LET’S GROW SOME HERBS!

I’m rather new to growing herbs but I’m a total fan and will keep at it until I stop cooking!  It’s also great for cleaning out the garage/basement/shed!

All of these herbs can be grown in the garden in the ground, if you don't want to use pots - but I keep my herb garden on my deck for easy access AND because the deer don't come up on the deck - yet!

Round up all those flower post you’ve been collecting, select 6 large ones if this is your first attempt at herbs.  Buy 1-2 bags of potting soil and then head for the seed department at your local home improvement store or Walmart.  You’ll also need 6 white plastic knives and a permanent marker.

Several herbs are perennials – chives, parsley and thyme are great starter herbs.  These can survive a mild winter, or if they die back due to cold, they will pop up again the following spring.  These three herbs need large pots, but they don’t have to be very deep.  I prefer clay pots, but plastic works fine.  You also need one REALLY WIDE pot, that’s about 10-12” deep for ginger -a must!

Annual herbs, like dill and sweet basil are also a MUST for the herb garden and grow great in pots.

So – I recommend beginning with these five herbs, to grow from seeds:  chives, dill (NOT Mammoth dill), sweet basil, thyme, and flat leaf parsley.  You can also add cilantro if you like Mexican food, and curly parsley if you want to fancy up your serving platters.

GINGER ROOT

The last pot is for fresh ginger, and for all you need to know, please see my post called THE MIRACLE OF FRESH, HOME GROWN GINGER at the link below:

http://firebird-cooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-miracle-of-fresh-minced-ginger-and.html

PREPARE YOUR POTS AND PLANT:

Easiest thing is to line the bottom of each pot with a flattened coffee filter – keeps the dirt in but allows excess water drain through.  Fill all the pots EXCEPT THE GINGER POT to within about 2” of the top.  Sow your seeds as directed on the packet (about 1/2 of the packet) and sprinkle with potting soil to cover the seeds. Write the name of the herb on the knife handle and poke the blade into the dirt.

PARSLEY WARNING!!!!!  Plant THREE TIMES as much parsley as you think you will need!  In many areas in mid-summer, you will see black/greenish striped caterpillars dining on your parsley.  DON’T KILL THEM!  They will soon visit you again as beautiful Monarch butterflies!

WATERING:

For all the seeds, water very gently with a light spray hose.  These seeds need a good soaking as well, but be careful not to blast the soil or the seeds with scatter.  I prefer starting the seeds in a shady location until they start to germinate.  

Once the little plants are about 1/2” – 1” tall, move them to the MORNING sun side of your home, if possible.  They will need to be watered daily as the weather warms, preferably late in the afternoon after the sun has passed overhead.   When they get to be 3-4” tall, they can take lots of sun, but will need watering more often.

HARVESTING YOUR HERBS:

When the chives are 4-6” tall, you can start snipping them and adding them to your salads, and they are VERY good added to boiled, buttered potatoes. 

Same for the dill but it needs to be a bit taller because it’s very delicate – but it’s delicious on buttered potatoes and almost ANY baked or broiled fish.  There are also lots of ways to make dill dressings and dips – get adventurous!

And of course, if you make dill pickles, you are in for a treat.  Try one of the many refrigerator dill pickle recipes online… most call for fresh dill AND dill heads.  Dill HEADS are tiny green things that start to shoot up from the top of the plants, and they will turn into DILL SEEDS if they are not harvested.  The stalk with the dry seeds can be snipped and placed on a paper towel in an out of the way place…. Let the seeds dry until they fall off the stems and then put then in an envelope, label as DILL, and store in a dry place until next spring. 

Thyme is a must for anything poultry.  I have a baked chicken recipe on this blog that is delicious, and has fresh thyme, lemon slices, and garlic in the cavity. Check it out here:  http://firebird-cooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/baked-chicken.html  Thyme is also wonderful in chicken stock and soup base.

Basil is my favorite herb, and if I could only have ONE herb in my garden, this would be it.  Try cutting a few leaves into thin strips (julienne) and add to a salad…. You cannot have spaghetti sauce without TONS of basil, so since this is a summer herb (and in my house spaghetti is a winter meal) I make and freeze spaghetti sauce all summer and add fistfuls of fresh, chopped basil. You can also make and freeze pesto – just don’t add the cheese until you cook with it!

Fresh parsley has an intense and lovely flavor, and I use it in cooking seafood dishes (I’m the queen of shrimp) or always as a tasty garnish for soups and salads.  Parsley CAN winter over if winters aren’t too severe.  Put the pot in a sunny location and out of the wind if possible.

Avoid MINT!  It will leave the pot and take over your yard.  If you need fresh mint, hit the supermarket!

If you really want to prolong your herb garden, try drying/dehydrating your herbs all during the growing season.  Invest in a cheap dehydrator from amazon.com,Walmart or Cosco.  You might even find one at a yard sale.  I dried herbs all last summer and gave these little jars of assorted herbs to my neighbors as Christmas gifts.