by Kenan White | Oct 9, 2012 | A Year in the Life.., Basics, Gardening, Growing, Herbs, Miscellaneous |
I am published in Fine Gardening magazine…
It all started with questions I was getting from customers about growing outdoor herbs in the winter. Because we strive to provide an exchange of information for all types of growers, I was more than happy to help. Fine Gardening was getting the same questions from their readers that we were getting from our customers, so they picked up my article and used it in their December 2012 edition to help reach more growers who were having the same questions.
A Strategy for Maintaining Fresh Herbs in Winter
Here are a few tips to help you winter over your favorite herbs:
3 reasons to bring your herbs indoors:
- Keep the herbs alive to get more months of enjoyment
- Enjoy fresh flavor for all of your hearty winter dishes.
- To keep tender plants over-winter for spring planting
When to bring herbs indoors: Two weeks before the first hard frost, typically mid-Sept to mid-October
How to repot:
- Choose the healthiest plants and compost the others.
- Clean soil of debris and weeds
- Dig plants carefully, saving a generous root ball.
- Repot into containers 2” wider and deeper than the root ball using fresh potting soil
- Thoroughly water newly potted plants
- Leave plants outside for a few days to acclimate to their new containers.
Indoor Care Tips:
- Choose a sunny location with 6-8 hours of direct sun.
- Consider temperature and humidity. Don’t place them where they will dry out quickly or be in a cold, drafty spot.
- Typically herbs don’t need a lot of water. Check soil by sticking your finger about a half inch in to test for moisture.
- Room temp should not go below 50 degrees
- Let the plants rest before harvesting
- Don’t be alarmed if your herb plants lose their lower leaves as this is the plant’s way of dealing with the change and getting rid of leaves that no longer produce enough food. Lemon Verbena is especially likely to do this.
Which herbs will work best indoors?
- Tender perennials: Bay, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Grass
- Biennial herbs: parsley
- Annual herbs: cilantro, arugula,
Dormancy requirements make some plants better choices.
- Unless you want to add grow lights, avoid plants that go dormant like mint
- Hardy perennials are best left outdoors. Rosemary, Lavender, Mint
6 plants to keep for winter then return to garden in spring:
6 plants that are used for extended harvest.
Replanting your herbs for Spring:
After the last frost, usually late April or early May, start placing potted herbs outside during the day so they get accustomed to a new climate. Keep an eye on night temperatures. Begin to leave them out when night temperatures are above 50F.
- Plants should have been pruned in winter. Trim stray stems to keep plants bushy
- Replant in mid-May
by Kenan White | Oct 1, 2012 | A Year in the Life.., Exploring, Gardening, Growing, Herbs, Miscellaneous, Wildlife |
Chamomile a weed? One person’s weed is another person’s herb!
While on a trip to Prairie Canada, I was surprised to find find common chamomile blooming among the prairie plants. After first spotting this familiar herb, I began seeing it along the road shoulder, in fields of peas and beans, and even in the lawn where I was staying. From my host, I learned that on the prairie farmers consider chamomile a noxious weed and work hard trying to eliminate it from their crops fields. This is a good example for comparing a desirable herb plant from a weed. And as the description for weeds explains; it all depends on where a plant is growing! So even though chamomile is a weed is some places, it is a welcome herb in my garden. I have plenty of other plants on my own weed list!
by Kenan White | Sep 28, 2012 | Basics, Gardening, Growing, Herbs, Life on the Farm, Seeds |
There is nothing easy about growing white sage; beginning with its seeds. White sage seeds are tested to a germination rate of twenty percent. Seed with this low of a germination rate are considered too old to use! Being a desert plant, white sage seeds will germinate in a few weeks or 80% will wait for six months to a year, maybe many years. This adaptation insures some white sage seeds will be ready for the next rain, even if ten years away!
This survival strategy is great for the desert, but makes germination uncertain in a greenhouse. Our cell trays are not a help, because we end up with dead cells or ones with too many seedlings. To insure a strong crop of white sage for the spring 2013 season, we resorted to an old fashion method of sowing seed. This means each and every seedling must be carefully transplanted to a cell. Being a species plant, there is wide variation in seedling size.
