As I patiently keep watch over my tomato plant blossoms to transform into big fat juicy tomatoes, I notice that the bees are going crazy over the lavender blossoms in my herb garden this summer – if you can actually call what we are having in the north east this year a summer. I guess the herbs love the abundance of water, although in Provence and in Crete, where herbs grow wild, the summers are so hot and dry that you don’t generally see a single drop of rain all summer long. I don’t get it. Perhaps the North American varieties are adapted to wet, soggy roots.

Anyway, I planted this herb garden not only to be able to sit on my patio and admire its beautiful blossoms, but more importantly to have fresh herbs to cook with just outside my doorstep, for the entire summer. I love the fact that by planting several little green roots in the month of May, I can actually cook all summer long without having to purchase one single bunch of herbs from the grocery store. It makes every single thing I cook, taste that much better.

This past weekend we had friends over and I decided to make a few French style grilled lamb chops. I realized that I had every herb necessary to make my very own fresh herbes de Provence blend. I snipped bits of rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram and finally a little sprig of lavender. Oh man was it delicious!

Here is how I arranged my garden and what kind of herbs I decided to plant, for no particular reason other than what I like to cook with and what the bees might like. The herbs can be divided into two different categories for the garden: annuals and perennials.

I like grouping the annuals together because I know that will be the area that I have to replant entirely the following year. These are herbs like, parsley and basil . Basil loves full sun , so make sure it’s not in a shady corner.

The perennials, like thyme, marjoram, chives, oregano- the Greek variety of course- seem to be really hearty and mint I cannot kill if I tried. So I like putting mint in its own pot , so it doesn’t completely take over the garden.

The other perennials like lavender and rosemary are a bit more delicate and I’ve only managed to keep the lavender around. I tried to bring my rosemary inside for the winter but the only sunny spot is not really working out. I’ll try again this year.

Since the only herb that I prefer dried is oregano, last year I tried drying it and putting it into glass jars for cooking all winter. It’s a bit tedious to cut all the stems just before they flower, rinse them thoroughly and tie them into bundles to dry in the sun. That’s assuming we get some sun this year! Once they are fully dry, I pull the dried bunches off the stems and transfer them to glass jars in my pantry.

The best time to snip the beautiful herbs is just before they flower. That way the plant will recover and sprout new growth. The leaves also tend to have their best flavour before energy goes towards blossom growth.