Growing Garden Herbs
Some great ways to grow herbs. The links will take you to the full blog entry with more information and the videos. Or you can just watch the videos here.
Harvesting & Growing Cilantro in 5 Gallon Containers: Over Plant It!
The key to harvesting it is to cut the leaves off and leave the the roots in the soil. It should continue to grow leaves for a second harvest. Eventually cilantro will want to flower and seed. You can save the seed for replanting or culinary use. When you start harvesting cilantro leaves from the first planting, plant some more seeds in a new container and keep your supply coming all season long.
How to Start Rosemary Indoors: Start Early!
You can start rosemary indoors 10-12 weeks before your would put it outside. A lot of herbs can be started quite early indoors as they are slow to germinate and grow. Rosemary is one of those herbs. You only plant 2 or 3 seeds to a starting cell as one plant will grow quite large. Letting it establish indoors will really let it take off when the planted outdoors in the warm weather. You should get enough growth that year to use it in your kitchen!
You can start chives and thyme indoors 10-12 weeks before they could go outside. I show you how to over seed them as a planting method. Both herbs are very strong and very hardy and the single cell you start them in can be divided, when the plants are big enough. A lot of herbs can be started quite early indoors as they are slow growing plants. These are not herbs to plant as just 1 seed... over seed!
Thyme seeds are quite fine and I must put in 20-30 seeds per single seed starting cell. Chives are much large and probably 5-10 or a bit more go into the cell. The reason is that both plants have very strong root systems.
Sage and lavender are great aromatic herbs. They do get large but they start out small and are slow growers. They can take up to 3 weeks to germinate. You can really start sage and lavender indoors 10-12 weeks before the garden will be ready for them.
Sage and lavender can handle frost and in Maryland Zone 7, they are perennial herbs. They come back year after year and take our snows and freezes. They are sturdy herbs. I like to get them into my garden in the first week of April. I am not worried about frost with them. My goal is to grow them indoors to size so they really establish the first year and maybe even flower.
Oregano is a great herb that grows slowly when started by seed. You should start oregano indoors 10-12 weeks before it would go out into your garden. You want to put transplants into the garden that will mature and be used that season!
Oregano germinates pretty quickly in 7-14 days but it grows slowly. Once it gets up to size and the outdoor temperatures warm... it takes off. Oregano seeds are quite fine. I don't plant nor do I recommend planting just 1 seed per starting cell. The over seeding method I use, and that has been successful for years, is putting 20-30 seeds per cell. You will be planting a clump of oregano versus a single plant.
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