My garden

[Bilby]

Originally Posted by LT72884

Umm i have never had fresh herbs so i dont know what i like. Out of the dried herbs i like anything italian such as orageno, basil, Italian seasoning, southwest seasoning (pampered chef). Umm and sage and thyme.

So check out those ones. Your local garden nursery will stock them if they are tolerant in your area and should be able to tell you if they can be planted out or not. Thyme is quite delicate and in my experience, can thrive and then suddenly die; sage is quite hardy but basil isn't but Perth's climate is completely different from Utah's! No idea about oregano.

With the seasoning mixes, check out the ingredient list either on the jar or on the net. You might be able to grow onions, leeks and garlic too as you lift them before the cold.

[Walt Bulander]

Buy Rosemary as a plant (make sure you like the taste, some are just for looks) Seeds, although sold, never seem to work out.

Basil will grow like a weed, but don't plant until night time temps. are in the 50's - It doesn't like cold weather. Be sure to pinch off the tips down to the next set of leaves to delay flowering. Use the tips in cooking.

I grow dill, cilantro, and flat leaf parsley. When the first two go to seed, just plant the seeds for another crop. The parsley should last all summer, and may come up the second year, but it's not as good tasting, then.

Sage iis easy to grow as an annual. If you can find Berggarten (an alpine variety from Germany), it may overwinter OK, depending on how cold your climate.

If you can find french tarragon (as a plant), It' s wonderful for chicken dishes, and comes up every year on it's own. Mine is practically a shrub, by fall.

Good luck.

[LT72884]

since i have never ever planted herbs what do you mean when the plant goes to seed? does it mean when it dies or what am i looking for to know that the plant has gone to seed?

[suziquzie]

Originally Posted by Walt Bulander

Buy Rosemary as a plant (make sure you like the taste, some are just for looks) Seeds, although sold, never seem to work out.

Basil will grow like a weed, but don't plant until night time temps. are in the 50's - It doesn't like cold weather. Be sure to pinch off the tips down to the next set of leaves to delay flowering. Use the tips in cooking.

I grow dill, cilantro, and flat leaf parsley. When the first two go to seed, just plant the seeds for another crop. The parsley should last all summer, and may come up the second year, but it's not as good tasting, then.

Sage iis easy to grow as an annual. If you can find Berggarten (an alpine variety from Germany), it may overwinter OK, depending on how cold your climate.

If you can find french tarragon (as a plant), It' s wonderful for chicken dishes, and comes up every year on it's own. Mine is practically a shrub, by fall.

Good luck.

not sure of my type of sage, i got it at walmart, so probably its bottom of the barrell crappy kind.....
but I think it only gets colder in siberia than it does here, and the sage has come back 3 years in a row now!

[Walt Bulander]

LT,

Both dill and cilantro eventually flower at the top and the leaves get tough and not as nice to use. After a few weeks, the flowers become seeds, and as soon as they get dried outwill fall off.
Before I started gathering and replanting them, some of the seeds that fell would germinate in place and you would get another crop, only sparse because the seed would have to accidently lodge in a crack, or whatever, to have enough moisture to germinate.

I just cut the heads off and place in a paper sack to dry out, and replant in a few days. In the fall, I gather as before, and just save the seeds for next year.

You;ll soon get the hang of it.

By the way, cilantro seeds are also called coriander, which has many uses as a seed, such as in pickles, and recipes like choucrute garnie (sauerkraut, with potatoes, sausages, smoked pork, etc.), as well as in Indian dishes as part of the curry.

[LT72884]

SWEET ACTION, this weekend or next im gonna start my herbs. My mom tells me i should grow them inside but i want to grow outside. i just hope the cats dont dig em up.

[expatgirl]

Learn to identify your caterpillars because there are several species of butterflies that like to lay their eggs on some of the herbs---giant swallowtails like fennel and hopefully you wouldn't want to kill them----don't forget to grow chives, too, easy and pretty flowers---look at it as a learning experience---you'll be thrilled and amazed and have good experiences and bad---if you grow mint keep them to a separate pot all together---they will take over your entire garden otherwise

[B'sgirl]

I'm in Utah as well, but up in Cache Valley. It's colder up here than where you are. I started all of my seeds outside. Parsley grows like a weed and was the first to revive after winter. You'll probably have to pull a bunch out to keep it from overtaking the rest of your herbs. The sage did really well and the chives are coming back up too. Garlic also does pretty well in the cooler weather, I already have a garlic head starting to develop. Oregano and basil also grew really well. The lemon grass did amazingly well. I also planted thyme and marjoram. I tried cilantro but planted it where it was too hot. I'm going to try a different spot this year because it all died.

I just planted seeds as soon as the weather allowed. If the seeds didn't grow I just bought starts, they were pretty cheap and they all did well last year. I'll have to let you know later how the rest do the second year.

[suziquzie]

Originally Posted by expatgirl

Learn to identify your caterpillars because there are several species of butterflies that like to lay their eggs on some of the herbs---giant swallowtails like fennel and hopefully you wouldn't want to kill them----don't forget to grow chives, too, easy and pretty flowers---look at it as a learning experience---you'll be thrilled and amazed and have good experiences and bad---if you grow mint keep them to a separate pot all together---they will take over your entire garden otherwise

We built a garden at our first house, planted mint. The 2nd year of it, it was grown thru and over the whole box it was in, spreading onto the lawn!
We sold the house the spring before the next cropping up... hee hee I wonder if they got a lawn of mint instead of grass!!

[GotGarlic]

Originally Posted by suziquzie

We built a garden at our first house, planted mint. The 2nd year of it, it was grown thru and over the whole box it was in, spreading onto the lawn!
We sold the house the spring before the next cropping up... hee hee I wonder if they got a lawn of mint instead of grass!!

I made that mistake, too. Now I keep it in a strawberry jar on the patio.