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Two Herbs for Shady Gardens: Lemon Balm and Anise Hyssop

© Leda Meredith

The garden of our one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn is like most brownstone gardens - graced with a tree and plenty of shade. That is a blessing if you're talking about an afternoon barbecue on a scorching August day. It is a curse if, like me, you are interested in growing plants that smell and taste wonderful as well as being pretty. Most plants commonly grown in shade gardens are purely ornamental.

However, if your garden filters even a bit of sunlight down through those tree leaves, or if there are areas that get direct sunlight for at least three hours of the day, then you have what is called "partial shade" or "partial sunlight". And there are two delicious herbs that will thrive in these conditions and, as a bonus, aren't picky about what kind of soil they're in. One of them will even grace your garden with attractive summer flowers.

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) looks similar to some mints, and will grow to a height of two feet. Its delicious fragrance comes from an essential oil that sells for exorbitant prices ($60 and up per ounce). You can enjoy Lemon Balm leaves chopped fresh into fruit salads, as a garnish for iced teas, as an interesting seasoning for seafood or poultry, and many other uses (see recipes below). You could also dry some for use in hot winter teas, although her true fragrance and flavor are at their best in the fresh leaves. In times past, Melissa was used as a cure for melancholy - I have often buried my nose in a fresh bundle of lemon balm leaves and found that I couldn't help but smile. Melissa officinalis is being researched as an effective treatment for cold sores.

A few ornery souls find that Lemon Balm a.k.a. Melissa's scent reminds them unpleasantly of commercial products such as Lemon Pledge. I wholeheartedly disagree, but it would be interesting to find out if those products did in fact use Lemon Balm essential oil at one point to make them more pleasing to consumers (I'm guessing that the currently used scents are cheap synthetics).

Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), also called Licorice Mint, is a perennial like lemon balm. This North American native grows to three feet tall and even in our partial shade garden it puts out delightful spikes of purple flowers. Easy to grow from seed. It's leaves have an intense, licorice-like smell, but that description doesn't begin to do it justice. I don't usually enjoy licorice or anise flavors, but I love the Anise Hyssop Tea made from the leaves I dry in Summer for use in Winter. Anise Hyssop liqueur is a show-off delight to share with company, and Anise Hyssop Honey tastes like a luxury.