Which herbs?

Do you grow? Pleae be specific.

And which ones do well, are your favorites, etc?

I grow the culinary herbs French tarragon, rosemary, basil, parsley, sage, thyme (several kinds), chives, chamomile, and a couple others. My favorites are rosemary and tarragon, mainly because I use a lot of those in cooking, I dry the tarragon, and the rosemary grows year 'round if it's up against a wall in my zone.

The tarragon doesn't do as well as I'd like, but then again I ignore it a lot, forgetting to fertilize, LOL. The rosemary gets lovely blue flowers and grows like crazy! Parsley and chives do great, but parsley is a biennial so I plant new every year.

I grow some medicinal herbs as well: elecampagne, betony, lavander, sweet woodruff, rue, 2 different santolinas, anise hyssop, pennyroyal and St. John's Wort. I love the flowers on the betony, and the sweert woodruff spreads nicely in my shade garden making a nice ground cover. The santolinas have small yellow button flowers, and I love to run my hands through the bush and smell it! The hyssop puts on a lovely flush of tiny daisy-like flowers twice a season (if I cut it back).

I have comfrey, costmary, rosemary, basil, anise hyssop, lemon balm, tansy, chives, sage, Horseradish, garlic, and catmint.
This is my first year for garlic. I'm hooked. How did I live without this for all these years? I am this way about all the culinary alliums now. Really gonna try some different ones next year. I found something called a bottle onion at a farmer's market a couple of weeks ago. Not sure how to get that going. Will just try to plant the onions I think and see what happens.
Just started growing basil a few years ago, when my youngest daughter started cooking with it. Gosh, I brush up against it in the garden and the smell makes my mouth water.
Lemon balm is a happy grower. amazing really. I have a farm with sheep, goats and cattle. There is a large bed of this growing by the barn and none of the livestock will eat any of this. The goats will eat thorn trees, poison ivy and almost anything else, but will leave the lemon balm alone. I find that rather funny.
Not sure if scented geraniums classify as herbs, in case they are I have rose scented, atomic snowflake and another one with Miriam in the name, would have to go to the garden and check. I was finally successful in overwintering one of these last winter. This has a lot to do with how much money I will invest in one.
I do love mints as well. My mints include; Kentucky Colonel, apple, variagated pineapple, chocolate (this tried to take over the world this year), one I traded for called only Amish (not doing well at all), and one more that I pulled up a start from somewhere.
I planted dill, but had to try to move it and lost it. Really wanted to make my own pickles. oh well, next year I will try that again.
The herb I want the most and don't have is Stevia. Would love to experiment with it. I tried to start it from seeds this year. I was a total failure. Have heard that it is extremely hard to grow.
May think of more later.

We grow, Comfrey (normal, golden leaved, red flowered and tuberous), Pot Marigold, Lavender (normal, Woolly, Toothed), Bronze Fennel, Elecampane, Oregano (4 cultivars), Lemon Balm (variegated and plain), Lemon Verbena, Sage (normal, purple leaved, pink flowered, white flowered, Variegated), Tangerine Sage, Variegated Tansy, Chives (white flowered cultivar), Welsh Onion, Hyssop, Lawn Chamomile, Thyme (5 cultivars), Chicory, Sweet Violet, Wild Strawberry, Clary Sage, Vervain, Lady's Bedstraw, Meadowsweet, Dropwort, Male Fern, Loveage, Feverfew, Spearmint, Rosemary (one blue and one white flowered), Russian Tarragon, Gingko, Borage, Wormwood (two types), Angelica, Lady's Mantle, Vinca, Bugle, Forget-me-not, Lungwort, Dead Nettle, Dianthus, Hemp Agrimony, Curry Plant, Bay, Soapwort, Catmint, Foxglove and Nasturtium.

Most are grown as nectar plants and as I have an interest in old vet med, they are also grown out of curiosity. I used to grow a lot more medicinal plants but as time, tide and buttered eggs wait for no man, the lack of time caused such plants as Oxknee and Blue Chives to say goodbye a few years ago and I'm yet to find them again. I could't possibly choose a favourite, they all have their place.

WOW! What a fab list!

I am hoping to get the herb garden started this fall and next spring ... rosemary does very well here, and lavender.

What I would like to know, for starters, is which named varieties/cultivars of rosemary and lavender are taller, with strong scent?

I want to be able to hang bedlinens and other things from the wash o them to dry so that it will capture the wonderful arome of the plants.

So the stems need to be a little stiff....

And which thymes and oregano and other culinary/fragrant herbs are your faves?

I also am interested in old herbal remedies.

And Baa are all your herbs good nectaries? Or which ones are the best/better ones?

Thanks Lav

Rosmarinus officinalis is a tall upright shrub itself but the cultivar 'Miss Jessop's Upright' (which always sounds to me like a statement than a name) is also a good strong grower, both make about 5 to 6ft in height where happy. Lavendula angustifolia or L. latifolia are two large Lavenders (reaching about 4ft max) with a good scent, the former is the more hardy of the two.

