I bought a few herbs this year just to give myself a small portable garden (I was moving in the spring). I started out with two window boxes with a few small herbs. The first one I planted sweet basil, cinnamon basil, rosemary, thyme, and tarragon, and in the second I planted some mint, bee balm, chives, cilantro, and parsley.The cinnamon basil and cilantro didn't make it two weeks. The chives almost all bit the dust when they got a small haircut- I went from a thick patch to about 4 little guys. I moved the bee balm to it's own gallon pot when it started doing so well. I need to get around to replanting my rosemary and parsley - the parsley especially is THRIVING.
After the early demise of my basil and cilantro I bought some pineapple sage, lemon grass, and apple mint. The apple mint croaked. I almost killed the pineapple sage, but it is doing well in the spot where I had removed the bee balm in the window box. My biggest suprise came from the lemon grass, I set it on top of the soil where the cinnamon basil and been and never got around to planting it. My 4 inch twig in 4 inch pot has grown roots through the bottom of it's pot and is now standing at about 1 1/2 feet tall with babies comming up all around it.
Some of my plants really seem to enjoy the neglect, but others I am having a little more trouble with. Both my mint and tarragon look weird to me - their stems look dead around the base, but after the first two to three inches of looking dead, there are leaves - does anyone know what is causing this? Do I just need to get with it and replant them? I don't want to move them while they are in the middle of the growing season, but if I have to, I will risk it. My pineapple sage and basil are just at a standstill in growth, I don't think I have seen any new growth for about 2 weeks now on either plant. Finally, not really a problem, just a strange thing, my thyme is growing up my rosemary. All of it's growth at first was in the rosemary's direction, which is towards the shade, and now seems content huddled in the rosemary's shadow and lower branches - I thought they LIKED the sun.
GardenGlory #2 (The daughter :)
My first herbs
Good for you! Sounds like you are gaining experience the good way.
Depending on which tarragon, it may not like the heat/humidity. On the chives when you use some, trim a few stalks around the outside of the clump rather than cut them all. I also nip off the flower buds. They are edible and find the plants fill out well with this care. I'll be curious to hear why your mints look dead around the base, my horehound and apple mint tend to do the same. I suspect it is too much or little moisture. I think you will find the root system on the lemon grass will merit its' own pot. Those roots may choke out the rest of the box before summer is here! LOL
Sounds like you're off to a good start! No matter how much advice you get by asking around and reading up on plants, the best way to learn is just to start growing them as you've done.
Herbs to seem to grow in spurts sometime, so unless you think they've become rootbound or aren't getting enough water, everything's probably fine. Sage and rosemary may also become larger than window-box size plants (or at least they'd like to)... I'm not sure how long they'll be happy without more root space, but it seems like they should at least be OK for one season like that. The lemon grass is a thug, like pod said, so you may want to give it its own pot if you can. I had a 12 inch pot of lemon grass for several years that I started from "a sprig," and I was amazed at how quickly it filled that pot!
I'd pinch back the mint, see if that helps promote some new sprouts. For that matter, pinch everything on a regular basis, and you'll have bushier plants. If you scroll down to the bottom of my list of DG articles, you'll find the first 3 on growing herbs that might be useful to you: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/by.php?user=critterologist
Okay - I am out to go and see what I can give some haircuts to. I know I can't do anything to the sweet basil yet - it is just one stem with a bunch of leaves at the top, no branches - the lemon basil however will be getting a good trim, as will the mint and tarragon for sure.
Pinch the center leaves out of the sweet basil! This will make it branch. I pinch my basil a couple times a week.
Yep! If you check the very first DG article I wrote (subtitled "Pinch, Pinch, Pinch!"), you'll find labeled photos showing exactly how to pinch a basil stem. :-)
I did go out and give everything a good pinching - and as I told my mom when I was done "If the mint doesn't make, it has offered up 5 more little ones for me to practice on!" - yes, the mint is spreading like wildfire even though the main plant looks pretty pathetic. I hope I did the basil right. My mom always grew a basil plant because I absolutely loved how it smelled, I really want mine to survive. One of the pineapple sage plants grew in an arch, hit the soil, and then started growing back up - I noticed today that the part that had been toutching the soil was growing what looked like the start of roots, is that in fact what these are? Everything else is still doing pretty much the same. That dang lemon grass though is something else! That thing sat in a car for 3 weeks, I set the pot on the soil and now the thing is really almost as tall as I am if I held the leaf up straight - who would have ever guessed.
Sage, like a lot of herbs, will "layer" and put down roots where a stem makes contact with the soil. After a bit, you can snip the connection to the mother plant, and you'll have a new little plant. If possible, I like to leave the new plant in place for a little while longer to adjust to its independence and let its roots get a bit larger before transplanting it... then you can put it in a little pot of its own!
Gardenglory, if we don't hear from you in a while, we'll notify your local PD to question that Lemon Grass of yours....you're not missing any pets, yet, are you....(:O
LOL - If any of my plants were out to get me, it would be that one. I will have to watch the garden kitties extra closely; who knows what that grass is capable of!
I am happy to report that nothing has died post-pinching... they are actually looking happy, of course, that could be because of the rain over the weekend :)
I do have another question. As stated above, my mint has sent out 5 new plants, none of them are more than 1/2 inch tall, how big should they be before I try to seperate them from the Momma plant? I guess a better question would be what am I going to do with 6 mint plants?