I'm planning on several varieties of basil (cinnamon basil, aton basil, sweet basil, dark opal basil, lime basil), oregano, chives, garlic chives, lemon balm, and chocolate mint. Considering adding a few more, but would prefer relatively easy ones, especially if they can be dehydrated for future use. Any suggestions?

Thyme and parsley are good ones. I also like spearmint a lot.

I was thinking about thyme and parsley. We don't use much mint, but i like to put chocolate mint in brownies.

What do you like? Besides drying for cooking, what else would you like to use them for? For teas? For the flowers, for bees & other pollinators?

Cilantro is good fresh for seasoning, loses flavor dry. The seeds are known as coriander, and they keep. Flowers good for pollinators. It's an early cool-season herb.
Dill is a good seasoning, also early/cool.
Lemongrass, nice landscaping plant, good flavoring for Asian and Indian dishes, good for tea, dries well.
Catnip, bees and cats love it, nice in tea blends (good with your lemon balm), dries well.

so many favorites
catnip is the favorite of my cats , lucky for me it grows wild here.

mint, camomile and stevia for tea
and several for cooking: thyme, sage, rosemary,chives , oragano
for the pollinators garlic chives
and for the smell valerian
for the flowers borage and nasturtium

No cats (and don't want them hanging around since my dog hates them). Not a tea drinker either. I need to look at my spice rack and see what I can possibly grow. Things for pollinators are welcome (I have bee balm and milkweed already). Was going to do nasturtiums but keep reading that they attract aphids and, other than my milkweed, I haven't had aphid problems so I'm debating planting it now since I don't want to bring in neighboring aphids.

I've heard to plant borage in with strawberries so maybe I'll try that this year or next (my strawberry needs might need redone).

Here's a list of herbs that I'll definitely be growing next year:
lemon balm
cinnamon basil
garlic chives
aton basil
sweet basil
dark opal basil
lime basil

Here's some herbs that I'm considering for this year. I definitely won't be doing them, probably just a couple, but it depends on space. The ones with * are herbs I have in my pantry so could grow and dehydrate. The ones with ** are ones I'm considering more for the beneficial bugs and pollinators it will attract.
Sweet Marjoram
Parsley*
Sage
Summer or Winter Savory
Thyme*
Borage**
Calendula
German Chamomile**
Lavender**
Lemongrass
Lemon Verbena
Rosemary*
Cumin
Stevia

Any you'd suggest for containers?

Dill is my favorite but I grow everything, everything except mint.maybe I'll try mint again this year. Last year I killed it somehow.

SoCalGardenNut said:Dill is my favorite but I grow everything, everything except mint.maybe I'll try mint again this year. Last year I killed it somehow.

How did you kill mint?! My hubby didn't water my potted one for an entire week in July. Got home from my trip and it was a dry crispy bunch of stems. I trimmed it back to the ground and watered it every day. A week or two later it was growing back.

Basil for that sweet pungent fragrance
Medicinal - Mullein - great for ears and lungs but also those big fuzzy leaves are softer than Charmin and completely non-toxic, so, you know if you ever run out of tp...

Ceckery said:

How did you kill mint?! My hubby didn't water my potted one for an entire week in July. Got home from my trip and it was a dry crispy bunch of stems. I trimmed it back to the ground and watered it every day. A week or two later it was growing back.

I don't know how but I did it.

Picked up a few more herb seeds just because, lol.

I used to grow chamomile, maybe I get back to grow it again. I've been watching this very popular vblogger from China, she makes tea out of everything. Maybe I will do that. I have no idea what to do with chamomile.

I read it brings in beneficial bugs like predatory wasps so I'm just planting it for that. I've got a stretch along the east side of my house just for flowers but I might try a few in pots I can set in the garden as well.

I'm just trying things. And I'll start extra seedlings to sell this spring. I'm ready for warm weather but need to wait a few more months.

SoCalGardenNut said:I used to grow chamomile, maybe I get back to grow it again. I've been watching this very popular vblogger from China, she makes tea out of everything. Maybe I will do that. I have no idea what to do with chamomile.

I forgot about Chamomile. Chamomile's a great one.

My must-have favorites are lemon verbena, peppermint, spearmint, sweet marjoram, and blue Tuscan rosemary. No lavender because to me it smells like mens' shaving cologne and I can't hang with that!
If I ever remarry-no cologne or aftershave!!

Chamomile makes a very pretty airy filler plant in pots and garden , and if you clip the flowers it will bloom till frost
I never have enough , but I do like my tea

I did get a chamomile seed packet yesterday at Lowe's. So glad to found them, not have to go through mail order.

Cinda, if you freeze chamomile tea in ice cube trays it makes a nice skin treatment. Add a few flowers to each cube and it's so pretty!
I also like to dip a cotton ball in the tea for a facial toner.

Great ideas, Deeby
I may try the face thing I have rosacea and can't use most things

It is also a great deterrent to damping off , high in sulfur, a natural anti-fungal. I use it in the greenhouse on seedlings.