A herb
garden can be as simple as a
collection of clay pots on a sunny windowsill or as elaborate
as a medieval knot garden complete with topiary, formal
placements, and copper planting labels.
Herb gardens can focus
on:
1:
Medicinal plants
2:
Herbs for homemade teas and sachets
3:
Fragrant herbs for aromatherapy projects
4:
Basic kitchen herbs for cooking and drying.
However
complex you decide to make it an herb
garden is definitely worth starting and can be easily
personalized to suit your specific tastes. Even if you have
never gardened before, many basic herbs are so easy to grow
they are nearly foolproof.
A
beginner might start with a small
sunny patch of ground near the kitchen door and focus on
inexpensive, vigorous plants that are very hardy and fun to
cook with such as basil, parsley, chives, mint, thyme, catnip
and lemon balm.
All of
these grow readily from seed or from
inexpensive starts obtained at the nearest garden center.
There’s nothing better than snipping your own homegrown chives
onto your sour cream and baked potato.
If you
live in an apartment building or have
very limited space, herbs are especially easy to grow as
container gardens. You can tuck herb starts into window boxes
right alongside edible flowers such as nasturtiums, pansies or
marigolds, or you can grow them in clay pots with arugula or
multicolored lettuces.
If you
usually put out a patio tomato each
summer, you can tuck some parsley or basil or both around its
stem and have the makings of tomato and mozzarella salad by
midsummer, all in one pot.
Once you
get used to cutting fresh herbs for
cooking all summer and fall you will almost certainly be hooked
and will be ready to branch out into more exotic
areas.
Many
people enjoy sunny herb gardens that
are grown specifically to make herbal teas. Tea gardens have
the advantage of being fragrant and colorful, and they also
attract beneficial insects and hummingbirds.
Some of
these lesser known herbs include
monarda (or ‘bee balm’), lavender, hyssop, Echinacea or purple
coneflower, and chamomile.
Herbs
make wonderful gifts whether fresh or
dry. Growing fragrant herbs for sachets and other home crafted
items like soaps and homemade lotions and oils is becoming more
and more popular as people
look for ways to save money and personalize their giving.
Lavender and thyme are universally soothing and both a
perennial in most parts of the U.S.
Herbs
are also easily worked into more
formal gardens and make especially good companion plants for
roses, boxwood, and delicate edible flowers like violets and
violas.
The
hips of many old-fashioned rugosa
roses make delicious teas and jams (and are very high in
vitamin C!). Violets and rose petals can be dipped in whipped
egg white and superfine sugar to make beautiful Victorian cake
decorations.
If
you’ve never grown anything in your
life, you can still tuck some mint into a contained bed in a
sunny spot and watch it take over. Mint comes in dozens of
flavors and varieties and is so invasive you can’t kill it even
if you want to. Chop it up and toss some in iced tea or
lemonade.
Once you
get started growing herbs, you may
find it hard to stop! (That’s a good thing!)
