Nell, you know I always want to say that I grow no herbs...yet...but then I ran across this database of common herbs. It surprises me how many common garden plants were once considered herbs. Though I'm not inclined in the least to grow other than the common culinary herbs I find it really interesting reading to go through the lists in the link below. Perhaps you'll find "herbs" that you didn't know you have too?!

MeMo

Here is a link that might be useful: Botanical.com

Memo, that's fascinating reading. I did not realize that the pine trees under which I planted my herb garden qualified, nor the PawPaw bush and Star Magnolia on two sides.

I've been pulling up Cudweed by handsfuls. I left some Gnaphalium in two flowerbeds -- it's a weed called 'Rabbit Tobacco' but it's a nice butterfly plant.

Oh, MeMo! it even says this about nutgrass:
C. esculentus is a native of Italy and Sicily and the Levant. Its roots are fibrous, with small round tubers hanging from them, of the size of peas, which taste like sweet filberts and are eaten in Italy, and sold in the markets.
-- What sweet revenge to all that digging and pulling I'm having to do. I'll EAT them!

Nell

Nell, you are so funny about the nutgrass. When my garden was first tilled, I sifted the ENTIRE thing through my fingers for 3 months before re-planting it. I took out EVERY SINGLE nut and white piece of root. Not a single bit has grown back, that is my own revenge. We had an entire lawn of the stuff.

My herb plantings make up most of the garden. I need to go get some photos tomorrow. The "herb garden" was only planted with new plants last week so it looks sparse but is very full.

GGG

{{gwi:672068}}
This is the edge of a walkway I had been working on a long time. Herbs seemed to do the trick, although the spanish lavender flopped. I've begun to cut it back.

{{gwi:672069}}
Here is the actual herb bed.

GGG

GGG - I love it; looks beautiful. Very nice use of rocks too.

GGG - Your herb garden looks like it could be in the Mediterranean....so lovely. I really like what you have done with the stones/rocks. Your pathway is so cool. Major work involved in laying all those rocks, but it rocks! Vikki

Oh Nell, You have me laughing so loudly. My DH is giving me that look. Heee! Please let us know how they taste. LOL

GGG, lovely pictures! One of these days....I WILL get some culinary herbs planted. I'd been reading a book or two on them over the winter. I think I never leap becuase I won't know what to really do with them once I have them. Do you eat/cook with yours or do you just enjoy the plants as they are in the garden? They have a lot of herbs at our little hardware store this year.

MeMo

I have herbs all over the place and that would take too many photos. Just today, I divided some more of my thyme to add as groundcover in other spots. I transplanted a big oregano. We considered a garden partere, but we've not been able to design one to integrate well with the landscape because our south-facing area is the front of the house. So right now, the herbs are throughout the garden and some are used around our sundial in the mixed border (along with spirea, heliotrope and coneflowers).

Here's what I grow and yes, I cook a lot using herbs. Just tonight, I made a pasta with Herbes de Provence (purchased), shitake mushrooms and chicken. I can't wait for my basil to grow as it is my favorite with tomatoes. I use rosemary in a lot of my roasting. I put lemon or regular thyme sprigs in our rice. Oregano goes in a lot of soups and stews and on homemade pizza. We love fennel in beef stew as well as roasted fennel (roasted garlic, too).

Rosemary
Thyme -- culinary; other varieties as ornamentals
Oregano -- culinary and ornamental
Sage -- culinary and ornamental
Chives
Sweet Basil (and will add spicy basil soon)
Bronze fennel for butterflies
Parsley (usually goes to the butterflies after awhile)

I grow flowers that are considered herbs -- especially lavender, bee balm and coneflowers.

In the culinary bed is 2 kinds of rosemary, 4 kinds of chives, two kinds of thyme, oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, savory, salad burnet, lemongrass, rue, papalo, bronze fennel, japanese cat nip, texas terragon.
Other beds contain massive amounts of creeping thyme (and all along another walkway is the thyme), society garlic, various oreganoes, fruit leaf sages, hyssops, about 8 different types of lavender and many other herbs.

We eat a lot of the herbs. I make salad dressings with them, and dry them for winter cooking. Mostly we eat them raw for various reasons - many herbs and herbal salad greens are bitter or sour and great for the stomach and intestinal lining. We also use some herbs for healing. I would say many of the raw herbs I use for my own digestive "issues" and soothing. I will also use herbs for skin problems, etc.

GGG

My herbs are scattered around the garden in different spots, some of the herbs I grow are, green and bronze fennel, sweet cicely, garlic chives, winter chives and common chives, greek oregano, lovage, two kinds of rosemary, arp and tuscan blue, lots of thymes, the one thyme I use for cooking is the english winter thyme, I have at least ten plants of that growing, in the past because I use so much of it I have killed many a plant from over harvesting. The only stuffing I make is the simple one my grandmother use to make and it calls for lots of fresh thyme. There's also quite a few creeping thymes growing here and there.

A......

My Herb garden is divided between 2 locations. I have built a "Herb Box", fairly large, that sits outside the kitchen door where I can easily get to it, but where it still gets enough sun. This is where I plant most of the culinary herbs that I use the most often when cooking (Parsley, several types of Basil, Rosemary, small clump of Chives, some others that I'm forgetting right now). This way I can just open the door, walk out, and cut the herbs I need for dinner.

Then, I have an area out in the garden where I grow some of the larger bushes and the ones I don't use in cooking as often (various types of Thyme, Lemongrass, Echinacea Augustifolia, Ginseng, Bay Laurel, Feverfew, Toothache plant, Sage, larger clump of Chives, Catnip in a pot, Oregano in a pot, Spearmint in a pot, and much more). This is my main herb bed, next to the vegetables.

GGG ~ I love your herb garden.

