Gardening

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Category: Herb gardening

What to do with all those herbs

With all the herbs that I've dried this summer I needed to know more about cooking with them, so I recently signed up for a community education class called the Spice of Life. It was truly one of the best classes I have been to in a long time. The class was taught by a lady from the Genesee County Herb Society who's love for herbs was definitely contagious. I thought you might want to know some of the things I learned about herbs.

Did you know?

* Herbs only have a shelf life of one year. After that the flavor is just not as good. Some in our class confessed that they needed to take a trip to the compost bin.

* Freezing your herbs is better than drying them: If you have the freezer space, freeze your herbs because it's easier to do and you can use them the same as fresh.

* You should add your herbs the last 20-30 minutes of cooking because they lose their flavor with longer cooking. I am definitely guilty of this one.

* Wrapped in wet paper towel, fresh herbs will last in the refrigerator about a week.

The instructor passed around many herbs for us to look at that I never thought about growing, but will next year. The lemon thyme had just an unbelievable lemon smell. You can use it in place of lemons in any recipe. Another one I would love to try would be winter savory. My herb garden is not that big so I'm really not sure how I will get another herb plant in there but I'll give it a try.

Some more good hints:

* After you strip the dried leaves off the stems don't throw them away, make them into fire starters. Just tie them in a bundle with raffia and keep in a basket by the fireplace. I'm sure the smell it produces will be wonderful. It kind of upsets me that I didn't think of this about two months ago.

* Make an herbal wreath. Take a grapevine wreath and put fresh sage all around it. You can hang it in your kitchen and when the steam from cooking warms it up the aroma flows through the kitchen. I hope it's not raining tomorrow because I know there have to be more grape vines that need to be taken down in my neighbor's yard and I have plenty of sage.

The instructor brought in rosemary sugar cookies (I loved them) and lavender sugar cookies (they were OK). Next Friday she'll bring some recipes and we will get cooking with herbs. I can't wait - all of her recipes just sounded delicious.

You can catch up with my garden at Gardening in Lower MI.

Category: Herb gardening

This summer's herbal experiences

What's with cilantro and garlic? I just can't seem to grow either one of them in containers.

The rest of my herbs -- all in pots -- went gangbusters this summer. It actually turned into a never-ending vigil to keep the oregano, parsley and basil from "bolting." The sage and rosemary, bought new this year, did well, too. For a bit, the rosemary attracted tiny white flies, something I've never had to contend with before.

The other night I snipped enough basil leaves to make a nice pesto for dinner. What a treat!

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Category: Herb gardening

Harvesting herbs is the reward

This being the first year for my herb garden, before I planted I researched fancy designs and different types of herbs to plant. I imagined walking paths and a lot larger yard.

In the end I chose a raised bed and to put in herbs I would basically use for the kitchen: thyme, rosemary, dill, sage, basil, and lavender. It was a Happy Mother's Day.

Yesterday, after I noticed one of my dill plants being knocked down by the storm last week, I decided to harvest. In the morning during a dry spell and after the dew is dry is the best time to harvest. Leaves can get moldy during drying if they are wet. I cut off the dill and also the rosemary, thyme, sage and basil.

It was then I had to think fast how to dry them. I made a

simple drying rack out of dowel, cup hooks and twine. If you don't have a dowel you can use a twig and twine or just put the herbs on a rack and put newspaper over the top. The leaves are dry when you move them they rustle crisply.

Herb gardening so far has been easy and now rewarding.

Category: Herb gardening

Oregano, parsley plants survive the winter

I lost my rosemary plant; same with the sage and basil. But my Greek oregano (Origantum vulgare hirtum) and curled parsley (petroselinum crispum) overwintered in my kitchen just fine, although by spring both looked a little weary (don't we all).

This is the third year for both of those plants. They're on my deck now. I had to transplant the oregano into a 12" clay pot, but the parsley is still in a 10" clay pot.

A dose of 10-10-10 fertilizer and a sunny spot got them off to a good start.

Category: Herb gardening

An oasis of herbs

I've already talked about my basil plants. But my little patio is also home to pots of rosemary, oregano, sage, garlic, dill and parsley. The rosemary and oregano are in their second year, having successfully wintered in my family room. The dill and parsley are from seed. The sage and garlic were potted up after spending years in my flower garden, happily growing next to roses, daisies and other perrenials.

