In the garden we had a dill forest about 4-5 weeks ago. I wish I got a picture of how nice the tall herb looked before that storm blew through here. All the seed heads now lay on the ground or each other, strewn every which way. That area of the garden looks a mess, but it’s the flavors that count.
Dill forest about 4 feet tall in the garden.
There’s still a lot of dill in the garden even though we used quite a bit for making dill pickles. One head per jar is enough dill weed or dill seed to flavor the cucumbers. We found out we could use the green seed heads just as well as the brown seed heads for flavoring the pickles.
Pickle ingredients of cucumbers, dill and garlic.
After another day or two of sunshine we’ll harvest some of the dill seed and dill weed for the pantry and let other stalks release their seeds into the garden. That way, we’ll be guaranteed more dill herb for next year’s fun. Some of the seed that falls to the ground now will be able to germinate and grow a little bit into September, but the small sprouts will die off after the weather freezes. They won’t survive in a hot box for very long into the Autumn.
For the last two weeks the herb and flower beds have been calling to me. I’ve been wanting to clear them out of the leaves that were allowed to accumulate there for protection from winter weather. Perennial herbs may or may not survive in our location in the mountains. It all depends on the severity of the Winter and whether the plants were protected long enough into Spring from freezing temperatures.
Peeking out from leaf cover from the top moving counter-clockwise are the herbs horehound, lemon-thyme, thyme and tarragon (surprise!).
Here in Central Pennsylvania we have a frost-free date in the middle of May so we try not to plant anything but cold crops until after that date. It’s just not worth the risk of forgetting to bring in pots on a cold night that might erase all the time and energy spent on planting those pretty posies. Instead, we turn our attention to prepping the garden for receiving its first plants and picking up sticks in the yards so the lawn mower will be happy.
Historically, we’ve had record freezing temperatures well into the month of May but the forecast for the next 10 days shows lows only getting down into the 50s. Now that it seems warm enough outside we can rake out the flower and herb beds. The leaves were purposefully kept there covering up the herbs that are supposed to be perennial. Once they’re uncovered we’ll be able to figure out which plants survived and which ones need to be replaced this year.
I’m curious what other people do to overwinter their perennial herbs. We are surrounded by a forest so it’s simple for us to rake leaves over the plants to hold in the earth’s warmth.
Perennial anise hyssop.Perennial lemon balm.
A couple of hardy perennial herbs return each year in the garden where they receive no protection from Winter’s icy grip. Lemon balm and anise hyssop roots bring back these fast-growing herbs in early Spring. Their numerous seeds are sought after by goldfinches and dark-eyed juncos who visit us in the cold months, but the leftover seeds will produce many small plants in the vicinity of the mother plants.
We use leaves as a kind of mulch in our flower and herb beds, so some of the leaves will stay around the base of the plants when we rake out the beds.
