Uses for herb plants

[914]

I just bought a big pot of rosemary because it was gorgeous, smelled great, easy to care for, and cheap at $150. As I'm going home, I'm thinking all these great things I can do with it. I can bake it with some chicken and potatoes. Thing is, I bake 1-2 times a month. I could do some chicken breasts and occasionally maybe bake some potatoes with rosemary, but what else is there to do with it?

I am thinking of dried rosemary sachets for the closet, but do I want my clothes to smell like what I associate baked chicken with?

What do you suggest?

I'm going to go pick up their beautiful mint plant for tomorrow, and maybe basil too. But the basil is bigger, I don't think my little balcony would fit. What other herb plants are easy to care for, versatile to use in food and drink and even dried as drawer sachets or put in the bath?

[sandman]

See? THIS is why you should smoke. I stand out on my balcony of an evening and just scuff my leg against the rosemary bush. Instant aromatherapy.

[Belgian Pie]

Make tea, infuse in oil ...

[Dragonbones]

I clip half a dozen 6" sprigs of rosemary once a week and surround the water dispenser with them. Sox, one of our cats, likes to get on the dispenser and steal its lid, but he hates the rosemary, so this deters him.

[Tempo Gain]

It helps make a pretty nice pasta sauce. Goes well with chicken or pork. Fry a few sprigs in the oil with the garlic onions etc before you fry the meat. Just pull the bare stems out before you serve it.

Stuff lasts forever. I bought 2 small pots a few years ago and haven't come close to running out. Very forgiving plant

My oregano is going good and is very useful.

[Petrichor]

I just bought a big pot of rosemary because it was gorgeous, smelled great, easy to care for, and cheap at $150. As I'm going home, I'm thinking all these great things I can do with it. I can bake it with some chicken and potatoes. Thing is, I bake 1-2 times a month. I could do some chicken breasts and occasionally maybe bake some potatoes with rosemary, but what else is there to do with it?

I am thinking of dried rosemary sachets for the closet, but do I want my clothes to smell like what I associate baked chicken with?

What do you suggest?

I'm going to go pick up their beautiful mint plant for tomorrow, and maybe basil too. But the basil is bigger, I don't think my little balcony would fit. What other herb plants are easy to care for, versatile to use in food and drink and even dried as drawer sachets or put in the bath?

Oregano meets most of those criteria, except the last two, unless you want to end up smelling like pizza. Thyme, too, especially lemon thyme if you can get it. Lavender, again, if you can get it, is very easy to care for and the flowers make great sachets. You can even use it to flavour biscuits and ice-cream but personally I think it tastes like perfume.

[914]

I'm thinking maybe of pureeing some mint leaves and putting them in my shampoo bottle for that cool clean feeling. Actually that doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

I read some people use the rosemary branches as shish kebab sticks to grill chicken and shrimp, just leave a few leaves on at the bottom.

[Dragonbones]

I'm thinking maybe of pureeing some mint leaves and putting them in my shampoo bottle for that cool clean feeling. Actually that doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

I read some people use the rosemary branches as shish kebab sticks to grill chicken and shrimp, just leave a few leaves on at the bottom.

The branches (at least on my potted plant) aren't stiff enough and lack a sharp point, so it would be hard to poke them through the meat like a real skewer, IMO.

[914]

Same as my plant. I wonder if maybe the skewer branches are of a different type of rosemary plant.

What do you use to repel insects from the plants? Mine are on the balcony with our laundry and I've seen some little bugs already, I don't want the bugs to get on our clothes. Is there a good natural home-made plant bug repellent?

[Dragonbones]

Same as my plant. I wonder if maybe the skewer branches are of a different type of rosemary plant.

Maybe an older plant?

What do you use to repel insects from the plants?

Rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano don't seem to need any help. It's the mild leafy green ones (lettuce, cabbage, spinach etc.) and broccoli and brussel sprouts that get attacked by the egg-laying butterflies and the resultant voracious caterpillars. My whole reason for planting my own is to avoid toxic, carcinogenic chemicals on my food, so I've started making baskets of plastic mesh to invert atop each pot, to keep the butterflies away.