"R Braun" wrote in message
...
Hello, all.

I am a [very] novice gardener, and now that the weather is turning colder
I have some basic questions regarding the herbs I've planted outside.
(Everything else in my garden is a native species and I'm not as worried
about those.)

I'd like to know whether they'll survive the winter; and, if they will,
what I need to do to protect them and how far back I can cut them.
I'd like to harvest and freeze as much as I can without killing the
plants if they have a chance of coming back, but I wasn't able to
garner that infromation from the faq....

The herbs in question are sage, parsley, chives, and thyme.
I live in Urbana, Illinois (zone 5).

Thanks for the help!
Cheers,
Rosemary

All of those will survive your normal winter. However, the parsley is a
biennial plant, and it will die back in winter and re-grow in the spring,
produce seeds and then die. You can let the chives freeze up solid outside,
dig a chunk up and bring inside and stuff into a clay pot. They will produce
chives for you all winter...then just re-plant outside next Spring! The Sage
and Thyme are very hardy and can survive outside quite well.

Regards,
Bill