So you're
thinking of herb gardening, or maybe you tried it last year and it was an utter
disaster? Have no fear. There are a few simple mistakes that many herb newbies
make (and I know, because I made most myself). Master these simple and
practical tips for herb gardening and you'll be using your own fresh herbs in
no time.
Fresh herbs are one of the greatest ways to increase the taste of your food
healthfully. I often toss whatever leafy herbs are at hand liberally into a
salad to add unexpected variations in flavor (basil, oregano and dill are all
great choices). Fresh herbs can add punch to sauces or create intensely
flavorful crusts for roasted meats. While fresh herbs are now regularly
available at grocery stores year-round, growing your own herbs is a great way
to master flavors you like and control the origins of your food. Growing herbs
at home can be easy whether you live in a house in the suburbs or an apartment
in the city.
Let it be known that one of the reasons I started to grow herbs was because
they are much more resistant to diseases and infestations, but that still means
you need to avoid a few mistakes to be able to enjoy them to the fullest.
Don’t worry
I am not going into soil pH, chemical make up of the soil or any of that. Those discussions are for those who want to
increase a harvest, not enjoy a few herbs in the backyard. I have only tested my soil once or twice and
once was because I was afraid it may have changed after a horrendous flood.
Mistake 1: Growing from seed. Many herbs are perennials rather than
annuals (dill, cilantro and basil being exceptions) which means they take
forever to mature and impatience can set in.
When you first start out trying to grow fresh herbs, I recommend you
begin by trying to grow from seedlings rather than planting your own seeds. You
can even grab a small plant at the grocery store to get you started. Seeds grow slowly; some take weeks to
germinate; others need precise conditions to sprout and grow. All of these can be a headache for a new herb
gardener, so skip it dive right in with plants.
Mistake
2: Starting with the wrong varieties.
Choose herbs you enjoy eating, those that enjoy the weather where you
live. Don’t try something that says it
likes cool weather if you, like me, live in Chicago. Those hot days in late June will kill
it. Some plants can help you grow
others. Basil wilts if it does not get
enough water, you can use it to gauge if you are watering all your plants
enough. Or choose scented geraniums, which
love dry soil and will endure being forgotten rather well.
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| scented geranium |
Mistake
3: Watering potted herbs like houseplants. It
is better to water herbs daily only a moderate amount than to water once a week
like a houseplant and let them dry out.
Houseplants love this, herbs require moderate and regular watering. This
is particularly true during hot summer months. Make sure the soil drains well
and that your containers have a drainage holes and it will be difficult to
water herbs too much.
Mistake
4: Not cutting early and often.
As a novice gardener, it may seem like your puny little plant just isn't ready
for a trip to the barber, but then you will find yourself sitting there wishing
for leaves without much success. Basil is a great herb to practice pruning.
Basil, like many herbs, if you don’t trim aggressively it will continue to grow
straight up, and become too tall and top-heavy. Clipping or pruning makes herbs
bushy and causes them to produce more leaves.
It also keeps them from flowering.
You rarely, if ever, want your herbs to flower. Flowering herbs lose flavor in the leaf when
they produce flowers, giving you even more reasons to prune your herbs.
To
prune you cut the herb just above a set of growing leaves. With
basil, when you cut the plant that way, the originally trimmed stem will no
longer grow. However, two new stems will grow around the original cutting,
creating a “V” shape.
Making
your first trim approximately 3-4” above the soil produces a nice sturdy plant.
Of course you want to be sure you are always leaving a few good sturdy leaves
on the plant.
As
it continues to grow, continue to prune it approximately every 3-4" for a
nice solid plant. Your clippings make great bits of herb to experiment and cook
with and result in more leaves to use later.
Mistake
5: Taking the leaves from the wrong place.
When you are just starting out it seems to make so much sense to pick off a few
big leaves around the bottom of the plant, and let those tender little guys at
the top keep growing. Wrong. Leave those large tough old guys at the bottom
alone. They are the solar panels that power your herb's growth. Once your plant
is big enough to sustain a decent harvest, keep on taking from the top, as you
have been when pruning. That way you get all those tender new herbs that are so
tasty, and your plant gets to keep its well-developed solar power system in
place. Plus, if you pluck from the base and leave the top intact, you get a
tall skinny plant that will flop over from its own weight. (See rule above!)
Mistake 6: Growing the
wrong variety. When choosing herbs, read the label carefully. For
example, there are two main varieties of oregano: Mediterranean and Mexican.
Mediterranean oregano is the more common variety, and what you likely own if
you have conventional dried oregano in your cupboard. I have Mexican oregano
growing in my personal garden. I love Mexican oregano in spicy dishes, for
making beans from scratch, and often use it in tomato dishes where I don't want
the flavor to seem too much like marinara. Similarly, there are several types
of tarragon, French Tarragon and Russian Tarragon are the most common, however
if you want a culinary tarragon then you want French which cannot be grown from
seed and must be cultivated from root.
The first year it grows slowly then after that it springs from the root
and gets more than 3 feet tall (see next rule).
The Russian variety is easy to propagate, drought tolerant and very
often substituted for French, but the scent is not nearly as strong and the
flavor for cooking is very limited.
Mistake
7: Being unaware of final size! If
you are planting in soil instead of pots, take care that your cute little herb
seedling doesn't become a giant plant that takes over your garden. A word of
warning for oregano and mint: both can be voracious growers. If you are
planting outside in a garden, rather than in pots, you may want to consider
potting these herbs and then burying the pots in the ground. This will
add a measure of control to the root systems of these herbs, which can
otherwise take over a garden and strangle nearby neighbors.
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| spreading spearmint |
Mistake
8: Give yourself Rewards. There is
an element to passion about herb gardening. To want to continue you need to
feel rewarded. With herbs, finding uses and experimenting with new herbs and
new uses can be that reward. So don't
stick too long with one or two herbs just because they work. Branch out to a
few other basic herbs that you will use regularly in your kitchen. There are
few things more rewarding than being able to pop out to garden to clip
fresh herbs to use in my cooking. Once you have become comfortable with your
first plant, I recommend moving on to try growing oregano, mint, rosemary
and thyme. All are regularly useful herbs in the kitchen, and all
are relatively easy to grow.
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| Cuban oregano (with pansies) |
A young woman in a Garden center near Burlington, WI
introduced me to this year’s new herb. Cuban Oregano Plectranthus amboinicus, a semi-succulent perennial plant in
the family Lamiaceae with a pungent oregano-like flavor and odor. It is native
to Southern and Eastern Africa. It is widely cultivated and naturalized
elsewhere in the tropics where it is used as a traditional medicine, spice, and
ornamental plant. I love the scent and cannot wait to try cooking with
it.
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| Basil Perpetuo |
I was also at a garden center and found a variegated Basil that I have wanted to try since I first wrote about it, Basil Perpetuo a beautiful basil with a great flavor for Pesto that I have been looking to buy as a plant since 2014, because I hate growing basil from seed! You can read about this and other Pesto Basil in this post from 2014.
