Herb gardens

[deplorabelle]

A tree died in my garden and I'd like to fill its place with a dedicated herb garden so I'm looking for inspiration:

Do you have a dedicated herb garden and if so what is in it?

What herbs do you get the best use out of in your kitchen?

Currently I have garlic chives in a pot with some fairly unhappy dill, I have far more sage than I can use, mint in a pot outside which gets rust half way through the summer and an endless production line of seed grown- and supermarket coriander in ugly plastic pots everywhere. Oh an a rosemary in one of the flower beds which was sulking in too much shade. I have little pots on kitchen window sill for thyme, mint and basil but it feels like plant cruelty a little bit.

Do you grow more unusual things like lovage, winter savory, angelica etc and if so, how much do you use them?

I was trying to develop a herb garden in my old garden, never really got to the stage of using much but I found Jekka's Complete Herbal by Jekka McVicar very helpful. Information on growing and using, lots of inspiration.

Thank you I'll look that up

I grow and use rosemary, thyme, marjoram/oregano, chives, and bay. Mint for tea, but that's best grown separately as it isn't one of the Mediterranean herbs requiring a well drained spot in the sun. I grow winter savory, because it flowers later than the rest, and hyssop for its intense blue flowers, but I don't use them. I grow basil indoors in pots as that's a hot wet tropical plant. Borage is another like mint, not mediterranean, and taking up a lot of space compared with other herbs. Which reminds me - sweet cicely, a UK native, a tall umbellifer (carrot family). Aniseed smell, but a leaf in with rhubarb reduces the amount of sugar needed - I like to have it around for the smell, and use it with rhubarb, but I grow it in one of the flower borders.

At my last garden I had a dedicated herb garden with the Mediterranean herbs, in the form of a knot garden. Tending it was a delight, a different smell everywhere you went. In my current garden I have the mints in pots, a bay tree beside where the cars are parked, and then the rest amongst the slabs of the terrace outside the back door, and on the low wall surrounding the terrace - lots of low neat growing colour close to where we sit out, and close to the kitchen so not too much hassle to go and pick even if it's dark or wet.

Thank you very much. I would love to have a knot garden but I don't think I have the space. Sweet Cicely is an excellent suggestion thank you

I have an extensive collection of mints in pots - to avoid rust make sure that you repot a bit of the root freshly at the beginning of each year and feed regularly.

Fennel seeds are one thing I use a lot, for tea and in cooking. I use a lot of thyme as well, which I grow in a large tin bath. I find it needs replacing after three years as it gets really woody, I haven't worked out how to prune it effectively. Lots of chives, sage, rosemary and flat leaf parsley get used, otherwise the herbs are purely decorative. I would like to be more inventive in my use of herbs in the kitchen though, so I have ordered the book that Corneysjazzband mentioned above!

The only advice I have is for god's sake plant mint in pots. I didn't. It took over everything, and I mean everything. Had to dig the whole herb garden out and lost everything but my neighbours still get the odd bit of random mint popping up in their garden.

I would love to have a knot garden but I don't think I have the space. I just made the whole front garden into a knot garden, about 4m sq, with a couple of roses climbing the house, and one in the centre to give height. Next owners turned it all back to grass.

Oo I've not thought of growing fennel for seed. That's a good idea as I use it a lot.

Thank you for the advice about mint. I'm hoping to grow several different mints - chocolate mint, pineapple mint etc. But always in pots as I know it can run

@meredintofpandiculation that must have been heartbreaking to have someone pull up your knot garden! It's actually not so much that I don't have the space, it's that my garden vision has to stay in line with the rest of the family's and it just wouldn't go with the rest of the garden. But I also like cottage garden planting which does work with the rest of the garden, so I'm thinking generous clumps of herbs if possible

I use a lot of bay leaves in cooking, so I have a couple of bay trees in my herb plot. I prune fairly savagely to keep them waist high.
Agree with mint in pots - it’s a total thug, and will run everywhere. I grow rosemary, sage, lemon balm, thyme and oregano. I’ve had borage in the past, which is pretty, but I only used it in Pimms.
As I live in Scotland, I have to grow basil indoors on the windowsill. And parsley never does well on my heavy clay soil - it prefers light sandy soil, so I’ve given up and just buy it ready cut.

Thanks Babdoc. I definitely need a bay tree I've decided 😁

What do you use lemon balm for? I had some running thuggishly through a bed for a while (worse than mint for me) but I ripped it up as I didn't use it and it was the only way to control it.

I love my herb garden!

