trees in the area.

I use organic practices for growing all my healthy and nutritional plants. No chemical fertilizer, herbicides or pesticides are ever used. I use no GMO seeds and only buy seeds from reputable sources.

The Herb Cottage is a production nursery. By that, I mean I start and grow most of the plants sold here. I do occasionally buy in rooted plugs as starts for some of my herbs, but for most of the stock I grow from seed or cuttings right here at The Herb Cottage. What this means to you is the nursery houses plants in all stages of development and looks nothing like a garden center you might be used to. You might see very small plants not ready to sell yet, large plants being held to use as cutting material and there might be plants being organically treated for disease or insects.

It's always best to wear shoes rather than sandals when you visit The Herb Cottage. This is a rural environment with very little to no paved areas.

I love to talk herbs and gardening so stop on in and browse the plant selection, be entertained by the guinea fowl, watch the fish in the water garden and TALK PLANTS!

6/2011

It was recently brought to my attention that no where on this website do I have my name. I didn't realize it, and until now, no one has mentioned the fact. So, here's a little bit about me, the owner of The Herb Cottage:

I'm Cindy Meredith. My childhood was spent in the San Francisco, California, Bay Area. My middle years were spent in Michigan and Wisconsin. Finally I made my way to Texas and felt so at home here, I decided to stay. I'm married now to Mike, whom I lived with for 20 years before we got hitched by the local Justice of the Peace in 2006. Talk about a long engagement! 

We've lived on this lovely farm in South Central Texas for more than 20 years. For almost 10 of those years, my husband and I operated a clothing business. We sewed (and sewed and sewed and...) clothing, most of which we sold at various Renaissance Festivals around the country.

Traveling was fun and challenging, but it became more difficult each year to leave our farm to go on the road. Every season, I planted more things around the farmhouse and was reluctant to leave my gardens each Spring. So, we decided to retire from the sewing business.... my back and hands thanked me...... and stay closer to home. Mike took a job with Lavaca county, and I decided to let my interest and time in herbs and gardening flow into a business.

Mike is now retired and helps out with watering when I'm gone, and The Herb Cottage is busier than ever. I keep a good stock of herbs on hand as well as heirloom and open pollinated vegetable seedlings in season.

I write more now, including a monthly newsletter from The Herb Cottage, my informal blog and newsletters for a Farmers' Market. I love teaching and writing about herbs and how to grow and use them. My days are spent in my little nursery keeping the plants looking good for weekend sales at Farmers' Markets and The Industrial Country Market and the occasional customers who finds their way to our farm.

I love to give programs to groups, at nurseries, garden clubs, etc. If you're interested in an informative, lively presentation on herbs, herb growing, simple, every day ways to incorporate herbs into your cooking or on canning, please contact me.

The Seed Selection on hand at the Nursery will fulfill many of your needs.

You can view the selection in the Seed Section of the website. I carry coir, a sterile potting ingredient, and I have my own potting mix for seed starting or containers. There is also a selection of Organic Fertilizers for sale: Garden-Ville Sea Tea, Medina Hasta-Gro as well as granular soil amendments. All organic, all natural.

The Herb Cottage is proud to have plants for sale at the Industrial Country Market outside of Columbus, TX. The Market is a treasure trove of the unusual, necessary and eclectic. Browse through batteries, garden hoses and nozzles, wheels, imported foods, plastic ware, backpacks, gloves, toys and much, much more. Then, go outside into the greenhouse- all automatically watered- and check out plants for sale from The Herb Cottage as well as different hydroponic growing systems.

Look around outside and notice all the water capture features, storage tanks for water, the bog gardens and ponds. The whole of the Industrial Country Market is run on Solar Power.

Read All About It!

There's an on-line organic gardening publication called The Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine. You can find articles written by me and lots of other gardening gurus from around the globe. There are articles on gardening, herbs, soil, propagating, plants, trees and more.You can check it out here.