Trimming and preservation of herbs.

17 years ago

At first this spring, my herb garden seemed a little slow. Things werenÂt really growing that fast. Then, the warm weather came! Holy poop batman! IÂve got more herb now than there was at the whole of Woodstock! Well, maybe not quite that much. ;) This is basically my first year with an actual garden for herbs. What IÂm wondering is:

How short do I trim things like: oregano, summer savory, cilantro, parsley, and chervil?

After I trim them, do I dry the trimmings? Do I freeze them? I donÂt want to waste any of it.

Any advice would be helpful.

THANK YOU!!!!

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Comments (5)

Daisyduckworth
17 years ago
I get the impression (correct me if I'm wrong!) that you are looking at your herbs rather like a lawn - keep them all at a uniform height so they look neat and tidy.

Well, it isn't like that. There's not much about herbs that is neat and tidy! For the most part, you will cut back your herbs when you harvest them for eating. You can do that pretty much at any time you like, but don't take more than one-third of total growth at any one time, then wait until the plant regenerates before doing it again. You can take whole sprigs cut pretty much to the ground, or you can take tips, or you can take individual leaves. You can harvest many times - not just once a season.

Parsley and chervil - take the oldest leaves first.

Coriander - take any leaves you like while you can - once they turn feathery and the plant bolts to seed (guaranteed to happen soon now you've got warmer weather!) just let it self-seed and forget harvesting until the next generation comes up).

Summer savory - take whole sprigs and remember it's an annual, so harvest while it's still around.

Oregano - it'll run wild if allowed to, so harvest whole sprigs any time.

It's up to you whether to freeze or dry your herbs for storage. My personal preference is for freezing. Chervil particularly doesn't hold its flavour well when dried.
herbmax
Original Author
17 years ago
"I get the impression (correct me if I'm wrong!) that you are looking at your herbs rather like a lawn - keep them all at a uniform height so they look neat and tidy. "

LOL!!! Well, that is part of it. When I set up the garden, I didn't leave enough space for the plants to grow. Now they're invading each other like the plague! See photo-

{{gwi:902134}}

The real reason I wanted to know is I didn't want anything to happen to the plants if I trimmed them too early or trimmed them wrong. That's why I was waiting and questioning clipping them off.

Note to self: DonÂt miracle grow spearmint.

{{gwi:902135}}
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Daisyduckworth
17 years ago
LOL! Biggest mistake you've made so far is to put the mint in the garden! DIG IT UP NOW before it's too late. There have been countless threads on this forum posted by desperate people wanting to know how to get rid of it once it's taken over! That alone will give your other plants a better chance to grow.

You can always dig up your other plants, but leave the parsley alone and also the coriander and chervil. They'll bolt if you move them. But oregano can be shifted somewhere else. (Left to its own devices it'll come back anyway!).

Move the sage away from the others a little way. It can get quite big, but also has different watering requirements. You could also move the savory, which needs less water than the others. And is that a tarragon in the middle? Move that, too.

Actually, your herbs all look fantastic as they are. They'll get bigger of course, but a little crowding in the garden (it's different in pots) won't hurt too much for now. People do forget just how bigs herbs can get because they rarely see a full-grown plant in a nursery. I remember the first time I grew Italian parsley at just how big it got!
herbmax
Original Author
17 years ago
Actually I took steps to prevent the mint from spreading. My friend is a welder and he made me a 36" square, 24" deep metal box that I buried in the ground and planted the mint in. I had heard horror stories and had it actually happen to me. I have another patch of it that each year creeps a little farther out into the lawn during the spring. I don't care there of course cause it just gets mowed off. However I think the box has the spreading problem licked, weÂll see though LOL.

As for the other stuff, thank you for your advice. I plan on increasing the size of the plots here in time so things will have more space. I went up this morning to look at things and I think it needs to happen a lot sooner than later!!!!! We had a good rain last night and stuff shot up a couple of inches or better!

Anyway, thanks again for your advice. IÂll put it to good use!
hemnancy
17 years ago
What about lavender? Mine tends to sit there and get woody, and the part that is growing gets farther and farther out. If a branch is cut back close to the base will it make some new growth or not? I don't know how to renew that or thymes that seem to keep growing on the same branches and get woody also. My oregano seems to come up fresh from the base in the spring and doesn't have that problem.