Herb garden

meritaten

JIL - have you ever heard of 'lemon Balm'? its an herb, widely grown for the lemony scent of its leaves (it has pretty little white flowers on it too). it makes the most lovely 'herb tea'. same method as 'mint tea'. but you can make it hot too. it is highly regarded as a 'medicinal' herb. it is used to 'cleanse the system', supposed to help with symptoms of hay fever, digestive problems etc.
as you can probably tell - I love herbs! have done since a child and watched my dad planting and growing them. kept asking him 'Whats that for dad'? he knew - his mum had taught him.
but they taste so good too! and some of them have such pretty flowers................whats not to like?

forgot to say, lemon balm is a 'tidy' plant. it will reach about 2 foot spread about the same and doesn't smother other plants - its looks good in the borders but, its one of those 'disappears in the winter' plants. its a bit big for a tub with other herbs though.

JIL

meritaten wrote: »

JIL - have you ever heard of 'lemon Balm'? its an herb, widely grown for the lemony scent of its leaves (it has pretty little white flowers on it too). it makes the most lovely 'herb tea'. same method as 'mint tea'. but you can make it hot too. it is highly regarded as a 'medicinal' herb. it is used to 'cleanse the system', supposed to help with symptoms of hay fever, digestive problems etc.
as you can probably tell - I love herbs! have done since a child and watched my dad planting and growing them. kept asking him 'Whats that for dad'? he knew - his mum had taught him.
but they taste so good too! and some of them have such pretty flowers................whats not to like?

forgot to say, lemon balm is a 'tidy' plant. it will reach about 2 foot spread about the same and doesn't smother other plants - its looks good in the borders but, its one of those 'disappears in the winter' plants. its a bit big for a tub with other herbs though.

Thank you, my mums got some Lemon balm in her garden, she will often say "you can make a tea with that but we never do, instead I buy the twinnings teabags, lemon and ginger and add a teaspoon of honey. Its one of my favourite drinks.
This year maybe we will try out lemon balm tea, now I know with your help, how to brew it.

meritaten

if you want to make the ginger version just add a teaspoon of finely grated ginger to the 'brew'.
you may want to adjust the proportions - its personal preference and as you get to know your herbs, you will know how much of each to use.

meritaten

don't forget you can 'dry' the herbs. pick them when they are dry and preferably on a sunny day. then usually its best to tie the stems and hang them upside down in a dark dry place. (I usualy put paper bags over the heads of them). then you can use them all year. (don't forget that they are more 'potent' in their dried state, the usual guidance is a quarter teaspoon of dried to one teaspoon of fresh).

carriebradshaw

a handful of chopped mixed herbs is lovely in an omlette or sprinkled over potato salad,or mixed root vegetables before you roast them (but save the parsley for when they are ready to serve)Mint sauce of course,you can swap the mint with sage it's lovely on lamb or pork chops .Sometimes I put a bit of thyme & sage on something simple like a sausage sandwich or chopped chives in a cheese & tomato toastie etc Add mint to the water when boiling new potatoes, chop rosemary & add to parboiled potatoes before roasting, yum

Callie22

I love lemon verbena, although it's very tender so I can rarely get one to last through the winter. It smells gorgeous though, just like lemon sherbets! I use it mainly in puddings and for teas. It's nice in Pimms too Borage is something else that's worth growing if you like Pimms, it has lovely blue flowers that are edible.

Some very finely chopped rosemary is really nice in a lemon cake - it sounds odd but it works! I also like mint with things like melon, I have a recipe for a melon, mint and avocado salad which is really good in summer. A few years ago I had an absolutely massive crop of parsley which my mum turned into 'honey'. You boil up the parsley in water, and then you boil the juice up with sugar and lemon juice. It's another thing that sounds weird but it ends up like a thick, golden caramel that really does taste just like honey.

Savannah02K

I'd echo the being careful about mint taking over (although I'd also echo the mojito suggestion! And you can do Virgin Mojitos with apple juice if you don't want alkie ones). Re the chives, lovely snipped into mashed potato, or cheese and pot pie. I also make herb butters, just chop up any combination of herbs (or single herbs), mix into softened butter, put on cling film, roll up like sausage, seal and freeze. You can then just slice off as you want, use on burgers, steaks, basically anything hot that tastes nice with melted butter!

UnluckyT

again id watch the mint as it really takes over. ive got some mint seeds growing on my window sill.
id love to try my luck and see what else herb wise I can grow. where is best to get seeds? or is it better to get the plants? ideally id like to keep some of them on my balcony.

Anne_Marie_2

I used to never have any luck with growing basil from seed, although other herbs were fine. Bought one from supermarket, split up, repotted into several plants, and success at last!

mardatha

I can only grow Basil inside on the windowsill, but I love it