If you grow herbs, why?

I use so much rosemary, I get more plants every chance I get. I love growing my own herbs :) I started basil from seed this year and it has done really well. Looking forward to making pesto.

I'll introduce more herbs to the garden every year.

Susan

How about those of us who use it for culinary AND medicinal? AND teas? AND entertaining cats? (catnip) AND because they smell so good you can hardly bear to leave the garden? And if you think people at work will adore you for bringing in doughnuts, try bringing in sprigs of fresh basil, oregano, spearmint, cilantro, etc. The last time I brought in a harvest, the front desk announced it over the intercom and people were in here before I got the stuff unpacked! I was wiped out in about three minutes.

This one should have had an "all of the above" choice to check. Initially, I began for culinary reasons, but the other reasons are more than just fringe benefits. Herbal vinegars are great flavor enhancers, and are so easy to prepare. Yuska

I voted for culinary use, but admit that I would grow rosemary no matter what - just love to brush up against it and take in that fragrance - plus it is delightful in flower arrangements.

Every year I try some others, but don't seem to do as well with them. Maybe this year I'll be a good gardener and fertilize (they're all in containers) - like I always say I am going to do!!!

Carole

I grow thyme and rosemary - and I agree with Murmur: I would grow them even if I couldn't eat them just because I love the smell. I want to try some different ones in the fall, too, and see what happens. :-)

I like to use the different colored thymes for ground cover or at the front of a border. Thyme smells nice and attracts butterflies as well!

I used to grow Nepeta just for the flowers, but my garden cats have discovered it and gone wild with the plant. It may not get so big this year but it is worth it to watch their pleasure.

Otherwise, I grow basil, parsley (for me and the swallowtails), chives, and mint.

If they taste good or smell good or look good or make me feel better, I grow them. I love having birds and butterflies in my garden, so I grow them. I also love the history and lore of herbs, so I grow them. I use to be a purist in planting them in an Herb Bed, but those days are gone and now I plant them where I think they will be happiest and visually pleasing to the garden. Bring on those weedy herbs, I love them. Patti

Why oh why can you only pick one? They're pretty, some are tender and some are invasive, but they will always be part of my garden(s)!

xxx, Carrie

Sorry, don't grow herbs........don't cook all that much.

I also think we should have been able to pick more than one. I use herbs in cooking and also for the birds, butterflies.

Zone 8b, Heat Zone 9, Southeast, TX, Near Lufkin

I plant, God grows, garlic, rosemary, shallots, and multiplying onions. Sauted (sp), roasted garlic is delicious and good for body maintenance.

Thank you, Dave, for these surveys; it keeps us mentally active.

Remember, keep those hands dirty and happy gardening.

I mainly use them for culinary purposes but they do provide a feast for the cats (not 4 legged variety) this time of year...at least the 'over-wintered ones' such as dill and parsley.
Debbie

I started sage this year for the butterflies. The first herb ever for me.

I'm in the "most of the above" group. Although my largest herb plantings are for culinary uses, I cede some to the caterpillars; use loads of thymes as groundcovers; like companion plantings of various herbs since we're organic; and I love them just for the scents, particularly when rubbed. As well, the bees, butterflies, and hummers love them and they're just plain beautiful. I can't see my garden being without them. I grew basil before I grew anything else.

I voted "culinary use", because that's the reason I planted them. However, I can't recall ever actually using them for cooking. I always forget.

I say all of the above, but there wasn't an option for that, so I voted for "What are herbs."

I, too, needed "other". My walkway is made of 8x16" pavers set diagonally to the line of the path, so the edges have 8" triangular notches in them. I put creeping thyme in those notches in hopes that they'll survive anything, because they're too short to be cut by the mower, and also because they're pretty and smell good! (T. praecox, T. serpyllum, & wooly thyme)
The silver thyme (a vulgaris variety) I put in grows a bit taller and also is much more aromatic (smelly! says the 4-year-old from next door), so I may try laying some across my next lamb chop. But that's just an extra. The reason I planted it is to fill the garden.

