Garden Flavors

Herbs with Kinda Bitar

Just about every dish tastes better with fresh herbs, and there's no better way to get fresh herbs than to grow them yourself. Follow these growing, tending, and harvesting tips for herb garden success from author, TV personality, and passionate gardener, Kinda Bitar

Basil

Start planting basil - an annual herb - from seeds in mid spring. Plant in full sun, in welldrained soil enriched with compost. Water generously.

The trick to growing basil in abundance is to harvest often. The more you harvest basil, the more the plant will grow. When harvesting, pinch off the stem right above where a pair of leaves are growing. After you harvest, two more stems will start to grow, which means twice the leaves next time you harvest. Once a basil plant flowers, the leaves start to lose their good flavor. Remove the flowers and the leaves will get their flavor back in just a day or so.

Mint

Plant mint in full sun or part shade. It thrives in rich, moist, well-drained soil, and develops the best foliage in soil that has been enriched with compost. Start with one or two plants and set them about 30 cm apart. They'll quickly fill in the area. To contain it, grow mint in a pot so it can't ramble through your landscape. If you like, tuck the container into the ground so the pot doesn't show but still keeps the herb in check.

Harvest mint leaves at any size by pinching off stems. For a large harvest, wait until just before the plant blooms, when the flavor is most intense, then cut the whole plant to just above the first or second set of leaves. In the process, you will remove the yellowing lower leaves and promote bushier growth. Three such harvests per season are typical for mint. Renew your mint plants every 3-4 years.

Rosemary

This herb, native to the Mediterranean, comes in various forms, from stiff and upright, ideal for a hedge planting, to mounded and spreading, perfect for scrambling along a slope or wall. The secret to beautiful rosemary is to give plants a hot, dry footing. Grow plants in welldrained soil or a raised bed and surround them with gravel mulch for best results. Rosemary thrives in containers, too.

For harvesting, snip fresh rosemary stems throughout the growing season. To use rosemary, strip needles from stems and chop before adding to dishes. To store fresh rosemary up to one week in the refrigerator, place stems in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel. Rosemary texture and flavor varies throughout the season. Leaves are tender in spring, with fewer aromatic oils. By late summer, foliage packs a more potent flavor.

Thyme

This sun-loving, drought-tolerant herb thrives in well-drained soil. Drought conditions concentrate the aromatic oils in thyme, so the drier your growing conditions, the better. In your garden, tucking plants into raised beds or mulching them with gravel will give thyme the conditions that cause it to thrive and be flavorful.

Shear plants back after bloom, cutting off about a third of stems. Thyme's oils take time to be infused into dishes; add thyme early in the cooking process to release the greatest flavor.

Oregano

An easy-growing herb, oregano thrives in planting beds or containers. Grow it in welldrained soil in full sun. Plant it in a pot with rosemary, sage, and thyme for a flavorful quartet you can place near the kitchen door, handy for snipping and sprinkling into dishes. In the ground, plants will flower and set seeds, which shortens the harvest season. Pinch flowers from stems to keep plants in top snipping form. Pick leaves as needed throughout the growing season. Flavor diminishes after plants bloom; for best taste, harvest leaves before flower buds open.

Sage

Sage provides an abundant harvest and holds its flavor well when dried. Once established, sage is resistant to drought, although it's wise to keep plants well-hydrated through the hottest parts of the summer if you want a steady supply of foliage. For the first year, let the plant grow without harvesting. This will allow the plant to establish a better harvest the next year. After the first year, however, it is best to harvest annually.

Besides its popular use as a culinary herb, sage is also commonly used in cosmetics, perfumes, and soaps. Some naturalists rub it on their skin as an insect repellent. Hanging dried leaves among clothing deters moths. Burning sage removes unpleasant odors, such as lingering cigarette smoke or cooked fish smells.