Herbs in the Garden

Archive for January, 2010

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my chives.

I think they are the easiest culinary herb in the western world.  Chives are fast growing, quick to cook with (very little prep time)  and they are one herb that I’ll grab to add a mild oniony flavor at the last minute of cooking…or just use freshly snipped.

In the fall I bring in a pot or two of Chives and keep them in the kitchen window. These pots will go for a month or two and provide me with fresh chives. They do like a rest period though, so I also keep several small pots on ’standby’ just outside my backdoor.  This usually means those pots are buried in ice and  snow for awhile, but they like it!  The plants rest and are dormant during this time.

Eventually the chives I brought inside in October start to look tired. I don’t fertilize them at this point, but instead I set them outdoors and just bring in a new pot.

The old pot gets a needed rest and the chives that have been dormant and resting in the snow for a few months are ready to get growing again.

For them Spring has Sprung-even if they come indoors during a January blizzard!

Here is what they look like as dormant plants:

Dormant Chives in the Snow

 I have tidied them up a bit and just several days later you can see they are growing like crazy.

Weeding…

You either love it and find it relaxing or you hate it and would rather be tied naked to an anthill.

Regardless of your feelings weeding still needs to be done.

 
Weeds not only look messy in the garden and in pots, they also crowd out your herbs and will cheerfully rob your plants of much needed  nutrients.

Whether you garden in containers, or in the garden, various weed seeds can be present in your soil.

It’s true that weeds are a problem in the garden, but they are actually a bigger problem when you grow in pots and containers!

Why?

You spend time watering and feeding your herbs, but when weeds are present the darned things repay your kindness and generosity by growing at ridiculous rates and sucking the life out of the plants you wanted.

Do your herbs a  great big favor and yank the weeds.

I know first hand that if the weeds get too bad you’ll want to throw up your hands and give up, and sometimes that is advisable.

I have been there and have the overgrown garden pictures on this blog to prove it…and I am blushing as I write that admission.

Weeds Growing With Herbs

Even if you really hate weeding, just take a few minutes a day and pull a few weeds. Unless you have a huge garden planted, a few minutes is all it takes to keep your herbs growing well and looking good!

Do you know how to read a seed packet?

There are lots of companies out there, and each will list different information on their seed packages. In this video I explain a few of the things you might find on a seed packet and what they mean.

I mention plant hardiness zones in the video.  If you aren’t sure what that is, learn more here about that topic!

I am a bonehead.

I mentioned back a few months ago that the new online herb growing video courses were in the works, but  I never really posted any information or a real link to them on this blog. I did mention the holiday craft classes, but that was as far as I got…

So here goes:

Growing Herbs For Beginners- This is the description/sign up page for the classes. It’s 8 weeks of simple and fun videos complete with class handouts and extra goodies!

You can also sign up for a short and sweet weekly newsletter here:

http://www.growingherbsforbeginners.com

Yes, it’s me with woolcicles forming on my face gear. And yes, I know my cold weather gear is not color coordinated.

Me with antlers and woolcicles

I took a leisurely stroll out to the greenhouse yesterday morning to check on things. It’ was a balmy -2* inside the greenhouse and naturally everything was frozen solid. On the way to the greenhouse I saw that several herbs were heaving up out of the ground in the medicinal herb garden beds.

It happens after a wet fall followed by hard freezes. I will just have to replant the things I will lose this winter.

This is why I rarely have the same garden two years in a row!  Plants come and go, and herbs and plants that don’t do well either get moved, or are lost due to weather conditions.

Although we haven’t had much snow yet, it’s been really cold. More  snow is expected. I like the snow. Besides being beautiful, it protects the plants when they are well covered sith snow. White mulch.

After it all melts though it is a bit disconcerting to see what’s left alive after the winter and what has died off completely, and some years it is just downright discouraging!

I’d better break out the seed catalogs…Who knows? By the looks of it I may be redoing a LOT of garden area this year

Gluten Free Herbed Bread

Gluten free herbed bread, that is… this is a recent dietary adjustment at our house.

I combined a gluten free bread mix from Bob’s Red Mill along with another GF bread recipe I found. I tossed in some herbs, ( see below) a variety of seeds, and baked the whole thing into a large round loaf. Surprisingly it  turned out very nicely!

I never know what I’ll get when I start to experiment like this – sometimes I get carried away… *blush*

 It made a flavorful heavy/hearty “whole grain” style loaf. When paired with a steaming hot mug of beef stew, the herb bread was the perfect “dunking” companion.

I have long added herbs to my ‘regular’ flour breads and rolls, and now continue to experiment with my gluten free breads. Thankfully there are many great GF blogs I follow for great recipe ideas! If you are interested let me know and I’ll post a few of my favorites.

Here are some herbs to add to your breads. Try pairing a few of them together, or for your first try, you might just go with a single herb.  Adding seeds such as caraway, dill, coriander, and others can add great flavor to breads and rolls, too!

You could also do plain bread or rolls served with an herb butter. Herbed butter is SO easy to make and really delicious with vegetables or breads. OK, with anything really.

Yum!