I can tell you about the ones I've grown, though my climate is much different from yours. When you think about what to plant with rosemary, look for other woody, drought tolerant Mediterranean herbs. Lemon grass, being an Asian herb, needs much more water. I've planted mine (started from grocery store stalks) in between the artichokes, and here and there in places with varying degrees of available moisture. The ones growing best are in gallon hydroponics pots inside a trough that gets afternoon shade and an inch or two of bottom water a day. Lemon Balm very does well in shallower containers and full sun. This is another plant that I grew to the point of being rootbound, before dividing, and ended up with 4 or 5 plants from one start. It is drought tolerant, but like all herbs, it likes drainage, and grows better with regular water and haircuts. Lemon Verbena wants warm, warm, warm weather. I don't know how it overwinters in your zone, but probably not at all well. I keep watering my last year's (maybe dead) LV that i left in an unprotected outdoor container because we are still having cool nights and the plant SEEMS to be well rooted. At least it doesn't come up when I give it a hard yank, but it's not showing any life at all. This plant is so temperature sensitive that it will drop all its leaves at any sudden change, but will come back once the temperatures stabilize. If you have that problem, don't worry. if your plants are looking differently sick, then worry. If the root ball seems overly moist, try repotting to a dryer mix. If you want to keep the plant around next fall, do what I should have done and clip it down 2/3, bring it inside and let it redevelop as an indoor plant. Or take some growing tips and root them in smaller pots. But, alas, I haven't met Sweet Cicely yet. jan

BT is Ok since it only affects caterpillars. I personally don't use poisons of any kind on anything I'm going to eat. I use a good spray of water for things too small to pick off and toss to the birds.

Might be a climbing cutworm. I've had a problem with them this season. I took some out with Bt, but I've been hand-picking them in the evening too.

LisaLu, I’m virtually certain the “lemon” plant you gave to me, and I think maybe to somebody else—Zach?—is lemon balm, Melissa officinalis. Here’s a close-up of the foliage, so the leaves look a lot larger than they really are, but see what you think! http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/275/6184/1024/4-15-06%20potted%20lemon%20balm%20close%20up.jpg I found a couple sites with some fun info if you’re interested! This first one is a 43 page pdf, and it has all kinds of info! It has some fun “history & folklore” info starting on page 10, and info about harvesting and storing starting on page 14, then, starting on page 15 and for much of the rest of the document it has all kinds of culinary uses and recipes for dishes with lemon balm! There’s also some info about the medicinal uses starting on page 32, and a bunch of other miscellaneous uses after that! Lemon balm seems to have all kinds of uses! http://www.herbsociety.org/factsheets/Lemon%20Balm%20Guide.pdf And I haven’t researched it and don’t have any idea if the medicinal uses are legit or not, but this is the University of Maryland Medical Center site—which should be reliable info, and it has some additional info about the medicinal uses—tho this site is assuming you’re buying it at a store rather than growing it yourself! Still some interesting info! https://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/lemon-balm I just thought I’d let you know what it is so you’d know for “future reference’ if you give it away at future swaps! Since it is in the mint family I’ll be keeping the one I got from you in a pot rather than planting it in the ground—like I do with the other mints I have! It’s easier to “contain” things like that in the first place than it is to try to get rid of them when they get out of hand if they’re planted in the ground! Like the spearmint, I’m sure it will be very much appreciated when I take some with me for my friends on my spring trip! Thank you again for the lemon balm—and the spearmint—at the swap, Skybird