What is Happening in the Herb Garden and Kitchens This Week?

By Barbara F. Smith

Reflections at the Season’s End

As the Gardening Crew of the Herb Associates brings the growing season’s work to a conclusion, a few tasks remain. As Elizabeth Leonard, the coordinator for the Herb Display Garden said, putting the garden to bed involves a combination of “cutting back, potting up and leaving be.” Now they are transferring the tender perennials to the solar greenhouse — lemongrass, scented geraniums, rosemary, bays, and lemon verbena. Thanks to the Herb Associates and the summer Master Gardener interns, the herb garden beds have been tended with care and attention, born of study and respect for growing plants and providing an opportunity for others to learn more about how these plants contribute to our lives.

The impetus for this series of articles has been to acquaint readers with the history, folklore and uses of many individual herbs planted in the BBG Display and Production Gardens and with the role of the Herb Associates in tending the gardens and making products from the bounty to support the Garden.  

Yet, recently, two non-gardener friends quizzed me about “what is a herb?” We managed to agree that they are plants, but after that, there was some divergence in understanding. Perhaps the simplest way to think of herbs is that, as a group or individually, they have a use other than (or in addition to being) ornamental.

Charlemagne (crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800) wrote that “herbs are the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks.” There you have two of the most famous uses for herbs – as medicine and as flavoring for food. But, of course, there are more — using herbs for fragrance, for dyeing, for crafts, for magic.  

As the growing season closes and the Garden Crew works to prepare the beds for winter, there’s a moment to reflect. This Display Herb Garden is beautiful. Although the focus of these articles has been the history, lore, and science of herbs, let us consider today how lovely and serene the herb garden is. 

To celebrate, find time to visit BBG and the Herb Display Garden in particular, to admire the beauty you will find. See the photos above, which capture several views of the herb beds in the autumn morning light.

This past week marked the Herb Associates’ last work session for the year. The last tea bags were filled, and many labels were added to the last products made (see photos, above), just in time for this past weekend’s Harvest Festival. The photo above shows the Herb Associates’ display in front of the Center House, with a wide selection of items ready for sale.

Based on our tally, over the course of the growing season in 2025, the Herb Associates made products in fourteen categories, from jellies and mustard to catnip mice, dried products and finishing salts. More than 1400 items were prepared, and this year, 45 new products were introduced!  This is a remarkable group of volunteers who, for many decades, have supported the Garden with their work. If you missed the Festival, remaining products will be available at the Gift Shop in the Visitor’s Center and at the BBG Holiday Marketplace, December 5-7.

It’s a wonderful story.  

Thank you for your interest in all things herbal and the work of the BBG Herb Associates.

The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Herb Associates began in 1957 and has been making and selling products for the benefit of BBG ever since. At BBG, the Herb Associates oversee a display garden and production garden, both located near the Center House. Members/volunteers meet every Tuesday morning during the late spring through mid-autumn each year, coinciding when the gardens themselves are open to the public. Members plant, weed and tend the gardens, as well as harvest and process the variety of herbs.