That's the amount of sunlight I get on the Eastern side of my house. Some of the perennial herbs I grow there are sweet woodruff, monkshood, chives, wintergreen, betony, sweet cicely, lemon balm, sweet violet,

t-bird - just be aware that monkshood is extremely poisonous. If you are looking for herbs you can make use of herbalbetty's other recommendations would work. Also parsley and mint(with some sort of root restriction), lovage, angelica, sorrel and borage.

Yes - this is to the east of my house as well! It is on the north side of the stairs out, so do want some taller ones in the back so they will still get sun when slants over in late fall/winter.

I need to get some lovage - I will put that in the back row there. The stairs max height is about 4'....

question through - does lovage die down completely each year and start from scratch like asparagus? It may take too long for it to get sun in the spring/summer....

Lovage will reach 5 - 6 feet and yes, it does die down in the winter. But it grows up pretty fast in the spring.

I grow lovage and I live in Western NY State that has winter conditions and a growing season similar to Chicago. My lovage sprouts up just fine every spring. If the plant is happy where it is, the mature plants will easily reach 4 to 5 feet in height.

I have wild ginger in the "woodland" garden on the east side of my house where it only gets early morning sun. A big old crabapple tree there provides the shade and copious leaf litter to do a fare approximation of a woodland. I have bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit, solomons seal, goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh, twinleaf, trout lily, white baneberry, and more in that garden. While many/most plants I mentioned are native medicinal plants, they are not intended for culinary use - with the exception of wild ginger that I mentioned first. That can be eaten as well as used medicinally. While they are beauties, just take care if you mix any medicinal herbs in with your culinary ones.

FataMorgana

Thanks FataM - I will likely stick with culinary herbs and some flowers to add a bit of sparkle to the area......maybe some attractive greens....This is an odd little area, and hard to figure out what to do with.

This will be an off shoot of the main herbal garden which will be L shaped around a new hardscape area where the table and grill will be:

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not sure if this helps at all, but x are existing sidewalks.

The small herbal area for this is about 2x5-6 feet, with the back area s exposure is blocked by the stairs up to about 4' so was thinking lovage may work....and I need decending height.....

Maybe lovage in the back....then sage? towards the bottom, many choices.

What are the tallest of the culinary herbs? annual would be ok too, but would like about 50% perennials....how would winter savory fit into this.....off to check packet info!

nothing on the packet!

Wickipedia says winter savory can get to 7.5 feet! maybe this would go behind the lovage!

also - as a subshrub - thinking it would retain it's branching, thus being high enough to get sun over a longer period of time than lovage which would need to grow 4 feet or wait for the angle of the sun to not be blocked by the stairs.....I'm thinking this happens in may.....not sure, will check this year!

so - right now I'm thinking winter savory - lovage - sage down in the row....so likely 6-7' 5-6' 3' and at the bottom around the sage put some chives and maybe plant some nasturtiums....

so - green with white flowers - bright green leaves - grey green with lavender flowers, then the chives - will put 1-2 clumps each of regular and garlic chives about so the white and purple flowers are echoed.....

Simple - not a lot of splash - but attractive and serviceable. Thinking no on the nasturtiums now - I like this simple color scheme here....

Any problems I'm not seeing?

Thanks!!!

If I understand aright this bed is going to be 2 feet wide and bordered by the stairs one side and a path the other? I am afraid that I don't think 2 feet is wide enough for any but the smallest herbs. Lovage plant would spread out over your path very soon. Any sage planted alongside would get lost and not have sufficient light. 2 feet is really too narrow for anything other things like chives or parsley. Or have I misunderstood? Can you upload a picture of the area? BTW don't worry so much about the sun getting to the Lovage. It can cope with slight shade.

good points - i am hopeless with images I'm afraid....

Just measured the area - from the steps to the sidewalk, it is 31 inches, and the length is about 5.5-5.75 feet. BUT - the area underneath the stairs is dirt, and at the house level is an enclosed mud room of about 6x6 that there is no basement there and so is dirt below, so the roots of the plants have much more space available to them, especially the one place against the house. Above the stairs is open space, then a simple handrail, so the herbs can bush out a few inches there, and a few inches into the path, and that would allow for a 3' spread.

Is that enough? I assume I can cut back on these a bit if they overreach?

I will try to get one of the kids to help me with the image situation...

Thyme and oregano could sprawl all over that area.

The smaller basils would make a nice edging.

You would really be suprised at what will grow even if it's not in the sun.
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