I found my bronze fennel today! Yep, Calendula was know as "pot marigold', and the blooms were used to make dyes, flavor foods, and in cosmetics (hair and skin products I think). If you run across old recipes for Marigold custard or things like that, Calendula is what they're referring to. I've got a lot of volunteer seedlings too, still liking them so far, but we'll see how long that lasts, LOL.

Neil -- i just think mine are not in the 'right bed'. it's really narrow, right below my DR by window... maybe it they were scattered about an open field.. that would look nice.

mine look so 'gangly' by mid-summer.

I had them in front of some Shasta Daisies last year and they totally overwhelmed them. I've dug the Daisies out now, and everything else in there is taller so it should work out ok now. They're in a spot where the soil is kinda crappy, but they don't seem to mind at all, so I'm appreciating the toughness of Calendula :-)

Another new herb for my garden this year is Milk Thistle. Only have one seedling, and it is a pretty thing! I have a feeling one will be plenty- don't want too many thorny plants!

Neal, one of the ladies in our county makes a wonderful soothing salve with calendula flowers; she also makes one variety of her herbal soaps with it. Are you planning to use the milk thistle as a medicinal herb? It is a great liver stimulant/detoxifier.

Sally, I may eventually use the Milk Thistle. I like to have medicinals around, just in case I have a need. Usually I end up finding them attractive enough to grow just for that. I have used my Comphrey for skin irritation before, but only once. It did work well though.

Trying to start a bumper crop of herbs for the butterflies this year, but not getting everything I planned on. Couldn't get the Anise to germinate, and just lost the only Dill to germinate. I guess I'll see if I can buy some, I really wanted to have these things in the butterfly garden! I do have oregano, parsley, cilantro, lavender, mint, lemongrass, rosemary, chives, rue, basil and thyme. Having a hard time deciding whether to keep the herbs to the 'herb' side of the bed, or blend them in. Right now I've got herbs I use on one end, and herbs that are just mainly for the butterflies in with the flowers on the other side.

I mix them all in, but make those I use accessible near the paths. You can decide according to how they look with their neighbors too, like fluffy parsley looks pretty around strappy leaved plants, like Daylilies. Rue has pretty grayish foliage and yellow flowers, and is pretty with tall grasses or tall, spiky plants. Cilantro has pretty white blooms that are nice filler with many other flowers. I love Chive blooms edging other plants- I sometimes grow them around roses, not only because they're pretty, but I've heard the onion smell can deter some pests.

I read something the other day that made me think maybe the butterflies only like the curly parsley? That would explain why I had some cats years ago on my parsley and not since. I prefer the flat leaf for cooking and haven't been growing curly... do you find that to be the case?

Interesting, I hadn't thought much about it, but did note that I had no cats on my flat leaf. That's the only kind I grow, and the cats were on the fennel in another garden, so I just figured they liked that part of the garden better. Have you noticed a bug chomping on a plant in one part of the garden, but the same plant in another part is untouched? I see that pretty frequently, and kinda thought that was what was going on. It would be interesting to do a side by side experiment!

Hmm, I'm going to keep an eye out at the nurseries, and maybe buy a curly leaf to try just that!

Ok, well we dispelled the flat leaf parsley talk.... 2 days after I purchased some curly leaf for our experiment...

We're so excited! I was cutting back my flat leaf parsley a little and found a Eastern Swallowtail Caterpillar. hurray I showed him to my daughter, who remembered that she has a 'butterfly habitat' that she's not even used. We were supposed to order the caterpillars mail-order, but this is even more exciting. Upon closer inspection, we found another, smaller caterpillar, and what I think is an egg!

So, all 3 are now in the habitat, with a generous amount of parsley, and a little dill for good measure. I put a small cup of water in there to keep some of the parsley fresh. I assume we'll have to put fresh greens in every day.

Does this sound like it will work? What have we done wrong? I DON'T want to kill these little guys!

That'll work. You might consider some oasis-type floral foam for the herbage -- easier because it won't spill over like a water cup. Marna wrote a DG article with lots of good tips: http://davesgarden.com/guides/...

Thanks Jill! That was a great article... and I know I have some florists foam around here somewhere! I was worried about the cup of water, so that is the perfect solution!

I didn't have ANY cats on ANY herbs this year .. if there were, i did not witness it.

I've got Parsley growing everywhere in my Rose bed... snipped back the HUGE flower stalks early summer [no extra seeds, thank heavens] i've cut back the HUGE (5+foot tall Bronze fennel) gathered a few seeds.

sadly this year, i forgot to do basil -- my all time fave herb. I just got too busy too early this year.

no luck on the Pineapple Sage for me. But i have decided my beds need more "Red" in them. I have a small clump of Bonfire Salvia that looks stunning from a distance... I will have to do more next year.

I forgot to do Basil too, I've really missed it. I've seen lots of butterfly activity, but haven't been outside enough to notice if there were any cats on the Fennel. The Parsley got huge with blooms here too, the first year it was a great edge plant, but the 2nd I was hoping for some seed and it was way too big for the spot.

Neal .. i had to lop back the blooms on the parsley because they were taller than my roses - and we cant have the roses smothered, especially since it's the "Rose Bed".

I'm hoping the bunnies come and eat the parsley like they did last year... it was around Nov. or so... probably running out of 'fresh greens' to eat.

Hmm, is the Parsely going to take over since I let it go to seed? This should be interesting... Meanwhile I've got tons of seed at least!

Welp, it's an old thread but maybe there's some life in it yet.

I love mixing herbs in with other plantings -- right now I am starting some from seed. I've successfully grown lavender from seed in the past as well as thyme and chamomile. At the moment I have thyme (Thymus vulgaris, nothing fancy) and tarragon potted up from seeded starts. I tried Roman chamomile but managed to overwater it at a critical moment so, pfft.

Now I am trying it sowed directly in the ground. I am watching closely, keeping it moist, keeping it from being disturbed as best I can, but, dang! it's taking a long time to show! I vaguely recall it's not the fastest germinator, but thought I'd pop on here and see if anyone has had success direct sowing it.

I'm going to google it up next, see what I can find out.

I am growing basil this year for the first time ever. And I am in my senior years. I often grow herbs like dill, cilantro, chives, parsley. Even fennel which I grew for the butterflies. Goes back to my mom having a veggie garden when I was a young child. Always dill and parsley growing each spring.


Since I grow lots of tomatoes, ATP friends kept telling me a should grow basil. So I planted two large pots of basil this year. Sure has turned out handy as some of the people that received garden tomatoes from me saw the basil and requested basil. So I have been giving away basil also.

Rita, I love all those. I'm getting a real late start in this garden, and didn't manage to grow any basil this year. Next year though I definitely will. I did manage to find a couple of dill plants, very late -- I was way too late to start any from seed (next year, next year). I've had some tasty dill leaves from them, and they are flowering now; I hope they seed themselves.