Herbs and useful plants- inspire me please!

[EauRouge]

My new pergola is being delivered in a couple of weeks and I'm ridiculously excited and I'm planning to plant herbs around it. It will be on a south facing slope with well drained soil. So far I have- fennel, sage, rosemary, two types of mint, two types of thyme, lemon balm, lovage, oregano, marjoram, chives and parsley.

Listing them all now, I've probably got enough But recently I've developed this obsession with growing things that I can use for something (either food or in homemade cosmetics). What have you all got in your garden that you can use? I also have calendula and nasturtiums and a small fruit and veg patch. But I need more. I wonder if DH would notice if I dug up the lawn to make more space...

You can cook with lavender - but not French lavender so get British stuff! Also lovely dried etc.

Lemon verbena
Chamomile
Tulsi
And rose petals are also edible!

How about Yarrow?

Most people either love it or hate it and i am on the love it side. You do need to keep it in check though as it does like to take over.

Borage - flowers lovely in fruit juices.
Sorrel - great in salads
Comfrey - good for fertiliser
Ladys Mantle - natural boob firmer
Basil, garlic and aloe
Stevia - sugar substitute
Sweet cicely - sugar substitute and furniture polish
Yarrow - improves quality of other herbs
Grapevine, chamomile, passion flower, jasmine
Hyssop - colds
Lovage - slimming
Sweet myrtle - bbq's

:o have fun

Ladys Mantle - natural boob firmer Whatwhatwhat? No one has told me this before! I've got oodles of the stuff, I thought it just looked pretty and hid the fact that I don't edge the lawn often enough.

Thanks all for your suggestions, they are fab. My local proper garden centre is going to start thinking I've got some kind of herb fetish.

Lovage is slimming, eh?

Oh lucky you, ladys Mantle is also called little magical one, it doesn't give you an uplift but does make you firmer, I drink it in tea using fresh leaves and blend it in cream :o it's also good for womens problems

Hopefully you have a lot of fun experimenting, my herb bible is The essential herb handbook by Lesley Bremness but MN advertised another good one recently.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I've got some birthday money left over and I've been meaning to get a herb book.

Careful with the mint, it's liable to take over!

I am too partial to a jug glass of Pimms for the mint to take over

Plant the mint in a bucket in the ground - it WILL take over everywhere and will be putting up shoots all over the garden.

My lawn appears to consist mostly of chives, so beware of them too! We don't have that "newly mown lawn" smell here, it just smells of onions!

Really? I've had it ages and it's only grown a tiny bit. Maybe it doesn't like where it is now, it's in a fairly boggy bit at the moment. Thanks for the bucket tip!

at the onion smell.

I know nothing about gardening but growing some aloe vera is well worth it, even if it's in pots in the house - they are virtually indestructible and brilliant for burns, sunburn etc. I have one that has survived for years in a pot in the kitchen :)

:o now I know how to calm mint growth down, plant it in a boggy area, must be drowning the off shoots.

There's a herb nursery in wales who sell chocolate mint plants. The plants are well grown aswell.

Specialist nurseries are usually better for quality plants, some garden centres don't care for them as much.

Chocolate mint?

I'm lucky to have a decent garden centre near me that sells nice plants and no plastic meerkats. I think there's a specialist herb nursery not too far away too.

My mint hasn't grown much this year but once the weather warms up, it will go mad.

I managed to kill a lovely aloe vera plant

I've had my mint for years though, it must be the heavy clay soil that's slowing it down. I'm planning a bog garden for where the mint is now once I've moved it. I might put the mint in a pot to be on the safe side.

Tarragon. French variety has a nicer taste than Russian, though it is tender. Lucky you to have a pergola; I hope you are planting some climbers? Roses for rose hips - not sure which variety you'd need. Or beautifully scented ones for pot pourri. Grape vines! Honeysuckle! I'm very envious .

Got a grape vine and some honeysuckle, I'm planning to get a kiwi as well and that'll leave me one leg free- so probably beans or nasturtiums. I am going to live outside this summer (with my laptop so I can MN, obviously).

Tarragon sounds good, I'll add that to the list too.

Definately put the mint in a pot. Nasturtium is lovely, straight of the plant. I'm very too, sounds beautiful.

Grockle

I must plant some nasturtiums, thank you for reminding me. And maybe I'll buy a new aloe vera plant tomorrow!

Jekka MacVicar is a organic herb grower and has also written loads of books on herbs and there uses. She also has a web site you could just google her name to find it

Thanks gardeninggal, my DM mentioned her the other day. I haven't seen the website yet, I'll have a google.

I grew Brussels sprouts, lovely architectural stems, then sprouts to eat for Christmas (and a cabbage at the top) and if you neglect to pull it up after the sprouts finish, a lovely bonus crop of sprouting broccoli, then pretty yellow flowers when it finally stops making broccoli.
Can't ask for much more than that from a plant.
I grow a bramble up my pergola, for a late summer garden snack, none of it ever gets indoors.