Things to Know about Growing an Herb Garden
Friday, February 26th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed
When you decide to grow your own herb garden, the next step is selecting the kind of herb plants you want. There are so many different herbs and many of these herb plants have numerous types—for example, there are 100s of varieties of thyme to choose from.
The life cycles or growing periods vary with different herb plants. Understanding your herb’s life cycle can help you make the best choices. When you go shopping for your herb plants, you’ll need to know their life cycle. There are three main types:
- Annuals: These flowers begin from a seed. During one life cycle they can grow, flower and die. Some good annual herb plants are dill, cilantro, mustard, chervil, basil and borage.
- Biennials: This type of flower will grow for two years and will generally bear “fruit” after the first year. Some herbs (like parsley) will produce leafage during both years but die early in the second growing season. Some biennials you should try are angelica, Queen Anne’s lace and chicory.
- Perennials: Plants that tend to grow for more than two growing seasons are called perennials. The climate where these herbs grow determines how many years they can come back, or if they can come back at all. Some perennials you might love include yarrow, lemon verbena, mints, rosemary, scented geranium, thyme and lady’s mantle.
I love raising herb plants with different growing seasons, but the ones that come back every year are really rewarding because I do not have to repurchase and plant them again. Too much cold can harm your perennials, so beware. You can extend their growing cycle by bringing them in during the colder time of year.
There are several other things you can do to lengthen the life of your herb plants:
- The garage, basement or cellar is a nice location to store those perennials that need to be trimmed back and have the bulb, roots or rhizome unearthed for the winter.
- If you are going to bring your herb plants inside during the colder time of year, use containers instead of cultivating them in the ground. If you want to plant these herbs in the ground, a nice trick is to plant them container and all. They simply take out the whole pot at the end of the season and store them during winter.
- Plant your biennials in middle of the summer so that you can get plenty of flowers in the second summer.
- A few herbs are self-sowers, which means that they can sow their own seeds for the next year. Mustard, borage and catnip are just a couple of the herb plants that are self-sowers.
- A wonderful way to boost a short-lived annual’s growing cycle is to remove any blossoms that have faded. Depending on your area’s climate; your annuals may self-seed if you clip the plant back at the end of the summer.
- The frost that will result from unexpected cold weather can harm your herbs if you do not protect them by covering them with a towel, sheet or blanket. Herbs that are in pots can be moved under a covered patio for protection.
I hope that these tips can help you with your herb garden planning. Creating it just as you imagine it can be a difficult. Even I make mistakes after all these years, but just keep in mind that you can dig up what doesn’t work and try try again!
Here is more information on Herb Garden Information. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.
Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.
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