Except for the herbs that all old-fashioned gardens grow for sentiment because they once yielded simples, the herb gardener of today specializes in the herbs with fragrant foliage or those which contain the ingredients that no chemist has ever yet imitated-mostly essential oils. It is these that everyone wants to grow, store, and use in a variety of recipes that mark the users of them as among the gastronomically elect.

As to the fragrance that comes from foliage, it is much more available and plentiful than flower fragrance,* and hence more useful, but it never approaches the ravishing odors of jasmine or tuberose. But, as we shall see later, these herbs with fragrant foliage are a boon to the housewife, for their odor may last for years.

One beauty of an herb garden is that it can be grown in a small space. Of some varieties you may need only a plant or two because their essence is too strong to be used in any but minute quantities. The average suburban garden will often have all the space one needs for a fairly good showing of herbs, and one must not think he is "sacrificing" space for herbs, because some of them have quite striking flowers. Foliage, roots, and seeds, however, are the main harvest, for it is in these that nature manufactures the fragrant or spicy oils.

Nearly all the herbs need open sunshine, except where especially noted, and hence it is not wise to start an herb garden on the north side of a building or under trees. Some of the herbs, also especially noted, are tender anywhere north of New York, and for these a south-facing slope is the ideal site. If you have a cold frame or hotbed, these are useful for starting seeds of some tender annuals, but a box on the kitchen window-sill will do almost as well.

In the Middle Ages herb gardens were always enclosed. In selecting a site for a modern one, it is well to choose (or make) a partially enclosed area, even with a wall or thick hedge for its boundary.