Herbs

Two creeping thymes intended for the front garden but it is too shady, so I'll have to find somewhere else for them. 

Herbs are wonderful things. I try to grow as many as I can in the garden and many of them are flowering and available all year round. I try to eat some of them every day, and usually I can manage a few in a salad or a cooked meal. 

Of the more unusual I have red veined sorrel. I have had this for several years now but this year it has produced several young ones so I can plant them up elsewhere or offer them to friends. This is a great thing to add to salads or to cooked dishes and I'm very happy it's decided to extend itself. 

Red veined sorrel, delicious in almost everything

I also have a Fennel vulgare grown for its leaves, This is a short lived perennial, and the old one produced a new one this year. It is a bad companion plant with other vegetables so I grow it in a flower bed with salvias, asters, montbretia and geraniums. 

Fennel vulgare, good in soups, stews and salads

Then I have the delicious French herb lemon verbena, (Aloysia triphylla), which is not completely frost proof but I keep it outside in winter by my garden door and it has done OK for the last five years. It has a wonderful smell. 

Lemon verbena, smells delicious and makes wonderful tea

I used to have some sage (Salvia officinalis) in the front bed, but that went, as have so any things in that part of the garden. Now I have a new one in a pot, which looks very healthy for the moment.

Salvia officinalis

 And then I have  a new purple basil in a pot; I don't expect that one to survive because it isn't hardy,  but it is good to have it now and pick a few leaves to put in a soup or a salad. 

Purple basil

I also have a marjoram, two mints, a rosemary, a thyme, several chives and more, some of which I can use the flowers as well in salads.