Herb Gardening Herb Gardeners, share your tips, tricks experiences with us

[Archangel_Baw 0]

I have a rather small herb garden this year, I'm just growing basil, oregano, spearmint, tarragon and catnip.I originally planted some dill, thyme, anise & chamomile but they died early this year:( Please feel free to boast about your own herb gardens here & add any helpful hints you may have. The more the merrier

[TikiPrincess 0]

I tried planting an Italian herb garden a few years ago with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Since I'm in California, too much sun is the biggest problem, so I planted them in a container so that I could move them around as the light changed. I've actually got a green thumb when I apply myself, but I'm easily distracted and forget to water or move them to a spot that gets a good ratio of sun & shade. They all dried up and died. But I did get the start of a nice rosemary bush in one of the areas that I set the container down. It must have bloomed or something.Other than that, I planted some carrots that were yummy to some gopher and a little section of California poppies that turned into a field of poppies after awhile.

[Archangel_Baw 0]

last year i did radishes, carrots, lettuce, peppers tomatoes and all the herbs listed above, but i forgot to water mine aswell. but hey my radishes survived, they're tough:)

[ewcreators 0]

I grew chives, basil, oregano, thyme, spearmint, tarragon, catnip, anise, and rosemary last year. Most of my stuff lived, so I plan on doing the same thing again neext year.

[sheepdog 10]

My favorite herb to grow fresh is parsley, but it is a buggar to start, it has a very slow germination rate and slow growth to start with, and is easily choked out by weeds. Once it gets a good start and some growth on it, it does real well though. I've grown lots of dill, and some fennel, both are easy to do. Now a friend of mine gave me a start of some herb, and I can find no earthly use for it, and of course, it took over the bed and has spread like the plague everywhere.

[Misanthrope 0]

What would a garden (or kitchen) be without the alluring odor of fresh herbs? This year, it's Parsley, Dill, Rosemary, Thyme, Earl of Bergamot, Basil, Mint, and Wild Oregano. Not too crazy 'bout the Wild Oregano though, as it spreads like a weed and is not nearly as pungent or useful as the cultivated Greek variety. But it smells heavenly and looks even better. I'm allowing it to spread around some raised beds, as it creates a lovely camouflage around the the unsightly concrete blocks that hold in the dirt for produce.I suspect there is also a Comfrey plant out there, though it's not yet confirmed. For some reason, it lays back flat about half way through the season, as if some wild thing had used it for it's night's respite.

[sheepdog 10]

What would a garden (or kitchen) be without the alluring odor of fresh herbs?

Ah yes, I have to agree, actually, the only reason I raise the fennel is because I love the smell. I never actually use it!

I suspect there is also a Comfrey plant out there, though it's not yet confirmed.

I do hope your plant is there. That is one I've had complete failure with, have boughten several plants, all of which have died on me. I really did try on it too, Comfrey is reported to be an excellent tonic for rabbits, and I wanted to grow a little patch of comfrey near the rabbitry to feed them the occasional leaf.

[Archangel_Baw 0]

I have issues with anise, comfrey, fennel and cumin, they never want to grow for me. I think they secretly hate me, I've tried 3 years in a row to grow them all and it just isn't happening.

[sheepdog 10]

I have issues with anise, comfrey, fennel and cumin, they never want to grow for me. I think they secretly hate me, I've tried 3 years in a row to grow them all and it just isn't happening.

My only other major failure is with Garbonzo beans. I tried for years to raise them. One year they would come up and just be short scraggly plants, then die, sometimes they didn't even come up. One year, they came up, grew ok, then when the weather got really hot they stopped growing, but as it cooled off in the fall they started doing better but got frosted before they had enough time to put on beans. Finally after several years, I got a really good stand of them growing. The looked great and were filling out nicely. Thought I finally had my problem whipped. Then one moring I went out to look at them, and there was a large brown circle about the size of a dinner plate where the plants had turned brown and died, OVERNIGHT! Just hammer dead, looked like they had been dead for a week. A day or 2 later there was another round spot, just about plate size, dead. This continued for several days until the whole row was gone. I was really dissapointed. I finally gave up on Garbonzo beans.

[Posterchild 0]

My only other major failure is with Garbonzo beans.

Sounds like they got hit by some sort of root eating fungus.. can't think of anything else that would destroy them so rapidly other than insects or animals..

As for my herb garden.. well technically it is my partner's herb garden, as she decides what goes into it.. I just keep those choices alive and well. This year we have the thriving Rosemary, the ever spreading Mint (which now seems to want to get mowed, as it is sprouting runners across the lawn), some Chives, a healthy, transplanted Parsley, some Oregano which survived through the winter by sleeping on our kitchen window sill and eating dead bugs (a spider made a home there and did a good job keeping the house flies under control.. hey its better than fly spray), some struggling Tarragon, yet another patch of Sage (I really need to find more recipes that use lots of sage), a Mizuma (not quite a herb, but its in there because we love Japanese cuisine) and two great big Silverbeet (because they provide nice shade and the spiders LOVE them.. and having happy spiders above ground is as vital as having happy worms below ground)... though she has insisted that the Silverbeet get harvested, we love adding leaves to our meals and the damn things are so productive, we can't really just rip them out.. it would be rude (and a waste).

My secret for success is good drainage, and a lot of sheep manure.. the soil they are in is composed of about 90 percent sheep manure, sitting on a rocky bed with weed mat over that, then a bit of dirt and a lot of sheep manure. The property we are on has had, in it's past, some avid rock collecting people.. because I am always fishing rocks out of the soil, and there are some awesome rocks here! Day before yesterday, a big hunk of river rounded obsidian, which is now sitting on the fireplace mantel.. pretty pretty shiny shiny.. It can be a right pain when you try to dig up a new section when every spade strike hits a rock, however.

[elance2010 0]

I intend to plant some Rosemary, but I have no experience in Rosemary's field.Does anyone have experience with it?Can you help me with some basic information: What should I do? How hard is it?....Thank you so much