Black pepper, Piper nigrum, is a semitropical/tropical vine so not able to be grown outdoors in the PNW. Other pepper corns are just the unripe or semi-ripened seed pods of the same plant. 'Spices' tend to be the bark, fruit or seeds of various plants, many of which are also tropical in origin and not well adapted to gardening here in more temperate climes - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, vanilla, etc.

'Herbs' are the leafy portions of plants used to flavor foods and most herbs will grow well here - rosemary, oregano, chives, thyme, parsley, etc. Many herbs are both perennial and evergreen but a few are biennials (parsley, caraway, angelica) and a few more are annuals or single season plants, like basil, cilantro or chervil, and will need to be replanted each season.

It is important to note that annual herbs generally have different growing requirements than the perennial types, typically a richer, more fertile soil and lots of water during the growing season. Perennial herbs are usually quite drought tolerant once established and do not care for overly enriched soils. They just like lots of sun and very good drainage.

And the vast majority of common herbs are quite deer resistant as the essential oils that make them so valued in cooking tend to be pretty unpalatable to the deer. Not sure about rabbits but would believe the same theory applies :-))

Thanks Gardengal for the education. I'd like to focus on perennial herbs. Here is a list from which I will choose. Feel free to suggest others. I don't think I have enough room for all of them. The triangle is about 13 feet on each side.

Which, if any, of these would you not recommend or have cautions?

• Lavender
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Greek Oregano
• Bee Balm
• Chives
• Winter Savory
• French Tarragon

Your list looks good. I'd leave some room for basil (sweet basil, and maybe another variety). That's an annual, so plant it in the spring. Basil can be grown from cuttings, or from seed.
For annuals, I'd also grow some cilantro/coriander (cilantro is the
leaves, coriander is the seed), and I'd put in some flat leaf parsley (a
biennial, but best as an herb in the first year).

For Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Oregano and French Tarragon, those are best grown from cuttings. The packages you get as "fresh herbs" at the grocery store contain cuttings that can be rooted and grown.
French Tarragon is always grown from cuttings (if it's "from seed",
it's a different variety of tarragon). Real French Tarragon is hard to
find in nurseries, and often misidentified/misrepresented.

The advantage to growing from cuttings is you know the flavor characteristics of the cuttings you are growing. You can cook with the leaves you remove from the cuttings before you root them, and that's pretty much the flavor of what you'll be growing.

Thanks Common Cents. I'm limiting to perennials. My landscape guy looked at the list and said some I need to get on my own at retail nurseries because some are only available by the flat wholesale. The Lavender and Sage are in already, and he said he can get Rosemary.

I'll be talking with Portland Nursery next week to see if they can have the rest for me in spring. I'm not really a gardener, I'm really not into taking the time to learn about and make cuttings, etc., so if I can't get ready-to-plant ones, I'll skip those (at least this year).

How can I tell if it is *really* French Tarragon?

Oregano and tarragon are spreaders - be sure to leave plenty of room for them. And all of these are dead common herbs and should be available as small starts from any better nursery in your area (Portland Nursery is excellent!!), if not now, then in spring. I have never found true French tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus, difficult to locate. You should be able to find at the nursery also.

And I would also caution you NOT to plant the annual or biennial herbs together with the perennial ones. They just don't share the same growing preferences and keeping one type happy will distress the others. I'd include chives in the same mix :-)

Great. Actually I have spearmint (doing well) and chives (really didn't grow much, but looked healthy, maybe not enough light?) in a different area. Since I was a child (where my parents had spearmint) I wanted a house with spearmint. Finally.

"How can I tell if it is *really* French Tarragon?"

If the nursery has only one variety of "Tarragon," it's Russian Tarragon. If they only have "French Tarragon," it's mis-marked.

If they have both French Tarragon and Russian Tarragon, put one of each plant next to each and compare them. The French Tarragon should have:

• darker leaves,

• smoother leaves,

• shinier leaves,

• a stronger, more pungent aroma

• a stronger flavor with no trace of bitterness

Russian Tarragon has a weaker flavor and aroma, with a slight bitter edge.

If the nursery has both "Russian Tarragon" and "French Tarragon," and they appear, smell and taste virtually identical, they are both Russian Tarragon. If the nursery is growing from seed, the seed supplier is probably the origin of the misidentification. If they are growing from cuttings, the nursery itself is suspect. If they buy from a "wholesale nursery," then the problem is upstream in the chain, and the wholesale nursery or their seed supplier is suspect.

Which brings me to this overall advice: If you're planting herbs to cook with, when shopping at the nursery, smell and taste every plant you're going to buy. Reject any with weak flavor or off flavor or off aroma. Find that taste good and smell good. Don't buy any of that "cat pee sage" we see g posts about on here.

Oh, and some mint is good. Be careful, that's another one that spreads far and wide from where you plant it.

One final note, even with all "perennial herbs," there are some differing requirements from one type to another. Separating your herbs in some way will work to your advantage. You could have your "garden guy" use blocks or bricks build up "raised beds" and separate your various herbs. I use old tires for raised "mini-beds" in my herb garden. I cut out the sidewall on the side that goes down on the ground. I break up the soil underneath to allow for some deeper root growth, and I work some perlite into the soil because here my soil is very water retentive with a lot of clay in it. I then fill in the tire with a mix of good topsoil and "forest floor compost" that I rake up from the woods here on my acreage. I rake the loose leaves off the top, then rake up and shovel up the "coffee grounds" like layer under that, on top of the topsoil. It's great compost. You can use a mix of any good finished compost and good draining topsoil/garden soil to build up the raised beds. Some perlite in the mix will help with drainage.

Thanks Common Cents. I've printed this out for next spring.

Basil,Parsley,chives,dill and sage are good.