what herbs?

lizzie

lizzie

our school hols start the end of this week ... aside from the usual movie day, shopping day and horse trek day i was wanting to do some serious gardening with junior. you know - get all dirty and wormy.

asides from planting a lilli pilli hedge and the lemon and manderine trees, i'm wanting to start our herb garden. at this stage it will be in smallish pots because "sometime" in the next year we will be totally landscaping the garden and the herbs will go into sealed half wine barrels.

now comes the hard part. in australia we have such a wonderful array of cuisine. one night will be indian, next chinese, a roast, then italian ... so i'm trying to decide what array of herbs to plant.

i am ashamed to admit that i haven't cooked much with fresh herbs, and that is my challenge for the next 6 months - to learn how to cook with fresh (especially thai)!

my list so far includes:

parsley (curled and flat)
chives
rosemary
small chillis
lemon grass
corriander
basil
mint
thyme (maybe)

have i missed anything that is a "must have" in the garden?
any hints as what to companion plant with which for optimium results? any books one can suggest on "cooking with herbs"?

looking forward to the replies. i'm excited. :D
 
I have all of the herbs you mention, three different types of basil, my favourite being an Italian basil, love the perenial basil which grows in to a huge bush, very different smell. Have two different types of Thyme, love that, had never cooked with it before, now would not be without it. I would include Oregano, Sage, Corriander, Dill, Chammoile, the last two have a shorter season but when allowed to go to seed you have heaps more the following year. Marjorm smells delightful, I do not cook with this but just love crushing it to release it devine fragrance.

I let all of my herbs go to seed, Basil and Corriander seed quickly in summer, allowing to self seed produces lots more plants again for free.

Once you have cooked with fresh herbs you will never go back to dry, nothing nicer then going to the garden to pick your own. My friends come to me to get thier fresh herbs as they grow in abundance in the ground.

Handy hint, for smelly shoes place a sprig of Rosemary in it, wallah smell gone, you can reuse the sprig until dry before having to replace it.
 
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Hi Lizzie
check out Isabelle Shippard's "How to use herbs in your daily life" it gives both culinary and medicinal uses of every herb you can imagine, includes historical info too. Great book.

And I second sage and oregano. salad burnet is nice, you can add the leaves to salads and they taste like cucumber! maybe garlic chives too.
 
I'm in the middle of compiling a list.

http://photodictionary.giraffian.com/groupings/herbs-and-spices is what I have so far, basically ignore the impossible stuff like vanilla, pepper and cinnamon and you've got a herb garden :D

The to-do list here has things like chives, coriander, dill, lemongrass etc etc on it, I'll nab any I'm missing from this thread.

And grow tomatoes and silverbeet if you have the weather to plant them at this time of year. They're very easy to grow.
 
haha - i will pass on growing garlic just yet as is readily available from the green grocers and stores well.

okay - sage added to the list. i'm also busting to get some veges planted but i'm holding off as the raised, no dig vege garden will be going in the path needed to put in the pool ... hoping to get that all done by spring.

i don't want to go overboard just yet as everything will have to be moved/planted out once the deck, pool and vege gardens are in.

thanks for all the tips guys.
 
I've got chillis and basil growing side by side this year, in a pot on the balcony, and I've never had basil grow so well or for so long, it's lasted the summer and still cranking now.

I'm not sure of the secret, chilli's are quite resistant to pests and this may be it. I've also been religiously tipping the flowers as they come out to prevent it going to seed.

I'd recommend thyme, there's all sorts, regular thyme is my fav, good for everything really, a creamy pasta, a quiche, on your roast potatoes... there's also a lemon thyme which I like, and I also second garlic chives.

I love corriander, but I've never had much luck with it.
 
ah well - decided last night not to put the pool in .... not much change out of $25,000 which can be better spent on the house. we're only 5 minutes drive from the best beaches on the east coast, so no great loss - but we have always had a pool and i feel i'm going to miss it this summer.

but - on the bright side - means i can also put in the vege garden right away!:D

now, what to do with the space where the pool was going to go? will need a sunny day to sit outside and stare at it for a while.
 
I think growing garlic near other plants may help deter certain pests, so it may be a good one to companion plant even if it's freely available to buy.
 
oregano
dill
mint
coriander, if you like asian cooking

garlic isnt a herb but why not
chillies ?

garlic/oregano/basil/parsely/chilli would probalby be enough for me....

tomato and basil apparently grwo well together. a google search will give you a few tips of what grwos well together


Start cooking with hebs the easy way - follow recipes, most 1/2 decent ones which are worth reading use herbs.

If you like making pasta sauce, try that with fresh basil instead of dried.

It's not a whle new world, it's just cooking, just with different ingredients you dont know how to use, just follow a couple of normal recipes
 
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