Newbie to Herb growing.

I have seeds for five herbs I want to grow.
Fernleaf Dill, Chives, Parsley, Greek Oregano,
Cilantro and Sweet Basil. I have never grown herbs so I need help. To start with, which should go in the garden and which is best for growing in pots? I do have grow lights where I will start the seeds. Any information will be knowledge I am lacking. :-)

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/growingherbs.html Give that a try it might give you the information your looking for. Thanks, Jody

I'd start them all now, in cellpacks, warm and under lights (when they declare themselves).

You can either grow them in your veggie beds or set them in your wife's flower beds!

The cilantro can be sown directly if you choose. It will be rather short seasoned here (doesn't do well in the heat) however, if you choose to make an on-going/perpetual bed, give it it's own space and let it flower and go to seed (at the seed point it will be called coriander). If you let some of the seeds drop they'll come back and you won't have to replant next yr.

i am with Shoe on the cilantro, u do not have to wait till next year. sometime in the fall u will have more cilantro.

remember dill does not like to be transplanted, so plant them straight on the ground.

parsley is a little finicky too not much. i found that when i transplant them, they tend to bear flowers and seeds. since i found that out, i alway plant them direct on the ground. i am referring to Italian Parsley that is. they do take a long time to come up, be patient, once they get established they will go wild on u LOL.

chives die back in my area. soon as weather get warmer, they all come back. same thing with Greek Oregano, this one u give plenty of room cuz they sure like to sprawl. they seem to have minds of their own. i keep the oreganos well trimmed when the weather get warmer cuz they are prolific growers.

hope that help. if i can be of further assistance, lmk. ma vie

Wow, thanks for all the information, I will now put it in the tub and go soak in it until I have absorbed it all. Thank you so much.

Last summer I had parsley (not Italian) growing in a windowbox on my front porch - 3/4 sun - and it was fabulous! Cut it several times, dried it for cooking, and just now ran out. This summer I'll add another box, since it is biennial the first box will go to seed and not grow back again next year.

Thanks Eileen,
I get the impression that many grow their herbs in containers, I would like to do the same this year. What kind and what size containers do you use?

I've grown herbs all right in everything from 9" pots to strawberry pots to planter boxes. I have a bay growing in a big container that's planted with a few other things, too. They're not really fussy and actually are more aromantic if they get a soil on the leaner side and not a ton of water, though they do need some.

The only issue is that as they're perennials it's more of a pain to refresh the soil after it's compacted and exhausted; you can extend their lifetime by fertilizing after a year or two, though. (I don't fertilize container herbs in the first year, and free-grown herbs don't get anything but some compost.)

Mint needs more water, but since it's invasive I completely recommend growing it in containers. Since it will interbreed freely, don't plant more than one variety too close to another unless you don't mind surprises. Mint likes a bit of shade. I shuffled the mints into the shady side of my yard and put the sun-lovers up higher or on a fairly sunny part of my yard that gets a lot of reflected light from a concrete patio. The container herbs all go in the back with good access from the kitchen.

They've been going untended except for watering for the last three years (since I got sick), but I can still harvest the following from containers: lemon thyme, thyme, a Japanese celery/parsley-like herb (can't remember the name of it, but it's like a strong celery flavor), perilla (unless it gave out this year), California bay, various kinds of mint (I interplanted them so who knows what they are now), nasturtiums, oregano, sage. Non-container herbs still going strong: rosemary, Cleveland sage, lemon balm, bay laurel, caraway thyme, society garlic, salad burnet, chamomile, pineapple sage, more nasturtiums, lavender, artemesia (not an edible, but nice in arrangements and wreaths), rose-scented pelargoniums, and probably some other things. Can you tell I like herbs?

The strawberry pot has about given out... there's some straggling thymes and such in there, but if I ever get a burst of energy I ought to dump the soil out and refresh and replant it -- this time I'll put a pipe in for better watering.

My mother likes to grow her herb garden in a half barrel, and it thrives.

I'm a bit of a black thumb with seeds, so I've done almost all of my herbs from starts.

Wow Flit!

A lot of information there, thank you, about the only thing I didn't see was chives. I guess I can use about anything for a container as long as I follow the basic rules for fertilizing and watering.

Sparks... just remember that basil loves heat. I always try to jump the gun and set out seedlings in May in zone 6b in Asheville... to my dismay. I have finally learned that basil loves heat and set it out in June where it does quite well.