The cultivars of Lavender and Rosemary seem to be concentrated on their compactness and flower colour than overall taste and scent.

Almost all on my list are nectar plants for one insect or another (excepting the Gingko and the Male Fern). Our initial objective for the whole garden is to provide at least 10 month flowering range here in the South of England and those flowers at either end of the year must provide food for the wild life, especially the early and late insects who can be woefully short on food, this is why we chose native species as often as possible. By far the best all round nectar plant is the Hemp Agrinomy - Eupatorium cannabinum, everytime we walk past the plant a cloud of various insects rise as they are disturbed but that's no reflection on the others.

>I found something called a bottle onion at a farmer's market a couple of weeks ago.<

Bottle Onions, KathyJo, are an old time variety. Mine, for instance, came from a gentleman in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, where they've been grown for many generations.

Normally they are started from seed or sets. I'd be curious to hear what happens if you plant a bulb. I would fall-plant them if I were you, and mulch. If they survive my guess is one of two things will happen: either they will divide into a bunch of smaller, set-like bulbs; or they will grow normally but bolt because they'll think it's their second year.

Either way, it's certainly worth a try.

Hey Cool Brook! Thanks for the info. If I am not successful with them this year I will certainly try try again. I was going to plant them tonight, but got home late and never got it done.
I was hoping that they would at least sprout from the bulb and I would be able to harvest seed? We'll see.
I only bought a couple of them. What kind of flavor do they have?
Baa, about your dead nettle. Does it come up on it's own? It grows wild by the creeks here. I am very sensitive to it. Would rather pull poison ivy than to touch it. but, I know lots of people look for it in the Spring here for "greens" . supposedly very high in iron.
I have our native wild ginger here growing by my old chicken house.

KathyJo

Our Dead Nettle is Lamium maculatum rather than Urtica which we call Stinging Nettles. I can't bear to touch those either and can never understand how some people just grab hold of them with no pain.

Baa, Once again a botanical name comes in handy. and I shoulda thought of that. I am not sensitive to anything else, just this. I can see it a mile away.

Had to add into the stinging nettle imput. I love it! I have allegies and it is a great cure. I took an herbal class from Susun Weed this Spring. She taught to just firmly grap the leaf--never brush up against it. It worked, but I will still be wearing leather gloves next Spring for my harvest. Once you either blanch it or freeze-dry it the sting goes away. I keep a baggy of dried leaf in the kitchen to add to food as I would any dried herb-yum. Also a great dye plant (yellow) and fiber plant.
About drying clothing on the herbs: I would worry a little that the oils from the herbs could get on to whatever is drying on them. Not positive, but could happen. I had an employee whose mother made dryer bags full of herbs. Each member of the family had a different scent.
I grow a lot of culinary (rosemary, lavender, majoram, sage, oregano, burnet, garlic chives, garlic, italian parsley, chervil, chamomile, various basils) and dye herbs (calendula, woad, weld, madder and staring to experiment with other veggies). Definately some medicinals--that is a bed that is growing next year. I am in the process of a move so I'll be taking lots of cuttings and seeds.
I hope this idea of drying on herbs works for you. Can't wait to hear!

How interesting Valleruata. Never heard of drying this. I have so much of it growing wild here.
It sounds like you must work with natural fibers? How hard are woad and weld to grow?

Out at the farm for a few days (no computer). Both are easy to grow and will reseed. I have seed of both if you are interested. I'm a spinner/knitter. Am looking forward to growing my dye herbs on a bigger scale. Just moved to a big farm. I still spend Thur-Sat in town for work though.
Deb

Kathy Jo, so does your grlic tswte better fresh than what we buy in the store?

Which one/s do you grow?

We love garlic, and I am thinkin I should plant some this fall if it is bettr.

I just paid 99 cents earlier today fr one measly little bulb less than the size of a fifty-cent piece!

It was my first year for garlic. I went to the heirloom veggie festival that BakerCreekSeed has in Missouri twice a year. There was a whole garlic table of heirloom garlic. I only planted about 10 cloves. They are an old top setting kind so instead of harvesting any I thought I would rather increase my crop for next year and planted them all. So crazy me doesn't know what they even taste like yet.
Vallaruata, I would love to get some seeds from you if you have any to spare.

KathyJo--I am so jealous! I've been getting the magazine from BakerCreek Seeds. I bet the festival was really fun! Send me your address and I will get the woad and weld out to you.
Deb
accuardi@earthlink.net

I didn't mention garlic in my post above, but I grow usually at least 2 varieties. Last year I had spanish roja (not a good keeper) and silver rose (softneck, good for braids). Most of the varieties I have tried have come from Shepherd's Seeds, and when I find one I really like, I just re-plant some from the harvest.

I have grown the common grocery-store variety as well, and it does fine... but I love the subtle taste differences in many of the other garlics.
All garlic is soooo easy to grow!