Of all the foods, herbs give the greatest return on square foot and minutes spent. If all you have is a deck or a bright south window, you can grow herbs. If you have an actual plot, you can grow many herbs! Here are a few tips I’ve learned across the years:
- Chives bear the longest, giving us our first chives in late March (in Iowa) and going on sometimes under snow into November. Hard to kill, easy to spread, they will grow in some shade — our main patch gets only half a day of sun. And their flowers are cute! Good for pollinators, too.
- Thymes are nice to fill space and look pretty with their flowers. I’ve harvested both with and without and don’t notice any flavor difference. A little more fuss to avoid the flowers.
- Tarragon can grow with quite a bit of shade — our gets only a few hours direct sun. Make sure to get French tarragon, not Russian — the Russian is invasive and useless.
- Basil is delightful and pesto from it can be frozen, but it is the most cold sensitive. Keep an eye on the overnight low forecast and harvest it before it falls below 45 degrees.
- Sage is a good perennial but will wear out at some point. You didn’t do anything wrong — just get new plants.
- Oregano is another polite perennial and grows well in shade.
- Parsley is an annual for most of us. It’s worthwhile to start it from seed and keep it indoors until the weather warms up. Parsley started this will not bolt and will be happy well into the winter, down to 20 degrees or colder.
- Dill is an annual but readily reseeds itself. Either harvest the heads for seeds or let it scatter where it will. Dill is a thirsty plant — weed it out of any beds where you have young plants, or the dill will win.
- Many herbs dry easily — sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, for example. Cut the amount you want to harvest, gather the ends around a wine cork, secure with a rubber band, and hang to dry out of the sunlight.
- Tarragon freezes very well — gather as much as you like, strip the leaves as usual, and freeze in one or two cup containers.
- Dill freezes nicely as a buttermilk “pesto.” Blend with enough buttermilk to make a slurry and freeze. When it is wanted for sauces or soups, just add either the mayo and yogurt for a sauce, or your choices for a soup.
- If you give potted herbs a good dose of summer sun, you can bring them in and enjoy them through the winter. This gives us indoor rosemary, parsley, and basil, for instance.