Welcome
Herb Gardens are not meant to be tidy places. Yet they can be.
We can enjoy growing them
We can use many to FLAVOUR our food
We can EAT many which are very nutritious
We can COOK with them
We can use their oils to make PERFUMES
We can also use many herbs to HEAL ourselves.
Lavender oil is one of the most familiar of Aromatherapy oils
It can be used simply for its calming relaxing smell or for its healing powers
WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN CATMINT?
But they are not all edible.
Indeed some are poisonous!
THE COLOURFUL TAPESTRY OF HERBS
How to grow, care for and enjoy these amazing plants
They are the plants that grow in our gardens, that colour our country lanes. They are wild plants that humans have always known, always used in a way to benefit man. They are our food AND our medicine. We need to get to know them better.
When I look round my local Garden Centre, I see a corner devoted to herbs. All the common herbs are all there… the ones you could name without a thought.
But it is truly amazing to think just how many of the rest of the magnificent display of flowering plants are really herbs too. Those rambling roses with their heavenly scent, stately cones flowers of Echninacea, Daisies galore and showy sunny Marigolds… you know the ones… the bright orange ones that smile. This, the love of herbs.
“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” -Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
But herbs are plants whose roots, stems, leafy or flowering parts can be used for their flavouring potential or provide us with amazing lingering aromas such as hangs on the breeze from lavenders. How my love of herbs grows. Then there are the healing herbs or medicinal herbs, many known by human kind for over 5,000 years. Appreciating too that in many Eastern cultures, herbs and spices were seen as natural nutritional medicine … eaten with understanding and ancestral wisdom.
There is a place here for thoughts, information, ideas, as well as the practical side of growing and caring for herbs. I have been a passionate botanist – a plant biologist – for over 50 years and my grandparents before me.
LOVEOFHERBS.co.uk evolved slowly through the sharing of my passion. I share with whoever listens, with whoever notices the scent of my roses, lavenders, sages and more that colour my garden. And I hope, with you.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. If I don’t know the answer, I can guarantee someone nearby will!