DrLith wrote:
wrote:
I know virtually nothing about gardening. However, I would like to grow
small amounts of chives, basic, dill, rosemary etc.
Herbs are pretty easy to care for and will generally tolerate a lot of
neglect. If your business trips are a week or less, you may not need to
mess with an automatic waterer if you set up a system where your pots
can be sitting in a tray with some extra water, moved to the coolest,
shadiest part of your balcony while you're gone.
The good thing about most herbs is they are weeds in their
native areas. Get types that do well in your zone number
and they will do great with little care.
What I've done - Look up my location on a USDA zone chart
so I know what to look for. Go to a local large nursery
and shop through their pre-sprouted herbs. Look at the
zones listed and pick the types with your zone on the
center of the range. If you're in zone 7, pick the one
that says zones 6-8 on the write-up over the one that
says zones 5-7.
What you'll end up with is a few herbs that will grow
like crazy in your location. Maybe it will be the ones
you listed above, maybe a different list. Roll with the
punches and figure out how to use the ones you get.
We're now in Chicago and my balcony herb garden has
basil and thyme that I already knew how to use and
sorel and lovage that I had to look up in books to even
figure out what they were. The rosemary, it makes a
few leaves, but it broke my rule of picking the center
of the range. So far I've learned that sorrel and
lovage are good in omlettes and as a small addition to
salads.
Rosemary is a "tender perennial," some varieties are hardy (will survive
outside in the winter) to zone 7 US. If you routinely get winter
temperatures below 10 degrees F, you'll have to get a new one each year
(and as it is slow growing, it's probably not worth it).
Chuckle. This reminds me of when we lived in southern
California. There they plant rosemary on the slopes
near freeways. The stuff gets so lush it seems like it
eats any car that gets a flat and strays off the pavement.