Herbs

[Isis]

Through trial and error, I have been attempting to grow herbs the last couple of years - some indoor and some outdoor with varying success. Any advice on growing herbs would be appreciated.

E.g. can anyone give me some advice on these queries:

• When herbs such as basil and coriander flower the plant seems to die (on me anyway) fairly quickly after that - Can I remove flowers or do anything to stop this happening?
• I have only got basil to grow successfully indoors as it seems to burn easily outdoors once it gets going. Has anyone got it to grow outdoors up here? The flavour in outdoor grown herbs is far more intense I think.

Also, are there any herbs which grow particularly well here? I can get Parsley to grow OK, mint of course is fine and the most surprising one for me was fennel herb which grew really well. Sage seemed happy enough and didn't die on me, but I've never got it to grow much which is disappointing.

[Rheghead]

Rosemary really flourishes up here. Mint does OK. Lemon Balm does OK but can I use it in cooking???

[stratman]

When herbs such as basil and coriander flower the plant seems to die (on me anyway) fairly quickly after that - Can I remove flowers or do anything to stop this happening?

Coriander: There are different varieties, some are best for leaf and others best for seed and they all seem to die when they are producing their seed. their life can be prolonged for more leaf if buds are pinched out. No idea about basil though.

[Isis]

Rosemary really flourishes up here. Mint does OK. Lemon Balm does OK but can I use it in cooking???

You can use it for ice cream in the same way that you can use mint, lemon thyme or orange scented thyme.

Any custard based ice cream recipe will be OK. Just place a bunch of the herbs to infuse in the cream and milk for a while first and then drain them when it comes to incorporating it with the egg & sugar mixture.

Then treat it like any ice cream either in a maker or by mixing every so often during freezing.