Harvest your herb garden without killing plants

A couple sprigs of this, a few leaves of that — fresh herbs are one of the easiest ways to make any meal more exciting. And it’s all the more satisfying when you’ve grown your own, as many in the San Antonio area have started to do during the coronavirus pandemic.

But if you’ve suddenly found yourself staring down an overgrown bush of basil or rosemary hedge with snips in hand and zero certainty of where to start harvesting that aromatic bounty, fear not. With a little know-how you can clip and pluck those plants for months to come without doing enough harm to kill them prematurely.

There are a few general rules that apply to most leafy culinary herbs. If there are flowers on the plant it’s busy thinking about making seeds and not tasty greenery. To keep your herbs lush and bushy, clip off flower buds or spikes as they form.

Many herbs are at their most flavorful after the morning dew has evaporated but before the heat of the day blasts away the aromatic oils that give the plants their unique taste. Plan your cooking accordingly, or place those freshly cut herb sprigs in a cup of water on the kitchen counter to keep them plump for a few hours.

Some of the more popular culinary herbs have harvesting idiosyncrasies that are worth noting.

Basil: Basil will be more lush and tender if watered the night before harvest. If you need more than a few leaves, clip basil stems about a third of the way down just above a cluster of leaves.

Cilantro: Clip the tender top third of cilantro stems starting from the outside edges of the plant. If you don’t take more than a third of the plant at a time, and you leave enough of each stem intact, cilantro will keep putting out new growth.

Oregano: Clip tender, small sprigs just above the point on the main shoots where the sprigs start to encourage new growth. Oregano will have the most intense flavor just as flower buds are starting to form.

Mint: You can get pretty aggressive when harvesting mint. As long as some leafy growth is left behind the plant will continue its unceasing march toward taking over the whole herb bed.

Rosemary: Cut the top 2 inches of sprigs that are at least 8 inches long. If you’re harvesting a lot of rosemary, leave at least three-fourths of the plant intact to keep it alive and let it grow out again before snipping more.

Thyme: If you clip small sprigs of thyme just above the node where it meets the main stem, you’ll both encourage the plant to grow and get sprigs tender enough to chop up with the leaves.

With a little know-how, you can keep your herb bed producing for months.