I love my herb garden. Right now, it’s not in the best shape and needs a lot of dead stuff from last year removed. Some fresh mulch would make it look really nice too. Here is a photo of one of my lavender plants (notice the lemon balm creeping in and the dead stuff to be removed):
It also needs to be weeded really badly.
Here it is last year looking beautiful!:
I use my herb garden for many different things. First, it looks pretty and makes me happy.
Second, we use it for culinary purposes. We add chives to our potatoes, spearmint to our tea, oregano to our sauce, cilantro to our salsa, parsley to our rice, rosemary to our chicken, sage to our stews, lavender to our cheese, and basil to our pesto.
Third, we use it for soap. We add peppermint leaves to our peppermint soap, rosemary in our shampoo bars, and calendula in the calendula soap. We used to put lavender buds in our lavender soap, but it looked too much like mouse poop when it was mixed all in there, so we stopped. LOL
Fourth, we use it for medicinal purposes. Yarrow for fevers, catnip for upset tummies, comfrey for cuts and bruises, echinacea for immune support, and chamomile for stress relief.
One thing we don’t use our herbs for is making essential oils. That is because it takes huge amounts of herbs to produce small amounts of essential oils. So we purchase high quality essential oils to use in our soaps. I have some information on lavender essential oil and lemongrass essential oil on the Goat Milk Stuff website.
Having an herb garden isn’t too difficult because many useful herbs are very hardy and are perennials. The hardest part is keeping your mints contained and keeping up with the weeding. Once you get used to having fresh herbs for things, it’s hard to go back to dried stuff!
I’d love to hear if anybody is growing any herbs and what you use them for!
http://www.marthastewart.com/272422/tower-of-herbs?czone=home%2Fdecorating-outdoor-living%2Fprep-and-care. I would like to try this idea by Martha Stewart so my herbs don’t take up space in my garden. I have a huge rosemary bush that borders the fence around my garden, then I usually plant basil (pesto!), parsley, chives, thyme, and cilantro. Your garden sure is pretty!
That looks great and would be great for containing the mints.
PJ
That pic looks like it should be kn :a BH&G magazine. Very beautiful 🙂
Thanks, Juliet! We worked hard to get it looking like that. It lasted for a few days. LOL
PJ
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Your herb garden is BEAUTIFUL! I started a small herb garden a few years ago and have been adding a little to it ever since. I hope mine looks as pretty as yours at some point! I love using my herbs. I dry them in a food dehydrator to use in the winter months. My mother recently told me that when I was away on a business trip several years ago & she stayed here with my children that she was making a dish and asked my son what all I usually put in it when I made it. He opened the cabinet that has all of my herbs & seasonings and said “she uses ALL that stuff, Gramma”. As a side note, I save small bottles with lids and use them to store my dried herbs–a great way to recycle!! 🙂 So, is the herb garden coming to the new home?
Thanks, Sherry! I’ve taken starts from most of my herbs to bring to the new house. Some of them I’ve started over. Still not sure what I’m going to do with my mints and such. I don’t want them taking over again! LOL
PJ
DO you keep any herbs indoors for winter use? I am trying to start one in my kitchen (i live in an apt). I haven’t had the best luck with them yet.
I don’t. I haven’t found that they get enough sunlight. I either dry my own or buy what I need fresh. PJ