Give Your Cooking Zest With a Perennial Herb Garden

If you have never planted herbs, you can be easily confused by the large range of plants and names. Knowing the origins, hardiness and growth patterns of herbs will help you get started with your herb garden. Herbs can be annual, perennial or biennial. Perennial herbs are perhaps most common and also most popular, since they will thrive for several years.

If you are planning a perennial kitchen herb garden, set aside a garden plot in a sunny location near your kitchen door. They will be easy to gather for cooking and preserving, and you will also enjoy their fragrance as you step outside on a hot summer day. If a good garden spot is not available, you can easily have a perennial herb garden. Just plant your selected herbs in containers, and put them on a sunny patio!

Here is a selection of some of the most useful and popular perennial herbs you may want to grow:

Chives, a member of the onion family, can be started from seed, and will quickly form a clump of hollow spear-shaped foliage for your use in egg dishes, sauces, vegetables and salads. Snip the long leaves as required, and enjoy their fresh mild onion flavor. You will need to divide the clump in spring as they tend to expand quite rapidly. Chives will die down in winter, but it is easy to pot up a small clump for indoor winter use.

Thyme grows as a small shrub with tiny aromatic leaves. It's flavor adds zest to soups, meats, stews and even breads. The leaves also make a tea which, sweetened with honey, is good for colds and sore throats. With its low-growing habit and pretty flowers, thyme makes a good edging for your herb garden, or even a flower garden. The tiny leaves dry well and retain good flavor.

Oregano will winter well in zones 5 and above without protection. It has a strong flavor, and is widely used in Mediterranean cooking. Use it with stews and meats, in soups, and almost any tomato dish. It has a sprawling habit, and the stems will root where they touch soil, so keep it contained. Cut it regularly and hang the sprigs to dry, as dried oregano retains excellent flavor. Prune it back hard in late July, and it will reward you with second growth until heavy frost.

Mint, that fresh fragrant perennial, can easily take over your garden, so plant it in a bucket, container or its own bed. It makes a wonderful refreshing tea, used fresh or dried, and also complements lamb, vegetables, chocolate and fish dishes. Several varieties are available, so plant 3 or 4 in a tub and enjoy their subtle differences.

Rosemary can grow to a 6 foot shrub in mild climates, so if you grow it, give it room to expand. If your climate is colder, plant your rosemary in a container and over winter it in a greenhouse or cool room. Its needle-like leaves have a strong pungent scent and flavor, so use it carefully. It goes well with most meats, roasted or stewed. Try stuffing a roasting chicken with it for a very subtle flavor. This one is a must in my kitchen.

Sage, with its strongly flavored fuzzy leaves, will grow into a small shrub that will get woody so cut it back hard in early spring. A little sage will be all you need, as it has one of the strongest flavors. It is generally used in stuffings and sausages, but also is a good addition to herb breads. Sage plants come in several colored varieties, and many have a pretty flower spike, so it can be a good addition or filler for a flower garden.

French tarragon, with its slender licorice flavored leaves, is a herb that takes getting used to. It is often used with fish dishes, poultry, vegetables, and in herbal vinegars for salads. It has a loose and rather untidy growth habit. You cannot grow French tarragon from seed, so buy a starter plant, and if you want to expand your planting, take cuttings in fall or divide your plant in spring.

As you decide which herbs to plant in your perennial culinary garden, research each herb to see if you can provide the proper growing conditions - soil, light and moisture. Choose either a container garden, where you can easily control growth and conditions, or a handy kitchen door garden. Either way, your perennial herb garden will give you pleasure and give your cooking zest and flavor for years.