Hardy herbs for an English garden?

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So far I've planted a load of rosemary! Can someone give me some other suggestions for hardy herbs (eg not basil which I can't seem to grow!) for my beginners herb garden. Got some big raised beds in our new garden. Thank you in advance!

Elderberry is the ripe form of elderflower. Elder trees grow almost anywhere, but you need to be careful that they don’t take over your garden. Herbs need sun, and they won’t apprécies the shade from an elder.

Unless you live in the middle of a city, you can get all the elder you need from a hedgerow or a common.

@AnotherpostAnotherQuestion , pick wild elderberries and elderflowers.

Salad burnet is a more unusual one, great in a salad and tastes of cucumber. I also grow wild rocket and land cress, again great in a salad and very easy to grow - they don't like it too hot. Rosemary, thyme and sage in the sun, chives and mint can cope in a shadier spot. Basil I just buy from the supermarket and keep on the window sill, hates the cold and rain and i have no luck with it outside.

Wild rocket and land cress are plants you only need to sow once.

True, especially as it tends to grow tougher leaves outside to fend off slugs of whatever.

I once did tours round a particular garden and on one occasion a teacher asked if we had lovage and I said yes, we do and showed it to her and she was in raptures. That was in the first 5 mins of a 90 min tour. She kept disappearing from the rest of the tour and I had to keep going back via the herb garden to drag her out of the lovage bed. She was rubbing it on her hands, face, sniffing it, and we couldn't keep her away. I did tell her that they sell the seeds in the shop and maybe she needs to get some. Bizarre.

I used to grow lemon verbena in the Uk and it would grow back in the spring if moved to somewhere sheltered in the winter. Another good thing to grow that only needs sowing once is claytonia, which grows all winter and can be used in hot and cold winter dishes. And don't forget a sowing of spinach in August will grow all winter long.

Sorrel is another one you only need to sow once. The red one is pretty in salads.

I don't cook the lovage in the same way as curry leaves, I use it in curries.

If you pick sprays of lovage, dry them on kitchen paper in the microwave and then crush into powder. Add some to a tablespoon of garlic mayonnaise and then thin with yoghurt. Makes a lovely dip.

I also add it to minced pork to make meatballs, along with parsley and dried chilli.

In Italy it's know as the Maggi herb.

Chives, mint, sage and thyme do well in ours

Well, you can. But the runners will come out of the bottom, and still strange everything else to death.

Oh yes I should have specified; Sturdy? Instilled planter. Not a flower pot. You need to keep a good lip above the soil level too. I've been so careful about mint since I merrily planted three types in an open bed of my first garden.

She kept disappearing from the rest of the tour and I had to keep going back via the herb garden to drag her out of the lovage bed. She was rubbing it on her hands, face, sniffing it, and we couldn't keep her away. I did tell her that they sell the seeds in the shop and maybe she needs to get some. Bizarre.

I have never been able to keep basil either so decided to grow some from seed. It is in the greenhouse and doing amazingly well. I have 5 big pots of it and it smells divine. I have Thyme, Rosemary, Chives and did have Parsley but it died in the frost so need to try again. I have another Belfast sink now so need to fill that up too. I also need to grow some Dill so that I can make some Dill pickles from my baby cucumbers which my friend has requested.

Savoury is lovely. I have several clumps and it just pops up everywhere. It’s definitely hardier than rosemary in my garden. Lovely in tomato sauces, stews etc.

My trick with basil is to nip out bits of the supermarket pots - just cut a top bit of stem, a short length with a couple of leaves attached - put it in a little pot of water on a bright windowsill, and wait for it to grow white roots…which it'll do quite quickly. Plant them up in a pot. Bingo - you have a whole new basil plant, which will romp away in no time. I don’t bother with seeds; I just buy a pot in the summer then grow loads from it all summer.

I always struggled with basil until I started treating it like I do lettuce. Now it does fine for me.

Winter savory- tastes a bit like thyme, and easy to grow from seed. Said to stop wind with beans

Sorrel also easy from seed. I make a lovely sorrel & potato soup, and a sorrel and puy lentil one. You need more than one plant for soup.

Lovage also makes good soup, with potato, and gives a nice spicy celery taste in stews. Hugh Fearnley thingy has a nice recipe for pasta with courgettes and lovage.

You can also cook with things that don't seem to be herbs - like blackcurrant leaves, which taste a bit like muscat and make good ice cream. I make approximately this sorbet:

notesfromthevegpatch.com/blackcurrant-leaf-sorbet/

Lovage soup. Something of a substitute for celery but with a slightly stronger flavour.

I went heavy on herbs when I started by garden.

I have lovage, chives, chinese chives, winter savoury, salad burnet, sage (several types), oregano (several types), tarragon, summer thyme, thyme, lemon thyme, mint (several types), bay leaf, lemon verbena, lavender, wild garlic, rosemary, spearmint verbena, fennel, angelica, lemon balm, sorrel and celery leaf. I LIKE HERBS!

My lovage is well over 2m tall. My angelica is no where near that big - there are a number of varieties of angelica which are shorter.

I DID have pineapple sage in my front garden which I have managed to over window, however -12C killed it this year. I haven't managed to replace it yet this year. It was great as it flowered really late in the year. It is not very hardy so I'm not too surprised but annoyed I didn't overwinter cuttings indoors (I'm not great with house plants).

I have sage in my front garden which is a flower garden. Its great because it is one of my earliest flowerers and the bees love it. Then I cut it back really heavily. I also have fennel which has lovely foliage.

In the back, I find oregano does REALLY well. If anything too well. It has to be cut back really aggressively and frequently.

My lemon verbena is doing well despite it supposed to be being not that hardy. It survived the winter which says a lot, though my best friend had a plant from its cuttings and thats died. Its definitely one of my favs.

One of my rosemarys also survived the winter just fine and its it a fairly exposed spot (if you can get hold of ginger rosemary its AMAZING - prefer it to other varieties) but another variety didn't do so well (but it was less established).

My mint is a bit of a disaster area right now. I think I am the only person who can't grow the damn stuff. Its suffering in the hot weather.

I LOVE marjoram (not to be confused oregano) but I've not been able to grow it for two years - keeps dying on me and its not hardy. I've done summer savory before too which is lovely but doesn't survive.

My parsley is looking ropey this year and my attempts at coriander have been mixed - it just bolts. Chervil is easy to grow but I don't know what the hell to do with it so I've not bothered this year. Tbh, a busy May followed by this weather has killed off a lot of my plans in the garden unfortunately.

I recommend
https://www.hooksgreenherbs.com/

and

https://www.norfolkherbs.co.uk/

Both good herb specialists.

I've got chives, parsley, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram and oregano in my herb planter, plus mint in our old butler sink, a bay and rosemary in other pots.

I tell myself I'll make elderberry cough syrup and the like when I have time! Elderflower cordial? You don’t have to wait until you have a cough to drink that.
Rosa rugosa has huge hips for rose hip syrup.

Maybe she was having the same reaction some cats get with catnip? One of mine used to go completely glassy eyed and drooling , you could practically hear him saying “Groovy vibes man , chill out, this is like mega man,mega “.

@MereDintofPandiculation no, elderberry syrup, it's what we dose up on in the winter months :) https://draxe.com/nutrition/elderberry/

Yeah but she was a teacher there to learn about food growing in schools! I could understand a cat not wanting to learn about stuff, they already know too much.