I checked "For culinary use" but also use them for companion plants, attracting birds and butterflies, flower arrangements, and thyme as a groundcover.

You really are going to start adding "Some or all of the above" as an option in voting!

Gwen

Definitely need to have the option of checking more than one category! I originally planted herbs for culinary use, thyme, oregano, chives, garlic, basil, bay, etc. I'm addicted to scented plants and love having butterflies and birds in the yard. I've added lavender, lemon balm, pineapple sage, and rosemary. (I can't resist walking past rosemary without brushing the leaves.) The herbs I use for cooking grow close to the house, (I want to add an herb wheel,) I use creeping thyme around flagstones, and have other herbs intermingled in my flower beds. I

Grow as many as possible . I use a lot for cooking and resale but also mass plant a lot in late summer that flower and go to seed in winter for a bit of colour in the garden .
Holty.

I grow herbs for just about everything you have listed. So it would be hard to say a for certain Why do I grow herbs. I guess it's cause they are just sooooo handy....and have so many uses.

Dee

Another "all of the above"-er. I don't cook with them as much as I should. I usually enjoy them for their looks and fragrance and groundcover aspects. Some cool ideas in this thread! I liked the one about lining the driveway, and I had to look up "herb wheel" - now I want one too!

Lisa

How come these never have an all of the above button? I use them for cooking, I use them for the butterflies, I use them for culinary reasons, I used to use them in bath and body products I made! I love herbs!!!

I use them for all of the things mentioned...culinary, medicinal, home uses, beneficial insect attraction...the list is long...we need another option...I couldn't decide which box to check, so didn't vote...

tsk, tsk, tsk...if we had an "all" button - what would anyone possibly have to chat about after they voted???? chuckle....

I agree that it should be possible to select more than one category. I grow many herbs and the longer I live, the more of them I use in cooking, but some I grow just for the heck of it. I really don't like tarragon, but I grow it. But I use oregano, basil, ( Genovese, Thai sweet, Holy), sage, rosemary, dill, thyme and others. I grow and , on occasion, use. kaffir lime in Thai curries.
I grow mint because I keep intending to use it in Middle Eastern recipes and because my friends like to come get it for tea. I also keep it because I would have to work to get rid of it. I grow borage because I started it once, let it go to seed, and have had it ever sense. I have only used it as little flowers in ice cubes in iced tea punch, though I know there is more one can do with it.
I can't grow enough Genovese basil because I have a recipe that calls for 3 cups of the leaves tossed with hot spagetti, and parmesian cheese. I use Thai basil by the cupful in Thai green beans and Thai eggplant dishes, to name just a few.
I use tons of parsley, mostly in french dishes. I use chervil in salads in the spring and fall. I use sage, oregano and thyme in, I don't know how many dishes. I tried to grow lemon grass in a pot but my dogs ate it ( dog nip?). I grow and use chives, but I prefer oriental chives which can be stir fried as a vegetable and which are wonderful in eggs and with pork. A flashlight and a pair of scissors are a part of my essential kitchen equipment.
I have done all of this because I love good food from all over the world, but in recent years it has turned out that some of these herbs have terrific healing qualities. Oregano, for instance, has huge quantities of antioxidents. Parsley is loaded with iron. Turmeric, which I haven't tried growing yet, is an anti-inflammatory and has been shown to prevent alsheimers' disease. Most of the herbs and spices in Indian cooking are in it for medicinal reasons. Ginger soothes the intestinal track, prevents nausia and kills parasites. I have grown ginger when I lived in New Orleans, but don't expect it to do well in my current location. It also has a lovely flower.
My conclusion is that the spices that taste so good, are also good for you. I could go on and on. I haven't a thing against mainstream medicine, but why not eat plants that taste good and have been known to heal for thousands of years
So, I don't try to cure anything with herbs, but I count on them for preventing things, while savoring their flavor.
And some are just pleasant to look at -- lavender, borage, ginger, sage, rosemary, and many others. I needed the possiblity of chosing at least 3 uses for herbs.

