Today I want to share with you my three must-have herbs.  These are herbs I grow in my kitchen herb garden every year.

Although I grow many herbs each year around the house – in gardens, in planters, wherever I can find space, I chose these three herbs to share with you because they are the work horses in my garden and kitchen:  Basil, Sage, Thyme.

I like that these herbs are attractive and add interest to flower and container gardens, and I can also snip them to cook with – I use these herbs a lot in my kitchen.  Double-duty herbs – they look pretty and taste delicious!

And most importantly:  My family will eat them!

1,  Basil

There are many varieties of basil to choose from.  Basil herbs with bright green leaves, a mix of purple and green leaves, to solid dark purple and maroon leaves.

Also plant sizes vary from compact to traditional to large with ruffled leaves.  Lots of variations to play with 🙂

The flavours and scents of basil herb plants are as varied as the leaves.  From the traditional sweet basil so familiar in Italian cooking, to the lovely perfumed lemon and lime basil, and the warm spiciness of cinnamon and thai basil.

Purple basil is a stunning addition to any garden border and is especially impactful against a backdrop of bright green or silver foliage plants.

My kids love purple basil pesto – it’s so weirdly dark purple and so delicious!  There’s something about adding purple basil to food that makes it so much fun 🙂

Basil grows well in containers.  Grow a planter with a mix of purple and green basil on the deck.

It’s a lovely colourful addition to any garden or patio, with a fresh supply of basil a few steps away from the kitchen.  It takes only seconds to clip a few colourful basil leaves to toss into a salad or top a pasta dish.

Basil is an easy herb to start from seed — place the seeds on the soil, cover with 1/4 inch of soil, and keep moist.  The seeds sprout within a week.

Watch Success With Seeding for a good primer on starting herbs from seed – Click here.

My favourite use of basil in the kitchen is on a tomato salad made with freshly picked from the garden, or fresh from the market, tomatoes.

2.  Sage

Culinary sage is a woody bushy herb that comes in a variety of attractive colors and a pebbled texture that makes it an attractive ornamental herb in many landscape gardens.

— garden sage with its greyish-green leaves, golden sage with variegated yellow and dark green leaves, purple sage with its purple and green hued leaves, and the stunning tricolor sage with its creamy white, pinkish-purple and green variegated leaves.

And all these fun variations of culinary sage have that same strong earthy familiar sage aroma and flavour.

Tricolor sage is by far my favourite kitchen herb to plant as an ornamental.  When I plant tricolor sage in plant borders and mixed plantings, it provides colour for the entire summer!  And yes, the leaves are used in the same way as garden sage for cooking 🙂

In my winter climate here in southern Canada, the good old fashioned garden sage with its greyish-green leaves and bluish purple blooms has been growing for years at the side of the house as a reliable perennial.  The other sages are not as hardy in my climate.

I put sage leaves on top of meat roasts, and roasting veggies, in the oven – they flavour the meat and/or vegetables and sage leaves get nice and crispy and delicious.

3.  Thyme

Thyme is a small low-growing herb plant with the cutest little leaves.  Making it an excellent herb plant for garden edges, and ground covers.  Or anywhere you want to tuck in a few low growing plants.

Thymes are also attractive plants to grow in containers and hanging baskets – either on their own or mixed in with other flowering plants or herbs.

There are numerous varieties of culinary thymes to choose from.  Green leaves of English thyme, grey-green leaves of French thyme, green and white variegated Silver Thyme, green and yellow variegated leaves of Golden thyme.

And the wide range of scented thymes makes for a lot of fun experimenting in the kitchen — caraway, lemon, lime, orange, nutmeg, rose to name a few.

I really like adding fresh lemon thyme to my scrambled eggs.  And thyme pairs really nicely with goat cheese.

Basil, sage and thyme — that’s the herbs my family enjoys most 🙂

What must-have herbs do you grow?   Leave a comment below with your favourites 🙂

Happy Gardening,
Barb

PS – Interested in growing herbs in your flower gardens and borders?
Visit:  7 Herbs I Plant In My Ornamental Gardens 

And here’s the link I mentioned above for the  Success With Seeding demonstration.