Perennial culinary herbs
bill_ri_z6b
14 years ago
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carol6ma_7ari
14 years agomad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Establishing a culinary herb garden! Cuttings and seed desired
Comments (8)It can be fun to experiment with growing seed when you're a beginner, but it can also be incredibly frustrating! I suggest you take a visit to your local plant nursery and start off with seedlings (baby plants). This is a double advantage. First, your plants have a head start, giving you rewards sooner; second, you have the opportunity to taste and smell the plants before you buy. Slow-growing plants like Bay take forever to grow from seed - and rosemary can be a very slow starter, too. One of the major gripes on this forum is the fact that there is very little regulation regarding the labelling of plants or seeds. Too often, you'll see a label on a packet of seeds saying 'French Tarragon', but you can be quite confident that it will NOT be French tarragon - because FT rarely sets viable seed! Similarly, the plant you buy may be Russian Tarragon (an almost tasteless weed), or even Winter Tarragon (which is a very fair substitute, actually, but not a tarragon). Another example of fraud is peppermint. Peppermint is actually sterile, so it must be propagated vegetatively - by cuttings, layering or division. Yet people merrily continue to sell packets of seeds labelled 'peppermint'. It makes me grind my teeth! So - while you're browsing amongst the plants, don't be afraid to pick off a leaf - crush it, smell it, taste it. With Tarragon, you should get an astonishing mouth-numbing effect (great for tooth-ache!). Taste the difference between spearmint and peppermint - there is no mistaking the differences with a taste-test! Do some WWW-searching to learn the botanical names of edible herbs. For instance, there are hundreds of species of sage, but only a very few are edible - you'll be looking for Salvia officinalis. For bay leaves, you'll be looking for Laurus nobilis, and no other. You can be somewhat more confident that seeds bought in the herb/spice deparment in your supermarket are correctly labelled. Herbs like fenugreek, mustard, coriander (what you call cilantro), caraway, cumin etc usually germinate very well - and haven't been chemically treated like many propagation-purpose seeds. You can also look out for fresh herbs from the fruit/vege section of your supermarket. You'll often get plants in small pots - these are usually fed with lots of nitrogen to hasten leaf growth, while the roots will be a bit pot-bound, but you can often get them to grow if you don't leave them too long before transplanting them. And in amongst the veges, you'll find onions and garlic and ginger and lemongrass. When planted, onions and garlic and ginger roots will grow; and if the lemongrass stems have even a tiny little root on it, that will grow, too. With a lot of the herbs you'll end up with, you can collect seed from them, or take cuttings, and you'll end up with a perpetual supply. Of course, you'll need to provide the right conditions for all your herbs, so it helps to know where they originated, and to copy as near as possible the conditions there (climate, soil, etc). Also learn about which plants are annuals, and which are perennials. Any good nursery should be able to supply lots of that sort of information on request. Don't forget to browse through this forum, using the Search facility if you like. There is some excellent information to be found here....See Moreculinary herbs for small, shallow containers
Comments (7)You don't state where you live or if the container will be indoors or outdoors or outdoors, good drainage, etc. which can affect the herbs. However, off hand, I would suggest Corsican mint and some of the creeper thymes, i.e. elfin, red-flowered, pink chintz, coconut, caraway, and Annie Hall to name just a few....See MoreNEW: veggie, herb (culinary & medicinal),edible seed swap
Comments (187)I also have not received any seeds. I've seen no effort on Olivia's part to contact me. For what it is worth, I have participated in quite a few swaps within this community before and have always found them worth taking the chance...sometimes fantastically so. However, I walked into the swaps recognizing that it IS taking a chance, especially if someone is a first-timer at facilitating a swap, as in this case apparently. I don't plan to stop participating in swaps in the future, but find it wise to gamble no more than I can afford to lose....See MoreWhich culinary herbs are snail/slug resistant?
Comments (3)The woody herbs- rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, , stuff that trends to last overwinter, those with a harder stem and tougher foliage seem to fare better with snails than softer stuff like basil. But your population might have evolved to eat what's locally abundant, so you might need to look into ways to discourage. Some of those include removing mulch and leaf detritus since that acts as shelter/nursery to gastros, and not watering in the evening or as frequently because they also love wet soil and areas....See Morehunt4carl
14 years agodiggingthedirt
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14 years agomad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
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14 years agomad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
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14 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
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14 years agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
14 years agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
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14 years agodiggerdee zone 6 CT
14 years agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
14 years agobill_ri_z6b
14 years agodiggerdee zone 6 CT
14 years agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
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14 years agoleira
14 years agoleira
14 years agodiggingthedirt
14 years agodiggerdee zone 6 CT
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14 years agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
14 years agodefrost49
14 years agobill_ri_z6b
14 years agodiggingthedirt
14 years agoleira
14 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
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