Tips for Adding Herbs to Your Garden

Potted basil and herbs

Let’s talk about our veggies and herbs. All those tender crops like melons and tomatoes can be put outside after the last frost. Usually that’s mid-May here in upstate New York. What better time to share some herb growing tips! 

What chef wants to be without fresh herbs? I like to plant them close to the house so they are easy to get to when I’m cooking. You don’t have to limit yourself to tidy rows in a square patch. I like to plant veggies and herbs, especially parsley and leaf lettuce in my regular flower beds. For the invasive ones, like mint, it’s best if they are contained in pots. I put the basil in pots as well, so I can bring them inside in the fall when it gets cold.

For best flavor, make sure you have full sun for your herbs. Remember, most herbs are originally from the Mediterranean where they get tons of full sun every day. They don’t mind being hot and dry, so you don’t have to water them every day, unlike some other fussy things like tomatoes, that don’t like wet/dry/wet/dry soil conditions.
 

Hope you like chives!

Here’s another herb growing tip, or a not-to-grow tip actually! Once, I planted chives because I liked the pretty purple flowers. Thirty years later, I am regretting that. We have chives all over the place, even in the lawn. When we mow, it smells like onions. Yikes! Learn from my mistake and don’t let your chives go to seed.

Chives with flowers