HERBS TO GROW FROM SEED

Sweet basil is a fresh-looking plant with glossy leaves. There's a variant that has purple leaves and there's a somewhat different, smaller variety called bush basil. Definitely an annual, basil can be hard to get started. Although flies will give it a wide berth, snails love it and will completely remove a young plant overnight. Many herbs thrive in poor soil, but basil does not. Without rich soil and full sun it's unlikely to grow at all. Put it in when you're planting tomatoes and cucumbers it is a great companion plant for either, and well grow with the same sort of soil preparation.

While it's especially good with tomatoes and in all tomato dishes, basil is also used in soups and salads and as a garnish for fish dishes.

Like all members of the mint family, basil eventually sends up untidy spikes of small flowers. The plant may last longer and look better if you cut these off-unless you're saving seed. You can allow seeding without worrying about them becoming a weed, because it doesn't self-sow nearly as readily or prolifically as some of its cousins.

This has pinkish blossoms which turn blue like the perennial pulmonary. Borage is an annual and should be planted directly to the garden in early May in the North. Growing around 2 feet it should be spaced 10 inches apart, germinates in around 7 to10 days. Borage resents transplanting except when quite small. It is excellent used in tossed salad to add a most elusive flavor.

Although this plant will germinate in the fall and live over the winter I would advise the inexperienced gardener to grow it as an annual, sowing the seed to the garden in mid-May (in this area). Grows to 2 feet and should be spaced 8 inches apart. Grows quickly and is mature in 6 weeks. Chervil plants resent transplanting. Fresh leaves can be frozen in small packets after washing carefully. The chervil plant is an excellent way to flavor egg dishes.

They are really very easy to grow from seed. In the spring they germinated in around 10 days. The tiny little plants look like fragile spears of grass. When transplanted they wilt slightly. Even during a continued drought they grow very well. Mature plants grow to 12, inches; space 6 inches apart. They are very hardy even in cold locations. Potted up, chives will grow on a sunny windowsill in winter.
Chives are great. They have a mild onion taste that's good in lots of different foods-mashed potatoes, sour cream and white sauces, for instance. For steaks and salads, there's a variety called garlic chives, too. When you want to use chives, you just snip off as much as you need and the plants aren't bothered by having their leaves shortened. They can be choked by more vigorous plants, though, so you need to weed back any encroaching ground cover to allow the chives some space. Like onions and garlic, chives are a good thing to grow close to rose bushes, because they keep the aphids away. Never plant them near any sort of beans, though. Beans just don't thrive in their company.