Growing Herbs from Hummingbird Farm

Planning and Planting Your Herb Garden

Planning an herb garden is not much different from planning any other type of garden. However, there are several things you should keep in mind.

Choosing Herbs for your Herb Garden

Here are some suggestions for some easy culinary herbs to start with. Remember, there are hundreds of herbs to choose from, especially if you consider all the varieties of mint, basil, and thyme out there!
Easy annual herbs:
Parsley (yes, we know it isn't REALLY an annual.)
Basil
Dill
Marjoram
Tarragon
Rosemary
Lemon verbena
Chamomile (will reseed itself)
Scented Geraniums
Sage - pineapple, tricolor, golden
Fennel

Easy perennial herbs:
Chive
Garlic chive
Catmint (nepeta)
Lovage
Common or garden sage
Thyme
Sorrel
Hyssop

And a few that are tricky!
Herbs that spread (sometimes invasive)
Mint
Bee Balm (monarda)
St Johns wort
Anise Hyssop
Valerian

Perennial herbs that can be challenging to winter in cold zones:
lavender
lemon balm
sage (older plants)

Basil
There are many, many varieties of basil. For pesto, use good ol' sweet basil or red rubin basil. Try cinnamon basil - it has pretty purple stems and great flavor (see Recipes).
Don't put basil outside until the soil has warmed - we've killed LOTS of plants by thinking they'd be OK outside just because the temps were above freezing; however, they need 50 - 60 degree temps and warm soils to thrive.
Interesting fact: basil blooms when it grows a certain number of leaves (generally between 6 and 10 sets, depending on the variety), so if it starts to go to seed, don't just cut the flowers off - cut the plant itself back.
Lemon and lime basil are weaker plants than other varieties of basil and not especially wonderful, so why bother? We recommend more productive lemon flavored herbs below.

Chamomile
There are several types of chamomile; the one we grow is Matricaria recutita or German chamomile. It is an annual and grows perhaps a foot tall. (Although it is an annual, it reseeds readily. Plant it once and you may never have to plant it again.)
Chamomile is a well known tea herb, often used in combination with mint. Harvest the flowers and dry them by laying them on a screen and placing the screen in a dark, well ventilated place until the flowers are crumbly. Don't be surprised if the flowers darken during storage. Use 2 tablespoons to make a cup of herbal tea.

Chive and garlic chive
These members of the onion family are among the easiest herbs to grow. Plant a pot this spring and harvest them next year. Both are grown for their grass-like leaves, so don't let any well meaning folks pull them out or weed wack them! Chive sports pinkblooms in late spring (the flowers are edible but quite hot) and garlic chive has lots of white flowers in the late summer and early fall.

Dill
Dill is usually grown for its seeds, commonly found in (You Guessed It!) dill pickles. Fern Leaf dill is slower to bolt (go to seed) and its leaves are used in many dishes. Try some on fish or toss some in a summer salad.
If you let it, dill will reseed itself. Plant a patch this year, leave it undisturbed and see if you don't find dill seedlings growing there next spring!

Lavender
Because lavender is such a popular herb and because it can be difficult to winter in Northern gardens, we've given it its own page!

Lemon Balm
Lemon balm is, in theory at least, a perennial to Zone 4. We recommend good drainage. Never fear, if your lemon balm should succumb during the winter, it has likely left baby-balms behind! It will get rather woody and grow to a foot or so tall.
Lemon balm has a wonderful, strong lemon scent and makes great sun tea! It dries reasonably well, although not as well as lemon verbena.

Lemon verbena
Narrow leaved, woody stemmed and gangly, lemon verbena is never the prettiest herb in our garden. Who cares?!? It has knock-your-socks-off lemon scent and flavor and dries like a trooper! Not only is it easy to dry, the scent stays a true lemon and doesn't fade. We've heard that the scent will stay strong for two years, but our lemon verbena has never lasted that long!

Lovage
Celery is difficult to grow, as you may know, but lovage isn't. And we dare you to tell the difference between lovage leaves and celery leaves!
Lovage is an impressive herb, growing 4 to 5 feet tall. It doesn't mind shade and likes more moisture than many other herbs will tolerate.
Toss some leaves in a potato or green salad or dry some to add to winter soups.

Mint
There are more mint varieties than you can shake a stick at! While spearmint and peppermint are the most common, we count orange, chocolate and pineapple among our favorites. Mints like a moist soil and have a reputation for (ahem...) spreading. Control this vigorous herb by:


See our Tea and Recipe pages for ways to use mint.

Rosemary
Rosemary is easy to grow as an annual in the North. Give it plenty of sun and a well drained soil and it will do fine for you. Or you can grow it in a large terra cotta or resin pot. If you want to keep it through the winter, please see our instructions for wintering Rosemary.
Check out our Recipes page for cooking ideas!

Thyme
The thyme family also has lots of varieties; orange balsam and nutmeg are two really nice examples. We love nutmeg thyme with pork!
Thyme needs excellent drainage and loves to grow on stome walls. As it is a very low growing plant,take care to plant it where it won't be over run by taller plants. (Ask us how we know this....) Thyme leaves are so small that it is a nuisance to dry, but it freezes well.
As thyme plants get older, they get woody. As they get woodier, they are more prone to winter kill. We plan to replace our oldest plants each year, so we always have some young, healthy plants in the garden.

Sage
Sage belongs to the utterly ENORMOUS salvia family, and most of its cousins are grown as ornamentals. The plants we are concerned with here are primarily the 'poultry stuffing' plants, along with the always fragrant Pineapple sage.
Garden or Common sage, the main ingredient in poultry seasoning, has gray-green leaves and grows a foot or so tall. With luck, it will bloom for you during its second year and then you'll see its relationship to its lovely purple-flowered cousins! Unfortunately, garden sage it not a long lived perennial; we plan on replacing it every three years.
Tri-colored sage, purple sage and golden sage are closely related to garden sage and smell the same, although a bit milder. They are each lovely and make good container plants. We have never had any of them winter for us here.
Pineapple sage, Salvia elegans, grows three to five feet tall and is crowned by brilliant red flowers in late summer. Sometimes. If we're lucky!
As its name implies, the foliage smells strongly of pineapple. Enjoy it in sun tea or cooked dishes; the leaves are a bit hairy and not impressive in a salad!

Valerian
Valerian roots are used in herbal medicine, but we grow it for its incredible flowers! This plant is four feet tall by its second year and produces huge white flower heads that are wonderfully fragrant! The debate rages about what they smell like (opinions range from vanilla to baby powder!), but everyone loves the smell, what ever it is!
Make SURE you support the tall flower stalks and cut the flowers before they go to seed; this one is a spreader and will seed itself with a vengence, given a chance!

A discussion of Lemon Herbs

The world is awash in lemon herbs; how do you know which to plant?? Here's our advice: