A/t Herb Garden ?

Some of the ones that grew the best for me, outside, were catmint, sage, lavenders, chives, and I am forgetting the other. Plus the beebalm, coneflower and the blackeyed susans that I mixed in with them grew quite well! The best part is just brushing your hand across them and smelling like an old fashioned kitchen!

oh yes! I agree with you , with running your hands across them for the smell. We also plant lavender--so pretty! and blackeyed susans too--another pretty flower, I love them! now, I never thought of beebalm! is this a hard plant to grow?

Not at all, but the flowers don't last long in full sun. They sort of roast. Which is why I will probably skip them this year. The lupine is nice. I might go for more of that. I have to look through my book. We also planted Global Thistle, which was a bit disappointing. One wind storm and it broke in half! lol

I thought I had done a fair job of pulling things up to start fairly new, except for the flowers, but there is something green starting to grow and I need to look at old pictures to find out what herb it is that is making a comeback! The problem is that my holly bushes were absolutely lost in a sea of very tall herbs! I need to look over books and Tasha Tudor's advice and see if I can get things more balanced. We have so much gardening to do this year and can't do a thing until the ground thaws (and the snow melts) and dries up. Too long a winter, too short a planting season!

I am ever amazed at what is an 'herb'. So many things in the perennial nursery actually are herbs, as well as general landscaping you may find you already have a ton of herbs in your yard... good luck everyone

Some of that could also go in a kitchen garden, like the Victorians had. Rosemary is fantastic, plus its " remembrance" - so is symbolic as well as edible
Would you think a herb gdn nicer against a wall, with tall stuff at the back like fennel, and the thymes at the front over stones - or a circular bed in the open?
My alltime fav is Heartsease, Viola Tricolour, herb trinity. I will have that by the ton if I can get it.And thymes, I once made a fantastic cough mix out of thyme.

I think I'll try making a small garden in our house and I love the weather here its tropical so its better for plants to grow. I'll try growing plants for a month. This is a great idea I wish this will be continue and spread to AT people!

mingbop either will work or do both if you have the room. Make one just a kitchen and the other something else like a herbal dye or medicinal or fragrance garden. There are so many herbs and many can be used for more than on propose.

Rosemary is a good cooking herb but it also is a great meat presever. Also it is known for enhancing memory. It is known for helping with insomnia and repeling bad dreams. There is a study going on also about it uses for cancer.

So as you can see one herb can be used in many different ways. A book for those intesed in herbal lore and uses I recomend the new healing herbs by Michael Castleman. It is a good book with reliable information. He is a well know herbalist.

I love herbs! I have a little herb garden, and I also love walking on the hillside, where the herbs grow wild

A short selection of a few favourites, which grow well in gardens:

Rosemary - can't get enough of that, it smells lovely, it does wonder for memory and makes delicious honey . And it's so pretty when in flowers.

Lavender - many different sorts out there, but I like them all.

Thyme - both the lemon thyme and the officinalis are good for scent, food and looks, although they go ragged in winter. It's good for concentration and all respiratory diseases (as tea).

Oregano - smell is so-so, but taste is out of this world.

Marjoram - lovely in food and gardens.

Sage - it's one of the best all-rounders, because it smells nice, flowers beautifully, is very prolific (better in pots if you don't want it to take over!), invaluable for a host of ailments, great in food, and you can dry and burn it to purify your house.

Gentian - lovely to look at and very useful for medicinal purposes.

Lemon verbena - yummy! Smells nice and makes wonderfully refreshing teas.

Morroccan mint - my favourite kind of mint.

Coriander: you can use the leaf and the seed, and while it grows, it's very attractive.

Basil - yummy. Wouldn't do without it, but it's fragile, so it needs to grow in pots, generally.

Bay laurel, the edible type you put in sauces: very attractive bush.


I am not much of a designer, but my favourite kind of herb garden design is star-shaped (star of David, 6 pointed).

mingbop said:

My alltime fav is Heartsease, Viola Tricolour, herb trinity. I will have that by the ton if I can get it.And thymes, I once made a fantastic cough mix out of thyme.

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the only one I recognize here is 'thymes'. however, i'm wondering, how did you make the cough mix out of thyme? I'd be very interested in that!

when we lived in VT, we had to build up our driveway, and used slate stone that is found all through the state--huge pieces of slate---it turned out to be a great insulator for our garden as well-which was just on the other side of this slate wall. our basil planted in the ground did exceedingly well there, growing into a small bush about 24 inches high and so big around! I supplied the whole neighborhood with tomatoes, (bumper crops!) and basil the whole summer long! very odd for VT--who has a very short growing season, but I am sure it had to be the slate rock. wish we had some of that here and now!

I would love to grow Basil. It is so delicious! Do you know how much sun and water it needs? I have trouble finding it at nurseries around here, but I can't think that it would be difficult to grow if you could grow it in VT. I wonder if it just sells out quickly!