Do you grow herbs? If so, why?

I love to use my own herbs in cooking, but I also make certain that I grow enough to share with butterfly larvae! They adore my Italian Parsley, and Dill.

I grow them for my husband to use in cooking. Also, if I grow plants that he can use (eat, cook with, etc), I can get away with buying other plants like hibiscus, palms, million bells, hoyas, etc, etc, etc......;)
Barb

I love adding fresh herbs to the food I cook.

I have a chocolate mint plant in a container on the back deck (i dare not put it directly in the ground, lol!), i love the scent when you brush against it, clip off a piece, or even when you water it. i prefer it in my teas.

I redid my old vegetable garden into a herb garden, with specific sections (culinary, medicinal, magical, etc.). Took me awhile to populate it and recognize the plants and their growth habits. Now moving toward understanding how to use them. Slow but very fun process. This pic was a few years back, and it is much much more overgrown now.

what a truly beautiful photo....looks like it stepped right out of Garden Design magazine.

I use lots of herbs year round in my cooking,but I love Italian Parsley.

bonehead, your grass must not be invasive or else you spend a lot of time weeding it out of your beds. We have Bermuda grass, so every bed has to be dug, lined with weed fabric, then refilled and soil amendments added. Even after all that I still fight the BG almost daily.

The only thing I have been able to keep alive over the years is Lavender and I really enjoy sharing it with friends. I make sachets and share them with everyone. The scent is heavenly and so worth the work of carefully clipping individual shafts of flowers to get the maximum amount of buds from my 3 plants each year.

Frogy, it's just PNW pasture grass, whatever that might be. When we built our house we never really had time to do anything with the yard and just started mowing around it to keep the thistles and nettles down. Over the years, we've dug in flower beds and such but still have never planted 'real' grass or leveled it off. The herb garden was my old veggie garden and I've always had the grass paths. They are not too bad to keep under control, we have a small push mower we run in there, I do a major edging once a year, and try to keep it mulched. Some years are more successful than others. This year kind of got away from me (lots of rain in June and I didn't get the mulch down soon enough), but most of the herbs die back to nothing in the fall so I can always start fresh in the spring. Very much a hands-on learning project.

I love to cook with my own herbs with my favorites being thyme, rosemary & basil. Each year I try to add at least 2 new herbs to the garden. Even though I wanted try italian parsley (again!! no success with this one for some reason), this year only added more thyme. I was very concerned with the weather this winter/spring and thought this year would be a drought year. Glad I chose not to add new plants. The thyme planted are struggling in the drought and heat. So dry that even my lemon balm is not up to it's usual vigor. Lovage & lavender is doing really well though. Does garlic count? Probably considered a bulb rather than a herb, but did a lot of that this year. Next year I want to add new stuff instead of just thyme. Let's hope next year's weather is not a repeat of this years.

I grow sage for my holiday turkeys. All of my herbs, except the sage, are burned to a crisp this year. Bad, bad drought. But I've already harvested enough sage, and plan to harvest more. It has done well for me this year. It's the second year for the same plant. Imagine that...

I just have one big planter on the deck with herbs, and even though they are watered regularly, they are looking poorly with this heat. I did purple basil, dill, regular basil, creeping rosemary, sage and lemon balm. Might pull them up and hang them to dry. I also have two volunteer Italian Parsley. one in of the raised beds, and one growing out of the mulch on the ground surrounding the bed. These must be toughies from last year. My onions are looking good and we have lots of green tomatos. Everything else is just sickly looking and not producing worth a hoot, not even the zukes and cukes. I made pesto the other night with some of the basil. Next year has to be better, right???

I have lots of different herbs in my herb garden but mostly just use basil, chives, rosemary and thyme for cooking. I love parsley, cilantro and dill but they only grow in the cooler weather here in Houston. So I have to wait for them each year. The others I have are just nice looking or I use them rarely in the kitchen :)

Most of the above. I like herbs for cooking. I use them fresh and also dry them for use later in the season.
And I like to share freshly dried herbs with my two sweet daughters.

I like the idea that herbs can be used medicinally. I also like some to grow herbs for my own therapy as I am a 'touch and sniff' gardener when it comes to plants. I find it ever so soothing to run my hands through the rosemary or basils and inhale deeply.

It is always a delight to see the herbal blooms attract bees & butterflies. I grew Borage for the first time this spring and it was an excellent draw for the pollinators.

I also grow some herbs (catnip) for just plain entertainment ~ mine as well as my four legged friends. Kristi

I grow herbs for cooking and also for the bees and butterflies.

I garden to help and enjoy the butterflies. So many herbs and veggies are host to a variety of butterflies. If I want them for me, I just plant more. Here is the black swallowtail that host plant (that eggs are laid on and caterpillars feed on) is parsley, dill, fennel, and rue at my house.
I didn't know about all of this until I came to Dave's Garden!!