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Herb Gardening Tips

• What is the Trick to Cilantro?
• An Edging You Can Eat
• Basil Insists on Blooming. Pinch it!
• Herbs in Containers
• Well Mannered Mint
• Rosemary - Abundant, Long-lived, and Flavorful

What is the Trick to Cilantro?

Cilantro transplants are ready to provide flavorful leaves almost from the time they are planted. Knowing how it grows. Cilantro easily grows into a leafy rosette of aromatic fresh flavor that just can't be replaced by the dried leaves in the grocery spice rack. However, don't be surprised when the longer days of spring cause the plant to quickly stretch up to about 2 feet tall with white flowers on top. Leave the flowers alone, and within a month or less each white umbel will be full of coriander seeds. That is the "rest of the story" of cilantro, an herb with two equally useful parts.

Because spring makes cilantro grow fast, keep it cut to use the leaves in salsa, pico de gallo, curries, and other favorite recipes. At some point it will insist on blooming. When this happens, let it go to seed so that you can collect the coriander. To keep a crop of fresh leafy plants on hand as long as possible, set out transplants every few weeks as long as they are available. And you can always plant a few of your coriander seeds until the next season of Bonnie transplants arrives at your favorite garden center.

Cilantro is surprisingly cold hardy, so it also makes an ideal fall garden item. Fall-planted cilantro remains leafy rather than stretching up to bloom, because in fall and winter the days are shorter. Plants will over-winter in zone 7b and warmer. In cold climates, they will be fine in a cold frame.

An Edging You Can Eat

Parsley makes a great edging for gardens and even flower beds. The pretty foliage of parsley does double duty as a source of leaves for the kitchen and a pretty edging for a flower bed or vegetable garden. Plants set out now will thrive all summer, fall, and even through winter in milder climates. Plant curly-leafed parsley for garnishes and flat-leafed parsley for easier chopping. Besides its flavor, parsley is also recommended for its high levels of the antioxidant Glutathione, which has been associated with cancer prevention.

In climates where it is cold hardy, parsley is biennial, meaning it lives two years. The first year it grows lots of leaves. The second year, it will bloom. If your parsley from last year looks great at the moment, be aware that when it blooms and goes to seed later this spring, it will turn bitter. Replace it now, or plant more elsewhere to keep a steady harvest of fresh, sweet leaves.

Basil Insists on Blooming. Pinch it!

Keep pinching flowers from basil when they appear. In areas with a long growing season, you can refresh plants by trimming the tips and fertilizing with a fish emulsion or 20-20-20 diluted according to label directions. If you let the plant flower, it tells itself, "I've fulfilled my life's purpose by making seed so I can just stop growing." So to continue a nice harvest until cold weather arrives--pinch, pinch, pinch! Put a few sprigs in a small vase to perfume the kitchen. Basil will turn brown at the first sign of frost. Consider making pesto and freezing it for ready access to that fresh basil flavor.

Herbs in Containers

Chives, mint, basil, rosemary, cilantro, and a jalapeño pepper share a home in this long container on a deck near the kitchen door. Mulching herbs with white pebbles helps keep the foliage healthy in humid climates. The pebbles, which dry out fast, reflect light and keep the damp soil from creating even more humidity for the plants. Put containers anywhere there is a source of water and plenty of sunshine.
For anyone in wheelchair or who has trouble bending over, a large pot is the next best thing to a raised bed. Your container needs six hours of sun each day. Use a premium-quality potting mix. DON'T use garden soil; it can be too dense and infested with disease or nematodes. After a year, empty the old soil, which loses its original texture, into a compost pile and replace with new. Before planting, mix timed-release fertilizer into the soil at the rate recommended on the label.

The Container Containers must have drainage holes and be large enough to accommodate the roots as they grow. Put heavy pots on casters to make it easier to move them around. Consider a spaghetti tube drip irrigation system if you have many pots clustered in a single place that is easy to run water to. It will make watering a breeze.

Suggested Herbs All herbs will grow in containers. Combine herbs according to their shape so there is room for more than one in a pot. For example, pair upright rosemary with creeping thyme. If the pot is large enough, you can add sage or chives, too. A large strawberry jar is a perfect vessel for compact herbs that you only use a pinch at a time. These include mint, oregano, thyme, sage, and rosemary (in the top of the jar). In humid climates, use pea gravel mulch in the pot to help keep leaves from rotting.

Well Mannered Mint

Insert a 6-inch plastic pot inside your bigger pot in the spot where you want the mint to grow. Simply plant your Bonnie mint transplant inside the 6-inch plastic pot. Give the little pot a quarter turn every once in a while to keep mint roots in check. Peppermint and spearmint are wonderful herbs that no kitchen and therefore garden should be without. Mint is an important ingredient in Middle Eastern and Greek cuisine and, of course, in various iced summer drinks. However, in areas where mint is perennial, it can creep farther than you like, crowding adjacent plants, especially in a pot. To keep mint under control, limit its roots by planting it in a pot and sinking the pot into the ground or into another pot. Every few weeks, give the pot a quarter turn to keep roots from escaping through the drainage holes. When possible, use a plastic pot, since it  won't dry out as much as clay and will be easier to turn.

Rosemary -- Abundant, Long-lived, and Flavorful

If you grow only one herb, consider rosemary. A staple of Mediterranean and Greek cuisine, rosemary flavors soups, breads, and meats--especially lamb--with a distinctive flavor unmatched by any other herb. It is easy to snip and use fresh for flavoring salad oil, butter for bread, or even scrambled eggs. Rosemary is a pretty, woody shrub that is evergreen in Zone 8 and farther south. You can mix it among other landscape plants. Because it is native to the Mediterranean seaside, it tolerates full sun, dry soil, and even beachside salty air. Set plants out now in well-drained soil with a pH 6.5 to 7; add lime if necessary. Pay attention to drainage, or you will invite root rot. Mulch with pebbles to keep roots happy and moist in summer. Rock mulch also helps keep the foliage dry, especially in the South, where humidity brings fungus problems. Rosemary grows well in containers, too. In areas where it is not cold hardy, move the pot to a cool but sunny garage or to another protected location in winter, and your plants will live for years.

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