Your favorite herbs?

[alaskagold]

I enjoy most herbs... but I am not able to grow all of them well, due to temps.

I love the smell of rosemary, chocolate mint, cinnamon basil, pineapple basil, mint and peppermint.. okay most mints and basils and chinese chives.

What do you enjoy the most herb wise in your garden?

Any hints on Rosemary would be appreciated as well. I have yet to grow it very well.

[bg]

I really like basil, I use it all the time in my cooking. When I had a basil plant, it was pretty easy for me to grow and I would use the fresh leaves all the time. It was also easy to get cuttings and get them to root, and I had even gave one away to some other family who live in Az, which is arid and here is usually 80% humidity. When it flowered though, it was hard to keep up with before it was done. I think I saved some seeds, so hopefully I can find them and have some again this year.

We've been wanting to get some chocolate mint. I once used to live with a large area with mint... a pain to have to keep mowing every week... but the smell was great lol.

Never had much luck with dill, parsley or cilantro, unfortunately. I would like to be able to grow my own salsa ;d I'll try again this year I think. I'm clearing some space for a raised bed garden that I'm going to fence in and put a top on, to keep out squirrels and such since they've been a pain on trying to start cucumbers and I may as well protect the rest too.

I'm also not too good with rosemary, I had a small plant once, and it grew a little but I think I just didn't have the time, so everything died. I just kept it watered once in a while here... but I can't give any advice on it.

[gumbo2176]

I have these herbs in my garden-----sweet basil, chives, parsley, rosemary, oregano and spearmint. I plan on putting in some dill, sage and thyme.


Of those, I use parsley the most, actually almost daily with cooking I use a lot of sweet basil for cooking and baking breads or simply chopped up fine on baked potatoes or in tossed salads for a great taste. I use rosemary and oregano in some red gravies, on roasts, in dressings and simply placed in a bottle of white vinegar to flavor it. The rest I use more sparingly but do use them. What is in abundance, I'll take cuttings and give away to family and friends to use as they please. I have lots of takers for Basil, parsley and rosemary.

Forgot to add this. I have a huge in ground rosemary plant that has overwintered for a few years now. That won't happen in Alaska so you may want to put one in a large container to bring it indoors once the temps. drop. Parsley will likely do fine during your growing season but in the deep south, it usually wilts badly and dies once the summer heat gets here. If you grow mint, best to grow it in some confined space since it tends to take over where ever it grows sending out shoots in all directions.

[rainbowgardener]

I grow lots of culinary and tea herbs and love them all. Anise hyssop and lemon balm are lovely in tea blends. Sage is one of my favorites, because it is perennial and once established requires no particular care and is semi-evergreen. One sage plant makes pretty much all the sage I can use (but being greedy, I started some more from seed this year!). I make essential oils and made candles and soaps with them for Christmas. Sage-citrus is a wonderful combination for fragrancing things like that, especially if you don't want anything sweet or "girly."

I have a grow light in my kitchen ([url=https://www.aerogarden.com/?cid=ppc_g&st=4&gclid=CLOG6Ya7xqcCFdO4KgodE3ThCw]aerogarden[/url] actually) with parsley, basil, and oregano. They are doing well, the parsley especially is thriving. I love having it right there in my kitchen, for snipping herbs any time I am cooking. Once it's warm, I turn the light off and move everything out to containers on the deck.

[ozark_rocks]

I love herbs. Fresh herbs taste so much better than store bought. I have sage, Rosemary, oregano, parsley, basil, chamomile, cat mint, chocolate mint, chicory and cumin, chives, dill , yarrow, and I'm trying stevia.

My favorites are sage and choclate mint.

[Cerbiesmom]

[quote="Marlingardener" If you can find Arp rosemary, try that variety. It does well here in Central Texas, and will likely do so in the Houston area. My very favorite rosemary is the Tuscan rosemary--beautiful color, great fragrance, sturdy, and oh so very delicious![/quote]

I'm off to find Arp Rosemary! Thanks. I love rosemary, but it just doesn't seem to like me very much. I have one sad-looking, bug infested bush that I started from a cutting.

