GARDEN : Taylor-Made Herbs

BUY AN HERB in any Southern California nursery and it will probably have a Taylor’s Herb Garden label. The Taylor family has been raising and selling herbs for nearly 40 years, first in Rosemead and now in Vista, where their garden is open to the public.

The Taylors live and work on the 25-acre property, which houses their home, a gracious lawn and pond, a 2-acre demonstration garden of exuberantly healthy plants, an ivy house (greenhouse) and a sales office. It is one of the few retail nurseries in the area (maybe the only one) to stock 130 varieties of herbs, including rose and peppermint geraniums, coconut thyme, apple and orange mint, an assortment of lavenders--even gopher purge, which is supposed to keep gophers at bay.

Like lemon? Try lemon thyme, lemon geranium, lemon grass, lemon verbena and lemon balm. Prefer pineapple? You can grow it in the form of pineapple mint or beautiful variegated pineapple sage. On the first Saturday of every month, Taylor’s hosts an herb walk, and it plans to begin in July seminars on such herb-related activities as cooking, potpourri, gopher control and organic gardening. Heirloom Garden Seeds are sold for 90 cents per package; herbs in 2 3/4-inch pots cost $1.35 each (or you can write to get the Taylor’s catalogue, for $1).

Taylor’s Herb Garden Inc., 1535 Lone Oak Road, Vista, Calif., 92084; (619) 727-3485.