Culinary Herbs to Grow in the Garden

Update: Herbs are an essential part of life. They provide medical comfort, enhance the food we eat, and play important roles in the ecosystems of our gardens. 

Visit our developing garden blog on the justaz.com website for images and info on growing veggies and herbs. (2025)

Fresh or dried, herbs add flavor and depth to almost any dish. But purchasing fresh herbs at the supermarket can get expensive. If you grow your own herbs, whether in a large garden or in a few small pots, you'll not only save money, you'll impress your family and friends with your culinary genius.

Rosemary Shrub

Rosemary
A hardy perennial native to the Mediterranean, the rosemary plant now grow almost worldwide. In temperate climates, such as the southwest United States, a rosemary plant may live as long as 15 years in an outdoor garden.

Rosemary has an earthy, pungent aroma that complements beef and chicken, and just a little is needed to add depth to roasted vegetables. 

Sage Plant

Sage
Sage has an earthy aroma that reminds you of Thanksgiving dinners and hot pork roast sandwiches. A perennial herb, sage produces for up to three years before its leaves start to lose that rich, pungent flavor. Use fresh if you want a strong, savory taste but use sparingly, as fresh sage can overpower other flavors in the dish. 

When drying this herb, leave the leaves whole. Rub the dried leaves between your fingertips when you add this herb to your dishes for controlled, subtle taste.

Oregano Plant

Oregano
The word oregano means, "Joy of the mountain" in Greek; it grows wild and in abundance in that Mediterranean country. This earthy herb has a strong, sharp flavor to it that balances well with sweet tomato sauces, is essential to Mexican cooking, and adds a rich flavor to eggs and sausages. 

Thyme

Common thyme grows well under a wide range of conditions, making it a kitchen garden favorite. Use thyme in sauces, marinades, and in soups, and pair it with chicken, fish or roasted vegetables.

Thyme Plant

If you want to eliminate table salt from your cooking, replace it with thyme. This herb brings out the natural flavors of food, enhancing any dish in much the same way as salt does, only without the negative health effects. 

Basil
No garden is complete without basil. Try adding a variety of basil plants such as spicy globe, purple ruffle, Thai basil and of course, sweet basil. Use spicy globe in Mexican dishes, and purple ruffle or Thai in stir-fry.

Basil Plant

Sweet basil is an essential ingredient in many Italian dishes. And nothing tastes fresher on a summer's day than sliced tomatoes topped with thin slices of mozzarella cheese and sprinkled with ribbons of bright green basil.

Parsley
An annual herb, parsley does more than garnish your plate for presentation. It has a savory undertone to it that adds depth and interest to soups and stews when stirred in at the last moments of cooking.

Parsley Plant

Parsley grows best in the cool weather, and though it doesn't have a long growth period, two or three plants may provide you with enough parsley for drying to last you to the next growing season. Use this dried herb with dried basil, oregano and thyme for an herbal seasoning mix perfect for meatballs or Italian meatloaf. 

Mint
Mint has an unmistakable scent to it: sharp, crisp, fresh. Used in an array of foods, from meat to vegetables to candy and cocktails, mint is an abundant producer. One plant in your garden is likely to suffice simply because it continues to spread. Consider growing mint in a container to control its prolific growth habit.

Mint Plant

Herbs add finesse to your dishes, and though your family and friends may not say, "Oh, I taste the oregano in this enchilada sauce," that's okay. What you want them to say is, "These are the best enchiladas I've ever had."

The contents of this blog, including images, are copyrighted to justaz.com productions.  2014

The Summer Winter Garden

Update: The garden has been renovated and looks very different now, in October of 2025.  You can see the changes in this video and learn more about growing potatoes. (2025)

How to Use Potato Grow Bags from HomyHoo: A product demonstration

In the last couple of weeks or so, it has rained quite a bit, about four inches. Here in the valley of the sun, that's a considerable amount. We have dust storms, windstorms, thunderstorms.

These are the monsoons. Monsoon season is upon us.

Right now, we are caught in this pseudo season, a mixture of high temperatures and high humidity, followed by brief but intense storms of various sort. The monsoons come during the last few agonizing weeks of summer, a time of burning sunlight and thickened air, and of indoor activities.

Devil Grass

No one I know keeps a full garden in the summertime. The weather is either too hot or it's raining buckets. You keep your hardy perennials alive, such as rosemary, but you would have harvested your veggies weeks ago. This is our version of wintering over.

And some of the photos here are the equivalent of those images of the beds in gardens west of the Rockies in the last cold days of winter, the soil still half frozen. Here, though, in the valley of the sun, after four inches of rain and brutally high temperatures, I have Devil Grass.

Tomatillo and Cayenne in a barrel

Devil grass is Bermuda grass and it can't be killed, merely subdued. It does not give in easily though, and I may have to, am likely to, resort to chemical warfare. I could pull the grass by hand from the nooks and crannies of my garden, but that doesn't really subdue the green devil as much as it encourages it to try harder. So, chemical warfare it is.

Looking at What's Alive

Early in the year, I scattered seeds around the garden in a free form fashion. The result was a wild hodgepodge of seedlings popping up, and more than half of the

seedlings did mature to yield a fair amount of veggies. The tomatoes did especially well.

Now in the miserable heat and pounding rains grow tomatillos and peppers, both sweet and hot. And one arugula plant. The herbs are doing well, but there's a lot of empty space in the beds.

Empty space

Soon, though, the hot weather will abate, and Phoenix gardeners can

leave the confines of their air-conditioned homes and feel the funky Phoenix soil in their fingers once again.

Thinking about a Remodel

Garden beds are my preferred method when soil gardening, but the low beds do present some issues. The reason the Devil Grass is so prolific is that the beds are watered nearly every day. The water feeds the grass roots, and the walkways fill up with the stuff. As I say, it needs subduing.

Puppy with peppers in a barrel

The second issue is my back. I have what is clinically referred to as a bad back. Every year, it gets a little harder to kneel down and get back up. So, we may be raising the beds.

We also have to consider how to provide shade for the garden in the late spring and throughout the summer months. Those beds with perennials or heat tolerant plants need protection. We need to find an efficient way to add shade when needed and store the material away when it's not.

Starting Seeds

Hardy oregano

Come the first of September, I'll start seeds for the soil garden. It will be a fall garden, but here a fall garden is tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, squashes, carrots, and all manner of greens and herbs.

While gardeners in other parts of the world put their gardens to bed, and spend winters in front of a cozy fire reading seed catalogues, I'll be gardening.

And when summer comes around again, and the others are reaping the rewards of what they have sown, I'll be in front of the air conditioning vent, reading seed catalogues.