I have:

• Bay
• French Tarragon (this will be its first winter so not sure how it's going to hold up yet; I'm told it's a tad sensitive)
• Mint
• Chives
• Lemon Balm
• Oregano
• Roman camomile
• Red veined sorrel
• English Lavender
• Rosemary
• Parsley (pain in the arse this one, it flowers in the second year and despite it allegedly being a self Seeder they never take for me so I have to keep buying replacements)
• Winter Savoury
• Sweet Cecily
• Lovage
• Bronze fennel (its first year so unsure how it will holdup over winter yet. It's barely grown so really not sure on this one)
• Dill
• Greek Basil (I think this may have died, it's an annual but will definately buy more, much better plant than regular basil)

I can't get on with Thyme, it dies every time for me.

I once planted a supermarket pot of coriander which grew beautifully and flowered.
I loved it but then the slugs found it and they have destroyed every coriander I have planted since.

All of my herbs, even the mint and lemon balm, are in open ground.
I grow them as a mixed hedge.
Everyone gets along fine but the lemon balm and mint and oregano need very regular pruning and regularly pulling up and checking and trimming as they grow underground.

You can't grow different varieties of mint close together as they crosspolinate and the flavours get all jumbled up and ruined

Oh I have sage aswell!
Forgot about that one.

And cress and wild rocket too

Oh yes sorrel! I forgot about sorrel. Do you find yourself using it much? And also what do you put lemon balm in?

I like the sound of a mixed herb hedge. I was thinking of growing my mint in a sort of hedge formation in trough planters along an edge, so it's good to know you've done that.

I will look into Greek basil? Is that the same as holy basil? (I was thinking of planting that just because I love the name...)

Apparently the legend is that you can only germinate parsley if you're a witch. I used to have it self seed every year but the builders finally killed off my witchiness last summer

Apparently the legend is that you can only germinate parsley if you're a witch. Or - you can only grow parsley if you're the boss in the household.

Actually, it's because it's a member of the carrot family, and all of them tend to be slow to germinate - carrot, parsley, parsnip...

Lemon balm is fantastic for teas , it's a good female balancing herb . I grow my herbs through the flowers (in my normal flowerbeds) as Alys Fowler suggests, it's good because it confuses the unwanted insects apparently.

Sage is great for planting under roses because the blackfly don't like it. I love it we bought it from Eng. 15 years ago (to Fr.) and it's still . going strong. Dead easy to take cuttings from too.

Helichrysum is lovely but it needs strong sun, also dry conditions for the fabulous 'curry' scent. It looks a bit like rosemary (with small yellow flowers) but isn't so fussy. There isn't much sun for anything at this time of the year so maybe best to wait till the spring till planting.

Thank you ppeatfruit yes next t planning to plant anything till spring. I'm still clearing the ground at the moment and dreaming of herbs to get me through the drudge work

Have you got clayey soil? Most herbs like sandy, gritty easy drain soils. Now's a good time to add that type of mulch if you need to.

Good point. Yes I need to. Very clayey soil apart from small places I've grown herbs before

Oregano,rosemary,thyme,sage,horseradish will all transplant into clay soil,once they get their roots down they thrive.
Prune thyme by gutting back hard after flowering,it looks brutal but grows back beautifully.

Thank you hagonthehill. I will try cutting back the sage next year. It flowered so beautifully this year I left it too long and then forgot

I have a flagged area next to a shed so in the cracks I have thyme. In pots I have sage, mints 2, rosemary, dill, fennel, oregano and in hanging baskets I have strawberries.

I have:
French tarragon (roast chicken and salads)
Broad leaf thyme* (general cooking, I like to have a lot so I can be generous)
English thyme* (general cooking, I like to have a lot so I can be generous)
Lovage (great in stews and Hugh F-W does a great pasta sauce with courgettes. Also lovage soup is gorgeous)
Marjoram (general cooking and salads
Bay (general cooking)
Ginger mint (tea)
Lemon verbena ( an ace cake - there is a thread about LV and it's very pretty)
Sweet cicily (it's pretty: I've never actually used it)
Chives (general cooking)
Parsley* (general cooking)
Winter savory (I've never really used it, but pretty. A bit thyme like)
Sage (general cooking)
Rosemary (general cooking)
Chervil (nice in omelette- the only one that self seeds)
Sorrel (makes lovely soup in spring, also good with lentils)

In brackets I show what I use them for.

I buy the small supermarket pots of the ones with asterisks, harden them off then divide into 4-6 little plants and plant out. They've always taken.

One year I also grew green Shiso, which is pretty, has a nice taste a bit like cumin and parsley mixed and grows huge.

Oo more replies thank you!

I love the idea of growing things between stones Bowerbird, but I'd worry my mother in law would come along and painstakingly dig it a out with a trowel on her hands and knees like she (kindly) did once before to things I was growing there.

Searabbit that is a GREAT list and very helpful, thank you. I've read about lovage soup so definitely another one to try

Be warned though - lovage is big