The Flavored Chervil and Chives

Chervil is a bright green herb, used to enhance the cooking and the salads with its flavor. One doesn’t have problem in growing it. It will take care of itself if left in a wet spot with humus and little sun. It will provide a good harvest of leaves every spring. It maintains its green color even after drying and thus can be used both fresh and dried in soups and salads for enhancing flavors.

Not only the leaves but the purple flowers of chives, whose botanical name is Allium schoenoprasum, are useful to us. The flowers help produce delicious vinegar.

It is discovered that there are two different but similar kinds of purple chives. They are different in size. One grows up to 15 cm in height with small heads of purple whereas the other is 30 cm tall with large flower head. The larger ones are found in whites too.

While tasting it is seen that the smaller chives are the tastiest but with the change of season the larger ones are the best in flavor. But of all the chives the Allium tuberosum i.e the garlic chives are the best in flavors.

Chives are grown easily but it likes a rich humid soil and a good amount of water. The clumps are needed to be divided in every three to four years and for harvesting it is suggested to cut only one third of it.

Catmint is a strong aromatic herb; it is unlike its relative catnip which is larger and attractive. Cats love Nepeta mussini i.e. catmint, it is adds to the beauty of the herb garden.

Catnip is a taller plant that is harvested for creating posts for the family cat to scratch and for the catnip mice. It gives relief from tension and pain when had as a tea. They grow easily and re-seed it on limestone soils.

The happiest of the herbs is Calendula officinalis i.e. Pot Marigold or Calendula. The flowers bloom with the sun and close with the sunset. The calendula is beneficial for the effects on arteries and veins.

Medicinally flowers are the strongest part of calendula. Its used both fresh and dried in salads, teas and soups. One is suggested to pull the green receptacle as it tastes bitter and can even irritation. Flowers are used in complexion creams and saves.

There are a great variety of different hybrids varying in colors. The seeds sown in springs often flower in late July.