Hi everyone! New here, and already learning so much! I discovered after several attempts at a vegetable garden, that my soil and temperament are more suited for growing herbs. Currently, I only have a few rosemary and lavender bushes, but I'm hoping to expand in the not-so-distant future. I look forward to learning lots from you.

Jana

Welcome to NGA and the herb forum Jana.
Make yourself at home and ask all the questions you want someone will answer sooner or later.
Have fun exploring

Welcome Jezer! After many years of tending a large vegetable garden, I converted it into a herb garden and am having fun learning what they are, how they grow, and how to use them. This forum has been very helpful to me.

Thank you both!

Glad to have you here! Herbs tend to grow on you (pun intended!).

And it is a fine line that defines an herb - many trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers can also be used medicinally, cosmetically, for cleaners, and in cooking.

Jana!

I grow tons of herbs for our Master Gardeners group every year, as well as for my own garden. My interests are mainly for culinary herbs, but also use some medicinally as well.

Bonehead is correct that the definition of herbs is very broad. This is from the Herb Society of America website:

According to The Herb Society of America's New Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses by Deni Bown:

"The term "herb" also has more than one definition. Botanists describe an herb as a small, seed bearing plant with fleshy, rather than woody, parts (from which we get the term "herbaceous"). In this book, the term refers to a far wider range of plants. In addition to herbaceous perennials, herbs include trees, shrubs, annuals, vines, and more primitive plants, such as ferns, mosses, algae, lichens, and fungi. They [herbs] are valued for their flavor, fragrance, medicinal and healthful qualities, economic and industrial uses, pesticidal properties, and coloring materials (dyes)."

Some past herbs of the year (determined by the International Herb Society) have included: elderberry, horseradish, calendula, bay, artemesia. This year it is pepper (capsicum).