I also use herbs I grow, for health and for flavor, and some for crafts.

I have Mexican oregano, several rosemary plants, basil 2-3 different kinds, tarragon, pineapple sage, dill, a 4' bay tree, lavender, salad burnett and maybe one or two others that I can't think of at the moment.

There is something really rewarding and wonderful to be able to go out and pick fresh herbs to use in cooking. I love tarragon with chicken or fish. Rosemary is great with lamb, also makes a great tea. Bay leaves fresh are so much better than the dried ones you get at the store.

Memo ~ Get some herbs, they will make you happy. Once you start, you will want more.

FlowerLady

Here is my Pot O' Herbs, which is right outside my patio door. Since my kitchen is just on the other side of that door, it's quick and easy to cut fresh herbs when cooking.

{{gwi:672070}}

I've also created an herb bed right next to our grill area, also for easy access. While waiting for the coals to turn ashy, I'll cut and wash all the herbs I'll be using.

If you have never tried using a rosemary branch as a basting brush try it..it's good!

I grow: garlic chives, chocolate mint, spearmint, oregano, sweet basil, rosemary, and thyme for culinary use. I love trying different herbs each year, and will add some new ones shortly, but the ones I just mentioned are the sure fire, basic ones for me.

Marilyn

we've got as small area running down next to the front walkway along the side garage wall. We've got strawberries, including the tiny french alpine ones(super yummy), rosemary, lots of oregano, lavender, two kinds of basil, and mint. Afraid I've got no pics- its such a tiny area, and a bit bedraggled looking at present.

To pics of our gardens, roses and recent landscaping projects, ck out my Picture Trail:

careytearose

Here is a link that might be useful: look at the Favorite ROSES we grow and Landscaping Projects 2007 albums

I love herbs and have over 250 of them in my garden. Right now sweet woodruff, violets, celandine, sweet cicely, chervil, lungwort, liverwort, goldenseal, pulsatilla, dwarf comfrey and a few others are blooming. The black cohosh, blue cohosh, solomon's seal, lovage, sages, hyssops et al are up by a foot or so. Chives will be blooming soon, as will lily-of-the-valley. Siberian ginseng is leafing out. Osha made it through the winter. Maral root is growing great guns. Stone root is leaping. Lavenders are just starting to green up. Ah, spring.

Marilyn ~ Love your pot o herbs. I've not tired using rosemary as a basting brush, that is a great idea. I have thrown some rosemary in to the fire and also on the meat. Aaaahhhh!

oh my gosh herbalbetty ~ 250 differnt herbs, that must be something to see and smell. Could you post some pictures? Do you use them in crafts or sell them?

Last evening I picked some fresh tarragon for a lemon butter sauce on our Mahi Mahi fish. It was delicious!

Happy herb growing, harvesting and using.

FlowerLady

I keep common herbs in pots outside my kitchen door. This year I have basil, chives, parsley, cilantro, cherry toamtoes and jalapenos. I had oregano and rosemary last year, but the rosemary didn't do well, amd I discovered I actually LIKE dried oregano better than fresh (go figure).

herbalbetty, I long to grow that many herbs. When we are able to garden in the back yard, I plan to add many more herbs which need part-sun locations here in the South.
Photos please, if you can, and a list of the herbs you grow!

GGG

This time of year nasturtiums are on their way out due to the heat. Chives are almost finished blooming. Salad burnet has been pulled. Parsley is going to seed. Same with dill. Summer herbs will be thyme, rosemary, garlic chives, chives, Spanish tarragon, and basil.

Pic is from early April 2006.

{{gwi:672071}}

nice inspirations!

I love herbs! We just got our property certified as a Botanical Sanctuary through United Plant Savers and it's quite the excitement. On June 30th we are opening our gardens to the public so you can see what a Siberian ginseng looks like, or dwarf lemon balm, or rose-scented bee balm. Flowerlady, I use herbs for everything and we don't sell plants, but things made from them. Also, I teach a lot about it. The more the merrier, right? A list of herbs girlgroup? That will take a little while to update. I'll post a few pics. We have just 3 acres and about 1 acre is in gardens right now. We plan on making the entire property gardens - it's a work in progress.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:672066}}

Natal ~ Love your herbs. Rosemary is one of my very favorites. My nasturtiums aren't doing worth beans this year.

Herbalbetty ~ Congratulations on your certification as a Botanical Sanctuary. That is really neat! I can see why just from the one picture. Just beautiful! You inspire me just by reading about what you do. Makes my little FL herb garden look pitiful! Look forward to hearing more from you about herbs, what crafts you do with them, recipes etc.

FlowerLady

I've been wanting a Siberian Ginseng plant for a long while now and I haven't found one anywhere at any nursery nearby. Did you get yours mail order or locally? Do you have any pictures? By the way, your gardens look beautiful and very well organized! I wish mine looked so lush . . . is that an arbor in the foreground with the sun detail? It is gorgeous.

I did find a very small, puny Bay Laurel the other day and I did the happy dance as that is another I've been looking for for a while and no where around here ever seems to have anything more interesting than the basics :)

Anyone (close to my zone) grow Bay Laurel and can give me any idea of how big it will get? Is it a bush or a smallish tree? How long does it take to mature? I need to figure out where to put it . . . :)

Seems as though I got my Siberian ginseng (now often referred to as Eleutherococcus) from Gilbertie's Herbs in CT when we went down for a sale one time. However, I'm pretty sure Horizon Herbs sells them - and tons of other herbs, very unusual ones too! That isn't an arbor, but a shepherd's hook thingamabob with the sun in it that the greenman wind chimes are hanging from. The blue obelisk in the background is 9 1/2 feet tall and my youngest made it for me in shop class a couple years ago. I'm including a link to a rose we have (not blooming yet this season, still too early for roses here).

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:672067}}