Herb garden in 2023 and 2024
December 14, 2024
I was planning on writing this post about 2024 only, but it turns out I didn't write anything about 2023 yet, so I'm going to cover both years. It took a bit of digging through old photos and unfortunately I only found a couple for 2023. Many more for this year though. Next year I'll try to be a bit more organized to make a year-end review a bit easier.
2023In spring 2023, I desodded a small bit of the lawn next to our back patio for the herb garden. I planted the back quarter of it with basil, marjoram (a subspecies of oregano), thyme, and rosemary. All but the basil I bought from a local garden center. The basil was just from buying fresh at the store and then rooting. I kept adding more basil for a couple months, so it was a bit fuller by mid-summer.
In July, I had harvested and dried some thyme, basil, and rosemary. I also did so again in October, and this time was also able to get some marjoram:
This year, I planted the whole space. In all, it's somewhere around 15 square feet.
The rosemary, marjoram, and thyme that I'd planted last year all survived the winter and spread a little. The rosemary probably grew the most - taller and bushier with a little bit of pruning. The marjoram probably tripled the ground it covered and then in mid-June sent a lot of stalks up into the air, most of which I allowed to flower and go to seed. I wish thyme was faster growing than it is - next to basil that's probably the herb I used the most, at least among those I grow. So I split it and planted half of it at the front corner. I'll probably split it again next year so there's more of it. I harvested and dried all three of those. I now have more rosemary than I know what to do with, a bit of marjoram, and, sadly, no more thyme.
Parsley, cilantro, and lavender were new additions this year. I also attempted to plant some sunflowers on the edges of it, but, though they ignored them for a while, the deer eventually ate them. I also threw in a cucumber among the basil, because I had grown it from a seed but didn't have space for it in the vegetable garden at the time. After a couple things didn't survive in the vegetable garden, I moved it there.
The basil, Italian Genovese grown from seed, was the great success of the year. I aggressively pruned the plants and by the end they were nice and bushy and about 20 inches tall. Anytime I needed fresh basil it was available. I gave some to my neighbor. I also dried a bunch and made two batches of pesto. The second batch was big, and in addition to the couple of meals it provided a sauce for at the time, I think there's probably enough in the freezer for three or four more. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it has fared. About a month ago it got hit by frost. Half of the 15 or so plants turned completely brown, while the rest lost most of their leaves but stayed green for another week or so. Just before spring I'll cut them off at their base and chop them up into the compost.
The cilantro was the first thing to go, long before frost. Although I got a few handfuls from it, it didn't do that well. But I let a few go to seed, which I'll use for next year.
Surprisingly, the parsley is still alive and doing well. It did not start off well - something was eating it when it first started coming up, but then let it go. With how delicate the leaves are, I figured it would have been the first thing to succumb to frost, but despite several periods of below freezing temperatures for multiple days, it's still there. Which reminds me - I should grab some before it's gone. Like the cilantro, I got a few handfuls from it over the summer and fall.
More rosemary dried and stored
October 6, 2024
No pics on this one, but I trimmed the top of about 25 stems of the rosemary plant, which soon will graduate to rosemary bush. I then trimmed off the leaves from the stems, and baked in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes and then (because it didn't seem like 180 was doing the trick) at 210 for another 20. Got nearly a full spice jar. I still have a bunch leftover from last year. I'm going to need to find more uses for rosemary.
I then took all the stems and put them in the ground in various places around the yard. Not expecting much - if one survives I'll be happy. Mostly I just like the way it looks.
More basil dried and stored
October 6, 2024
I harvested a bunch of basil yesteday and dried it in the dehydrator borrowed from MH for something like 4 hours. Early this morning - since the kiddo woke up briefly and I wasn't able to fall back asleep - I crushed it up and funneled it into a jar. I didn't measure it, but I'd guess it was 4 cups fresh, which reduced to about 3/4 of a cup dried. I also did this last month, with a slightly smaller amount (because I ruined half of it by trying to air fry it in the oven), and also have some from earlier in the year and from last year, so we're all set on dried basil for some time. Still, if the plants go to seed (not sure they will flower this late in the year), I'm going to save them for next year, for either fresh basil, pesto, or drying and giving away. The variety is Italian Genovese.
