I love to cook and use fresh herbs. Herbs at the grocery store are too expensive and often of poor quality. Herbs at the Farmers' Market are also usually too expensive (IMO). I'm thinking about planting a few herbs myself and would love some advice. I don't have a lot of time to devote to gardening, though.

Here are the herbs I would definitely like to grow:

Sweet basil
Italian parsley
Rosemary
Thyme

Herbs that would also be nice:

Oregano
Chives
Cilantro

I welcome advice about how to best go about this. Would this be best right in the ground or in some sort of planter? What kind of sun? Soil preparation? etc. etc...



Thanks in advance?

Herbs are very easy to grow, especially the ones that you listed. I am not an expert, but had some success last year growing herbs in pots and in a raised planter.
In large pots I combined several herbs. I had flat leafed Italian parsley and dill in a pot that hosted lots of caterpillars. I even stuck parsley in lots of my combination pots along with ornamental flowers. Parsley is easy to start from seed.
In a raised planter I had Borage, thyme, and basil.
I have a pot of rosemary that I have kept in the garage during 2 winters. In the spring, I bring it out and it continues to flourish.
Herbs need lots of sun and don't require a alot of water. They do well in poor soil.
To learn more, here is a web site for a herb magazine out of Topeka.
www.herbcompanion.com
They have quite a bit of information on their web site.
Good luck. Herbs are fun and easy.

Thank you, both, for the information. I think I'm going to use the pots/raised planter methods because I know that the soil in my backyard is riddled with grubs. The middle of my backyard gets LOTS of sun, so that will probably be the best spot.

There are lots of rabbits in my neighborhood. How much do they bother herbs?

Thanks again.

I am overrun with bunnies in my yard. Even with two dogs they love my yard. I think it's because I feed the birds. I see them under the feeders at night. The rabbits are bad about eating my flowers. I have to say that I never experienced any problem with rabbits eating the herbs. Maybe it's because I used pots and raised beds. If you elevated your pots, I'm sure you won't have problems with the rabbits. The squirrels are a different story. They love to eat the tomatoes and dig up everything. What I have eating my herbs is caterpillars. But I prefer to share with them as apposed to killing them. They are, after all, going to turn into butterflies. I just plant enough for them and us. The kids in the neighborhood are always facinated when I point the caterpillars out to them.
I recommended borage in a previous post. That attracts bees. If you don't want the bees, I wouldn't plant that. I personally love the bees.

Walgreen's has a coupon in their sale ad for seed packets. 10 cents each! Can't beat that!`I bet you will find some herb seeds there.