The garden yard

A great variety of plants, medicinal, flavoring and decorative, are herbs, but we will consider only those used for cookery and usually called “sweet herbs.” The very name brings memories of fragrant smells. If we cannot all say, “I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows,” yet few who have ever known a garden are unacquainted with the odorous bed of thyme, sage and mint. Although there is not such heavy demand for them in this country as in Europe, yet their use is growing, the favorite being sage.

Sweet herbs may be divided, both as to culture and as to products, into two classes:—the annuals and the perennials: those grown for their foliage, and those for their fruits. All are easily grown and demand little attention, and though they may be bought at any drug store, yet they who have once raised their own herbs find a pleasure in them that they will not like to miss. Annuals and perennials may be grown together and a very little plot of ground is enough to grow them all. Choose a place where they will not interfere with plowing and cultivating and let them stay, planting the annuals in the same place each year, and renewing the perennials as soon as they begin to lose their aromatic qualities or otherwise to fail. The annuals should be sown every year, but perennials may be propagated by division of clumps. Discard all the older clumps and replant only the newer, younger portions.

Those that are prized for their foliage, such as sage, thyme, hyssop, mints, tansy, horehound and wormwood, are usually cut when the plant is in full growth before the stalks have become woody. Cut the stems near the ground, tie them in bunches and hang them to dry in the attic, if you are fortunate enough to have such a treasure-hole, or in some cool, dry place. You may also cut the herbage from time to time during the season, but this weakens the plant and necessitates replanting. Those that are grown for seeds, such as caraway, coriander and dill, are allowed to ripen, but are picked before the seeds begin to fall. They are dried in-doors and the seeds threshed out for winter use. Bailey, in his “Vegetable Gardening,” has a list divided as follows:—