Speaking of herbs...

**momof42003** · 01-11-2006, 06:22 PM

Of the herbs you grow, how many of them do you actually harvest and use constantly... I am worried I will grow some herbs and not use them... Do you use them only for flavor, or do you use them for decorations and such? Just curious.

**forestdale** · 01-11-2006, 09:53 PM

Bonnie, of the herbs I grow I use parsley, chives, thyme and oregano in my cooking, all the time. I use comfrey as a liquid fertiliser, a mulch for tomatoes and potatoes and to activate the compost. I use pineapple sage in drinks. all my other sages are ornamental. I will also grow yarrow this year, because I love the flowers. I'm growing vanilla too but it hasn't flowered yet.

I think with herbs, as with most things, just work out what you use in your cooking, and grow that. If you have too much you can freeze or dry it for use in the winter.

**Kimberlina** · 01-11-2006, 11:48 PM

I use basil all the time, parsley, chives, dill...there are more, but those are probably the main ones I use. I use and dry the mints for iced herbal tea in the summer.

I grow a couple others that I use only a little, but nothing that is purely ornamental. I wouldn't grow herbs as ornamentals just to say I had herbs, though, KWIM? For ornamentals, I just grow plants that look nice and go well with what else they are growing near. My spicy globe basil bush is pretty nice looking, though.

**owiebrain** · 01-12-2006, 12:58 AM

I regularly use most every herb I grow. If I can't use it, I probably won't bother growing it. Or I may try growing something one year, find that I don't use it as much as I had thought I would, and cross it off the list for the following year. (Keep in mind, I've only been *really* getting into herb growing for a couple of years so far.)

I found out that I absolutely HATE fennel. Ew. I may grow some this year anyway for friends but not sure. Dill, I found that I didn't use it as much as I thought but, then again, I didn't get to can pickles last year so I'll probably grow it again this year in hopes of a giant pickle session.

Everything else (other than what I manage to kill LOL), I use on a fairly regular basis, either for cooking or medicinal purposes (or both).