I don't have the wide variety that you do, but I'm working on getting lots of good smelling herbs at the front fence line (chain link) so the passersby on the sidewalk can smell them.

My culinary sage out there got huge and wonderful but then lost its lovely shape and turned scraggly. It also got beaten up by the winter this year. So I cut it back severely and am hoping it comes back out. If not, I DO have seeds.... I started the first one from seed from Seed Savers Exchange.

last year I bought a wonderful smelling plant called 'curry" only to get home, look it up, and find it's NOT the plant that produces culinary curry leaf. But it does smell good, so I'll move it to the fence line in the corner I can't reach when clipping.

Anything critters might eat goes in pots in the "cage" I built on my deck from 6x6 panels of dog kennel fence. I also put a 5th panel as a lid on it to be sure the groundhogs and raccoons aren't enticed to climb over by the scent of basil.

Almost a decade ago, I started several lavendar plants from seed. I chose the "Lady Lavendar" that flowers in its first year. I let all my small ones go to other people and then I dug up my lone BIG one for someone special thinking I could start over from seed. Haven'e had ANY luck germinating again!?!?!?!?!? Got ONE seedling this spring but I started too early and it languished under the inadequate indoor light while I was waiting for outside to warm up. But I haven't used the whole packet yet, so cross your fingers for me!

I'm daring to do dill this year - I like to cook with it. I have promised myself that I will cut it when it's BABY dill and not allow it to seed all over everywhere. Cross your fingers for THAT, too

There's more, but my mind is half in the yard so I think it's time to get out there and finish this list later!

I am growing Thyme ...

I have rosemary, basil, lemon balm, Allspice, bay leaf and anise.
Crittergarden where in Pittsburgh do you live?I've lived here in Arizona most my life but Pittsburgh is always my hometown.

Mt. Washington.
I love almost everything about Pittsburgh.
There are lots of PROGRESSIVE things going on.
Millennials are moving here to start businesses.
We have several LEEDS certified buildings, some platinum, and more in the works.
The hills remind me of SF - but much smaller.
There are trees everywhere.
The people are NICE.
Got a new botanic gardens in the works.
Our new mayor is progressive.
BIKE lanes happening - and bikes are now allowed on the busways.

Only things I don't like are:
Sauna season (4th of July to Labor Day, roughly).
Public transit is hell - but the mayor is working on that. The county is in charge of it though, so we shall see.......

Love the area you are in. Every time Igo home we ride the incline up there for the view. I've not been home for a while but hoping to get there to visit nieces and nephews and brothers in the next year.

Restaurants are good up here, but neither I nor most of the people who live near them can afford them. When I win the lottery, I will fix that!!

When I win the lotteryI will be back there every summer.

I always say "when" instead of "if", too.
Keep hope alive!
Remember july/August is "sauna season".
I advise visitors to come in October, for the leaves.

Yesterday, I direct seeded:
lavendar, culinary sage, chervil, cumin, black cumin, dill, licorice mint, and oregano. I sowed the herbs in a temporary spot to see if they germinate for me, then I can move them where I want them. Some of the seeds are not fresh. If they don't happen, I have others!

Licorice mint, mmmm. I need to find some of that.

I found bee balm at HD the other day. It has a bunch of little plants in the pot. I hope it spreads a bit. Although, I'm thinking the plot/bed for my herbs is too small because some of my herbs grow tall. The lavender I planted last summer is still just a little thing in the corner. It will soon have a lot of company. I'm planning to start direct seeding more herbs around it today. The roommate wants to wait until last chance for frost day, tomorrow, to finish up with the summer veggies. But today is supposed to be warm all day with warm temps overnight. Naturally, I'm not waiting.

I can't work for hours and hours like my roommate can. I have to limit myself to working minutes and taking long breaks. It is just not worth the pain to overdo the working time. I made a pitcher of pink lemonade yesterday that is nice and chilled in the fridge. I think we will polish that off early so I can then make my 1.25 gallon pitcher of sun green tea and add some stevia, bee balm, and lemon mint. Wish the blackberry would hurry and grow so I can have blackberry leaves for my tea also. I haven't had any luck with the canes from Walmart, last year and this year. I thought it would be less expensive than ordering online and paying shipping, but I think I'm just throwing my money away. The quality of seeds here aren't as good as they were in Denver. I keep finding a lot of expired seed packets. Many of the expire dates aren't even legible. I think they are what is killing my germination rates.

Wouldn't you know the marigold germinated in two days! Wish everything would be that fast to grow. I don't really like marigold. I don't like orange flowers. I think these are supposed to be lemon gold marigold and I really hope the garden benefits from them just as much as the orange ones. I don't really like red either, except for heirloom roses. I love pink and yellow and white and blue flowers. Purples are also good.

I'll probably get the Echinacea planted this week. I'm still a bit bummed that the roommate turned over the herb bed because I planted fall seeds there and he forgot because he was so anxious to do something in the fall and again to make me feel better after surgery. When he turned the bed in the fall, I kind of hoped some seeds would survive, but I lost hope when he did it again in early spring - was actually still winter. I don't think he understands the concept of perennials and fall sowing. Naturally, I keep thinking about all those seeds I planted. Money thrown away. The herb bed isn't much bigger this year, but it has edging and a fence that goes around it. I'm planning climbing nasturtiums along most of the fence to give more shade to the garden. The herb bed gets more than 12 hours of sun. On second thought, I don't dare direct seed the bed. I better plant the seeds in something else so I can grow it with a bit of shade before it goes to the baking bed. If it takes a while to grow, I won't have the roommate turning it over.

ckatNM said:Licorice mint, mmmm. I need to find some of that.

