drying herbs

I hang mine up in paper bags - tie some string around and hang from a line strung up on the patio where there is protection from wind. I only strip the bottom leaves which don't have as much flavour anyway. I store the leaves whole and then crumble into my casseroles and so on. So easy to do - no expensive bottles coming from goodness knows where.

Other ways to do it but that works for me.

If you don't grow herbs you're missing out

I do the same - only this year my Italian Parsley has produce enough to feed Australia! I'm hoping it will not be affected by winter and I'll just leave it in and use fresh - some of it is going to seed but so did the Chervil next to it, I pulled all that out and lo and behold we have mega Chervil coming up from dropped seed. I'm hoping this isn't premature and will cope with winter. My Basil didn't last long enough to dry any but the Thyme and Sage have dried well. The grandies kids love to 'rumble' the thyme - that it to rub it on a board to get the leaves off the stalks. Some herbs like sage lend themselves to dehydrating or oven drying too.

It's a lovely 22 degrees at present, and we are seeing the end of the Wall. I've spent the morning shovelling blue metal backfill behind it, one more trailer load should do it. Made 6 loads of concrete as well, to finish off the last bit . Every bit of left over concrete from each stretch we do of the footings is going up to the path to the hothouse. When I first put the hothouse in, I was told I don;t need a path. Then I put in a gravel path and was told I don't need a concrete one, then the weeds grew through the gravel and I was told I needed a concrete path. So we now have a nearly complete 'patchy' path. What goos ideas Bob has! I may turn into a woman tomorrow and do something womanly!

There is a shameful lack of herbs in my garden - some purple sage, a little lemon thyme, a few ragged chives and some mint. No parsley! I don't use them nearly enough, something I intend to remedy this year. I'm waiting for building work before planting out a herb garden as that area will get trampled while builders are here.

Herb wish list: parsley, a range of mints, ditto basils, rosemary, common thyme, chervil, sumac (if it will grow here), lovage, bay, dill, tasmanian mountain pepper, sorrel (both garden and sheep's), Vietnamese mint, coriander. Must be more but my mind's a blank!

I love my fresh herbs, but not very good at growing them

I stopped having a dedicated herb garden some time ago. I now plant annuals in amongst the veg and perennials in pots. That way they don't get out of hand and can act as quite nice weed suppressors and companions in the veg. I swear my carrots have grown better next to the parsley! A lot self seeds and I just let it go, pull out what I don't want. So I have herbs all over the place. I use fairly standard not exotic herbs so it's not hard to spot a nice bit of coriander when it pops its head up.

I love growing herbs. That's what I started with when I first started gardening. I have tons of perennials and quite a few annuals that self sow. Good stuff. I use quite a lot in cooking. I don't dry any herbs - apart from oregano - as I like them best very fresh. There are still lots of herbs that need to be explored, but there is only that much time in a day.
Ray, let me know when you are ready to plant and sow herbs. I can send seeds and cuttings.

Generous offer duly noted. Thanks Mad Gnome.