My favorite herb is rosemary, it will grow in most gardens, has a lovely aroma, and has some amazing medicinal uses.
Rosemary is a beautiful,fragrant evergreen shrub, which is native to the Mediterranean regions, it has a variety of herbal uses. An infusion of the leaves and the flowering tops is a sedative that can be used to relieve flatulence and headaches, promote perspiration, increase bile flow and stimulate menstruation.
Rosemary, especially its young leaves, contain carnosic acid, a powerful antioxidant. Recent research identified rosemary as one of the first plants that can improve memory by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase ( a brain chemical which switches off the connection between nerve cells).
Multiple trials have demonstrated rosemary's ability to kill numerous harmful and potentially deadly organisms including Candida, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, E.Coli and Aspergillus bacteria.
Rosemary leaves are also used externally, mainly for hair shampoos
RE: some favorite herbs
I love it! I have one growing in an earthenware pot on the terrace and it has survived many winters.
I put a whole sprig on top of anything I'm roasting in the oven, and then eat the leaves when they're all crispy. Yummy 🙂 Does this wreck it for medicinal purposes, I wonder?
Holistic
RE: some favorite herbs
I love my rosemary as well and it gets used all the time and has lasted a few winters living outside through the Scottish winters - this makes me think it can grow outside anywhere in the UK. Mine's flowers are just starting to open and I love the colour! My husband read about the memory improving properties and when he is studying he drinks it as tea with a bit og honey - he swears by it.
Some other favourites which all grow outside in pots and stay there throughout the winter is thyme (I have 3 different kinds but I believe there are hundreds of different kinds - and their flowers are also lovely), sage which is a must for cooking.
Basil I grow in summer and parsley - strange but the parsley is still growing as we had such a mild winter. It seems that gradually I am growing more and more herbs and they are very easy to look after and it is very satisfying using them. Would recommend that everybodygrows a few herbs in the garden or on a windowsill.
RE: some favorite herbs
Thyme ... yes, I have one of those in a pot as well. In a former garden, I used to grow a variety of small thymes in between the paving slabs of the terrace. At that time, I had rather a lot of little dogs, and as they ranthrough the thyme, they released the fragrant oils and brought the delicious scent into the house with them. I don't like the lemon-scented ones though.
Sages in variety, too. I especially loved the slightly more tender tri-coloured one, and always took cuttings to over-winter in a cold frame, just in case.
However, I must not digress too far from Mike's topic and make this into a gardening thread! 😀
I am a great devotee of herbal remedies, and take a 'brew' made up for me by a medical herbalist. Often when discussingthe ingredients, which are varied seasonally, a name sounds familiar, and then I think Oh, yes, I used to grow that! Not all are what I would think of as a 'herb' however.
Holistic