Growing Herb Plants in the Garden

In the garden, we know herbs as a certain plants having aromatic and flavorful parts, whether leaves, seeds or roots. Our first thoughts are often of culinary herbs, but plants which are particularly useful for any reason might come under a category of “herb plants” to be included in an herb garden.

culinary herbs

Plants can be used for medicinal purposes, for dying cloth, for nurturing honeybees. The scientific Latin names using the descriptive “officinalis” term is a tip-off that the plant was once an important herb for medicinal use.

The term “herbs” used in this sense, meaning any plant we find useful for purposes such as flavoring food, has departed from the scientific definition of herbs as plants which do not have woody parts, thus “herbaceous” (upper stem and leaf parts, which die down). Our use of “herbs” in the garden can include Bay trees, sub shrubs like sage, as well as the usual suspects of basil, parsley, and chives.

Growing Herb Plants, Individual Plant Profiles

Calendula, Calendula Officinalis

Chives, Allium schoenoprasum

Dill, Anethum graveolens

Echinacea, Echinacea purpura

Purple Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’

Lavender, Lavandula vera

Marjoram, Origanum majorana

Catmint, Nepeta Mussinii

Garden Rue, Ruta graveolens

Savory, Satureja hortensis

Sweet Woodruff, Galium odorata

Herbal Articles

My 10 Favorite Herbs in the Garden

Grow From Seeds and Cuttings

Best Lavender Videos

Pruning Lavender

4 Lesser Known Herbs (Borage, Cilantro, Lemon Balm, Hyssop)

Edible Flowers, Blooms You Can Eat

my Amazon “All Things Herbal” link

The New Herb Project

The posts, pages, and ideas for creating your own herb garden project

Herbal Garden Design Style and Ideas

Herbs, as a word definition, simply refers to plants, but when we think of herbs we think of much more. We think of fragrance, and taste, and healing.

The word herbaceous simply means not woody, although the odd thing is that some herbs are woody plants, such as Bay leaves from a tree and Rosemary, which is a shrub.