Growing Fresh Herbs
The nicest thing about having an herb garden is that it combines two of my favorite activities, gardening and cooking. The second nicest thing is that most of these plants are pretty self-reliant as long as they’re planted in an area that meets their basic needs.
Here in the Northeast some of the most valuable culinary herbs, like rosemary, ginger, and lemongrass simply cannot survive the winter in the ground. I have all three in pots and will bring them in and put them under grow lights until the danger of frost is past. Others, such as French tarragon, lavender, thyme, oregano, sage, mint, and chives are perennials which die back in the Winter and reappear in Spring. Still others, like dill and Summer savory generally will re-seed themselves, providing a new crop each year.
Italian or “flat-leaved” parsley is biennial, meaning that the plants will blossom and set seed in their second year of growth. Since it may be difficult to get parsley seed to germinate, the easiest way to make sure of having a contiuous source is to let it re-seed itself on it’s own area of your garden. If you want to grow fresh herbs indoors for use over the Winter, try pouring boiling water onto your freshly sown parsley seeds.
Some herbs, especially oregano and the various plants of the mint family can be quite invasive, so it’s best not to try to grow them in your vegetable or flower garden unless you plant them in pots first, then bury the pots so that they are contained. Obviously, you also want to keep them from setting seeds all over the place in this circumstance as well. It is generally good practice when growing fresh herbs to pinch or cut the plants back several times during the season in order to make the plants bushier and to keep them from flowering. Once flowers appear, the leaves generally become bitter and unfit for culinary use. Of course, if you wish to collect seeds or allow the plants to re-seed where they are growing, you must let at least a few develop flowers.
You can make a fancy formal herb garden or just put in a few plants here and there. Your choices may be partly dictated by the amount of space and appropriate light levels that you have available. Good drainage is particularly important in growing herbs such as lavender, thyme, and sage. In the Northeast they do well in full sun, but may need some shade in hotter areas of the country. It is not true that herbs require poor soil, only that they are pretty tough customers and can survive where other plants would shrivel up and die! Since sunlight is at a premium in my mostly shady yard, I tried planting many of my herbs in a strip by the side of the driveway and, as I was short on time, as usual, did not amend the soil. Amazingly I now have lavender, thyme, French tarragon, flat-leaved parsley, chives, lemon and cinnamon basils, and peppermint not only growing, but apparently thriving in that spot. I had previously had the peppermint on the other side of the yard in a wildflower garden which borders a wooded area. It was dying off over there, so I took one of the two remaining plants and put it by the driveway. The resulting mint patch is definitely intent on conquering the entire neighborhood, while the peppermint left in the original location has completely died away. The spearmint, however, has continued to come up in the wild-flower garden though it hasn’t spread very much.
Growing fresh herbs indoors can present special problems, but once you get used to using fresh herbs in your cooking, I’m sure you’ll find it well worth your while. Unless you have an insulated sun porch or a room that receives a great deal of sunlight, you’ll probably have to invest in some grow lights or full-spectrum fluorescent lights. You will also need to keep a close watch on your plants in order to detect the first signs of insect pests and or mildew. (Plants that have been outside need to be closely inspected for both of these and treated, if necessary, before they are allowed across the threshold!) You can find organic treatments for these problems at Gardens Alive , Worm’s Way and other garden supply stores.
Beware of over-watering! You don’t want your herbs to die of thirst, of course, but I killed several rosemary plants by giving them too much water on the assumption that the drier indoor air made more watering necessary. Now I generally don’t water them more than once a week during the Winter. Keep an eye on the growing tips of the branches. If they seem to start drooping, get out the watering can, but let the soil in the top of the pot dry out between waterings. Other herbs, such as basil, will require more watering.
Here’s a link to a helpful site that will give you a great deal of useful tips for using your fresh herbs in your cooking:
herbs and spice online dictionary
It is worth noting that growing fresh herbs will also provide your with materials for hand-crafted gifts. Just think, you could grow rosemary in the shape of a miniature Christmas tree, decorate it and give it to that hard to buy for aunt. Or what about incorporating some aromatic sage into a dried flower wreath? After harvesting the seeds from my parsley last year, I was left with some rather nice looking dried flower heads that gave me the inspiration for an easy arrangement. I bought an inexpensive floor vase and arranged the parsley blooms with some dried Pampas grass that I picked at the side of the road, and a few peacock feathers for some color. It looked great until the new kitten started climbing into it (but that’s another story!)