New to herbs. Bergamot and borage.

[KittyColdNose]

I have lemon balm and feverfew. Both are used to make tea, along with the three or four different mints I have growing. I also have sage and orange thyme. All these are doing well and surviving the winters up here.

[Feral007]

I have wormwood for the chooks.
Rosemary, oregano, and as much parsley as I can grow. Use those a lot in cooking.
Also French Tarragon which is nice in casseroles and even quiche's.

I've got mint gone mad.
And Horseradish, gone mad as well.

Chives, garlic and normal.

Try every year with basil but it always get cold and turns its toes up

Looking to grow more myself, but am also growing the same by cuttings into different spots, just in case I lose one, then I've got backups.

[robmarston]

All great ideas. Anyone use lovage? Love the name but know nothing about it. What's feverfew??


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[Scarlet]

Again "herbs" that aren't used very often. I love to grow most things but the old fashioned herbs are used little in most of today's cooking or for herb teas, which I hate!
Feverfew self seeds everywhere in my garden, had pretty daisy like flowers. Again I just grow as an ornamental plant. Lovage pretty much the same, there is a lovely soup recipe I put up a while back, lemon, garlic and lovage and a few leaves can be thrown in a soup etc but you won't get as much use from them as you would parsley, thyme, mint etc.
I grow the unusual ones often more for ornamental reasons and the birds and the bees that they attract rather than for eating. It depends how much space you want to give up for something that you will occasional only use a leaf or two.

[BertieFox]

Two MUSTS which I don't think anybody else has mentioned yet. First Winter Savory (which is a perennial making a little twiggy bush, rather like thyme).... excellent with meats like lamb or generally with French beans etc. You can also grow its annual cousin, Summer Savory, but I think the first is far better and easier.

The second is Lemon Verbena, a small shrub. The leaves are wonderfully lemon flavoured and makes great teas, and you can use the leaves in sweets and desserts. This is trickier to grow as it can be tender, but it is perennial and can be grown in a large pot which you bring inside in winter to protect from the frosts (it will lose all its leaves anyway so can go in a frost free shed or garage). Over the years it will grow into a larger bush, and cuttings root with such ease that you can make lots of new plants every year with lots of young leaves.

[taff]

I've got lovage [got seeds too, lots of if you want any for next year]. It spreads to over 6 ft in height then dies away to nothing. This year it's gone more bushy than usual.
Think very strong celery and it's sort of what it's like but much stronger. I love it, and the bees love the flowers too. I usually put it under the roast along with the usual suspects.
In Belgium they put Maggi sauce on tables, which is liquid seasoning except it has lovage in it...Polish friends pour it on their pierogi.

I love bergamot too, except so do the slugs...also have english mace which has made a comeback this year - surprised me.

I have summer savory/winter savory and creeping savory I really like the taste. Went to a Bulgarian restaurant recently, they use lots of it, it's really good - thumbs up for the stuffed pepper flavoured with it.

Can't beat thyme used on breadcrumbs to coat escalopes of any description including mushrooms.

The horseradish has been munched by the slugs, but strangely they always leave the basil alone. Basil in the house smells like cats wee when it's a month or two old, so I wouldn't recommend it indoors.

You could do worse than look for Jekkas Herb book in the library - it's exhaustive and very good for info.

[taff]

And once you have borage, you never need to buy seeds again, you can let it self seed everywhere. I've got the white one too, pretty but the bees don't like it as much as the blue.

[robmarston]

I'm thinking now of putting bergamot and borage into the flower beds and keeping the herb garden more herby salady stuff. Very keen to try savoury and lovage. Lemon verbena is one I also have to try.


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[robmarston]

So here's my herb bed built and planted. . We have lavender, bergamot, borage, thyme, basil, rosemary, salad burnet, parsley, gem lettuce, Rosso lettuce, curry plant, marjoram, garlic, chives, lemon balm, mint, sorrel, rocket and sage. Let's see what happens 😃


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[Tusty]

That looks brilliant! I'm attempting to grow 8 herb types from seed..... Not that confident at the mo!


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