.in your garden for cooking purposes! I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, but this year I have become much more passionate about preparing delicious and healthy food for my family. As a consequence, I now have a thriving vege garden and have been baking my own bread for about 2mths now. However, my herb garden is a work in progress and I have room for a few more trees as well. So far I have parsley, coriander, oregano, rosemary, thyme, mint and garlic chives. I also have a lemon tree and a bay tree.
What useful herbs and trees do you have/would you like in your garden!
cookessentials,
Oct 10, 3:44am
Italian parsley, curly parsley, French tarragon, sage, both purple sage and ordinary, oregano, chives, thyme, spearmint, lemon balm ( makes lovely tea) a bay tree, tansy ( keeps bugs and flies away from my crops) Rosemary,lavender ( great for my lavender shortbread and lavender ice-cream. I have a huge old lemon tree which is dripping in lemons. We also have two plum trees( Santa Rosa and I cant remember the other one at the moment) and a mandarin. We are lucky enough toalso have a huge greengage plum tree from next door that hangs over our fence.
craig04,
Oct 10, 3:48am
Sage is a good idea, I forgot about sage and tarragon would be handy too. I thought about getting a lime tree as well - does anyone know if they would grow well in a big pot!
davidt4,
Oct 10, 3:49am
Marjoram is very tolerant in the garden and is great with eggs, cheese, Middle eastern dishes.French tarragon is my favourite herb, and garden centres in Auckland should be getting it in this week.
I cook a lot of Indian and SE Asian food, so I make good use of our curry leaf tree and kaffir lime tree.For the same reason we have lemongrass, Thai basil, galangal and Vietnamese mint in the garden.All of these plants grow well in Auckland and don't seem to mind the cold in winter.
As for trees - I like the Flying Dragon brand of dwarf citrus; they fruit very well and don't take up too much space.We have a blood orange called Sanguinella and it has beautiful fragrant flowers and a heavy crop.Our dwarf Seville orange fruited well but we gave it away when we stopped eating marmalade.
davidt4,
Oct 10, 4:00am
A dwarf lime will be happy in a big pot for many years as long as you keep it fed and watered.
greerg,
Oct 10, 4:01am
I wouldn't be without basil and mint in the summer. I have a bay tree, a rather pathetic lemon, a self fertile feijoa and a grafted plum, Santa Rosa and Omega.
holly-rocks,
Oct 10, 4:07am
I love herbs and have an awesome herb garden in the making! What about fennel.its great with fish and you can use it in your bread baking also.
lemon verbena grows into a big tree and makes nice tea.
Borage has a cucumber takes and is nice as a garnish in salads in even frozen in ice cubes.
Horseradish is also nice grown in the background somewhere.
Im lucky enough to have a wee herb nursery down the road. The lady is a herbalist so have been trying all these new things. Have started a medical herb garden also.
craig04,
Oct 10, 9:10pm
This is great guys, I've got a wee list to take to the nursery next week!
calista,
Oct 10, 9:41pm
Craig just a warning - lemon balm spredas like mint.Itis nice to have around though
lyl_guy,
Oct 10, 9:42pm
I only have a few at the moment. rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander, oregano, sage, chives, garlic (don't know if they're growing or not - still underground).Tried tarragon, but it died, must get another.Also have lemons, a lime tree (5 years, still no limes!), and a little bay tree in a pot which is VERY handy. Oh, and chillies.and mint in a little pot on my kitchen sill.
rainrain1,
Oct 10, 10:43pm
I kept a herb garden until plants started to runaway on me.Now I only grow rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, garlic, spring onion, 2 varieties of mint (grows in an old washing machine bowl)and pineapple sage which smells like pineapple.funny that.it also has a pretty red flower
fifie,
Oct 10, 10:52pm
Planted mine up this week, large pot and put a cherry tomato in middle around the outside goes a plant of ordinary basil, flat leaf parsley ( italian one like its flavour better) sage, thyme, i put crystals in soil to help keep it moist, this sits in the conservatry and i have salad goodies at the finger tips all summer usually. Needs to be kept well watered. Outside is rosemary, tarragon, chives,lemon balm, and mint just love all these fresh herbs and would have limes lemons to but sadly its a bit to cool for them here.
ralta,
Oct 10, 10:55pm
It varies depending on what I (or more likely hubby) has managed to kill off.
I have rosemary & pineapple sage that have more or less taken over one garden bed.I have misc herbs in pots, incl different types of mint, chives, garlic chives, thyme, curled & italian parsley.
We have lemon, apple, pear, fejoa & grapefruit trees.I've had mixed luck with berries but have one blueberry bush that is doing well so have just planted another of the same variety.
I foolishly planted a pine nut tree a few years back & that looks like it is going to grow into a monster.I'd like to plant more fruits & berries but limited to where I can put them as we don't have a huge section & it is all clay.
