herbie

Harvest Herbs While They’re Growing Well

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The herbs are looking great this time of year. They’re growing so well you can see a difference in these green plants every day. Just give them a little warmth and the hot sun of May and they’ll be making leaves like crazy.

Fast-growing herbs from the top are spearmint, peppermint, horehound, thyme and cilantro.
Fast-growing herbs from the top are spearmint, peppermint, horehound, thyme and cilantro.

My scissors are ready to harvest the following plants that are about a foot tall, except the thyme and oregano which are growing very well too:

  • Spearmint
  • Peppermint
  • Oregano
  • Thyme
  • Horehound
  • Parsley

Spearmint and peppermint, which is a cocoa-mint variety, will be harvested and used to make tea. And potpourri, if you count the delicious smells while the leaves are brewing. Horehound might be used to make candy too — time will tell.

Oregano and thyme are a couple of my go-to herbs for chicken dishes, breads and some veggies. There usually is some fresh growing near the kitchen, but there’s always a little bit dried in the cupboard just in case.

Harvesting the herbs is too easy. Snip off a handful of herb, tie the stems together with a length of string or twine, and hang the bunch in the kitchen or pantry.

Parsley that we have growing now is a second year plant and it’s in the garden. It has been harvested a couple of times already to make Parsley Potatoes. We’ll keep clipping off leaves as we’d like to, but I’ll be on the lookout for a replacement parsley plant that can take us into the fall. This one will probably peter out in the heat of the summer. Did you know that parsley is a biennial plant?

Reseeding – the Easiest Planting You’ll Ever Do

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In the garden dill has re-seeded itself. Right now the hundreds of miniature dill plants look like a fuzzy carpet of light green.

Reseeded Dill
Reseeded Dill

Some of the dill will be used to make pickles in the summertime. Some will be given away to other pickle makers. Some will be used fresh in the kitchen and some will be dried. We crop off the plants that are growing in awkward places first just to be frugal about it.

Cilantro is another herb that regularly re-seeds itself. We find its little sprouts all around the stone walkway near the herbs bed.

We let a few favorite lettuce plants go to seed on purpose. That way we can collect seed to share and so we know we’ll always have some. It only takes a little effort to do it, so why not?

Herbs and garden plants typically annuals, meaning they grow and produce their crops in one year’s time. We buy small plants at nurseries and markets to transplant in our gardens.

The transplants were given a head start by spending their young life in the warmth of a greenhouse. They’ll be a few inches tall by the time seeds at ambient temperatures will be sprouting.

By growing transplants we can extend the growing season by getting fruit earlier than what would naturally be produced. Some plants don’t need lots of heat to make produce for us though, things like herbs that reseed and lettuce greens. Their season is much shorter to crop than say tomatoes or peppers.

Re-seeding is letting nature take its course. We by-pass saving seeds and just let them drop to the ground. When they’re dry enough or mature enough, the seeds will sprout given the right circumstances. Moisture is usually involved. No tending necessary!