One component of the planning process when you want to start your own herb garden is to determine the array of herb plants you’d like to cultivate. There are so many different herbs and many of these herbs have numerous kinds—for example, there are hundreds of kinds of thyme to select from.
The life cycles or growing periods vary with different herbs. Understanding your herb’s life cycle will help you make the best choices. When you go shopping for your herbs, you’ll need to know their life cycle. The three primary categories are:
- Annuals: These flowers begin from a seed. They grow, flower and die all in the same growing season. There are a number of nice annual herb plants: cilantro, chervil, basil, borage and dill.
- Biennials: Biennial flowers grow for 2 years and usually bear a “fruit” in the second year (like caraway). Some herb plants (like parsley) can produce leaves during both years but deteriorate early in the second growing season. Some biennials you should use are angelica, Queen Anne’s lace and chicory.
- Perennials: These herbs generally come back for more than two growing seasons. Whether or not they come back or for how many years they will come back depends on the climate where they grow. Some perennials you may enjoy include yarrow, lemon verbena, mints, rosemary, scented geranium, thyme and lady’s mantle.
I love raising herbs with different growing seasons, but perennials are extra rewarding because I don’t have to buy them again and plant them again. Too much cold can harm your perennials, so be careful. You can lengthen their growing cycle by bringing them in during winter months.
There are several other things you can do to lengthen the life of your herb plants:
- Some perennials will need for you to trim them back, unearth the bulb, roots or rhizome, and keep in your garage, basement or cellar over the winter.
- If you’re going to bring your herbs inside during winter months, use pots instead of growing them in the ground. Some folks even put their containers in the ground, covering them up to the rim. These folks simply take out the whole pot at the end of the season and store them during winter months.
- Plant your biennials in middle of the summer so that you can get lots of flowers in the second season.
- Some herb plants are self-sowers, which means that they will sow their own seeds for the next cycle. Mustard, borage and catnip are just a couple of the herbs that are self-sowers.
- Lop off faded flowers to extend the growing cycle of short-lived annuals. In the right location clipping your annuals back toward the end of summer just might cause them to self-seed.
- If you get some unexpected cold weather be sure to cover your herbs with a blanket, towel or sheet which can prevent the frost from killing your herb. Herbs that are in containers can be moved under a covered stoop for protection.
My hope for you is that these pointers can come in handy when you start your own herb garden planning. It can be hard at times to get it just right. I have been at this for years and I often end up digging up what doesn’t work and starting over!
Here is more information on Herb Garden Information. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.
Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.
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