Favorite Forgotten Herbs

What’s not to love about plants that are largely drought tolerant, thrive in neglect, often beautiful or interesting to view, and also delicious and fragrant? Herbs are so easy to grow in most parts of the country, but for specific information on growing them, you might enjoy Iowa State University’s publications on herbs: Cilantro, Garlic, Growing & Using Basil, and Growing and Drying Herbs.

Today, I'd like to talk about some of my favorite herbs that are often forgotten while we’re planting our basil and parsley.

Lavender
There are many types of lavender available, depending on how you’d like to use them. There’s the traditional English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, grown for it’s dark purple blossoms that are mildly fragrant. They’re just right to strip and add to a bowl of sugar creating lavender sugar for tea or baking. Or you might like the more fragrant Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence' grown for the French perfume industry. These deeply aromatic flowers make perfect sachets for drawers and closets. Lavender is a zone 5 plant and will often die back to the ground over winter in our area; sometimes dying out altogether. But a plant worth replanting!

Sweet Woodruff
I’m so fortunate to get to tell you about this often unknown herb that’s an important part of May Day celebrations in parts of Germany. Sweet woodruff, sometimes sold as Galium odoratum sometimes as Asperula odorata is a low growing herb different from most as it loves partial and deep shade. The flowers and leaves of this plant have a sweet, toasty vanilla smell and arrive just in time in the spring to be added to the traditional May Bowl on May 1st. The May Bowl is filled with a sweet white wine, sliced strawberries, and sweet woodruff to taste. Be sure to drink it in a couple hours or, like too much vanilla, the sweet woodruff will make the wine bitter.

Dill
Those of you who have dill, and who love dill like I do, appreciate the many endowments of this ferny plant. As if the bright, minty zing of dill weren’t enough to demand its planting, dill reseeds itself each spring with a verdant carpet of green that’s easily tamed back to the area you’d like to keep in dill. Dill grows quickly, rewards with usable leaves almost immediately, and even the seed are delicious for breads and with meats. I think dill is a beautiful and fascinating plant; so upright and springy, but when cut becomes soft almost immediately. During winter, remaining stalks add winter interest.

Think of some of the forgotten herbs this spring (there are many others) and make your yard, your way.