Growing herbs - gardening novice

[IWillYeah]

I have rosemary, lavender and lemon balm growing successfully in my garden (planted by previous owner)

I'm growing basil and mint in pots in my kitchen (brought from supermarket a few months ago and going strong).

What else can I grow, inside or out? And is it best to buy pots of herbs from the garden centre or seeds? I have no idea how you grow things from seed btw!

Many thanks in advance x

Sage is very easy, also oregano, thyme and chives.

The best thing is to work out what you use most in your cooking, and grow that!

Apart from basil, which needs a fair bit of water, most herbs are incredibly tough and can take a lot of sun without much water.

If you are just after the standard varieties probably better to just start with plants in pots, herbs are not always the easiest from seed imo.

Thyme is easy to grow, as are chives. I just buy the supermarket pots and either keep them on the kitchen window sill or plant them out in the garden. I like these and parsley, as I like to use them in my cooking.

Always keep mint in its own pot otherwise it takes over the other plants and kills them.

Thanks all. Very useful. Think I will try parsley, sage and thyme next

thyme is really easy to grow outside, as is rosemary (great if you like it with lamb!). also, coriander. i couldn't manage without fresh coriander in the garden. what about parsely?

i buy mine as small plants in pots from the garden centre, usually about 5 for £10.

I buy pots from our garden centre.

Has anyone mentioned bay yet?

Always handy to have your own supply of bay leaves and they look lovely in a big pot.

I have a few varieties of thyme and oregano - then if one doesn't do too well you can always fall back on the other. Lovely flowers on the thyme too.

Winter savoury is hardy and tarragon is lovely to grow in the summer.

another vote for french tarragon
applemint is nice to make a tea with
chives are nice in salad
oregano smells like Italy!

Make sure you buy French tarragon. Our local garden centre sells 'tarragon' that, when I nibbled a leaf, tasted of absolutely nothing.

I have the herbs mentioned, and also grow lovage which grows enormous but is fabulous for making soup and flavouring stews, and red veined sorrel which is easy to grow from seed and is again good for soups, and is good with eggs and in salads. I have sweet cicely too that tastes sweet and aniseed. It is supposed to be cooked with rhubarb and reduce the need for sugar, but that aniseed flavour puts me off. It grows happily in shade though and is very pretty.

For things like thyme and basil as the slugs ate my lovingly-nurtured seedlings I have bought a pot from the supermarket and separated bits out to plant. It's a lot cheaper than buying from a garden centre.

I second winter savoury. It's a great alternative to thyme - in fact I sometimes think it's better. It has a wonderful deep, spicy, savoury taste.

Sage is very easy to root from cuttings. If you can sneak a cutting from a full-grown plant, it should take well and will produce a good-size plant quite quickly. I didn't even use rooting powder for mine, just stuck them in soil and they're massive now.

You can get lots and lots of lovely scented variants on mint. I have chocolate mint (smells just like mint Aero) and lime mint (mojito in leaf form).

If you like bees, hyssop's a good choice: rock hyssop doesn't grow much above 30cm and has blue flowers that bees love.

I've ordered half of mine (the ones I didn't get free as cuttings) from somewhere called (I think) the Norfolk Herb Co. They deliver by post. The plants have been top-quality and very fast-growing.

Lemonbalm is my very favourite herb. What a scent . . .