Herb garden

A tiny slice out of my herb garden.

Messy, isn't it?

I show this because a lot of people have much tidier herb gardens and I thought I'd share the other kind. This is the kind where things are planted next to and among each other, sometimes due to space constraints and sometimes deliberately to help each other. It's got mulch that's made from the wild grasses and non-toxic weeds in my yard. Some of the herbs are deliberately left to go to seed to grow next year. But it's doing great, so far.


From the upper left corner, going counter-clockwise, there is Italian oregano, marjoram (has white flowers, currently), an eggplant, alyssum, winter savory, epazote, and french sorrel. The epazote and sorrel kind of blend together, as do the alyssum and the savory. And there's a little onion hiding out in the upper right hand corner, too.

Alyssum is the only non-edible plant in the garden, but it attracts 'good' bugs, both pollinators and bugs that eat the 'bad' bugs, so I have this in various areas near my herb and veggie gardens. The onion helps to mask some of the herbs' scent. There are usually marigolds around the edges, too, but they have had a hard time of things this year and are later than usual.

I cannot express how much I love my herb garden. It's my third child at this point. I can honestly say that I understand times long gone by when spices were so prized: I GET that now. Spices = food that tastes SO much better.

When you have nothing to season your food with, absolutely nothing, not even salt, you would not believe how amazing food tastes when you can use even a few herbs and spices. I have a salt now, but still...herbs are amazing. And when you have a nice big pot of them, or a garden, you can mess around with them so much more than when you had to spend $3-$5 at the store to get just a handful. I can use piles of herbs, as long as I can grow them. It's great!

I know I've said it before, but to anyone with severely limited diet who reads this, truly, grow some herbs. You'll be glad you did.