Herb Garden Plants – Classification Of Most Common Herbs
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When it comes to choosing herb garden plants, we often classify them in terms of use, for instance for cooking, flavoring and other culinary uses; for scent in cosmetics or in the home; or for medicinal purposes. Then we plant the different types of herbs together, depending on how we plan to use them.
However there are many herbs that have multiple uses, so these categories are not that cut and dried. In addition to use or function, we can classify herbs in terms of their growing habits, or the way they grow. These range from ground covers and creeping herbs to trees. For example pennyroyal, thyme, oregano and sweet marjoram are all ground creeping herbs. Then there are many shrubs and a few trees, the bay (Laurus nobilis) for example. And other herbs that are bulbs, including garlic, onions and the various chives.
On top of this, we also classify herbs in the normal plant categories, as being either:
annuals, which are plants that complete their life cycle in a single year,
biennials, which are plants that complete their life cycle in two years, usually growing in the first year and flowering in the second, or
perennials, that last for longer than two years, often for many years.We either grow annuals from seed or plant them as larger seedlings. Since they only last a season, there is not much point in planting established plants, unless you want an immediate harvest. Popular annuals include:
Chervil, a particularly hardy annual used to flavor savory dishes, and eaten to aid digestion,
Coriander, a popular flavoring in Indian and Thai food,
Dill, which has fine threadlike leaves and develops umbels of yellow flowers, followed by aromatic seeds that we use for cooking and pickling,
Rocket, popular in sandwiches and salads, and
Sweet Basil, used for cooking, as well as raw in salads and in pesto, and also for medicinal and antiseptic purposesPopular biennial herbs include:
Angelica, that will grow more than 6 feet tall, and which is used mainly for cake decoration or to flavor stewed fruit,
Borage (Borago officinalis), which if harvested when the leaves are young, is good in salad, although the flowers are probably more popular in salads and drinks,
Burdock, which may be used for making beer (the leaves) or for skin and scalp problems (the root),
wild Celery which is often used in soups, but also has valuable medicinal properties, and
all species of parsley.Popular perennial herbs include:
Caraway, which grows like carrots, and may be cooked like carrots, although the seeds are more commonly used for flavoring food,
the Curry plant, which is a half-hardy perennial with more smell than taste,
Echinacea, a hardy, herbaceous perennial that is widely used for medicinal purposes,
Fennel, which tastes a bit like dill and produces similar umbel-type flowers, but is a lot more hardy than dill,
Horseradish, which is delicious in sauces and good for digestion,
Juniper, a scrubby evergreen perennial usually grown for its berries,
Lavender, another shrubby evergreen perennial that has multiple uses from flavoring and scent to medicinal uses,
Marsh Mallow, that grows in marshy ground (hence its name) and is mostly used for medicinal purposes, and
most of the Origanum species, which includes O. Majorana, also known as sweet marjoram, although marjoram is normally planted as an annual.
Henry Thomas is an herb gardening enthusiast who has grown herbs for over 15 years and enjoys helping others get started in this amazing activity. For great information on herb garden plants, visit http://herbgardening-ultimatesecrets.com/. His newest book, “Herb Gardening – Ultimate Secrets”, teaches beginners herb gardeners everything they need to know about.
Article SourceTags: garden supplies, soil care, weed control, organic fertilizers, garden landscaping ideas
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