I haven't had as much luck with chives, though I had some garlic chives that lasted two or three years, so that was a success. I had some Chinese chives with pretty white flowers for a year or maybe two; I can't remember now. (Not in a container, but there's no reason they couldn't do fine in a container.) Oh, and if it's really warm there in the summer and you like cilantro, you can use Vietnamese coriander as a replacement. It's a tender perennial that isn't related, but tastes very similar... and it doesn't bolt. I avoided fennel because there's a wild form here that's invasive, so I decided not to go deliberately planting it.

I know some people grow chives in a pot in a sunny kitchen window year-round, but my kitchen is north facing.

Oh, heh, I also had African blue basil for several years (I think it's actually a short-lived perennial), and a couple of succession crops of arugula and feverfew.... And I forgot my faithful borage. All of these not in containers, and would probably prefer containers a little bigger than 9" pots... maybe 12", though you could grow basil in a 9" pot. Basil loves sun, and would be really happy interplanted with tomatoes. If you take the flower buds (which are edible) before it blooms, I believe you will get more leaf. The African blue basil flowered three years in a row and formed a sort of woody tiny shrub.

Hmm. These lasted a year or two but I don't have them right now: tarragon, which I really ought to have done in a container rather than in the middle of my sunny plot; it got lost there. Mounding golden marjoram... clary sage (pretty but not culinary), anise hyssop, yerba buena, dill, cilantro, lemon grass. I'm lucky enough to have an herb nursery close by, as well as a few other nurseries with a pretty good selection of herbs, so I had access to a really nice variety. I'm hoping I will be able to stay outside again and replace the salad burnet (which is quietly taking over) with more variety. As it is, even in its current state I can get at least some fresh herbs year round, and usually I have access to edible flowers.

A nice thing about containers also: you can move the plants around if they aren't thriving!

If you do use a strawberry pot, make sure you plant shade-tolerant plants on the shady side... you could actually just put strawberries there if you're strapped for ideas, since at least some varieties are fine with shade.

Thanks again Darius and Flit. I am not quite sure what you mean by a strawberry pot, whether I use one of not it would be nice to know what it is. It is now time for me to sit down with all the information I have and decide exactly what I am going to do. Will let you know the outcome down the road aways, or at least what I have planned.

oh, strawberry pots are wonderful things for herbs
you can have a bunch of kitchen herbs planted in one pot right next to your back door so you can just step outside and snip off a bit of whatever you need
currently i've got a really nice big thyme planted in the top of mine, and i'm trying to decide on what other herbs to put in the other holes
they are, basically a terra cota (or plastic) urn with holes on the sides, and one large hole in the top
this is like the one i've got:
http://www.shmily.us/images/plants/outdoor/Strawberry%20pot%20-%202003.03.06.jpg

here's a kind of pricey nice one :)
http://att.bhg.com/bhg/store/product.jhtml?catid=Featured%20Products&prodid=prod300517&psrc=HPFTS

This message was edited Mar 9, 2004 6:05 AM

Thanks Miss_Kitty, me and Matt Dillon shore appreciate that info but ya can forgit about that there priccy one, we jest aint got that kind of money. Your pot is purty enough for usins.

Another thing, I wanted to grow dill, chives, parsely and others, nobody dun tol me that their is upteen versions of each. Jest going to struggle along and do the bestest I can.

i would go with italian flat leafed parsley
but you could really go with any variety.. except the curly stuff, that's used just for decoration, not for actually eating
as for as chives and dill go, it's really a matter of personal preference

Sparks, with parsley there are basically two major types, "moss curled" which is what most people use for garnishes and such (but it's also great in salads as well as being a great breath freshener) and "Italian parsley", also known as flat leaf parsley (this one is preferred by many for cooking.

(As an aside, when the herb cilantro moves from its flat leaf to a more mature leaf it will grow a feathery leaf...at this stage it is called "Chinese parsley". After that stage, it will begat flowers, then seeds, and the seeds are then known as coriander. Pretty cool to have three different items coming off one plant, eh?)

Dill is dill. The different varieties vary in that certain kinds may grow taller, or more bushier, or will either have an earlier or later maturity date. Probably any type you grow you will like.

i tried growing some "mammoth dill" and found that it was very top heavy...
then again, i also had it in a pot... i suppose if it were in the ground, it would have been able to spread it's roots out further and stabilize it's self

Here's an article on prepping a strawberry pot for better watering: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/special/1999_Apr_7.STRAW.html

That's what I'll do next time! (Mine really needs to have its soil redone and the remaining plants repotted.)

