How the Herb Garden Grows 2024: Part II

 Part I was about the original herb garden, which began in 2012.  This is what I call the "new" herb garden, which I started several years later.  It was an area with a large stump covered in ivy.  I thought it would be hard to remove, but it was so rotted my son just pushed it over!  

I can't find a photo of it first finished, this is now.  Or a few weeks ago, the flowers aren't blooming here. 

Garlic chives do not spread nearly as much as onion chives.  They bloom later in the summer, with white flowers, not the purple pom-poms most think of as chive blossoms.   These were winter sown many years ago.  Alliums take a very long time to mature from seed!

This creeping winter savory is just coming out of dormancy.  It does indeed "creep," and I have to pull out a lot of runners each spring.  See that ferny growth in the center bottom?  That is a fern-leaf yarrow that I am having difficulty removing!  It got too big, and now the tiny pieces of root left pop up throughout the bed. 

This is germander, and it's to be used as an ornamental herb ONLY!  It can be pruned into small shapes to border a bed, and has small purple flowers.  

Golden Oregano tucked under Platinum Blonde lavender.  

Another Oregano, Hot and Spicy.  Behind it out of sight is a transplanted za'atar, which is also an oregano, sometimes called Syrian oregano. 

Sage, just ordinary garden sage!  Winter sown from 25¢ Dollar Tree seeds.  I have quite a few around the yard, and the larger ones are forming buds, this is just a little behind.   

Another oregano, unknown kind, it was part of the Edible Flower and Herb Mix from Pinetree Seeds. 

Platinum Blonde lavender with a glimpse of Walker's Low catmint in the pot to the left.  

There's the woolly apple mint crawled underground into the new herb garden area!  

This herb area has more flowers than the other.  

Sea Thrift 

Blue-eyed Grass (winter sown!)  

Not a grass, it's in the iris family.  

Just across the path (HA! To call it a path is exaggerating!) are pots with more herbs.

French Tarragon

If it's not French tarragon, it's not real tarragon.  If you grew it from seed, it's not real tarragon.  Tarragon, the real kind used in recipes calling for it, cannot be grown from seed. Russian tarragon is a poor substitute.  While it looks similar it tastes bitter.  Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) got it's name from Latin for "little dragon," because it was thought it would help cure the bites of dragons (or snakes). 

Lemon thyme with the lovely variegated leaves. 

Around the edges of the herb gardens are more containers of herbs.

More golden oregano with the Pink Panther catmint which was the P letter this last week. 

Juniper thyme, which was newly transplanted a few weeks ago from a smaller pot.  The purple are its buds. 

Blue Boy rosemary, a dwarf.

While there are herbs scattered around the rest of the yard, these are the two main herb areas.