All about garden herbs

[TJAnonymous]

I wanted to start a thread about garden herbs. What do you grow? Do you use it fresh or dried? How do you harvest and store it? What do you use your herbs for?

I grow the following herbs -

Dill - typically use fresh in canning

Rosemary - just started growing a new start this summer.

Lemon Balm - will be drying this herb and saving for tea.

Lemongrass - will be drying this herb for tea. Would like to use the stalks in cooking but I'm not sure what dishes we routinely make where I can use it.

Basil - have always used this fresh in various dishes. I'm going to dry some this year. Not sure what I will use it for yet.

Pineapple Mint & spearmint - use this fresh in fruit infused water.

Stevia - got this because I use Stevia in lots of things but don't really know how to convert leaves to usable sugar so I'm not sure if I will maintain it.

 

[Ascholten]

Well, I had a garden that was supposed to be an herb garden but I kind of did not pay attention to it.
The oregano is fighting with the mint over who owns the lower nether world of my herb garden. The goji is fighting with the one that taste like root beer leaves over who gets to weed out to the farthest outreaches of gardentowne, The spinach is fighting with the pineapple sage for central toteville, and the mouseberry vine says screw you im just covering ALL of you with my endless vines..... while the gingers say not so fast and poke their heads out of the growing triple canopy herb jungle that is rapidly growing here much to the HOA's disdain.

So there's my Herb Garden

 

[TooCheep]

I had an herb garden for the first time this year. Was so excited to grow basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and sage. I was going to use it fresh and dehydrate most of it. Then I let my chickens out and went in the house

So, you are saying that they are pre-seasoned??

 

[esturtz27]

Idk if you make Thai or Vietnamese food or curries but lemon grass is pretty commonly used in those. I will chop it sometimes to add to my veggie gyoza sometimes as well.

I grow

Lavender- basically for my whole house. I grow French and English. I will usually dry it and add it to pillows, cabinets and drawers with cedar balls. Also good for headache.

Lemongrass- I cook with it sometimes, but we mainly grow it to call swarms. We boil it and then will spray it on a swarm box. The smell is similar to that of a new queen.

English thyme and creeping thyme- culinary use. Fresh and dried

Basil- fresh or dried it's tasty lol.

Oregano and Cuban oregano- culinary.

Rosemary-dried or fresh it's great in bread and on a roast chicken.

Mint- spearmint, I make a spray with this for my window sills keeps out ants and spiders

Pineapple sage- the bees love it and it's pretty

Sage-culinary use.

Anise hyssop-teas
Chamomile- teas
Echinacea- teas/health..obviously the root is useful.

I really want to grow ginger, turmeric and ginseng but don't know the process.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Basil and kale make delicious pesto
My whole family loves pesto with chips, bread, and other things. Nothing beats fresh pesto and warm, homecooked French bread!

 

[Ascholten]

Ginger is easy, you pretty much can almost ignore it, just keep it moist, tumeric the same thing. Ginseng now that's an entirely different world. Expensive as hell to get a good one and it takes a while. The seeds alone can take a better part of a year to germinate, then a few years to get the plant to a harvestable size. The stuff sells for insane prices too so if you ARE lucky to get it growing, don't be bragging too much about it, Yes gensing theft IS a real problem !! especially when the better stuff can get several hundred dollars a pound for it.

I had lemongrass at one time, to be honest, I am not sure if it got overgrown and snuffed outby the other stuff or not. I really DO have to go thru that garden spot. This just gave me a chore for the weekend. Hopefully it rains so if iI do end up yanking a lot of stuff, it's easier.

 

[Ascholten]

Ideally I wanted to have TWO herb gardens. yes two isolated seperate gardens.

one food and spices, the other medicinal.

Ive been doing a bit of studying and there are plants that server several medicinal purposes. one does blood pressure reduction, some to help with thyroid, some stress relievers, others pain relievers, some they claim to be super high in anti oxidants, anti cancer, some for menstrual regulation, some laxative, some sedatives, some for digestive health, some for toothache (it actually works !!) sor throat...etc etc. the list goes on.

When you think of it, the Indians have used this stuff for hundreds of years, as did your great great x3 parents etc. Big pharma just came along and said, well, stop teaching them that knowledge, lets put it in a pill and give it to them so we can make billions off them.

I wanted to have my two unique totes for food enhancements, and health enhancements. But as discussed perviously, those plans went to the wayside, along with the rest of my life :/

Hopefully as winter rolls through, I can get a bit of a 'quiet time' to sit down and re plan my goals and what I want to do with the garden, and try to make some sort of scheduling or something to maybe at least on paper... try to help make more of this stuff happen better.

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Ideally I wanted to have TWO herb gardens. yes two isolated seperate gardens.

one food and spices, the other medicinal.

Ive been doing a bit of studying and there are plants that server several medicinal purposes. one does blood pressure reduction, some to help with thyroid, some stress relievers, others pain relievers, some they claim to be super high in anti oxidants, anti cancer, some for menstrual regulation, some laxative, some sedatives, some for digestive health, some for toothache (it actually works !!) sor throat...etc etc. the list goes on.

When you think of it, the Indians have used this stuff for hundreds of years, as did your great great x3 parents etc. Big pharma just came along and said, well, stop teaching them that knowledge, lets put it in a pill and give it to them so we can make billions off them.

I wanted to have my two unique totes for food enhancements, and health enhancements. But as discussed perviously, those plans went to the wayside, along with the rest of my life :/

Hopefully as winter rolls through, I can get a bit of a 'quiet time' to sit down and re plan my goals and what I want to do with the garden, and try to make some sort of scheduling or something to maybe at least on paper... try to help make more of this stuff happen better.

Aaron

I bought these 2 books a while back. Both very useful....

 

[esturtz27]

Btw, I started drying trays of basil today...

I absolutely love the smell of it...

I use my dehydrator for herbs and when we dry sage, basil or mint it's a very refreshing day in the house. I definitely won't ever use it for jalapeños again...that was a terrible idea lol

 

[tripletfeb]

I had an herb garden for the first time this year. Was so excited to grow basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and sage. I was going to use it fresh and dehydrate most of it. Then I let my chickens out and went in the house