Had very few of those seeds and they were old. I'm wondering if it is really the edible kind of mint. A friend of mine ordered some "Licorice Mint" from a catalog and it turned out to be agastache. Smelled like mint though!

If you want a licorice flavor in your tea, add some fennel. Either the herb or some seeds of the vegetable.

Do you use the stevia leaf?

Careful, bee balm will TAKE OVER wherever you plant it unless you plant it in a deep, well draining container in the ground.

I tend to work myself to exhaustion in the spring, sometimes in the fall. Midsummer, I am prone to heat exhaustion and it's all I can do to keep weeds pulled. So this time of year I try to get a running start, much as it hurts....

Whatever works for you, ckat, that is the best thing to do! In gardening AND in life!

I remember growing some bronze fennel, I think it was called. Never made it into my tea. I picked at it all the time while I was messing with my herbs. And then one day the squirrels attacked my herb table and I lost a few herbs, that was one of them. And St John's wort.

I didn't get the bee balm planted today. Probably tomorrow.

Here's a picture of my freebie before I dug it up.


I planted it with one of my stevia plants that I still had inside. It was in the pot with the aloe vera. I also planted a few German chamomile seeds. I'd like to add a little strawberry plant or speedwell. Or?

Florence fennel looks a lot like celery.
It's different from the herb.
I've had some for awhile - it is a prolific seeder!

So about the stevia.... Do the leaves sweeten your tea or do you process it somehow first?

@crittergarden, The unfortunate thing with Stevia is that it tastes the best when you pinch off a fresh leaf. it does not take much to sweeten, so I don't ever use a whole leaf. If you let the leaf dry, it doesn't taste as good and you don't get the antioxidant, essential oils, - those type of benefits from dried leaves. If, like me, you want to indulge more often in sweet tea or whatever other sweet stuff rocks your boat, you will pick a single plant to death. But beware, use too much and whatever you wanted to sweeten will be bitter. Especially so with the dried leaves. Dried leaves don't sweeten cold drinks as well as the fresh leaves. For me, this means I have to have multiple plants.

My stevia plant grew leggy indoors, but I have others that are doing well. So I'm hoping it was just because I had that one plant stuck in a pot with my aloe vera, which doesn't care about having a lot of light. All my windows were full of seedlings and starter trays at the time, and I thought the aloe could use some company.

There are no side effects or anything from using stevia. It does not alter your blood glucose levels at all, and no effect on the pancreas. Once you get used to the amount required to satisfy your taste buds, you will explode with ideas for using it. I keep finding more and more stuff to use it with. Even stuff that is flavored or pre-sweetened, I find that I can dilute it, add some stevia and the stuff lasts much longer. Especially sweetened tea mixes and lemonade, which I am loathe to give up during the summer. Haven't tried fresh-squeezed lemonade yet because I can never find real lemons in the produce section and I'm easily distracted, "Oh, look at those juicy strawberries!" and before you can say hello, I've forgotten nearly everything, including my name.

Now you should know why edible landscaping is a tonic for me.

I remember hearing that stevia was hard to bring to market for those reasons. But I never ever heard anywhere that it DOES taste sweet directly from the leaf.

I think I'll switch to it! For my tea. Sugar has not been in my house for years, but I've been using Splenda for my tea. Rather go natural! I can deal with the minor inconveniences.

And oh by the way....
The celery looking part of Florence fennel is sold in grocery stores here as "anise" and I THINK its seeds are where Italians have always gotten their anise flavoring - like for biscotti.

Well, if you ask me, stevia isn't more popular because too many big corporations make a ton of money off sugar and sugar substitutes. There is no way they are gonna want stevia to get popular because it would probably put them out of business. A single plant provides a lot of sweetening. Diabetics can have all the sweet they want. It can be grown without a lot of fuss or chemicals. You don't need special instruments to pick or process the leaves.

The biggest negatives against stevia are that it doesn't have the same chemical reaction to yeast, so it is not a suitable substitute for sugar in baked goods that have both sugar and yeast as ingredients. Since big money is made from sugar, I doubt anyone is researching ways to utilize yeast or something similar with something other than stevia. I guess yeast manufacturers have reason to be concerned also because breads with yeast are extremely popular.

Stevia is just too good for this period in time when our health has very low priority to the almighty bleeping dollar. But for drinks like tea and coffee, I'd never go back to regular sugar. I've never liked artificial sweeteners and no amount of research has every convinced me that they are better than sugar. I still remember when it seemed everyone I knew was using that saccharin crap and encouraging everyone they knew that it was the greatest thing since water. I always thought that something that tastes that bad couldn't possibly be good for the body and only marketing (with a bit of ignorance) made that stuff popular for much too long.

But I'm a horrible diabetic because I won't buy stuff that is sugar-free, because they have artificial sweeteners. I'd rather practice moderation and have the stuff that is palatable to me. When it comes to food stuffs, I'm always going to choose the natural stuff, for the taste, and for the fact that I don't trust pharmaceuticals or big corporations much. I've been waiting a long, long time for something like stevia, so it has been worth the trial and error phase. Now if I can only grow enough plants so that I can propagate enough to never run out.

We are on the same page.
I am frustrated with corporate foodlike substances and the reasons they won't go away.
I was asked to leave a thread once for ranting about the FDA so I'll just say it's not us they're working for and leave it at that.

I don't think I'll have trouble growing enough stevia for my tea. I only have 4 cups each morning, usually. Sometimes I drink decaf all day long though, so we shall see how I do.