There are a zillion kinds of most kinds of herbs, but you can start simple and don't sweat it. If given a choice on things like cilantro, look for a slow-bolting variety, since it won't rush to set seed when it heats up and you'll get the yummy leaves longer. Look for herbs that will grow to smaller sizes, too, since you're planting in containers.

For thyme I actually really like common thyme (Thymus vulgaris, I think), because it gives nice long sprigs; creeping thyme tends to have smaller sprigs which are less easy to cook with. (I tie sprigs of herbs into bundles or drape them over a roasting chicken.) It'll grow into a little (8-12") shrub with woody stems; if you keep it well cut back, which you will if you're cooking with it reasonably often, then it won't get a really woody core or get as big. Even if it does, you'll still have all the exterior thyme to cook with.

If you're getting starts, rub the leaves gently with your fingers and then smell your fingers. If you like what you smell then it's probably a good one for you! There are a bazillion kinds of sage, for example. Culinary sage (salvia officinalis) is nicely balanced: it's not super aromantic, but it has a good strong flavor. I've had a variegated sage that had a sweeter, lighter flavor. My Cleveland blue sage is incredibly fragrant and strong; I use less when I cook with it.

And mammoth dill sounds interesting, Miss Kitty! It'd be worth trying in a big container or in a bed.

i've got a thymus vulgaris in the top of my strawberry pot
it's been there for about 4 years.. and it's really big and woody and had kind of gotten leggy there for a while
i went out and pruned the heck out of it this morning, tho.. so it's back to being nice and bushy and healthy looking
the thickest woody stems that i cut through were about 1/2" thick! lol

Wow, yours got big! My mother's only got up to about 1/4" stems.

i almost killed my scissors hacking away at it ... lol

We have a 2 1/2 gallon pot that we grow our chives in. It seems to be enough for us, as we don't dry it; and it keeps coming back. I do keep it in a place where it get's watered by rain or by sprinkler, and it just stays outside, same place, in the winter, too.

i've got a massive surplus of thyme right now.. since i pruned my thyme "shrub" lol
trying to figure out what to do with it all
think i'm just gonna throw it all in the dehydrator and use it dried...

If I have extras I just hang it until it's dry... a dehydrator should work even better.

I suppose you could make a little wreath out of it, too. :)

I shore did start somethin when I posted but I am learning a lot, thank you all.

I have finally decided what I am going to do for this year but would like you comments and/or suggestions about the following.

I went with the neigbors to a herb show and purchased five plants: Garlic chives, Italian plain parsely, Bergarten Sage, Italian oregano and English Thyme.

I am not going to be able to layout a herb plot in my garden this year so will be using containers. I have five pots (not even sure where they came from) two 12" pots and three 10" pots. Plan on putting the chives and parsely in the two 12" ones and the other three in the 10" pots.

Oh, I love Bergartten sage! (hi Sparks! Nice to see you again ;D

Looks like you picked some good herbs there. As suggested above, grow them hard, and the flavor will be best.

Harvest for sage, oregano and thyme: cut a little every couple days (fresh sprigs) or if you want to dry the whole crop, as the flower buds start to develop, cut the whole plant down and hang the stems upside til dry.

For the parsley, if you want to preserve it, wait until this fall, and boy will you have parsley! cut it all, quick-dry it or freeze it, and almost all the flavor and color will stay intact.

Garlic chives can be snipped at will. I don't know if you want to bother preserving any, since they are in leaf almost year-round.

As a veggie-lover, there is one more herb you may want to think about getting: savory. It is absolutely essential to include when cooking beans of any type (especially shelled or dry beans) and it also makes squash, tomatoes, or peppers incredibly better. There is summer savory and winter savory. Summer is an annual, winter is a perennial. Summer tastes best, but it is a nuisance (to me) to keep it under control. I grow winter savory. Less work *grin

I am new to gardening. This spring I purchased from a seed saving group chive seeds, cilantro seeds and basil seeds. Not one of them came up. A gentleman from my wife's work told us that cilantro is a winter plant in our area. Is this true? I had (and still have) visions of using chives as a natural border for our flower beds. I planted 400 seeds. Not one came up. I only planted about 20 of the lettuce leafed basil but none came up either. My daughter in Utah told me that I overwatered. The seeds were planted in full sun. If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.

Chive seed usually takes a long time to sprout. Don't give up on it! Same with cilantro (coriander). Mine typically takes 3-4 weeks, and that is after I have nicked and soaked the seeds overnight. Basil usually sprouts fairly rapidly, 2-3 weeks without any pre-treatment needed.