I love cooking with fresh herbs, and I think they are well worth the effort it takes to grow them. Fresh herbs add so much to the flavor of cooking.
When selecting which culinary herbs you want to grow in your garden, consider what you commonly cook with. Look at the herbs in your kitchen cabinet and start off growing those types of herbs.
Herb overview
Herbs are a highly varied group of useful plants that includes both annuals and perennials. Annuals are plants that grow for a single season and then die; they are divided into cool-season annuals and warm-season annuals. Perennial herbs live for several or many years and may be herbaceous (mints, garlic chives, lemon grass) or woody (trees and shrubs like bay leaf, rosemary and lavender).
Annuals: Cool season
If you are currently growing herbs, you may have a variety of cool-season annual herbs in your garden. They can tolerate normal winter freezes, and transplants should be planted September through early February.
You may still plant cool-season annual herbs now (and I mean now) and expect to get acceptable harvests in May or early June. Excellent cool-season annual herbs include parsley, cilantro/coriander, chamomile, celery, dill, chicory, fennel, borage, arugula and chervil.
Annuals: Warm season
Warm-season annual herbs thrive in the summer and include basil (in all its myriad forms and flavors), sesame, summer savory and perilla. They can be seeded in pots in February (greenhouse or under lights) and transplanted into the garden after danger of frost is past. Purchased transplants should be planted from late March through early August.
Remember, cool-season and warm-season annual herbs last one season, die and are removed after producing their crop. They must be replanted year after year.
Perennial herbs
Some of the perennial herbs that we can grow here are mints, lemon verbena, lemon balm, rosemary, Mexican tarragon, burnet, sorrel, society garlic, catmint, garlic chives, oregano, monarda, catmint, anise hyssop, mountain mint, bay leaf, pineapple sage and rue.
Most of the perennial herbs are best planted from September through April using transplants available at local nurseries. Fall planting is generally best. This allows them to become established during the less stressful cool season. Mexican tarragon and lemon grass are not as cold hardy and should be planted from May through August.
Thyme, sage, catnip and lavender are perennial herbs that require excellent drainage to survive the summer. They tend to be short-lived and often succumb to root and stem rots in the hot, wet late-summer season. These herbs may be more successful when grown in containers and placed in a location that gets some shade in the afternoon during the summer.
Several perennial herbs have difficulty surviving our summers. These herbs are best grown here as cool-season annuals, and include French tarragon, feverfew and chamomile. These may be grown from fall to early summer — they quickly succumb when temperatures regularly hit the 90s. Plant these herbs in fall (October, November and early December) for best results.
General care
It’s generally best to start with transplants when planting herbs. Starting herbs from seeds is possible, but generally, it is not worth the trouble or the time it takes to raise productive plants. In addition, just one or a few plants of each type of herb are all that is generally needed. There is no use planting a package of 50 seeds when you just need a few plants.
Herbs enjoy sun all day and need at least six hours of direct sun to produce high amounts of flavorful oils. Many herbs require excellent drainage. Raised beds are a good idea for herb gardens because they provide good drainage during periods of heavy rainfall.
If raised garden beds are not practical, try growing herbs in containers. Herbs thrive in gallon-size or larger containers (you may plant several herbs together in large containers). Be sure to use a potting soil or potting mix.
Fertilized herbs moderately to avoid stimulating lush growth that will be less flavorful. Generally, fertilize herbs with the same products you use for your other plants, but at about half the amount.
Locate your culinary herb-growing area as close to the kitchen as possible. The plants need to be convenient to use while you are cooking.
Flavor saver
It’s a great idea to preserve herbs when you have an abundant supply. Drying or freezing are commonly used. When drying herbs, harvest the stems long enough to easily tie them together. Next, rinse with water and blot dry. Make small bundles of about three to five stems held together with rubber bands. Use an unbent paperclip to make a hook, and hang the bundles in a cool, dry place with good air circulation. When the herbs are thoroughly dry, generally 10 to 14 days, store them in tightly sealed containers labeled with the name of the herb or herb blend and the date.
To freeze herbs, harvest, rinse and blot dry. Remove leaves from woody stems and chop finely.
Place chopped herbs in a freezer bag spreading them out in a one-half inch layer. This makes it easier to break off usable pieces later on when the herbs are frozen solid. Lay the bag flat and force out as much air as possible, seal and freeze. Be sure to label the bag with the date and name of the herb since chopped frozen herbs tend to look the same.
Now is a great time to generously harvest and preserve cool-season annual herbs that will languish in summer’s blast furnace. Also, harvest and preserve perennial herbs. Many of them are less productive in the intense heat of summer. Finally, it’s also a good time to plant warm-season annual herbs that will thrive in the coming heat.
While the term “grafting” is widely used among gardeners, a true understanding of grafting and why it is done is not so common.
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March 19, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Green Thumb: A guide to growing your own fresh herbs - NOLA.com
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