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The New Jersey coast is one of the best places to have an herb garden. The well drained soil, sunshine and breezes all encourage healthy plants. | |
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Rosemary and lavender grow
best at the shore and throughout most of the Delaware Valley, but then so do
many other herbs. A mild but cool winter allows perennial herbs the rest they
need and the long growing season from frost to frost gives them plenty of time
to grow. An herb garden can be as small as a barrel or window box, as fancy as a
bricked path knot garden, or as casual as some generous rows planted
among the tomatoes and beans. There are many such examples in
An herb garden is so essential to a home and family. There is lavender for love and fragrance. Make
potpourri with it or tie it into bath bags. There is basil for all the Italian
dishes, sage for immortality and Thanksgiving dinner. How about using rosemary
for remembrance and for the pork roast for Sunday dinner?
Although most culinary herbs do best in sun, there are a few exceptions that
can take less than full sun if they get good sun at noon. A lot of this
placement is trial and error. Some spreading herbs such as mints, lemon balm, monarda, and even woodruff are all best grown under trees where they become a
useful ground cover and smother out weeds. Try mowing mint before a picnic and
the whole yard smells nice and is said to be insect-free. This is a good
reason to grow mint beneath the picnic table.
To begin your herb garden now or any time this summer choose a sunny spot in which to grow your favorite herbs. Landscape ties (8x8x4) filled with a good, well-drained soil work very well. You can edge this with thymes, parsley, nasturtium and viola. As you move near the center use the shorter herbs and then plant the tall ones in the center. Try sage, lavender, rosemary, basil, Italian parsley, lovage, chives, tarragon, dill, cilantro, lemon verbena, lemon grass and scented geraniums for a few that will be fun to grow and use. Save the mints, lemon balm, bergamot and oregano for a spot outside the raised bed where they can spread readily. I use many of these under tress as a ground cover that is fragrant and easy to grow to keep weeds away. Try a few herbs now, they will grow on you!
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Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme as the old song goes are among of the most
popular herbs of all and almost everyone is familiar with them. There are many
more, many culinary but some fragrant, historic or native. Herbs are fun, they
smell good, and they are useful. They make me think of a peaceful sunny
garden of long ago, and they are among the oldest plants grown by man. Herbs are
timeless! Early man used them for medicines, food, and pleasure. People have
always been fascinated by the fragrant, medicinal, and culinary qualities
displayed by many of these plants.
Cape May. Several
of the historic places such as the Physick house have herb gardens. Many home
owners have herbs in both their flower beds and vegetable gardens and there are
pots and window boxes every where with the homeowners favorite basils, parsley,
and other culinary herbs.
Fragrant mint for
tea, chives for the baked potato, dill to toss with sour cream on cucumbers and
lots and lots of parsley for just about everything you serve. Sweet woodruff can
go in the May wine with strawberries, and thyme has many uses too. The
list goes on and on and on and on.