We are putting in another raised bed soon to grow veges in.I've go cherry tomatoes & strawberries in pots at the moment & 1 lone yellow courgette.We just bought a dwarf peach tree also. It's in a pot at the moment but would like to find a home in the garden for it at some stage.
cookessentials,
Oct 10, 11:44pm
I dont have Basil at the moment, but will have it once Summer is upon us. I plant it in amongst my tomatoes as it improves the flavour. I used to have a decent clump of lemongrass when I lived in Auckland but have not bothered to grow it down here.
craig04,
Oct 11, 1:50am
Have you harvested any pine nuts ralta! Did it take long to reach maturity! I have a macadamia tree in our front yard which I forgot to mention, it gives us a big harvest every year. They must have been in vogue around here years ago since I see them in most of the local gardens
lx4000,
Oct 11, 1:58am
I have a bay tree and rosemaryand parsley:) And access to some macadamia trees. I have a few fruit trees but building up more on the ones I want!
buzzy110,
Oct 11, 2:29am
Don't write your tarragon off just yet. It is seasonal. It pops up every summer and disappears over winter. I have been lucky that a few strands keep producing leaves all winter, but they are very few.
chillis are fantastic. I have learnt that I can just leave them until early spring. They have fruit on them from the near end of summer all the way through to Spring. then I just chop it off and up it comes again. So plant where you are happy to have it growing permannently.
Get two types of lemons. Meyer are very heavy fruiting and produce lots of juice. They are good for all sorts of things as well as preserving but my all time favourite is the Lisbon lemon. The cut fruit has the most wonderful fresh, crisp aroma. It is thick skinned and less juicy but its addition in many foods, turns an ordinary food into sublime. I even use it in the place of limes, especially when limes are scarce or expensive. It also carries fruit all year round, unlike Meyer, which is fruit free for at least 2 months of the year.
lyl_guy,
Oct 11, 2:39am
Thanks buzzy. any ideas why our Lime tree hasn't ever fruited!It started off tiny, about 30cms high, now it's about a metre high and healthy looking.There were a few flowers on it a year or 2 ago, but no fruit. We have it in the same patch of ground as a lemon tree and a very old mandarin tree.We feed it with blood and bone, which works wonders with the lemon.
buzzy110,
Oct 11, 3:39am
I cannot help you with the limes. I have a kaffir lime tree. It is in the most inhopitable place and with soil only about 500cms in depth. It is dehydrated for most of summer and only gets about 2 dustings of citrus food a year. It confounds me every year by being laden with little limes. And I don't even like the limes. davidt4 said she does something with the limes but I have forgotten what it is. The tree has never grown very tall but is very healthy with dense, dark green foliage. Just the luck of the draw I guess.
Ask in gardening. Some guru may know, or if you are lucky, uli will drop by. Her advice is always best, imo.
davidt4,
Oct 11, 4:41am
Like most citrus, limes can have off years.Other possible reasons for non-fruiting are:
- not enough food.They need a decent amount of nitrogen as well as phosporus, and not too much lime.
-not enough heat or not enough sun
-not enough water or inconsistent watering
-inadequate drainage
-too much tip-pruning - they bear fruit on the tips of branches
-not enough bees.Do you have other bee-attracting plants nearby!
lythande1,
Oct 11, 5:33am
Parsley, Mint, Oergano, Majoram, Thyme, sage, chives, basil, Bay, plums, strawberries, orange, lemon, passionfruit, grapes, tea bush, and the two vege gardens.
grannymum,
Oct 11, 5:57am
Wow Fisher!Very impressive!Wish I had a garden like that - its wonderful!
fisher,
Oct 11, 6:31am
Cheers grannymum. been a labour of love over the last 4 years from gorse to all the retained walls you see. forgot about our grapes, strawberries and passionfruit which supplied an abundance last year.
ralta,
Oct 11, 7:57am
I haven't harvested any pine nuts yet but think I will be able to shortly.I can't remember exactly when I planted the tree but was probably about 7 years ago & remained quite compact until about 18 months or so ago & has rocketed.
I saw last year that it had long thing brown skinny cones on it but no nuts but checked it on the weekend & it has the beginning of nut clusters on the cones.I'm not sure how to tell when they are ready though so I'll have to keep checking & experiment a bit.
Also forgot to mention before we have a loquat tree also although we haven't had much fruit off that yet (young tree & not in the best location).We also have a small mandarin but it is kind of crowded out by hubby's over-planted succulents.Our lemon verbena (was probably 5 years old) seems to have gone kaput so have just bought a replacement but will take some time before it grows to a good size.
gaspodetwd,
Oct 11, 8:16am
We have 3 espalier apple trees, 2 dwarf pears, 3 peach trees, 1 nectarine, 1 lemon, 1 orange, 1 bay,raspberry canes, tayberry, 60 strawberry plants,grape vine, rosemary, mints, oregano, marjoram, chives, thyme, sages, basil, parsley. Plus the veggie garden. I highly recommend the espalier apples - they crop really well. They don't take up much room and their blossom is lovely.
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