[fmcmains]

Thyme and oregano and rosemary, of course. But ever since I felt the despair of watching French tarragon wither in the Louisiana heat I have been growing Mexican Tarragon. It is a wonderful compliment to creamy dishes, bisques or anything calling for seafood as well as great in béarnaise. The good thing is that it thrives in southern climes and even comes back after a freeze (in south Louisiana it does anyway).

I have read here and there that because it is related to gladiola and thus somehow to plants that naturally encourage a rust that chemically resembles LSD, that it is dangerous as a culinary herb. But, so far, my uses of Mexican Tarragon have been of the decidedly un-trippy sort.

[annastasia76]

I don't have much that I have had success growing in my garden, just onions (the greens only, I haven't had success with bulbing) so far, I just purchased a basil plant from the store since I couldn't get it to sprout. I would love some french tarragon but it's so hard to find and I'm too chicken to buy it online because I don't want to get stuck with mexican or russian. I would also like to grow some oregano, cilantro, and rosemary.

[NorthCoastGardener]

The herbs growing in my coastal garden are rosemary, thyme, flat leaf parsley, spearmint, sage, and chives. Rosemary has a hard time in this cooler climate. My sage is in a pot, probably would do better in the ground here. The chives and parsley are doing fine. I particularly love thyme, sage and rosemary, use them in cooking and love how they look in the garden. I absolutely love basil, tried it once but have had no luck with it yet on the coast.

[alaskagold]

I still have yet to find chocolate mint in either seed or in plant form . I did find cinnamon basil in seed form, which was odd. But I am not complaining.

I think this year, instead of trying to grow rosemary from a seed, I am just going to buy a plant and keep it inside. It smells good and no one I know has ever complained about the smell of it. Any luck for those keeping it indoors only?

I am also looking for pineapple sage, as I don't really care for sage in general but this smelled great last year when I bought a plant. Still can not find seeds for this either.

Has anyone in the colder climates, grown and have their herbs only inside?

[ozark_rocks]

Sorry, I don't know where to buy seed for chocalate mint, I got my start from a friend. If you still have'nt found any by next fall, I could save you some seed.

Just a thought, do you think a small cutting would make it from Arkansas to Alaska? It is just now starting to come up.

[lily51]

What would a garden be withouth herbs
Our garden has rosemary (as an annual), many kinds of thyme, lavender, sage, oregano, chives, many flavors of basil, dill,tarragon and any others that come and go each year.
I do love all the flavored basils, from lemon, lime, purple ruffles, thai, cinnamon, probably because they are so easy to grow here.
The aroma working with the herbs is heaven-scent!

[Gary350]

I only grow what I really like to eat.

Rosemary is great on chicken and fish. I have tried to grow it but it does not grow very large for me.

Basil has done well in the past but I have not had good luck with it the past 2 years. It makes great pesto. If there is any chance at all of frost pick all your basil because frost will cause all the leaves to fall off.

Parsley does well no matter what the soil or weather does. It can take a pretty fair amount of cold weather down to about 25 degrees before it starts to suffer.

Savory is about like Parsley it grows great no matter what the weather and down to about 25 deg.

Oregano grows good for me but the plant is not a very large producer. I need several plants to get a large crop of oregano. It does good in hot dry soil and cool weather but will die easy if it frosts or freezes.

Cilantro does good too it does best in cool weather when it gets hot about 85 degrees it goes to seed. Seed is fine with me I plant the seeds and then I have 100s of tiny plants the next year and a very large crop of cilantro.

Chives grow back better and larger the second year. It is good but seems like a waste of my time for such a tiny crop. Onion tops work better for me.

Mint is easy to grow. It reseeds itself 100s of plants will come up the next year. Frost or freeze will kill it.

[alaskagold]

Sorry, I don't know where to buy seed for chocalate mint, I got my start from a friend. If you still have'nt found any by next fall, I could save you some seed.

Just a thought, do you think a small cutting would make it from Arkansas to Alaska? It is just now starting to come up.

hmm, I don't think it will.... but it was a great offering and nice thought. thank you1:)

Save some seeds and lets see what we can do next year?:)