Herbs to grown in the garden

[LadyGaGasPokerFace]

Hello, just after some advice about growing herbs in my garden that is a 50/50 sunny and shady garden. I stayed somewhere in the IOW that grew tonnes of rosemary and it had a fairly shady garden. This is what I’d like to do too, but not just rosemary, I’m open to options of other herbs too. Any ideas are welcome.

Mint will grow almost anywhere.

Mint, lemon balm and oregano should only ever be grown in pots. The last, in pots a long way from anything else. Possibly in the middle of a large lake.

Don't get me wrong, I love oregano. I just like a bit of garden for other things as well.

Most herbs like the sun, but mints will grow in shade. I have peppermint, spearmint, pineapple mint and ginger mint (lovely with tomatoes and a great substitute for basil), all in containers in shadier spots. I'm in Ne Scotland so a bit short on hot sunshine, though we have long summer days.

I cheat when it comes to herbs, I buy the ones in pots (Sainsbury's seem to be the best, for me) and plant them out.
Thyme lasts for ages, as does sage, mint and rosemary. Chives will go through a mild winter but basil dies.
I do it this way as I can start picking them straight away

Parsley and bay leaves grow really well in my garden.

Coriander and basil leaves die quickly if I put them out - but do ok as indoor plants.

Perennial Herbs
One rosemary bush is enough for cooking purposes!

A bay tree is easy.
If you have a huge garden put mint in the ground, otherwise in pots and split it every year.
Bronze Fennel is a lovely tall herb - I use it in herbal tea and it's an attractive plant. OK in shade but not deep shade.
Oregano takes over - but is easy enough to pull out and the bees love it - put it in the sunniest bit.
Thyme tolerates some shade but will be happier in sun.
Sage prefers some but tolerates shade - and you don't need a huge amount for cooking with.

Annual herbs
Parsley doesn't mind shade you can sow that fairly soon. I grow it in pots.
I buy pots of basil from the supermarket and divide them up into lots of other pots and they'll each grow into a new strong plant. One pot can give you about 20 plants. They can go outside once it's summer.
Coriander is really easy to grow, sow in succession inside until the summer.

Top tip - don't plant lovage, it grows 7 foot tall and 4 foot wide and you'll only use a handful of it a year....

I do this too, my mint is massive every year.

Agree on mint and lemon balm only in pots. OTOH winter savory is containable and works very well for borders. Sage better outside a pot - had a couple die in recent hot summers.
Also:
tarragon (make sure it's the French not the Russian variety)
borage
purslane.

Chervil is really easy sowed directly into pots - much better ime than coriander or dill that seem to shoot up and die in no time at all.

Basil - may be worth looking into the more shrub-like perennial varieties even if the flavour isn't as intensive.

Vietnamese coriander - great in pots, needs to be brought indoors over the winter and will mostly go dormant.

Do grow lemon verbena, the smell is out of this world - far nicer than lemon balm 🍋

Quilquina - taste somewhere between tarmac and rue. Good in salads, a counterpoint to all that sweet crunch.
Thai basil - actually an Agastache, nice licorice smell
Sweet cicely - takes the edge off rhubarb’s acidity

Chives will go through a mild winter but basil dies. What do you mean by this? Chives are bulbs like onions, die down in the winter and regrow from the bulb. Do you mean your leaves sometimes survive the winter, or your bulbs sometimes die over winter?

most of our herbs are Mediterranean and should be treated accordingly - sun, well drained soil. Basil is tropical.

Totally agree!

I love thyme, I use it in so many different dishes. Couldn't be without it!

My h likes to 'garden'. Herbs are a bit pointless imo unless woody ones otherwise I wipe out the whole lot in one meal.

Then you're not growing enough of them.

I have Russian tarragon and think it's fine - completely hardy, but like mint it spreads everywhere!
I don't know if there's a difference between types of marjoram, but mine is the wild sort - fine for cooking and there's now a big selfsown patch in our lawn which the bees and butterflies love.

My experience:

Chives will seed themselves so once planted, you will always have a supply. Pretty flowers in spring and the supply lasts well into the late summer.

Basil just gets eaten by slugs if planted in the garden. I love basil but it’s best in a pot on your windowsill.

Rosemary and thyme are both hardy but get woody at the bottom and less attractive after a couple of years. But they’re so cheap to buy, and so useful in cooking, you can replace the plants whenever they start to look woody.

Mint is a menace unless contained in pots.

Fennel gets too tall for a normal herb garden but attractive if you plant it elsewhere in the garden. It’s good for covering up a fence, for example.

I’m experimenting with tarragon this/last year. I love tarragon in cooking and it was plentiful through the summer but I don’t know yet whether it’s survived the winter.

Chives survive anything. We have an alpine garden covered in snow most the winter and the chives just die back and regrow in spring. The chive flowers are lovely sprinkled in salalds

Rosemary, thyme, sage and mint and Oregano all survive winter also. Mint will also just die right back and grow again in spring. I have all in separate pots or in terracotta pots buried in ground so they don’t spread.

Parsley is biannual, so you should get two years out of it. If not just plant fresh and it isn’t fussy about heat or rain so should survive all year

Basil dies easily outside

i had parsley which reseeded itself all over the garden, a bonus.

Sage
Thyme - last year I bought different varieties of thyme and the looked pretty.
Spearmint

I have a mint garden - about eight different varieties in planted in an old butler’s sink.

Basil I plant between my tomato plants in my greenhouse.

I always have Dill in my herb garden, you can direct sow it when it gets warmer and it also makes a lovely ornamental plant. It does need watering well or it will go to seed. I also love lemon verbena for making tea but it does best kept inside.

Also agree with previous poster about lovage, it's a pain to get rid of too.

I have several rosemary shrubs in my garden. I do grow it for cooking but also for the flowers which the bees love.

I have a sage plant. I did have more but I overused them and they died.
If you grow tarragon then get the French one. The Russian really doesn't have as good a flavour.

Yes to mint in pots. I have made one that goes on our garden dining table so has a hole in the middle for the parasol to go through. Apparently mint keeps bugs away, as do marigolds so I have some in the same pot.

I have a large bay tree in a pot which my parents gave us. I use it all the time in cooking.

I have thyme, two types and want to add more, planted in a hanging basket near our kitchen window. It's meant to stop flies coming in, not sure if it does though. Still, it looks nice, especially when in flower, and again another bee magnet.

An unusual herb to grow is English Mace. Nothing like the spice but has a really nice scent and grows tall spikes with small flowers on top which bees and other flying bugs love. It clumps nicely too and so far seems to come up year after year.

Don't be fooled by marjoram. Its other name is oregano and is the one people are warning you about. It is a real thug, and not only spreads by underground runners, it seeds itself rampantly about as well. If ever there was a herb intent on world domination, this is it.

Mint isn't quite so bad, and if it spreads into your grass it doesn't matter - it just smells lovely when you mow the lawn.

Chives - you will need many chives. I'm going to plant yet more this year, I put them in literally every dish all summer.

Lidl is currently selling terracotta potted herbs for £2.99.

Don't be fooled by marjoram. Its other name is oregano and is the one people are warning you about. It is a real thug, and not only spreads by underground runners, it seeds itself rampantly about as well. If ever there was a herb intent on world domination, this is it. Depends on your soil. It’s OK on my cold clay