Favourite Herbs for Ontario
Add Zing! to your meals with these favourite herbs that you can grow.
Annuals
Sweet Basil
40 to 60 cm tall; tender annual that can not be planted until early June; the perfect flavouring for tomatoes and tomato dishes; highly aromatic clove-like scent and peppery taste; young leaves are best; leaves in excess of your immediate needs can be dried or packed in jars and covered with oil. They can be dry frozen or frozen in ice-cubes.
Bush Basil
25 cm tall; a small compact plant, good for pot and windowsill culture. This “picollo” Basil is thought best for PESTO, a delectable sauce for ’al dente’ spaghetti and other pasta.
Lovage
A clump-forming perennial with stems over 2m high in rich, moist soil. Somewhat like a large celery with a yeasty celery flavour, it adds greatly to soups and stews. The tang of the yeast extract and herbal flavouring “Maggi” comes from Lovage.
Florence Fennel (Finochio)
Approximately 1 m tall, this annual is more vegetable than herb. The swollen, bulbous base is similar to celery and should be blanched by mounding soil around the base once it is larger than an egg or lemon. Florence Fennel can be sliced raw for salads, sautéed or quartered in a chicken casserole. It has a delicate anise-licorice flavour.
Sweet Fennel
Sweet Fennel is 1 to 2 m tall. Although it is a perennial, Sweet Fennel must be treated as an annual in the Ontario climate. The leaves, stems and seeds are anise flavoured. If the foliage is the only part to be used, it is best to pinch out the flowering stems. The finely chopped leaves are used in salads and sauces. Fish and Sweet Fennel go together well. Fresh leaves can be used as stuffing for baked fish or added to the water when poaching.
Curled Parsley
Perhaps the most popular herb of all, Curled Parsley is a biennial herb, which is grown as an annual for its often used, finely dissected leaves. grows to 15 cm.
Italian Parsley
Grows to 30 cm, Italian Parsley is a taller variety with flatter leaves, similar to celery leaves but with a strong parsley flavour.
Perennials
Chives
The chopped hollow stems add flavour to salads, soups, omelettes and cheese dishes. The attractive flowers are worth growing for their ornamental value.
Garlic Chives
The stems are not hollow. The attractive white flowers bloom in August and September. Garlic Chives are recommended for rock gardens or the front of perennial borders. Culinary uses are the same as regular Chives. Both Chives can be forced indoors if a dormant or resting period is provided. Pot up sections of a garden clump in September and keep in a cold place. Bring indoors in January and place in a sunny window.
Thyme
The common cooking Thyme is a bushy shrub 20 to 30 cm tall, spreading to 60 cm. To survive Ontario winters, it needs gritty well-drained soil.
Lemon-Thyme
The Lemon Thymes are best used in fresh summer salads or a garnish and flavour for soups or boiled potatoes.
Tender Perennials
French Tarragon
Grows to 90 cm and needs full sun in light, well-drained soil. Famous as flavouring for vinegar, French Tarragon is also used in marinades and sauces. With a refreshing different flavour of mild Anise, it is the essential ingredient in béarnaise sauce.
Sage
Evergreen shrub, usually grows to 60 cm. The silvery-gray foliage is very attractive. Best known use is Sage and Onion stuffing for poultry.
Oregano and Marjoram
A group of shrubby herbs from the Mediterranean, Oregano and Marjoram are not easy to overwinter in Ontario gardens unless perfect drainage is provided; winter cover with such material as evergreen boughs is also essential.
The best for flavour are listed below.
Sweet Marjoram and Greek Oregano
They are essential ingredients in Italian cookery, the pizza herbs. The hot, spicy flavour works well in all tomato dishes as well as meat stews, soups and gravies.
