Backyard Garden: Herb Garden
This garden demonstrates the growing, drying, and uses of herbs for household use.
Points of Interest:
We have created four different beds in our garden:
- Edible Flowers: Edibles in this garden bed are used for cooking,
pastry decorating, and snacks. These herbs provide taste and beauty. Some of the edible flowers grown in this garden include borage, snapdragon, chives, okra, marigold, nasturtiums, calendula, and scarlet runner beans. - Salad: Everything you need for a tasty salad is in this garden bed. Red romaine lettuce, fennel, green onion, radishes, and peppers grow together with winter savory and parsley.
- Medicinal/teas: Herbs in this garden bed are steeped for teas or provide medicinal benefits. Herbs planted in this garden include lemon grass, St. John’s wort, savory, chamomile, mint, aloe vera, and lemon mint.
- Everyday Herbs: These herbs are more common for everyday use in cooking. The herbs in this garden bed include rosemary, oregano, thyme, rue, sage, and Siam Queen sweet basil.
Most herbs grown in this garden are low maintenance, requiring minimum water and weeding although virtually all herbs grown have high light requirements.
Tips:
- Herbs are more easily grown from transplants. Many are perennials and will last for many years such as varieties of rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and mint.
- Understand whether the herbs you select are invasive and will benefit from growing in a pot to control spreading. Examples include mint, thyme, oregano, and St. John’s wort.
- When drying herbs, gather early in the morning. You can dry by several methods including gathering in a bunch and hanging upside down, drying leaves (w/o stems) in a microwave or oven, or by using a dehydrator.
- Have fun cooking with your herbs. The internet is full of herb mixture “recipes” for cooking such as Herbs de Provence, Pesto, and Tuscan Seasoning, etc. Of course many herbs add great flavor all by themselves, such as dill, coriander, basil, and more!
Garden Address
35230 W 135th St
Olathe, KS 66061
Master Gardeners are available to answer questions and provide tours while they work the gardens Wednesday mornings, March to October. To schedule a visit on another day (M-F), please contact us at bygjocoemg@gmail.com
Have questions? The Garden Hotline is staffed by trained EMG volunteers and Extension staff who will assist you with questions.
Phone: (913) 715-7050
Email: garden.help@jocogov.org
