want to start a Herb garden

adding a new bed and I thought i would try Herbs, any advice on this? what are some good ones that i might actually use? I hear there are some which are really very pretty? any advice appreciated. I live in zone 3-4 . does anyone have any extra seeds? i have flower seeds I can trade or sase. thank you!

Hi snowbird,
I was where you are at a few years ago.
The thing you want to really think about before
you start planting is what type of herb garden do you want ? Cullinary, fragrance, ect.....
I found that combining all of the above in a mix
works well. I started with lavender, chamomile, oregano,
thyme, and some others. Each year I try something new.
Have fun, herbs are a wonderful thing :-)

I have a book and i see that herbs are actually very attractive, I also use alot of store bought herbs, so i figured i would have more fun harvesting my own.

here's alink to a really useful page http://www.i5ive.com/article.cfm/691/5641

:)

Hi, I have Lavender "munstead" seeds, if you need them. I grow thyme between pavers, this works well. And if they get to sprawl over the stones too much they can be trimmed with a scissors. As for fragrance, I like pennyroyal, but really don't know how to use it. This year was my first for parsley, and I found that swallowtail caterpillars like to eat it. Other the caterpillers like are dill and fennel. I'll add them next. How this gives you a few ideas.

To start with, you might want to try a "Scarborough Fair" combination... GREAT for spicing most any meal (use 2 times more fresh than it calls for dried)

parsley (Italian Flat Leaf tastes best and is perennial)
sage (should grow great from seed and becomes perennial and there are MANY different special ones)
rosemary (bring it in the house and winter it over in an unheated room in sunlight if you can... otherwise plan on buying this each year in zones 3-4)
thyme (also many varieties... I like the idea of planting it in between stones, you might want to actually find pretty stepping stones to put the thyme around...

I would also do chives because they are so easy ... plant the seeds now if you can and in spring you'll have lovely early lavendar flowers that are edible ... plus the chives you can use in baked potatoes and lots of other stuff as well...

depending on the space you have, I'd put in stuff that attracts bees so everything can be nicely polinated.

If you decide on mints, put them in pots or they'll take over the space you give them.

I located my herb garden right outside the kitchen door so all I have to do is take a few steps outside to get the flavoring I need for my dinner each night. What a pleasure that is!

thanks for all the great ideas. I have my bed ready to go finally. So i will start adding some stuff now and others i should probably wait till spring. I think a herb garden will be fun. My husband laughs that if i keep adding beds , before long we won't have to mow. LOL