Gardening & Landscaping
Ktrudel
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Starting an herb garden...
My fiance wants a herb garden for his birthday, however I have NO idea where to start. I live in Maryland and it is finally getting warm. Does anyone have any advice on how to start an herb garden? What will I need to start it? Thanks for your help!
Re: Starting an herb garden...
I would just pick a bunch of herbs you like and plant them.
For me, basil, cilantro and parsely are weeds meaning they just keep coming back every year and I don't plant new ones even though basil and cilantro are annuals.
I would highly consider doing planters vs in the ground since you are in MD. In TN my rosemary can stay in the ground year-round but my father has a huge rosemary that he brings in every winter.
It is probably easier to start with seedlings vs. seeds.
Some basic herbs would be dill, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, thyme. chives, mint. I have some verbena (sp?) that has a wonderful smell
Sure! It's pretty simple. I think herbs are much more low-maintenance than veggies or even some annuals. You can choose to plant them in the ground or in containers. Containers are good since you can put really good soil in them....but keep in mind, they will dry out faster than the ground, so you might need to water them more often. As for the ground, it's very trendy to work herbs into your regular planting bed, although some people still have a designated area. I tend to put it as close as possible to our back door....since I like to clip off herbs for cooking in the summer.
Some herbs are perennial--they will come back each year. Examples are chives, oregano, thyme, sage. Oregano is my favorite. Once you plant these, they will return, although sage gets woody and tough after a few years.
Annual herbs are rosemary (although it may winter over for you, most of Maryland is zone 6 or 7), basil (lots of people love this one), parsley.
I have tried several others, but my faves are: oregano, sage, parsley, chives, basil, thyme, rosemary. These are all pretty general ones you can use for cooking. To start out, I would buy seedlings at a local garden center once you are able to plant w/o threat of frost!
GL, HTH!
My advice is to pick a spot in your yard that has full sun, or if you're doing a container garden, pick a sunny window.
If you're planting in a container, water frequently.
If you're planting straight into the ground, it doesn't matter as much, because the roots can go as far as they need to find water.
Personally, the only maintenance my herbs require is to get chopped down once in awhile. The basil will go to seed if it doesn't get cut back frequently. The oregano and chives grow back every year, but the basil dies at frost. Every fall, before the first frost, I just go harvest whatever I can and leave it at that.
I got my plants already started. I didn't grow them from seed. I tried to grow some from seed last year and only a few survived, and they were small the whole season.