Marty Baldwin
Fresh-from-the-garden herbs add tons of flavor, fragrance, and color to your favorite dishes.
Many of these aromatic plants are a snap to grow, even for beginners.
Selections that have purple foliage or attractive blooms make pretty additions to beds and containers.
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Pinch stems back regularly to encourage a fuller plant and delay flowering so that the leaves remain flavorful.
Basil cuttings areeasy to root in waterto start new plants.
Both the slender, tubular leaves and pinkish-purpleflowers are edible.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Although this plant is a common culinary herb,some people find the taste very unappealing.
The plants grow best in cool weather, bolting and blooming when temperatures rise.
The spice coriander is the seeds of this herb.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
This easy-to-grow herb provides a soft, nutty version of anise in the kitchen.
confirm to deadhead the flowers to keep this plant from spreading where you don’t want it.
However, there areseveral other types of lavenderto try in your garden, meals, and crafts.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Purple, pink, or white edible blooms usually appear in summer and last until frost.
Use the flowers and foliage fresh or dried.
Lavender is easy to grow in flower beds, an herbal knot garden, or containers.
Credit:Rob Cardillo
This easy-to-grow herb is in fact related to mint.
The fragrant and flavorful leaves are especially good formaking herbal teaand potpourri.
Orplant in a containerto keep this herb in bounds.
Credit:Layne Kennedy
Varieties vary in flavor; Greek oregano is one of the most intense.
Tiny white or mauve flowers appear in summer; some varieties have more showy flowers.
The flat-leaf bang out, shown here, is preferred for cooking.
Credit:Laurie Black
The curled version makes a pretty garnish.
Rosemary
The distinctive flavor and scent ofrosemary(Rosmarinus officinalis) has a clean, pine-like quality.
This shrubby evergreen herb can be trained to grow upright as a treelike standard or a large shrub.
Credit:Scott Little
There are also trailing forms that will grow down a wall or as a groundcover.
Rosemary grows well in containers, and you canbring it indoors over winterin cold climates.
Avoid overwatering this easy-to-grow herb because its roots may rot.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
The tubular blue flowers are also edible.
Though this plant is a perennial, the stems can become woody and sparse after a few years.
Replace the plants to start fresh.
Credit:Denny Schrock
It has a slightly stronger flavor than summer savory, which is an annual.
Grow savory in akitchen gardenor mixed border.
It also grows well in containers.
Credit:Dean Schoeppner
Most also produce white or pink blooms in summer.Foliage fragrancesrange from fruity to spicy, and even chocolate.
Those most used in the kitchen have a rose or lemon scent.
They also make good houseplants in a brightly lit spot.
Credit:Denny Schrock
Its trailing habit also works well spilling over the edge of container gardens.
White or pinkish lavender blooms appear in summer.
Credit:Dean Schoeppner
Credit:John Noltner
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
