During the Winter I made a herb stand from bits of wood left over from another project. The herbs had been clustered in pots in a corner of the patio but I thought something more functional right by the house would be a good idea.
When I looked at flower stands for sale they frequently had what I considered was a fundamental design fault. This was that the shelving overlapped one another too much. The problem with this is that when you water the plants the surplus water will drip onto the plants below. This is especially problematic for herbs, at least of Mediterranean origin (that is most of the ones we use), as they do not like being over watered or having their leaves splashed. Making my own stand for herbs avoided this issue.
The herbs we use most are fairly bog standard but using fresh herbs where you can does make a difference in the kitchen. In the picture there is sage (including a fancy tricolor variety), thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary and lemon verbena. The latter is used to add extra lemon flavour cakes.
Even if not used for cooking, rubbing your fingers along them to capture their scent is satisfying enough in itself. Lemon verbena is my favourite for this.
