Wild about herbs
Cool-weather plants are fragrant, flavorful and easy to grow
NOVEMBER begins what most people consider the holiday season, but making Thanksgiving plans and coming up with holiday gift ideas aren’t the only things to think about this late fall. Now is the time for gardeners to focus their attention on herbs — what to grow and where to grow it.
The Houston climate is perfect, fall to spring, for nearly all the popular herbs except basil. Basil loves warmer weather, so Houston gardeners don’t plant basil until spring and then enjoy it all summer. Once the weather cools, however, the basil will lose steam and finally bow out — which is just fine. Harvest the basil you have, use it fresh or make pesto with it and freeze it. And then prepare that garden space for herbs that do well in cooler weather.
You have plenty of choices. Cilantro, dill, fennel, oregano, rosemary, thyme and parsley are perhaps the most common and some of the easiest to grow. Other favorites include mint, lavender, lemon balm, chicory, catnip, lemongrass, nasturtium, lemon verbena, various sages and salvias.
Houston-area gardeners are fortunate that the 43rd annual Herb Fair is being pre-
sented by the South Texas Unit of the Herb Society of America on Nov. 14. The theme for this year’s fair is “Herbal Celebration for the Winter Season,” which encourages herb gardening in the cooler months. The fair will feature myriad varieties of the most popular as well as the lesser-known herbs — as transplants and as seeds — for gardeners to start or refresh their herb gardens.
Susan Wood, a life member of the Herb Society and past chair of the South Texas Unit, says the key to growing herbs is to put them in full sun and to make sure they don’t get waterlogged. “Most herbs need six hours of sun to thrive,” she says. “Morning through afternoon sun is best — the lateafternoon sun in the fall and winter is OK, but it’s too intense for them in the summer.”
Place herbs in the ground or in containers, but make sure the drainage is good. Herbs mostly don’t do well in soggy soil, which is why Wood and other herb experts recommend planting herbs with sharp sand or pea gravel mixed into the soil to help with drainage. Also, the sand warms up quickly in the winter sun and can help protect plants from the cold.
What to plant? “Whatever will give you the most pleasure,” Wood says.
Some people enjoy cooking with herbs, so any of the culinary varieties are great to start with — rosemary, oregano, chives, dill, cilantro, thyme and more.
Other people enjoy the fragrance of herbs, so they choose mints, various lemony herbs — like lemon balm and lemon verbena — pineapple salvia and lavender. Choose your favorite smelling herbs by brushing the herbs’ leaves between your fingers to release the fragrance. Many lavender varieties don’t do well through the Texas summer, but area gardeners have success with the fern leaf and sweet lavender varieties.
Still others enjoy herbs as part of their overall landscape design. Herbs offer many different shapes and sizes, and then produce beautiful flowers in the spring that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Bay tree is a slowgrowing herb that makes a wonderful specimen in full-sun areas of the garden. Borage is usually the first to bloom in the spring, in February or March, and produces small sky-blue flowers in the shape of a five-point star.
“The English call it bee bread,” Wood says, because bees are attracted to it. “We hear all about the bees dying off — well, this is something we can do to help them. Plant borage.” Once it is established, let it go to seed, and it will volunteer reliably season after season. Also, Wood adds, if you cut it to put in a vase, the seeds will continue to ripen.
The main thing to figure out is where herbs — and all your plants, really — do best in your garden. Wood recommends starting with several of each variety of herb you want to grow, and place each one in a different area of your garden. Notice which plants thrive and which ones struggle over time, then adjust locations accordingly.
“Don’t try to manipulate the plants to do what you want them to do where you want them to do it,” Wood advises. “Work with nature and with what the plants naturally want. Then, even beginner gardeners can be successful.”
Which means, don’t start or buy basil right now. And if you have basil in your garden now, let it go. Don’t try to keep it alive all winter; it won’t be happy. Harvest what you want from it, let it go and replace it with something that will do well all fall and winter. Once that plant produces flowers and seeds, and the first major heat wave knocks it out, you can start your basil again.
Those who want to learn more about herbs and what to do with them may attend free classes at the Herb Fair. Wood will teach a class on cool-weather herbs; other classes will focus on herbs in the historical Thanksgiving meal, and how to use herbs in making your own skin care products. The Herb Fair will feature books, sprout kits, gardening supplies, herbal blends, jellies and crafts alongside plants and seeds for the garden — all available for purchase. Attendees can pre-order jellies, blends and plant vouchers online before Monday in order to gain early admission on the day of the fair.
So, don’t let the fall get away from you without tending to your herbs. They are some of the most pleasurable plants to grow — engaging our senses of smell, sight and taste. They are wonderful sources of green through the dreary winter. And their flowers are among the first harbingers of spring.