BASIL: Sweet, spicy and heat-loving, basil is an absolute necessity in every Southern herb garden. Although varieties such as sweet, Italian and Genovese have the fullest, brightest flavor, purple and tiny-leaved varieties add interest in the garden and the salad. The king of all basil dishes is pesto, a paste made from fresh basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. But the leaves are also excellent with tomatoes. Try a quick sauté of fresh corn, cherry tomatoes and basil. Or for a pretty Italian-style composed salad, overlap tomato and fresh mozzarella slices, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with coarsely chopped basil leaves, salt and pepper.

PLANTING TIP: This annual loves the sun, but it needs to be watered regularly, especially when planted in pots. Start from seed in containers in the early spring, or buy young plants. Frequent pinching back encourages more growth.

BRONZE FENNEL: With feathery, bronze-tinged leaves and beautiful yellow blooms, it's worth growing just for its looks. But it also has a wonderful licorice taste that enhances sauces and salads, especially with tomato. Although a close relative of the bulb fennel, it is not the same variety. Add it by the handful to soup and sauce pots; sprinkle it on fruit salads.

PLANTING TIP: This perennial grows up to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, so give it lots of room in the back of a border.

CHIVES: Its cousin growing in your lawn, the wild onion, is proof that this herb is a natural for Georgia gardens. Long, flavorful stalks are topped with delicately flavored white blossoms. Not only are the chopped stalks great with sour cream on your baked potato, but they're also tasty in cream cheese spreads and with scrambled eggs. Use the blossoms as a garnish on vegetable dishes.

PLANTING TIP: Cut this perennial back to the ground two or three times during the summer to ensure tender leaves.

CILANTRO: Also called coriander, it's a bit delicate to survive an entire Georgia summer, but its flavor is so intriguing and multiculturally popular, it's worth growing for even a short season. The flat, fringed leaves have a tangy citrus taste that goes particularly well with lemon, lime, onion, garlic and hot peppers -- hence its popularity in Tex-Mex, Mexican and Asian cooking.

PLANTING TIP: In the hot sun, this pale green, delicate plant tends to go to seed quickly, turning leggy and tough. Try sowing additional seeds every two to three weeks to keep your supply coming.

DILL: Cultivated for thousands of years, it's been used for everything from curing hiccups and aiding digestion to warding off witches. Its feathery leaves, more subtle in flavor than the seeds, make a refreshing addition to sour cream- or mayonnaise-based dressings.

PLANTING TIP: Slightly more heat-tolerant than cilantro, dill also has mixed results in Georgia summer gardens, but it does fine in the spring and fall and can be resown throughout the summer.

FRENCH TARRAGON: The distinctive flavor of this delicate herb has typecast it into a narrow range of roles: vinegar flavoring, salad dressing. But it enhances many meats, ranging from fish to pork, beautifully. Try grilling salmon or pork wrapped in sprigs of tarragon.

PLANTING TIP: This perennial does not propagate by seed. It prefers light, well-drained soil and lots of sun.

LAVENDER: It's a little too humid in these parts for it to be truly perennial, says Dell Ratcliffe, but the loving gardener can give lavender a satisfying, productive life for at least a few years. Hybrids, such as Provence, are more humidity-tolerant than their heirloom predecessors. Lavender's used more often as a scent than a food, but the flowers and leaves can add a tantalizing taste to tea cakes and custards that hovers somewhere between aroma and flavor. Use sprigs of flowering lavender to make tea or jelly or to flavor white wine vinegar for salad dressings.

PLANTING TIP: Lavender needs sun and light soil with good drainage. In the clay-heavy South, this means that the soil must be treated with sand, or the plants must be planted in pots.

MINT: No herb garden could be considered complete without at least a peppermint and a spearmint. But with more than 600 kinds of mint to choose from, why stop there? Other varieties are tinged with the taste of chocolate, ginger, apple, even pineapple. Spearmint, which has a sweet taste, is used most often in cooking. Common spearmint names include Kentucky Colonel, English and Mint-the-Best. Mint refreshes everything from salads to lamb to fruits, ice cream and, of course, chocolate.

PLANTING TIP: Watch out -- it can overtake your garden. Unless you want a lawn of mint, plant these persistent perennials in pots.

OREGANO: This Mediterranean perennial loves heat and humidity. Look for two main types: the sweeter, more versatile Italian and the more pungent Greek. Greek oregano is the more common dried herb, used in dressings and sauces. But either may be used fresh to flavor just about anything savory: meats, vegetables, sauces, salads.

PLANTING TIP: In well-drained soil, oregano will come back year after year, with little need for special attention.

PARSLEY: Though actually a biennial, it's best grown here as an annual. Beware: It can fade in the hottest months. Although hardier curly parsley has a less refined flavor than the culinarily preferred flat-leaf, or Italian, parsley, either adds a subtle celery flavor to soups, stocks, vegetables, fish and fowl.

PLANTING TIP: Sow in early spring in moist, rich soil. Pinch back flower stems to keep the plant leafy.

ROSEMARY: The distinctive, pungent-spicy-piney flavor of the leaves ought to convince anyone with at least a patio to grow this plant. Use to flavor breads, roasted potatoes, chicken and any red meat. It can easily overpower foods, so use sparingly. New for this season is a variety called barbecue rosemary. Its stems grow upright, perfect for use as skewers for shish kebabs.

PLANTING TIP: Stick this perennial in the ground or a large pot and step out of its way. It grows 4 to 6 feet high and just as wide.

SAGE: Besides being the distinctive flavoring agent in pork sausage, it's actually a beautiful evergreen addition to herb gardens and adds an interesting dimension to many dishes, such as fava beans, pasta, sautéed fennel bulb or squash.

PLANTING TIP: Sage likes a well-drained, sunny spot. Plant young plants in the spring; give them a light pruning after they flower or in subsequent springs.

WINTER SAVORY, SUMMER SAVORY: Has a taste somewhere between marjoram and thyme, a delicate appearance and tiny flowers. Good mixed with other chopped fresh herbs as a summer seasoning. Called the "bean herb," savory goes well with legumes.

PLANTING TIP: Summer savory is an annual; it grows in any soil but prefers good drainage, so work organic material into clay-heavy soil or grow in raised beds. Sow seeds in spring.

SWEET MARJORAM: Delicate, peppery and sweet all at once, this heavenly herb is also a favorite of bees and butterflies. Close cousin of oregano. Once you start tossing it onto pasta dishes, stews and salads, you'll never know how you lived without it.

PLANTING TIP: Prefers rich, well-drained soil and full sun. It is grown as an annual.

THYME: Although this perennial will survive only a few humid Georgia summers, it is an excellent choice for an herb garden. Its tiny gray leaves enhance meat and egg dishes and aid in the digestion of oily foods such as pork, goose and fatty fish. Also goes well with lentils, carrots and parsnips. Lemon thyme is great with fish.

PLANTING TIP: Purchase upright culinary varieties -- as opposed to those used as ground cover. Plan to replace every few years, as the plants can get straggly and threadbare.

Sources: Dell Ratcliffe; "Growing Herbs" by Richard Bird (Lorenz Books, 2003, $14.99); Richters Herb Specialists (www.richters.com); www.epicurious.com