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Herb seasons
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Posted by dazey62 NSW Aust (My Page) on Mon, Jan 12, 04 at 5:11
I am a beginner with the growing of herbs and set up a little garden at the beginning of spring from seedlings. Some plants are starting to flower and seed and I'm not sure whether what I have planted are annuals, perrenials or what. Can someone help me out? This is what I have got:
French chives (flowering),
garlic chives,
lemon thyme (flowering),
common thyme (flowering),
sage,
rosemary,
sweet basil (not looking healthy),
coriander (carked it now),
oregano (flowering),
curley parsley (flowering)
If I just left everything self seed would the garden be overrun with unruly plants?
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Herb seasons
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French chives (flowering), perennial, may die down in winter and resurrect in spring. May self-seed.
garlic chives, Ditto.
lemon thyme (flowering), perennial. Will self-layer, but not get out of control. Mother plant may die off in 3-4 years, but babies replace it.
common thyme (flowering),Ditto
sage, perennial, no prob
rosemary, perennial, no prob. May live up to 30 years.
sweet basil (not looking healthy), Annual. May self seed, not a prob.
coriander (carked it now), very short-lived annual. May have self-seeded. Plant successive crops every 2-3 weeks for continual supply of leaves. (Prefers cooler conditions, there are some so-called slow-bolting varieties available.)
oregano (flowering), perennial, can spread widely but it usually controllable.
curley parsley (flowering), biennial. Once it flowers, it's done for. Allow the seeds to drop or collect them, and start new plants. Let the flowering happen. My rosemary flowers almost all year round, and it's pretty near impossible to stop the flowers on basil! My thymes (I have a thyme lawn) flower mostly in spring and summer. The flowers of all the plants you mention are edible. |
RE: Herb seasons
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| hi dazey. The Chives and garlic chives will come back year after year. They have little bulblets under the ground which divide over time. The Thymes are perennial and should keep going for years. Cut them back hard if they look daggy. The flowers on thyme are half the joy, very pretty. Rarely self seed. Sage and Rosemary are perennials and both flower and look great. The rosemary shjouldn't need much attention, but if you prune it it'll thicken up and make a better specimen. It depends on the variety, there are so many with different growth habits.
Your sage might die back a bit after flowering and look tatty. Just cut it back and it'll re-shoot and love you for it. Basil, Coriander and Parsley are usually anuals. Once they finish flowering the plant will naturaly fade and die. Make sure you pick and use plenty while they're growing because once they go to seed their time is running out. Basil especially loves having the tips nipped out and thickens up into a nice dense bush in response. Parsley will self seed but it's not a problem. Next spring when you see the little seedlings coming up dig them out and shift them where you want them. Finally, Oregano is basically perennial, and the same applies. When it's about to flower and grows taller is a good time to harvest it all for drying. The essentuial oil concentration will be high in the young flower spikes. Don't be scared of hurting it, you can cut right back to ground level and it'll come back strong. Our oregano has self seeded all through the herb garden. I give the little plants away to friends, or just pull them out like weeds. Sorry to be long winded, I hope this helps. Cheers. |
RE: Herb seasons
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Thank you Daisyduckworth and Jamus.
I now know that my herbs are doing exactly what nature intended. The annuals I will replace when the time comes.
Thank you again. |
RE: Herb seasons
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| Daisyduckworth, can you please tell me more about your THYME lawn. It sounds very interesting. |
RE: Herb seasons
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| My thyme lawn consists mainly of a selection of low-growing or matting (carpet) thymes, including Orange Peel Thyme. Common thyme is not suitable for lawns because it gets too tall, and too woody. I have some other thymes around the back edge, as a sort of frame, including Caraway Thyme, Pizza (Oregano) Thyme, and Nutmeg Thyme. These I chop back occasionally to keep them from becoming woody. Bear in mind that I have only a courtyard garden, so the area is quite small (about 4-5 metres long, and at the widest area, about 2 metres wide). It's all in full sun (except one narrow strip close to a pergola at the eastern end where the thyme doesn't do so well because the pergola partially shades it), and it separates a brick paver path in front, and a garden bed at the back. I don't think I could cope with anything larger than that, because thyme definitely does NOT deter weeds, and because it mats so closely, it's the devil's own job to get rid of the many weeds I get in it, mostly compliments of birds. This despite intensive anti-weed treatment before I planted the thyme, and weed-mat. It's lovely to walk on, and very pretty when in flower (which is seems to do most of the year). It seldom needs trimming (about once or twice a year at most, and only if I'm so inclined!). I use a hedge trimmer for the job (manual), but a lawnmower would do the job if on a fairly high setting. I allow the thyme to flow onto the path and onto the garden, because I like the natural, 'wild' look. I find it takes quite a lot of water (it copes very well with our frequent sub-tropical downpours), but it is very well-drained. I planted it mainly because such a tiny area was a real pain when it was grass, and not really worth the effort of twice-weekly mowing in summer (it took me longer to get out the mower than it did to mow the wretched stuff!), and it provides a patch of walk-on-able green, and every other plant in my little garden is a herb, anyway. My son is delighted with it - he scored my lawnmower and edge-trimmer! And I love it because, except for the weeds, it's otherwise virtually maintenance-free. Good for a disabled oldie like me. |
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