It's great fun to seek out the more exotic forms of these common herbs like pineapple sage and lemon thyme that really do lend a secondary flavoring as the names suggest. Among the moisture loving culinary herbs is annual coriander, more commonly known as cilantro, an essential ingredient in every Mexican salsa recipe. Sweet basil, now available in many different green and purple-leafed strains is the key component of pesto and other Italian dishes. Basil is grown in a single annual crop from seed or nursery seedlings. Both types of parsley, traditional curly leaf and the Italian flat leaf variety are biennials, which means they live for two, perhaps three years and then die out.
Parsley seed can be difficult to start and is best purchased as seedlings.
It's so bright green and attractive, you may find parsley sold with bedding flowers as an ornamental foliage plant. We often find members of the mint family growing wild around springs and marshy areas where it has escaped from gardens. Peppermint and spearmint are fine additions to lamb dishes and desserts, but beware of its invasive nature if your garden is cool and moist. Similar to the mints in habit and preference is lemon balm, a plant that contains cooling, astringent oils strongly scented with lemon and once used to sooth headache. The healer's garden has not changed since our great grandmothers used herbal remedies to help her family through illness.