This is the main area I usually grow my herbs with extras dotted around the yard for companion planting and insect control. But aside from their beautiful flowers and ability to attract many beneficial insects, I forgot until recently how many ways herbs can be used.
Lemon Balm (Right) Sweet Basil (Left)Lemon Balm is great for repelling mosquitos. It is also said that fresh lemon balm teas is good for improving mood and calming nerves. I usually let this one grown big and large to repel as many of those bloodsuckers as possible. I also spread the cuttings throughout the back yard and the pleasant lemony aroma is great for calming the potent smell of the compost bin.
Garlic Chives - These guys have a great garlicky taste and are great in asian dishes as well in the usual dishes you would use chives.
The delicate white flowers are just ready to open in a few weeks. The last throughout the season and add great contrast to the green grassy like fronds of the chives. Garlic Chives are flat and look exactly like a wide blade of grass unlike it's cousins the Onion Chives and basic Chives.
Thai Basil - My all time favorite in the Basil Family. Probably because I love Thai food. This basil has a somewhat sweet licorice like flavor. It has a more slender leaf than your usual Sweet Basil and has beautiful dark purple flowers. Thai Basil loves the warm weather, so it is best to plant it way past your last frost. If you want to harvest your leaves, it is best to pinch off the pretty purple flowers so the plant will focus on growing juicing leaves instead of flowering and going to seed.You would use Thai Basil in Thai Curries, salads and misc. stir frys.
Thyme (Left) Onion Chives (Top Right). Thyme a kitchen staple survives year round here in the Sacramento area. The plant begins to flower in early spring with pale lavender flowers. The leaves are very small and delicate and should be removed from their stems before cooking. As you see, the Onion Chives look very much like the Garlic Chives. The Onion Chives have a dark lavender round bloom that shoots out during the summer. The bloom stalks usually flower and dry up by end of summer early fall. The Chive family reseeds itself every year and comes back the following. And when I say come back, I mean the come back any and everywhere. I started with two or three patches of chives and now have about 15 throughout the herb garden, so feel free to indiscriminately thin them as you see fit.
Box Basil - This is my first year growing this little guy and it grows to be a nicely formed beautiful little tree like plant. As you can see the leaves are much denser and smaller than your average Basil, but don't let it's small stature fool you. These little guys have a great spicy taste that I have just begin to experiment with. It's been great in pasta and it made a wonderful pesto. I'm preparing to trim this little guy as you can see it's beginning to overtake one of my low watt lights. I'm still trying to figure out how to trim it without taking away from it's wonderful shape our making it get to leggy. I'll keep you up on what happens.
Fennel - Ok this is my first year growing Fennel. I was always afraid of planting it near some of the other herbs as they don't mix well especially with Dill. And since I can't afford to screw up my Dill for my pickle making every year, I usually avoided Fennel in my yard anywhere. BUT, this year I'm boycotting making pickles (I usually make them every other year due to the intensive amount of work it takes) so I found a back corner of the yard and planted some Fennel, a far back corner of the yard no where near my gardens. Because I understand the Fennel re-seeds itself. Ok so here's the deal, sometimes I plant stuff that I've never eaten and have no idea what to do with it....so we'll see what I learn this summer with Fennel.
Sweet Basil- As I said earlier, I usually plant most of my herbs in the Herb Garden, but I do interplant some favorites in my vegetable garden to attract the beneficial and keep out or at leasts distract the bad guys. This baby is nestled between my tomatoes, peppers and pole beans.
Rosemary - Now of all my plants, the Rosemary has grown leaps and bounds over all the others. Obviously, she loved the odd weather. Rosemary also is a perennial that survives year round here in Sacramento. I never find that this plant ever has any problems with insects. It has a very thick course branch with a sticky residue. One great thing to do with Rosemary is to take the branches and use them to make kabobs. The flavor is infused into the meat and vegetables when cooked.The herb garden also has Lemon Basil, Flat Parsley, Cilantro, Cinnamon Basil, Tarragon, Dill and Mint. I did not plant the mint - I'm not that crazy. I have torn it out because it has such a lovely aroma around the deck and since the dogs love to romp through it they also smell minty fresh. Oh and mint repels fleas and ticks by the way!
10 Great Reasons to Grown Herbs
1. Fresh herbs make dishes taste so much better than dried
2. You can make your own variety of Pesto
3. You can pick your herbs fresh as you need them and only what you need
4. No more wilted herbs in the fridge
5. Herbs are cheap to grow
6. You can freely experiment with different herbs without running to the store
7. Dried herbs and spice mixes make great gifts
8. Herbs have many uses besides cooking, most have been used for medicinal purposes for years
9. Herbs are low maintenance
10. They make wonderful ground cover and most flower beautifully and can be used for flower arrangements and potpourri.
HERB BUTTERS
Herb butters are great on many things you'd normally use butter or spreads.
Try these spreads on bread, roasted corn on the cob, seafood, steaks, potatoes and wow pretty much anything.
These rolls can easily be frozen or kept in the fridge.
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