[Michael D]

Hi all,  I was just wondering how many people grow herbs, what herbs,  and do they harvests them.   Mike                   ps It`s been raining all day, and i`ve found a couple of rubarb wine in the shed.

[arugula]

Yes, generally rosemary, sage, thyme, tarragon. mint, parsley, coriander, basil. Harvest when needed for cooking.

Cheers!

[Allotment Jon]

Hi,

I do not grow herbs on my allotment but in the kitchen I grow Parsley, Basil, Chilli Peppers etc so they are there when I need them for cooking.

[allotmentann]

I grow all sorts of herbs, at home and on the plot. I love them. Many repell pests or attract insects as well as being lovely to eat. I love to add whole collections to salads, far more interesting than just leaves. I am growing  loads of different types of basil, all sorts of parsley (including hamburg, which I am desperate to try), rosemary, sage, clary sage, thymes, french sorrel, lovage, borage, salad burnet, chervil, Russian and French tarragon, various oreganos, several lavenders, many mints, welsh onions, amaranth, hyssop, winter savory, chives, good king henry and probably lots more I have forgotten to include. I put them anywhere I have a space. Fresh herbs just can't be beaten. A lot that I grow are perennial,  if not I will freeze them, but they are not as good as fresh.

[Goosegirl]

Picking herbs for the pot is so good, but I would restrict it to those you can grow and use, then you can always try others later. My OH uses parsley, French tarragon (stronger when fresh), sage, thyme, mint and oregano / marjoram. Basil is an annual and you can best grow it in the greenhouse.

[mumofstig]

I grow lavender, rosemary, sage, greek oregano, thyme, marjoram, mint, chives, garlic chives, and parsley in the garden,and several different basils in pots indoors and in the greenhouse

[LivvyW]

I grow all the same ones mum of stig grows, but i have added recently, lemon verbena, pineapple sage, lemon balm. apple mint, and peppermint.

[angelavdavis]

Same as Mum, but I also grow angelica in my flower border, chervil, lemonbalm, welsh onions and bronze and green fennel.  I have also sourced seed for winter and summer savoury which I would like to start growing next year.  I have a herb border which surrounds our seating area outside the shed.  The fennel screen us off from view of the allotment site gate!  I usually let half my herbs go to seed as the flowers attract the pollinators and then I can collect the seed to sow insurance plants and/or increase my stock/give away.

I use most of my herbs fresh, but also freeze bunches of parsley and chives and also dry sage, oregano and thyme.

[shokkyy]

I always have sage, oregano, thyme, flat and curly parsley, chives and a couple of types of mint, plus basil under cover, because I use all of those for cooking. And this year I'm having my fifth attempt with a bay laurel, having killed four so far. I never seem to be able to keep French tarragon alive over winter either. I'm also attempting mass production of creeping and orange thyme to use as ground cover in an enormous conifer and heather bed.

[mumofstig]

Let me know how you get on with the orange thyme 
I tried and none germinated...so I ended up with purple thyme in the paving gaps instead, but still hanker after some of the orange one 

[compostqueen]

I love herbs and the variety is endless. I think the one I use most is common thyme
My home grown basils have gone bonkers so I made up a batch of pesto the other day. It's so good I think I'll be eating it for every meal 

French tarragon is tender and difficult to overwinter.  Worth a try though as it's fabulous
Lemon verbena is also tender and might not reappear in spring. Delicious stuff and reminds me of the local sweet factory that used to make sherbert lemons. They were made with the oil from lemon verbena and the smell around the factory was sublime.  Happy days 

[JayG]

I grow most of the the "usual suspects" and find them very useful, especially the hardy evergreen types like thyme, bay, sage and rosemary which can be used fresh all through winter.

The only exception is lemon balm, which I still have mainly because it's almost impossible to get rid of, especially as it has a talent for reappearing a long way from where it was orginally planted!   

It has a pleasant fragrance of course, but I haven't actually found a good culinary use for it. 

[allotmentann]

There have been several recent studies showing that lemon balm is very good for the memory. (As with most of these studies it is difficult to find out the exact way the tests were done, how many people took part, what questions were asked, who paid for it etc, so I tend to take things with a pinch of salt!). You can use the leaves to make a tea (not especially nice!) but for those who are worried about memory loss it might be worth a try 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2848143.stm

[LilacSandy]

It is quite nice chopped and added to lettuce and other salad leaves.

[Grubbypaws]

I have started freezing some of my excess herbs.

So far have frozen basil mint and fennel. I wont bother with rosemary and thyme because I can get it from the garden year round. My Coriander is still to come on line as I lost the first sowing to the bad weather. Sage is next.

Oregano grows wild but we dont use that much and room in the freezer is at a prime. (Beginning to think I am going to need a larger freezer now the raspberries are starting!)

By the end of summer I hope to have my freezer stuffed with beautiful things to take me through the winter. Imagine getting that joint of lamb and reaching into the freezer for a bag of mint to make FRESH mint sauce in January