This blog is about gardening and nature, two subjects that are inherently intertwined. I live outside of Boston (on the edge of an urban area) and near the ocean (on the edge of the land) and my property abuts a city owned natural area (on the edge of nature) what better name? Zone: 6A
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Herbs in the Garden
Gardening in a hot climate I had great success with herbs and I discovered something - not only are they great in the kitchen and easy to grow but they can also be ornamental. Now that I'm in cool New England I'm not sure how they will over winter but I'm trying. I planted parsley as an edging plant (it's attractive, I've even grown curly parsley as a houseplant, and it's food for swallowtail caterpillars), two types of thyme and golden oregano in the narrow strip between the sidewalk and the road, bronze fennel (also good for swallowtail caterpillars, and what neat architectural structure!), and I've let my dill go to flower for the bees (and what happy bees they are with their full sacks of pollen). I hope you enjoy today's photo essay of herbs as perennials.
I use thyme, chives, garlic chives, dill, mullein, and cilantro in my flower garden. They all contribute nicely. I like your use of parsley. I might have to try that. I use thyme for edging. It's great when you brush against it, same with cilantro.
ReplyDeleteThyme is a good edging plant. I've got some of that in the little strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the street and it's thriving. A word of warning about parsley, though, the swallowtail caterpillars love it and will decimate it in late summer if you have a good butterfly population nearby. Of course that's one of the reasons I plant it!
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