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#1
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herb garden
My husband's veggie garden has done so well this year that I
plan to encourage him to keep it going every year. This leaves me with a small square near the patio where I used to grow a few tomatoes. I think I would like to try to grow some herbs there. What advice do you have? I would like perennials or self seeders that love sun and are easy to care for. Which ones to plant and when? Thanks |
#2
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herb garden
Hi Sandie,
We have a small herb garden which has done very well with very little effort on my part. My favorites include: Chives. I prefer the onion flavored chives (Allium schoenoprasium) over garlic. Here is a little article on chives http://www.tripleoaks.com/articles/chives.html. Sunday breakfast, eggs w/ fresh chives. Yum. Rosemary. There are many different varieties. I wish I knew which variety I have b/c it is incredibly hardy. We had centerpieces made of herbs at our wedding reception (with an invitation for guests to bring the plants home), and the rosemary in our garden is from one of the centerpieces. Rosemary however will get quite large and take up a lot of room in the garden. I love that it is evergreen and creates year round beauty, as well as providing a culinary herb. This is the herb I use the least in cooking b/c of the strong flavor and woody nature. Greek Oregano Also a hardy perennial, which will spread rapidly. 3 years ago I planted one tiny little plant in a 3 inch pot from the farmer's market. The oregano now covers around 3 square feet. But we love pizza, and we love oregano on our pizza. Sweet Basil Okay, this is an annual, but it's worth it to buy a small cheap pot of it at a nursery or farmer's market (I've tried to grow it from seed, but find it takes too much effort. I'd rather spend $2 on a 3 inch pot ready to go). The plants grow quickly and easily in the summer. You must plant it after the last frost. Basil does not like a lot of water, mine did really well last year in the drought, but got off to a slow start this year due to all the rain. Still, my basil is now quite large. I always make huge batches of pesto, pour the pesto into ice cube trays, and freeze my pesto cubes to use year round. Homemade pesto is so easy to make, and so darn good--it is worth it to plant this annual. It is said, by gardening gurus, that planting basil near tomatoes can actually improve the flavor of the tomato. Parsley A bi-annual. I find curled parsley easier to grow than flat leaf. I don't use parsley that often in cooking. I like having a small amount of it in my garden for certain recipes. I'd rather snip a little parsley from my garden that buy a huge bunch of it in the grocery store that will go to waste (well to compost..not really waste). Thyme Super easy to grow. Fairly rapid spreader. Great addition to so many dishes. Evergreen, but will winter over a bit. Mint Vigorous grower, some people stay away from it b/c it can take over your garden.. You could plant it in a container, and keep the container near your other herbs, or even bury the container in the ground. I don't contain my mint, and some day I may regret this decision, but after 3 years, it really hasn't taken too much space. I love using mint in ice tea, mint juleps, and as a surprise flavor in spaghetti sauce. I like Spearmint. Except for the basil, all of the above herbs could really be planted at any time, you would just have to baby them a little to keep them going if you planted them now. I would guess the optimal time to plant would be early spring, which is also when you would have the best selection of herbs at farmer's markets or nurseries, after a year, they should be able to manage by themselves (mine do). Basil is the only one of the above herbs that you absolutely have to plant at a certain time: after the last frost. I usually wait until the first week of May to plant mine. I went to Big Bloomer's this May and they had a great selection of cheap herbs, much better prices than the farmer's markets or nurseries, or the local home improv. stores. Happy gardening and cooking! Heidi Sandie Hudson wrote: My husband's veggie garden has done so well this year that I plan to encourage him to keep it going every year. This leaves me with a small square near the patio where I used to grow a few tomatoes. I think I would like to try to grow some herbs there. What advice do you have? I would like perennials or self seeders that love sun and are easy to care for. Which ones to plant and when? Thanks |
#3
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herb garden
We put in a bunch of herbs last year, and nearly all of them made it
through the winter with flying colors. The pineapple sage was gorgeous when it bloomed in late summer - big showy red flower spikes on top of 2-3 foot stalks. MAC |
#4
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herb garden
In article , Heidi wrote:
-=-=-=-=-=- Sweet Basil Okay, this is an annual, but it's worth it to buy a small cheap pot of it at a nursery or farmer's market (I've tried to grow it from seed, but find it takes too much effort. I'd rather spend $2 on a 3 inch pot ready to go). The plants grow quickly and easily in the summer. You must plant it after the last frost. Basil does not like a lot of water, mine did really well last year in the drought, but got off to a slow start this year due to all the rain. Still, my basil is now quite large. I always make huge batches of pesto, pour the pesto into ice cube trays, and freeze my pesto cubes to use year round. Homemade pesto is so easy to make, and so darn good--it is worth it to plant this annual. It is said, by gardening gurus, that planting basil near tomatoes can actually improve the flavor of the tomato. If you let basil go to seed it will come back year after year (as I found out this year when I had sweet basil, Thai basil and lemon basil volunteers). I also had cilantro volunteers and some dill volunteers. Cheers KJ -- --- NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham August 6-10, 2003 | www.carolinatheatre.org/ncglff http://www.ibiblio.org/kelly -=*= kelly @ unc.edu |
#5
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herb garden
Sandie,
I could not tell from your post whether you were talking about herbs in containers or in the ground? The reason I ask is because I had very poor results when I tried growing chives in a window box and rosemary & sage in pots, but the plants absolutely thrived when I "liberated" them by transplanting them in my veggie garden. Truthfully, if I had known how well they'd do out there, I would have been more careful about the location & spacing. Also, it's not a perennial, but you just gotta grow basil! (However, if you want to actually *cook* with it, don't bother with the small-leafed "ornamental" basil -- the plant was beautifully rounded, and it tasted like basil, but life is too short to deal with the teeny leaves!) As for growing basil from seed, in the past I had a pack of seeds that I never got around to starting inside; the directions said the seed could be put directly into the garden. I figured I had nothing much to lose by doing that -- to my amazement, those plants not only caught up to the basil planted as seedlings, they were actually *bigger*! Another poster mentioned letting basil go to seed; if I ever figure out where I'd like some to come up, I'll refrain from dead-heading one plant and see what happens. I've pretty much given up on growing parsley, as I have lots of swallowtail butterflies around, and their caterpillars can be voracious when it comes to parsley. (Some people plant parsley strictly for the caterpillars; last time I tried planting several parsley plants in different locations, but the voles killed the plants in less than 24 hours!) Anne Lurie NE Raleigh "Sandie Hudson" wrote in message .com... My husband's veggie garden has done so well this year that I plan to encourage him to keep it going every year. This leaves me with a small square near the patio where I used to grow a few tomatoes. I think I would like to try to grow some herbs there. What advice do you have? I would like perennials or self seeders that love sun and are easy to care for. Which ones to plant and when? Thanks |
#6
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herb garden
"Anne Lurie" wrote in message .com... I could not tell from your post whether you were talking about herbs in containers or in the ground? ground |
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