Determined Woman

Yesterday I stopped out at a nursery fairly close to where I live but I hadn't ever been to it before. What a gold mine for me....or maybe for them since I will spend way too much there ;)

They have herbs galore, many of which are hard to find at other nursery's around here. I almost bought some orange mint....anyone grow this?

On my list was summer savory (to plant with my pole beans), fennel and french tarragon. On top of this, I picked up a horseradish plant, pennyroyale, elecampane and tea tree ... oh yes, and some red geraniums :) I am becoming more fascinated with herbs and all their uses other than culinary. My herb garden is quickly outgrowing itself!

I had to leave this nursery yesterday before I broke the bank...and because I ran out of room in the stroller to put things! My next step would have been to 'ask' the baby to 'hold' some plants ;)

They laughed at me at the register and as I was walking to the car (now holding a box full of my goods & pushing the stroller) and cute, lil' old lady said to me "Nothing like a determined woman!" Boy did she hit the nail on the head! Now please excuse me, I am out to plant all my new herbs!!

The [Sad] Herb Garden

This is the 'Herb Garden' as it currently stands. What a sad, sad sight!

The herbs listed that you can actually see are what wintered over - perennials. The [herbs] listed that you cannot see are what died sometime last season! As you can see, I clearly had no clue what I was doing when I planted this last year!!

I plan to relocate the Lovage. My mom said it will get fairly tall. I am considering planting it at a corner of our largest garden?

Clearly I should have taken more precaution when planting the Lemon Balm - it is just like a mint - invasive. I took a cutting from my mom and planted it where you see...and I can't say she didn't warn me :)

I do plan to plant cilantro again; I have a few seedlings started inside. (After writing this post, I went out later in the day to check out what hubby proclaimed was Cilantro growing up from last year! MY GOD he was RIGHT! How cool! Cilantro is so particular for me so the fact that it even regrew on its own is awesome in my book!)

I will keep the Oregano & Thyme and also want to replant the Dill. Seriously, who really has to 'replant' DILL!? Oh, me, of course!

The Basil I will also plant again this year, however, I am trying to do more companion planting so I think I will be planting in the garden. We had an 'regular' Basil last year as well as an heirloom Purple Basil.

The Parsely, mehhhh, I can take it or leave it. I am not a huge Parsely fan. I know a lot of people think it doesn't have much taste, but to me, it taste funky. Kind of like how I hate the way raw eggs smell .... kinda like how wet dogs smell ... mehhhhh

I believe I had some Hyssop also planted west of the Lovage too.

Anyways, I would like to plant some other things this year in the 'herb garden' too. Some of the things on my list are Tarragon, Sage (which last year was at the end of the garden - why, I do not know) and Marjoram among others. I will do Rosemary again this too; last year I just had it on the patio in a pot. I am not sure how I will do that one this year.

Guess I need to get moving on this! So how about you? How does your Herb Garden grow? I am also curious how many of you utilize companion planting - do you follow it to a 't'? Do you do some here and there? Do you want to try it but are too intimidated? We are going to attempt to companion plant all our gardens this year; last year we kinda-sorta did it on a whim :)