It’s probably astrological that some gardeners prefer a daring variety of plants in their gardens and some will accept only a mid-size red tomato and no other. Nobody is right or wrong because everyone is following their true natures, and who can argue with astrology?
The point is some gardeners browse a Baker Creek seed catalog and think, “I haven’t grown all of them yet.” In my first garden, I grew a healthy stand of summer savory without knowing what to do with it. – the result was not about the product but the experience.
So dedicated gardeners with a penchant for daring and adventure stay home on Friday nights and sort their seed packets alphabetically while wondering how all those new herbs and plant varieties can possibly fit in the garden. For those gardeners, here are suggestions for “extras,” mostly herbs, that might become regulars just because they are cute and sometimes useful.
- Salad burnet, or Sanguisorba minor to folks who hang with Steven Foster, is a relatively unobtrusive herb that complements taller plants growing behind it. The tiny dark green leaves have a mild cucumber taste which can be added to salads or sprinkled on top of dishes. Burnet is not packed with pizzazz but instead is a modest, reliable, friendly companion in the garden. Once I added the cucumber-flavored leaves to a pickle recipe which was silly because cucumbers already taste like cucumbers.
Sir Francis Bacon liked it, and Thomas Jefferson had his slaves grow it at Monticello. Burnet eventually sends up slender stems for the seed pods showing glimpses of red, but the flowers are not showy. Burnet will reseed itself, but it is not a nuisance. I nibble on a few leaves when I pass by. For decades, it has found its way into my gardens every year.
- Garden sage is better known than burnet because Paul Simon sang about it. There are many varieties of sage, and folks worldwide use it both medicinally and in cooking. Cooks include dried sage in stuffing and sprinkle it on scrambled eggs. Dried leaves also belong in herbal teas. There are claims its medicinal benefits include fighting cancer, lowering cholesterol, boosting brain power, strengthening a body’s defenses, plus it is easy grow.
A healthy sage plant will stabilize a corner of a garden bed and eventually produce a flash of blue flowers. There are other varieties of sage which deserve a place if you have room. Pineapple sage has medicinal properties, bright red flowers and in the right conditions, such as a gardener in Guatemala enjoys, is a perennial. I have found it sensitive to cold snaps. Ornamental sages, usually called salvias, are not edible but are colorful and would brighten up a corner, just behind the burnet, for example.
There are different varieties of lavender, and they can become small bushes, like sage. The scent of the leaves is the attraction, but the flowers add sparkle, and once established, the bed they’re in becomes the lavender bed. The same goes for oregano and thyme except they sprawl rather than bush. Having herbs in the garden adds nobility or history or earthiness, and a healthy stand of oregano will produce more spice than a family will ever use.
- Some birds use yarrow leaves to line their nests, but gardeners appreciate its herby, feathery leaves and the sweet-pungent scent. Its value is not as a culinary herb, but different Native American cultures found it useful for headache and toothache relief. In the Middle Ages it was used in beer-making, and its scientific name, Achillea millefolium, comes from the legend which tells us Achilles carried it with his army to treat wounds after battles. I grow it for the herby, feathery leaves and insect-attracting flowers. It will spread both by rhizomes and by seeding.
- Either curly dock, bitter dock or yellow dock are probably growing in your garden space already, so why not put them to good use? Dock leaves are edible up to a point after which they get too tough and astringent. Herbalists claim dock root can help the gall bladder and liver detoxify your innards and improve your digestion. An interesting suggestion is to clean the root thoroughly and let it sit in a bottle of wine for a few days – that should cure what ails you.
I have pulled up dock roots more than a foot long, but they snap off easily when a gardener tries to remove them, so they grow right back. The juice in the leaves and stems are reported to alleviate itching and stinging such as what happens in a patch of nettles.
- Cilantro looks like a dainty herb, but I have seen it survive a cold winter. It is easy to grow, and it reseeds itself if left to its own devices. The feathery leaves are used in recipes from everywhere, most notably in guacamole. It is tasty on burritos and in stir fries and is remarkably nutritious for an innocent-looking herb.
The fact it reseeds itself is especially appealing to the daring gardener because where it appears next is sometimes a surprise. Parsley is that way also, but a parsley plant gets very gangly by the time it is making seeds. It will require staking and pruning to keep it manageable, and I have had dozens of volunteer parsley plants line a pathway. Arugula will spread itself around also, and the seedlings abide transplanting so they should not get out of hand.
- This year’s garden plan includes nettles, borage and agastache. Nettle leaves are very nutritious and the tiny blue borage flowers are popular with bees, plus I like to eat them. I don’t know yet what agastache is good for except insects like the flowers.
As a public service, I should report that some garden plants, though useful, do not behave unless contained. Comfrey leaves are useful in the compost or as mulch, but underground its roots are spreading right now. You might think you dug all of it up, but you didn’t.
Any tiny piece of a horseradish root left in the ground will regenerate. I enjoy garlic chives on scrambled eggs, burritos and stir fries, but the bulbs divide and develop clumps with a dense root mass making the clumps hard to remove. They are also prolific reseeders which is not totally terrible because I cut up the extra leaves and spread them around in cucumber beds.
- Worse than comfrey for the indefatigable spreading ability of its roots is spearmint. Several winters ago, I put two or three plants at the end of a bed as a holding place till spring, and that entire area has never recovered. It continues to surface farther and further from its original temporary spot. Spearmint will not be denied. I should go into spearmint business. Peppermint is not so aggressive.
But if too much spearmint is my biggest worry, then things must be okay. The point is I have not grown everything yet, and this article did not even mention the vegetables that deserve a chance such as strawberry spinach, skirret, lovage and girasole. Everything gets a turn.