Tuesday, July 9, 2013

My Herb Garden

With all of the rain we are getting the gardens are growing like crazy. I thought I would give a little tour of our herb garden as it is at it's peak right now.



 I have the garden (sort of) sectioned off into different categories as to use. In the medicinal section are echinecea, monarda, comphey, feverfew, lamb's ear, evening primrose, and valerian. I don't use herbs for healing, but I enjoy reading about how they have been used in the past and current trends.


In the Tea Garden, I have lemon balm, chamomile, anise hyssop, more monarda, catmint, and pineapple sage. I don't even like herb tea (I only drink Constant Comment Green), but I love the look and scents of these traditional tea herbs.


The household garden has herbs used for pests control, such as penneyroyal, rue, and artemesia. I also have some flowers used for drying like statice and rose. Every few years I make several varieties of potpourri.








The largest section is the cooking herbs. And I actually use these! I just love the smell and taste of dill, sage, basil, and all the others that we use every day. I have the perennial herbs on one side and the annual cooking herbs in one of the center beds. This bed above also has some cosmos, nasturtiums, and borage for color.
I just love the look of all of these plants together.


This last bed is full of lavender. Heavenly! Around the outside of the herb garden I have planted several butterfly bushes, roses, chives, and larkspur and bachelor buttons for drying.

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time here. It is an easy garden to keep weeded, and is a job I enjoy.

"Who bends a knee where violets grow, I hundred secret things shall know" - Rachel Field.

8 comments:

Mary@mydogsmygardenandmary said...

Lovely and useful gardens. I like how you have them sectioned off.
I also love my garden and spends hours out there until it gets to hot.
Have a wonderful rest of the week and thanks for sharing.
Mary

Sunny Simple Life said...

It is Heavenly. Perfect herb garden and I love your new header photo. I am designating a dry section of my garden for more herbs.

GardenOfDaisies said...

Beautiful! Your herb garden and brick pathways are like the dream garden I have in my head. I grow many of the same herbs for cooking, but mine are just in pots on our deck.

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

Your herb gardens are lovely, Cindy! It must be such a wonderful place to spend an afternoon enjoying all the scents and pretty flowers. I love herbs and grow them in whiskey barrels because of my hard packed clay soil. Thank you for sharing - it is a lovely inspiration. xoxo

Nellie said...

What fantastic herb gardens! We have had lots of rain here, too. Today is our second day in a row with sunshine!

Yesteryear Embroideries said...

How lovely does your garden grow! I love your little signs for each one! So sweet!

Anonymous said...

Cindy, your herb gardens are so beautiful! I grow herbs for cooking and have an herbal tea garden, too. They are both part of my pretty white picket fence garden, inspired by Susan Branch in the Summer book.
Happy days in your garden!
♡ Dawn ~ Elmhurst, IL

Helen Philipps said...

I love your pretty herb garden, Cindy! You have a lot of lovely plants and I really like the little signs too. I use herbs in cooking a lot, but haven't tried medicinal ones.....like you I enjoy growing herbs and like how easy they are to look after.
Wishing you happy garden days this week.
Helen x