We carefully plant like sizes together. Watering is always the issue with white sage, well drained potting soil or garden soil with sand added are necessary. Wet soil can cause root rot quickly, never let white sage stay in wet soil!
by Kenan White | Sep 19, 2012 | Basics, Gardening, Growing, Herbs, Life on the Farm, Seeds |
Growing herb plants presents many challenges. Almost all are species plants and have their own requirements for germination, growth, and peaceful establishment in someone’s garden. When The Growers Exchange decided to grow only herb plants, we quickly found ourselves pretty much all alone in our commercial greenhouse community. When growing more common plants, we could always call around and find extra plants when needed.
Not so with many herb plants! Finding fresh seed for basil, cilantro, parsley, and all the popular culinary herbs is easy. But if we run out of plants, our neighboring greenhouses will be full with geraniums and other flowering plants. If we run out, then we are out! But this inconvenience is small compared to consistently finding seeds for the less known herbs such as White Sage and Holy Basil. Only a few seed companies sell rare herb seeds. Once certain seeds have been located, they must also be viable. Meaning they must be fresh enough to germinate.
Finding fresh seed for rare herbs is always chancy, and we watch closely to see that we can try again if a batch fails to germinate. To even the odds that we sow fresh viable seed, we have grown our own herb plants in a garden next to the farm office. Seeds are harvested and dried in an old smokehouse. We still must buy seeds, but we also have the seeds we grew, which are very fresh. This doesn’t solve all the problems, but helps plenty and gives us a proactive way to keep a fresh supply of seeds.
by Kenan White | Sep 12, 2012 | Basics, Gardening, Herbs |
We are having a few end of the month visitors to our test gardens and set about cleaning them up about 2 weeks ago. Cleaning out debris, cutting back all of our herb plants, and actually taking in a good harvest. We have pesto to get us through the winter, and a lot of dried herbs to make sure that our stews and savories are outstanding. We even renovated our smoke house and we are doing a lot of drying flowering herbs. Hot work in the middle of a muggy summer but oh, my, it was worth it.
Just strolling through this weekend and was delighted by the amount of blooms that we have – another chance before fall and winter settle in. So, if you are a Zone 7 or above, don’t forget that you might have a chance. This test bed is astounding and reminds us all that herbs in a landscape are invaluable. What started as an after thought has really taken on a life of its own. We keep adding to the beds and right now, they are a butterfly and bee magnet.
Bottom line: the garden is never finished so neither is the gardener. Use a good pair of clippers and make a plan ahead of time, or you will end up tossing some very valuable harvest. For whatever reason (think if I back up 9 months to New Year’s Eve if have it figured out) a lot of my friends and family have September birthdays and I have been making a lot of herb bouquets. Ball jars make very lovely and inexpensive vases.
Pictured below, left to right: Joe Pye Weed, Datura, Evening Fragrance, Feverfew, Dill, Costmary.
by Kenan White | Jul 10, 2012 | Basics, Gardening, Miscellaneous |
Many people find themselves asking the question, “why use Latin to classify?” When you consider that there are over 250,000 species of living plants worldwide, it makes sense to have chosen a single language to label all these plants. This use of Latin allows gardeners and botanists to speak a universal language when talking about plants. This classification uses a binomial, or two name, system.
The genus is always first and is always capitalized. You may think of the generic name as you would a family name: Smith, Jones or Brown. There are broad grouping of similar plants. These names are almost always derived from the Greek language, but often it is derived from the place it was discovered or even the discoverer themselves. Occasionally, the name comes from legend or mythology. For example, Mint’s genus name is Mentha.
The species comes second and is usually lowercase. Mint’s genus name is Mentha, and if we use Spearmint to further our example, its species name is spicata. Therefore, Spearmint’s binomial classification is ‘Mentha spicata.’
If there is a variation in a species, it is denoted by “var.” Also, if there is a subspecies, it comes third.
Once a plant is cultivated or selected for a certain virtue, then the new plant is considered a ‘cultivar.’ These names are capitalized in single quotation marks.
Hybrids are plants resulting from sexual reproduction between two different types of plants. Hybrids are denoted by an “x.”
Lastly, many plants will be given a common name – this is similar to a nickname and is not a correct or scientific name. Below are a few examples of plants, their nicknames and their Latin names.
Hyssop or “Agastache foeniculum”
