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Borage normally self seeds well without being problematic in my garden (Geelong, Victoria) however due to the dry conditions and water restrictions I've had no volunteers during (2006).. Normaly they'd pop up in late winter whilst frosts are still frequent but after the earth has warmed somewhat (will germinate in almost any conditions). They tolerate poor soil and normally grow with little water.. this year being an exception due to the extreme dry.. I genereally rip it out around Feb - March as I find it becomes to straggly and uncomly. Also grows better in a semi shade and sheltered postion but is forgiving.

Borage is also commonly used as a compaion to strawberies also to improve tomato (most plants) growth and disease restitance although I've never used it as such, as it adds trace elements to the soil. Young leaves are also good for salads, infused for a tea and added to wine. The flowers make a wonderful addition in salads and bees love them if you want to attrach bees to the garden Borage won't let you down.

Borage Wikipedia entry

Extract from Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William Thomas Fernie (1897)

The Borage, with its gallant blue flower, is cultivated in our gardens as a pot herb, and is associated in our minds with bees and claret cup. It grows wild in abundance on open plains where the soil is favourable, and it has a long-established reputation for cheering the spirits. Botanically, it is the _Borago officinalis_, this title being a corruption of _cor-ago_, i.e., _cor_, the heart, _ago_, I stimulate--_quia cordis affectibus medetur_, because it cures weak conditions of the heart. An old Latin adage says: _Borago ego gaudia semper ago_--"I, Borage, bring always courage"; or the name may be derived from the Celtic, _Borrach_, "a noble person." This plant was the Bugloss of the older botanists, and it corresponds to our Common Bugloss, so called from the shape and bristly surface of its leaves, which resemble _bous-glossa_, the tongue of an ox. Chemically, the plant Borage contains potassium and calcium combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords thirty per cent., and the dried herb three per cent. of nitrate of potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which, when boiled and cooled, likewise deposits nitre and common salt. These crystals, when ignited, will burn with a succession of small sparkling explosions, to the great delight of the schoolboy. And it is to such saline qualities the wholesome, invigorating effects and the specially refreshing properties of the Borage are supposed to be mainly due. For which reason, the plant, "when taken in sallets," as says an old herbalist, "doth exhilarate, and make the mind glad," almost in the same way as a bracing sojourn by the seaside during an autumn holiday. The flowers possess cordial virtues which are very revivifying, and have been much commended against melancholic depression of the nervous system. Burton, in his [61] _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1676), wrote with reference to the frontispiece of that book:--

"Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes, Sovereign plants to purge the veins Of melancholy, and cheer the heart Of those black fumes which make it smart; The best medicine that God e'er made For this malady, if well assaid." "The sprigs of Borage," wrote John Evelyn, "are of known virtue to revive the hypochondriac and cheer the hard student."

According to Dioscorides and Pliny, the Borage was that famous nepenthe of Homer which Polydamas sent to Helen for a token "of such rare virtue that when taken steep'd in wine, if wife and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should die before thy face, thou could'st not grieve, or shed a tear for them." "The bowl of Helen had no other ingredient, as most criticks do conjecture, than this of borage." And it was declared of the herb by another ancient author: _Vinum potatum quo sit macerata buglossa moerorum cerebri dicunt auferre periti_:--

"To enliven the sad with the joy of a joke,
Give them wine with some borage put in it to soak."

The Romans named the Borage _Euphrosynon_, because when put into a cup of wine it made the drinkers of the same merry and
glad.

Parkinson says, "The seed of Borage helpeth nurses to have more store of milk, for which purpose its leaves are most conducing." Its saline constituents promote activity of the kidneys, and for this reason the plant is used in France to carry off catarrhs which are
feverish. The fresh herb has a cucumber-like odour, and when compounded with lemon and sugar, added to wine and [62] water,
it makes a delicious "cool tankard," as a summer drink. "A syrup concocted of the floures," said Gerard, "quieteth the lunatick
person, and the leaves eaten raw do engender good blood." Of all nectar-loving insects, bees alone know how to pronounce the
"open sesame" of admission to the honey pots of the Borage.