whoops a blank.
to make sense of herbs you have to study them for a lifetime because they were the human medicinal drugs for a thousand or more years and all the monks and medicine men have written about them.

generally they all clean the blood and improve the immune system – but that is very general.
i will try and simplify them into categories

backdoor herbs – tiny, non-invasive, perrenials and picked for cooking all the time.
thyme, oregano, parsley, marjoram, penny royal, peppermint, spearmint and sage.

summer vege garden herbs – annuals planted and harvested in one year
basil, garlic, dill,

ornamentals = spreading bushes with flowers that need pruning
rosemary, lavender, lemon balm

weeds – that will self sow and that have occasional use in the garden
common mint, fennel, borage, coriander and tarragon

there’s heaps more but my knowledge of them is limited.

made a mess of that – corrections invited.

pepe said:

whoops a blank.
to make sense of herbs you have to study them for a lifetime because they were the human medicinal drugs for a thousand or more years and all the monks and medicine men have written about them.

generally they all clean the blood and improve the immune system – but that is very general.
i will try and simplify them into categories

backdoor herbs – tiny, non-invasive, perrenials and picked for cooking all the time.
thyme, oregano, parsley, marjoram, penny royal, peppermint, spearmint and sage.

summer vege garden herbs – annuals planted and harvested in one year
basil, garlic, dill,

ornamentals = spreading bushes with flowers that need pruning
rosemary, lavender, lemon balm

weeds – that will self sow and that have occasional use in the garden
common mint, fennel, borage, coriander and tarragon

there’s heaps more but my knowledge of them is limited.

sorry – obviously you know parsley is also a vege garden herb – grows quite large – is an annual (?) and you will need about 3-6 plants not one.
who started this difficult subject??

The funny thing is, I can’t get coriander to work for me! I’ve tried letting plants go to seed, and I’ve tried sowing seeds from the shop (trying in pots right now), but they just never germinate for me =/

And the definition of ‘annual’ does often depend on your location. I planted parsley one year and it grew for about 3 years, totally untended. Eventually the drought got to it. Or maybe it suddenly realised that it was too old to be growing ;-)

bon008 said:

The funny thing is, I can’t get coriander to work for me! I’ve tried letting plants go to seed, and I’ve tried sowing seeds from the shop (trying in pots right now), but they just never germinate for me =/

I have exactly the same problem Bon. I’ve given up on seeds completely. I buy small plants from a local organic herb grower. When they die I replace them. The current one has a central stalk about 1.5cm across – huge! I’ve cut that top off, hoping it might spread out the sides a bit. But, I have so little success with them, that if they die they die. They survive long enough for me to use in cooking all that much the better.

SueBk said:

And the definition of ‘annual’ does often depend on your location. I planted parsley one year and it grew for about 3 years, totally untended. Eventually the drought got to it. Or maybe it suddenly realised that it was too old to be growing ;-)

actually parsley is bi-annual, lives over two growing seasons. Flowers and sets seed then dies in the second season.

SueBk said:

I have exactly the same problem Bon. I’ve given up on seeds completely. I buy small plants from a local organic herb grower. When they die I replace them. The current one has a central stalk about 1.5cm across – huge! I’ve cut that top off, hoping it might spread out the sides a bit. But, I have so little success with them, that if they die they die. They survive long enough for me to use in cooking all that much the better.

Yep, I’m giving it one last try with these shop seeds I have sown in pots, and if that doesn’t work I will stick to buying small plants, and I’ll let them go to seed but if I still have no luck, I’ll just keep buying plants. Parsley pops up all over my place, I don’t know why the coriander has so much trouble..

OH likes to put coriander in everything he cooks, so I really want to get some kind of system working.

(As a rule, anything which I am told will be invincible in the garden, dies in mine. People said “ooh, you’d better get that mint out before it takes over!” – didn’t last one summer :D )

try planting coriander in autumn. it doesn’t go to seed as rapidly.

pepe said:

try planting coriander in autumn. it doesn’t go to seed as rapidly.

I’m not having any problems with it going to seed too soon – it’s just that when it does go to seed, none of the seeds germinate.

bon008 said:

pepe said:

try planting coriander in autumn. it doesn’t go to seed as rapidly.

I’m not having any problems with it going to seed too soon – it’s just that when it does go to seed, none of the seeds germinate.

you’re doing better than me – i’ve never had decent coriander. the best was as a winter crop. i’ve never had it successfully self seed either.

If you want a really excellent herb book that covers culinary as well as medicinal uses for everything imaginable you wont do better than “How can I use herbs more in my daily life?” by Isabell Shipard.

I love it.

SueBk said:

And the definition of ‘annual’ does often depend on your location. I planted parsley one year and it grew for about 3 years, totally untended. Eventually the drought got to it. Or maybe it suddenly realised that it was too old to be growing ;-)

The curly leaved one will do that. It can get quite a trunk on it.

bluegreen said:

SueBk said:

And the definition of ‘annual’ does often depend on your location. I planted parsley one year and it grew for about 3 years, totally untended. Eventually the drought got to it. Or maybe it suddenly realised that it was too old to be growing ;-)

actually parsley is bi-annual, lives over two growing seasons. Flowers and sets seed then dies in the second season.

I find the flat leaf one to be more of an annual here.

just a minor clarification: the (useless as culinary) russian tarragon may indeed self-seed like a weed — the culinary/french tarragon is the most valued cook’s herbs, and only grows from cuttings, being a non-seeding selected cultivar.
i haven’t used the tarragon much in the kitchen but, what i have used it with, turns out spectacularly tasty:
- tarragon chicken
- scrambled eggs with toppings (ham/mushroom/peas/etc) + tarragon
- tarragon infused vinegar, for green salads
- tarragon infused in vodka, which is given time to infuse into peeled & sliced orange

aquarium said:

just a minor clarification: the (useless as culinary) russian tarragon may indeed self-seed like a weed — the culinary/french tarragon is the most valued cook’s herbs, and only grows from cuttings, being a non-seeding selected cultivar.
i haven’t used the tarragon much in the kitchen but, what i have used it with, turns out spectacularly tasty:
- tarragon chicken
- scrambled eggs with toppings (ham/mushroom/peas/etc) + tarragon
- tarragon infused vinegar, for green salads
- tarragon infused in vodka, which is given time to infuse into peeled & sliced orange

there you go – french tarragon – presumably growing in melbourne as a winter herb? i think mine has been lost beneath weeds at present altho’ the special thyme i planted at the same time has established itself.

i once grew this large, unwieldy, prickly, olive drab shrub with lots of purple flowers that proliferated in the garden so much it looked like a purple hazy backdrop. borage i think? never did cook with it.

Tarragon Vinegar is also great for cleaning off the smokey haze that gets on the inside of your car windscreen. The bluish film happen’s as warmth from the sun or car heater ,warms up all the plastic stuff in your car that releases a gas that forms this film.
I hope that made sense.

in melbourne climate the french tarragon dies down to nothing (on top) and shoots again in spring. propagated by division in spring.