I don’t do a ton of herbs, and mainly stick to the ones I know we’ll use - parsley, cilantro, basil, chives, and mint. Just culinary herbs, we aren’t into medicinal herbs. My chives need to be divided this year, and I need to restart my garlic chives, as they taste like nothing now. I play around with different varieties of basil and parsley.

Thanks for starting this, Jen. I have lots. But I was most excited by John and Suzanne's reaction to them at Lincoln. They LOVE the herbs, because the children get such a kick out of smelling them. And so we'll be planting even more there this year.

I have rosemary, tansy, echinacea, spearmint, comfrey, bronze fennel, chives, garlic chives, lemon balm, lime balm, sage, chamomile, catnip, catmint, thyme, oregano, lime basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, basil, cinnamon basil--not sure which night come back; parsley, dill, cilantro, Valerian. . . . I'll be planting more basil this year, just in case some of them got buried under added soil amendments.

The perennials are the catnip, catmint, chamomile, echinacea, oregano, thyme, chives, garlic chives, Valerian, bronze fennel, lemon balm, lime balm, rosemary, tansy, comfrey.

Mine are sort of scattered all over the beds. And I think we'll do that at Lincoln, also, as John delights in introducing the smells of them to the kids.

I'd like to add that Valerian makes a most beautiful flower when it's in bloom.

Oh, you guys, I'm a sucker for herbs. (How many times a week do you here me say I'm a sucker for something, LOL) I have a lot of seeds. There's an 8 foot bed with cilantro, Korean hyssop and Clary sage (if it survived). One more thing was planted there, I forget what it was! There is supposed to be a 2nd 8' bed extending this one and both are meant mostly for natives. So where will I plant non native herbs? Probably in pots.

I bought some things from Farmascie Isolde. How in the heck had I not found lime balm before? I have the lime version of everything else!

So:

Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop) beautiful flower

Lime Balm

Mrihani Basil

Greenthread (Navaho tea, good for UTIs?)

Greek Mountain Tea (because it was cool)

Sangria Agastache (Mexican pretty flowers)

Ayelet Thyme (because thyme hates me so I try new ones)

Green Pepper Basil (with these 2, 21 kinds of Basil. Not sure what others I will grow)

Nodding Onion

Red Welsh Onions

Holy Basil (Tulsi) (medicinal)

Borage

Calendula, Resina

Chamomile - Zloty Lan

Chamomile - Roman

Chives

chives, garlic

Turmeric

Ginger

Mammoth dill

Bronze Fennel ‘Smokey’

grindelia, gumplant (makes a treatment for poison ivy)

Lemon Balm

Lemon Grass

Oregano, Greek

Oregano, Italian

wild zaatar

Purple Passion Flower

Papalo

Parsley, both root and regular. All old seeds tossed somewhere for butterflies.

Plantain - Variegated (because it's pretty AND medicinal)

Pepicha

Rozelle

Rosemary

Sage

Mealycup Sage

Soapwort

Witch Hazel (may have died)

White Yarrow (will make a cut stop bleeding. Used to have a thriving patch but we moved the bed.)

There are more seeds, so if I decide I have room, could be other things.

I wouldn't mind Valerian, Nancy, but it wont germinate for me.

I love herbs, too. I have some to start this year because I always want more, but here are my established/self-sowers:

Arp rosemary

Greek oregano

garden sage

chives

mint

bay laurel

Golden Lemon Balm

Italian parsley

Slo-Bolt Cilantro

Bocking 14 Comfrey

epazote

And things I’m starting from seed:

basil (lemon, Thai, cinnamon, lettuce leaved, dwarf, Red Rubin, etc.)

calendula

echinacea

Chinese chives

borage

Bodegold chamomile

Lemon coriander

Ayelet thyme

chervil

Lemon bee balm

Mountain Mint

more sage (can you have too much?)

breadseed poppies (may have reseeded, planting more anyway)

Marleigh, is your bay laurel outside? I have a house plant. Does it like full sun? How do you use epazote? I've almost bought it several times but I read it stinks?

Nancy hopefully we'll be well someday and can come get valareian. Looks like Ron has it now.

Amy—Yes, I keep my laurel outside. It’s in a pot in the garden all summer (have to keep it evenly watered), and I bring it onto our patio for winter. I have a sheltered corner that faces southeast, so my tender plants all overwinter there without freezing.

I don’t think epazote stinks, but I use it when I cook beans, which is how it is used in Mexico. You add some to the pot and it gives flavor and, in Mexican tradition, helps with bean digestion. ;) I usually just clip off a branch and drop it in whole so it’s easier to fish out later. It’s incredibly easy to start from seed and it self sows with abandon. I can send you some seeds if you’d like to try it.

https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/epazote-herb/

Thanks for the seed offer, but I think I'll hold off for this year. I am planting papalo with cucumbers this year (it smells like cilantro) to see if it repels bugs like it did last year. If I feel like it does, I will be looking for some strong smelling herbs next year to experiment more with. I have a plant called "Cuban oregano". Supposedly it is cooked in their black beans. I've only used it once or twice and I don't remember what it was like, so I guess not too impressive. But the plant is a beautiful succulent with fuzzy variegated leaves that I keep as a house plant.

I have a ton of chive clumps to divide, so I can share if we have SF this year.

I’m going to wait until after this next cold spell, but Im ready to start some cilantro and parsley.