Herbs

Herbs are plants – the word herbaceous simply means not woody, although the odd thing is that some herbs are woody plants, such s Bay and Rosemary.

We usually think of herbs as a certain type of plant 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. Plants used for medicinal purposes, for dying cloth, for nurturing honeybees, all are planted in the modern herb garden. In the scientific Latin label the descriptive “officinalis” is a tip 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 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.

Highlighting Favorites

• Thyme In A Garden
  • Lemon Thyme

Herbs:

Chives, Allium schoenoprasum

Dill, Anethum graveolens

Lavender, Lavandula vera

Marjoram, Origanum majorana

Sweet Woodruff, Galium odorata

Echinacea, Echinacea purpura

How to Grow and More from the blog:
Making New Lavender Plants
Pruning Lavender

Menu:

buy a coffee for the author