Herbs in the Garden

Archive for the ‘Herb Garden’ Category

Here is my special treat for you- I had SO much fun putting this little humorous Valentine video together for my beginner herbs class. I hope you enjoy it!

OK, no herbs or gardening stuff for you today, because everything in the herb garden is still frozen, and I haven’t gotten into the greenhouse yet. Sheer laziness on my part…

So- instead I have a video for you!

As I was driving my Herb-Child # 4 into town yesterday, we spotted a pair of Bald Eagles. This may come as no surprise to many of you that live in Bald Eagle country, but it really floored us!

Now, normally we see scads of Red Tail Hawks, Kestrels, Owls, and other birds, but these two were simply phenomenal!

We’ve seen Eagles once or twice fishing at the lake about 7 miles from here, but these two were just hanging out in the cornfields, and lounging in the wind breaks.

Sorry the quality is poor-

I caught them with my little Flip camera and was driving the backroads simultaneously. I know, don’t say it.  It was worth driving into a ditch or bean field in order to get this film!

I don’t know if it’s any better in fullscreen-but you can try and see if there is any improvement.

Wow!

Yes, you can and it  lives to tell the tale.

Although freezing fresh sage is possible, it’s not the usual was to preserve it.

I have been known to grab some frosted or frozen sage from the garden in a pinch and I am happy to report that the flavor was still fine for cooking.

I dry my herbs, then pop them in the freezer to kill off any lingering insect eggs that may have hitched a ride on the undersides of leaves. Sage is not much bothered by pests, but by habit, the dried herb still goes into the freezer for a few weeks.

This photo shows some potted sage in the snow.

Potted Sage in the Snow

No, it’s not dead, although I admit it doesn’t look terribly healthy at this point.

The good news?

As a perennial herb it will come back in the spring, or when I bring it inside…whichever comes first.

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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