This message was edited Jun 5, 2006 6:19 PM

This message was edited Jun 5, 2006 6:23 PM

I picked Culinary, although I7d rather have an "all of the above" option as well. We have wild pepermint and catnip growing around the house that I sort of cultivate.... And some of my "herbs" (especially the medicinal ones) don't fit into the standard definition of your garden herb; I have a few Xanthoxylum americanum (Common Prickly Ash) growing for decorative and possible medicinal uses (the plant contains an effeverent/anti-inflamative/pain reducing drug similar to Asprin or Tylenol called Xanthoxyline), as well as some Aralia Spinosa (Headache Tree or Devil's Walkingstick) for the same reasons. Other herbs I have around the place (both volunteer and planted for various purposes) are Wild Garlic (which I sometimes collect for use as a Chives/garlic substitute), Dandelion (cook the leaves and make wine from the flowers), Wild Leeks (although I don't have enough yet to start harvesting any for food), and Amorphophallus konjac, which, believe it or not, they eat in Japan (the Japanese make a food called Konyaku and Shirataki from the starchy tubers).

I picked companion plants, but I could have checked several. I used to have a more extensive herb garden for cooking. And some I grew just for ornamental value. I especially like spicy globe basil with marigolds. I moved to a newly built home, so have started from scratch. But I have lavenders and creeping thymes growing with my roses. And some other herbs in my butterfly/hummingbird garden, including more thymes. Never met a thyme I didn't like.

I picked companion plants but would have picked "other" if it were an option.
I don't cook all that much although I will sometimed snip some chives for my eggs or potatoes.
I just grow them because they are nifty plants & they smell good in the yard.
LOL!

Nancy

Since everything I grow is for the wildlife, I picked attracting birds and butterflies.

For all of the above.

I chose "For culinary use" as that is how it started. I love the taste of fresh herbs in salads, mixed with oil and a little salt and used as a rub on meats, with vegetables in foil packets on the grill, and using them for herbal tea mixtures. I've since branched out from there though. Now I also have them interplanted in my flower beds, both for interest and to attract insects, birds and butterflies. And, just like many others, I enjoy them for their scents, so I have gravitated toward planting them next to walkways and sitting areas as well.

Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of the one I didn't know (until it was too late) was a garden thug - Russian Tarragon! I've practised organic gardening for as long as I've been gardening, but I have seriously considered digging up everything else in my herb garden, transplanting them to other temporary locations, and using copious amounts of Roundup or something - I'm just about at my wits end with this thing. One thing I definitely learned, though, was to do some basic research on any new plant I intend to introduce into my gardens. Once burned, twice shy :-)

I grow my herbs in pots by seed and use them for cooking. Except for beebalm and catmint which I grow simply because they are so beautiful and boy does that beebalm smell nice!

....and for edging plants and ground cover and the beauty of the flowers and some are drought tolerant and bloom time and they often smell yummy and because of the lessons my mother taught me.

Mainly for culinary use plus for
companion plants for others in my garden
and to attract and feed birds and butterflies too.

*/;-)

Culinary delights is my first choice but they smell so good and so many are just so beautiful. Basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano thyme, dill, and chives are our favorites. I seldom use the tarragon but do love the smell of it and it does make lovely tarragon vinegar.

There is no "other", so I really couldn't vote, though the closest would be culinary use. I have a rosemary plant that I guess I got for culinary use, but I don't use it all that much. Also, I don't really grow it, it grows itself. It's a monster that has to be severely cut back twice a year.

If lavender is considered an herb, I have that for the fragrance and appearance, though I don't make potpourri out of it. The same with scented geraniums.

I grow dill, fennel and parsley.. all for the butterflies to lay their eggs on. I sometimes grab a piece or two of parsley for me but that is after careful inspection to make sure there are no caterpillars or eggs.