The Kitchen Herb Garden

To add to the spring heritage gardening articles, what early homeplace, especially country home, would have been without an herb garden, usually a kitchen garden. As you can imagine, there is really no mystery or surprise about the function, or location of this little plot of plants. It was usually located outside the kitchen area, so it was convenient for the lady of the house to select her herb of choice for the day's menu, and it would contain mostly culinary herbs, possibly some medicinal as well. (Dye plants would have been in a dye garden, as would medicinal plants if a large number of varieties were grown.

The kitchen herb garden would not have been formal or fancy. This was a functional garden, so little emphasis would normally have been placed on decorative boarders or intricate designs. The plants would usually be put in wherever they would fit, still paying attention to, however, sun/shade needs and height, although height might not have always been a factor. (My kitchen garden paid no heed to height. Plants were put in wherever there was space for them, and this worked well. Later on, I would intertwine vegetables amongst them, which was really quite attractive.)

You can start your kitchen herb garden from cuttings, plants or seeds, plants obviously being the easiest and most dependable way to start, especially for the beginner/novice gardener. And gathering plants for your kitchen garden is easier than you may think. Even if you are looking to stick to the 1800's for herb varieties, many of what we commonly grow in gardens today was the same herb that was grown then. And if you have done any looking around at all, you probably have noticed that obtaining herbs is easy. Even easier than it was 10 years ago. Most any nursery has a few types for sale, and if you have to go to seeds, almost any place you can buy plant and vegetable seeds, you can buy herb seeds. (Some of the more scarce plants/seeds you may have to buy from a nursery which specializes in herbs. However, especially with the net, it is far from impossible to locate almost anything you're looking for.)

When looking for plants, you would be better off purchasing at local nurseries, mainly because of how hard the mail can be on a young plant. (Seeds are no problem.) If you are using cuttings, definitely get them locally. They would probably not survive being mailed. If you need to purchase by mail, check places out as well as you can. How do they ship, do