The only herb I've had trouble with is the dill, which seems to get lanky real quick and doesn't take well to being transplanted.

The rest of the plants bounce back quickly after any cuttings. I used potting soil that already had the fertilizer mixed in it, and that seems to be a key.

I've developed an appreciation of using fresh herbs in my cooking. And wow, the aromas. Just brushing against the rosemary plant, for example, releases its wonderful smell.

I still have all the plants outside, but my goal is to bring them inside for the winter.

Category: Herb gardening

Root stems for bushels of basil

My patio is overflowing with pots of basil. It's all because I accidentally discovered that cut basil stems can be rooted.

I had run out of time to cook after cutting the stems. To keep the leaves fresh, I stuck the basil stems in a glass of water. Before I knew it a week or so had gone by, and lo and behold, the stems had started to develop roots. So I potted the new plants.

Later, I cut more stems and plucked off all the leaves for pesto. As an experiment, I stuck the now very naked looking stems in water and viola, the stems rooted.

Before the first frost (I hated typing that word), I plan to take more cuttings, pot up the new plants and enjoy fresh basil in the winter months.

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Category: Herb gardening

A sweet surprise perks up the garden

My new herb garden has many levels, and I've been trying to pay attention to all of them. The very front of the garden was a particular challenge, because there isn't much room and the soil abuts the concrete driveway, so the roots may meet some competition.

I considered various groundcovers, but something for which I had been seeking a spot popped into my head: alpine strawberries.

I have a fond memory of a small municipal garden somewhere up north in which they mixed annual and perennials and tucked in a few alpine strawberries. They made a nice groundcover and the little berries were such a colorful little surprise. I hope to replicate that in our yard.

Not having a better idea at the moment, I lined the front of the herb garden with a half-dozen plants and they are settling in quite well; they've flowered and produced a few fruits. It may not be a hospitable enough environment for them long-term; the real test will be whether they come back next year.

I certainly hope they do, by one of my garden philosophies is "nothing ventured, nothing gained," and if you plant something in the wrong spot, what's the worst that can happen? It dies and you try something else. Gardens always give you a second, third, fourth chance.

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Category: Herb gardening

Herbs add spice to life, garden

I got the herb garden of my dreams this spring when Bob built a raised bed to match our new patio.

I loaded it up with parsley, 3 kinds of basil, dill, oregano and cilantro. I parked sage and chives in the ground around it and the little shelf in front holds thyme, rosemary and some edible flowers (nasturtium and calendula). And I took a chance and planted three types of mint to the right of the bed, in a spot that I don't care too much if it goes crazy (someone can remind me I said that in the event of a future mint invasion.)

Aside from sun and water, herbs are not very needy. I occasionally sacrifice some dill or parsley to hungry caterpillars but that's a small price to pay for butterflies.

There's nothing like stepping outside your back door and harvesting a handful of parsley for a pasta dish, or mixing up a chicken marinade with rosemary and oregano. Chives go with eggs, potatoes and salads and I can't wait to make tabbouli with the mint and parsley. Herbs are pricy at the grocery store (much less so at the farmers market) but it's so economical to grow your own and you don't have to plan ahead. I can pick a recipe on a whim and know I've got the herbal arsenal to make it happen.

This year, in addition to Genovese basil, I found some Neapolitan basil plants (courtesy of the wonderful Renaissance Acres Organic Herb Farm in Whitmore Lake; you can also find them on Saturdays at the Ann Arbor farmers market.

The leaves are a little ruffly and they have a subtle flavor difference. I've tossed them in some dishes like this weekend's summer squash-zucchini ribbons salad and on a panini but I'm really eager to taste it in pesto.

Cilantro has a tendency to bolt quickly, especially in the heat, so I replant it about every month. If I let some plants go to seed, they'll drop to the ground and germinate and give me fall cilantro -- just in time to join the tomatoes and tomatillos in a salsa.

Whatever your garden space, I highly recommend herbs, whether you plant them in the ground or in pots or some kind of mixed container. I put tarragon and French thyme in pots (then I can overwinter them in a sunny window) and a whiskey barrel with flat-leaf parsley, basil and thyme.

Watch for more ideas and recipes for using herbs, but I've found that if you have them on hand, you get quite creative with them. And as with everything else, there's nothing like homegrown flavor.