There are about three reasons why I do grow mixed Herbs in a pot. The first one is of course culinary. It is ever so handy to have such a pot in your Garden or Balcony. It feels just like a walk in the park to pick up your Herbs for your Dinner. Fresh, grown without pesticides: you do know what you are getting because you did give it your tender love and care. 

Aromatic Herbs in my pot: Basil, Mint and Rosemary.

The Herbs I do grow mainly are Mint, Basil, Rosemary, Sage and Parsley. I will say that I did start with the common type of each Herb but with time I started to expend the range: Mint, Spearmint, Chocolate Mint... Growing aromatic Herbs is a little fancifully addictive. It is like trying to gather what is the difference between normal Sage and Purple Sage? Is it taste or just colour?

Green Sage and Purple Sage in my Garden Pot.

There are great pairing culinary wise between Herbs and other Ingredients. The classic are well known: Pork and Sage; Lamb and Mint or and Rosemary; Pasta and Basil; Fish and Dill or Chive; and Parsley goes with almost everything. I must confess that growing Parsley was the hardest for me to do so. It took time to find the right spot for the Parsley to thrive.

Curly Parsley pot.

If growing Herbs is excellent for the Kitchen, I must also confess that visually there is the perks of the flowers coming along with them. Rosemary is giving lovely little flowers but my favourites are the ones coming from Chives which are edible. It makes them pretty tasty.

Chive Flowers. 

The second reason to grow Herbs is for their scent but also their power to attract pollinators to your Garden. This is extremelly useful if I may say so. For the scent, having a little evening stroll in a scented Garden is quite delightful. As for the Pollinators we always need them to have a good harvest later during the year. 

Drying my Lavender Flowers.

Apart from culinary uses of Herbs, there is also the simple one due to their lovely scent: Drying Herbs and Flowers to make Pot Pourri, scented Oil, Home made Soap, Home Made Candles... It can make you spend an afternoon where you believe for a minute that you are reviving ancient crafts, when your home has the scent of years gone by, of the drift of the dress of your grand mother, when you can almost hear the 'Go along Child, we need the Peas to be ready for dinner...'.

Flowering Rosemary in the Garden.

I will say this and a lot of people may contradict me with a grand expert knowledge of gardening know how to be better than anyone else: I do not behead my flowers, I usually let them be until they are starting to wilt by themselves. Being a tiny bit artistic I do like doing pressed flowers to decorate a letter or an artifact. One of the greatest heirloom I received during my life was an oval mirror, hand crafted with dried flowers all around it, the craft of Irene Wolf who was a member of the Royal Academy of Art.

Irene's Mirror. Dainty and dated, handcrafted with care and love.

The third reason to grow Herbs and edible Flowers can be for Animals... Coming back to Irene who loved her cats especially Titania, a Persian Blue cushion princess with a Shakespearian name but a Titania who lived in a flat as an indoor cat near Trafalgar Square, growing Herbs can be done for our pets. Cats do munch upon Cat Grass and Herbs which can work as a purgative for them. I do not have a graceful princess like Titania however I always had cats and to make sure they have Herbs, Cat Grass has always been a priority for me. 

The Cat Herbs Pot. All edible for Cats. It works like a supplement to their diet. You must research which Herbs as well as Cat Grass is suitable for Cats.

We decided to keep our Cats indoors because of a couple of accidents which happened to two of our cats. One was due to a car and was rather dramatic because our Pepsidou became a tripod cat. She lived for three more years quite happily. As for Tang-Tang, she managed to find the only snake in Watford! She sustained a very nasty bite from it. Even the Vet showing us the X-Ray of her paw told us that she was a lucky cat because the snake she dealt with wasn't a British snake but more likely a pet snake which became too big for its owner to keep or handle hence the owner released the snake into the wild and our Tang found it to her sorrow, but it could have been worst according to the vet. She could have been a swallowed Tang instead of one with a bloody nasty bite on her paw...

Tang-Tang and her Cat Grass.

I must say that growing Cat Grass makes the outdoors go indoors in some way. The big plus is also to keep the cats happy in a safe way. So, as much as there is Herbs to be had for Humans, there is some to be consumed for our furry friends.

A happy indoor Cat Tang.

On a last note I will say this, when you do grow Herbs, you can use them whenever of course, but it is always wise to leave some to mature to be planted for the following year... 

Cat Grass Seeds.