AT this time of year, the early-morning dog walk around the garden is slower than usual. Every few steps, I stop to rub the aromatic leaves of summer.
My wife says I’m already thinking about lunch before eating breakfast and she may have a point. I blame the dog: if I didn’t have to walk him, I’d not be stopping to enjoy the height of the herb season.
Among more familiar soft leaves —basil, coriander—and woodier perennials such as thyme and rosemary, I grow a swathe of less common herbs that are peaking now, each chosen for looks and scents as good as their flavours.Despite its position far from the garden gate, anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is the one that usually draws my eye at this time of year. Its purple bottle brush flowers sit 28in or so above the soil, catching the breeze as well as the eye and keeping the bees happy through summer. The leaves are an elegant impersonation of mint and nettle, in a cool shade of steely green, with a scent and flavour that’s a fresh, sweet blend of mint and aniseed.
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