2015 Herbs

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Chives, very early spring 2015

The chives were an early favorite this year, as they were the very first edibles to reappear in the early spring. Immediately we put them to work sprucing up our weekend brunches.

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Anise Hyssop, Chamomile in background

We added one or two new herbs into the mix this year. Here is Anise Hyssop. It’s used as a digestive tea by some. Did fairly well out there, although we only used it rarely. Behind it is some Chamomile. This did less well, and the flowers used in tea only lasted a few days.

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Basil bush

Our basil, of which we planted Genovese and Large Leaf, did spectacularly well this year. I have never seen even half this much healthy basil in the garden. In previous years it would suffer from disease. This year it was attacked mightily by slugs and bugs, but it stood its grown. Not one, not two, but hopefully three huge batches of pesto. Harvested half a pound at a time. Apparently continuous pinching of flowers really does help.

Our Greek Oregano was a very tasty addition to the palate and to the herb pots.

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Grek Oregano, late season

I may post about a little Vermouth Mixer I was invited to in October—the process involves mixing in a couple of dozen herbs and spice infusions into a wine base, and I donated a few of our herbs to the event. Next year I’d like to try growing a few more herbs that might be of use for this kind of thing. Not gonna try growing cinnamon any time soon, though.

By October, a few of our herbs were a bit ragged, thought still putting out new growth. We had dried a few. Time to dry more before it’s too late!

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Sage, mid-October
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Basil, mid-October

The basil in our hops planters was still going quite strong. We had enough for a third massive harvest—a pesto-sized harvest.

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Basil flowers forming, late October

A closer look shows a few of the flowers forming which we had so diligently picked all season to keep the plants in leafy-growth mode. Perhaps we’ll let these last ones go to seed that we can collect.

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Kitchen herbs, end of October

Our oregano (shown earlier) was still healthy at this point in the season. Our rosemary and italian parsley, even the thyme, all of which sit in a planter along with a hops plant, were still in regular use in the kitchen at the end of October. I’d really like to build some custom cold frames that could sit on top of these planters and could be removed when the weather is warm, to extend the season at both ends a bit.

Our first brief frost was at the end of November, but all of the herbs survived it except for the basil. As part of the end-of-season wrapup, I made little domes out of some flexible rods which I inserted into the two herb/hops planters, draped them with protective plant wrap, and secured the wrap to the planter. Tucked in for the winter!

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Winterizing the herb/hops planters at the end of the season.