Flowering herbs in my garden | Spring by Ruth Ridley

| June 13, 2014 | Archive

Many herbs in my garden are now in flower

I live on the Sussex coast in a Victorian terraced cottage about a mile from the sea. I have a small town garden and try to squeeze in a few herbs wherever I can. From March onwards you can see a succession of traditional culinary herbs flowering in my garden such as thyme, chives and rosemary. Chamomile, comfrey and violas have their uses too, and I love my jasmine and scented leaf pelargoniums flowering under glass.

front door

Making herb tea

I am not knowledgeable about the medical uses of herbs, but I enjoy flowers and my garden, and use the plants wherever I can. I enjoy making fresh peppermint, lemon balm and chamomile teas. Chamomile flowers are a big favourite of mine with their apple-like fragrance and simple blooms. Once dried, they can be used in a sleep pillow in a similar manner to lavender. In fact my main hobby is using flowers from the garden in craft, and that often means drying them for use later.

harvesting chamomile herb flowers
Harvesting chamomile flowers to make tea – I dry them for use year-round.

Herbs under glass

scented leaf pelargoniums
My friend Mercy is an avid collector of scented leaf pelargoniums so there are always a few overwintering in my lean-to. Sometimes I dry the leaves and flowers for potpourri.
jasmine flowers
Jasmine flowering in my greenhouse – I don’t make use of it in any way other than to enjoy the enveloping fragrance, but I do hear it has a role to play in hormone regulation.

Flowers in my garden

garden flowers violas
Violas are such a cheery plant in early Spring. I press them for art projects or crystallise them to decorate cakes.
early comfrey flowers
This yellow comfrey (traditionally named knit-bone) is one of the earliest herbs in my garden, flowering from early March.
blue comfrey herb
This comfrey Hidcote Blue grows up to five feet tall and greatly improves the quality of my compost when I cut it down after flowering, due to its high nutrient levels.
early rosemary herb flowers
Rosemary flowers: my plant is still small, but I am looking forward to being able to harvest straight twigs for use as skewers on the barbeque.

Herbs later in the year

As I write this in early June, my pots of lavender are just coming into flower. My favourite flower, the ancient stripy rose Rosa mundi has two buds just thinking about opening, with many more behind. Other herbs such as borage and calendula are on their way. So perhaps another post later in the year!

Written by Ruth (Social Media Advisor and herb enthusiast).

Tags: chamomilecomfreyculinary herbsgardengrowingherbal teajasminemaking compostpelargoniumrosemaryviola

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2 Comments

  1. Reply June 13, 2014
    Liz Parkhurst

    Lovely pics! Right now my garden’s full of borage, blue and white – the bees love it. I’d always thought it was an annual, but much of this has survived from last year and got quite hefty roots; in fact a lot will have to come out when it’s finished flowering. Sad. I’ve also found a pineapple mint that’s overwintered in a pot, which has never happened up here before – and yet the tarragon, which usually sits in its pot in a snowdrift and bounces back, has just said “goodbye, cruel world” and died away.
    The local Community Garden is rampageous as ever, especially the Physic Garden – anyone within reach of Barnsley is welcome to come and have a potter round. Wednesdays, 10.00 to 1.00 are our normal hours. Just email if interested.
    Happy Full Moon, folks,
    Liz
    xxx

    • Reply June 13, 2014
      Ruth at Herb Society

      Hi Liz – Thanks for commenting. It’s great to hear about your garden, it’s certainly the year for borage! I hope lots of people will visit the Community Garden.
      Best wishes, Ruth.

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