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GROWING CULINARY HERBSIN THE SOUTH
 Add flavor to your food and variety to you garde
 n
 There are many benefits to growing culinary herbs. The 2 most important reasons are that they add flavorto food and they contain nutrients and phyto
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chemicals that help maintain our good health. Additionally they make important contributions to the garden. Some produce flowers that attract beneficial insects.Some thrive in poor soils where other plants won’t do well. Many are drought
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tolerant so do well in dry conditions. Most add beauty to the garden with pretty flowers, colorful foliage or interesting textures.Herbs grow in all shapes and sizes so it is easy to find one that will fit into almost any garden situation.
 Annual Biennial Perennial
Herbs come from a wide variety of plant families with di
ff 
erent life cycles. Some are annuals so they haveto be replanted each year. Some are biennials that produce vegetation the first year and then flower, pro
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duce seed and die the following spring. Many are perennials, surviving for many years.Commonly grown annuals include basil, dill, cilantro
( 
coriander
 )
, bulb fennel, borage and epazote. Being annuals, they sprout from seeds, grow, flower, produce seeds and die in a short period of time, from a few  weeks to a couple of months. It is easy to save the seeds and plant them the following season. I like to letsome the seeds of borage, cilantro, and dill fall to the ground and let them come up where they may. Dillseed is also used to flavor pickles and salads like potato salad. The seeds of cilantro are the spice known ascoriander.Biennial herbs include parsley and chervil. If you plant them in the spring they will produce leaves untilthe following spring at which time they will flower and go to seed. Parsley is commonly available at gardencenters in the fall for use as an ornamental plant through the fall and winter. If it is planted in the fall it will still flower, produce seed and die the following spring. The perennial herbs that do well in the south include rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, sage, mint,lemon balm, bay, and sorrel. Tarragon does not do well at all here. Lavender struggles in the heat and hu
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midity. With ideal conditions you might get some to live for a few years but it will usually succumb to dis
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ease during hot humid summers. If you want to try it, the best varieties to plant are ‘Provence’ or SpanishLavender.By: Duane Marcus
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The Funny Farm
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 http://tinyurl.com/funnyfarm
ORGANIC GARDENING WORKSHO P 
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GROWING HERBS IN T  HE SOUTH 
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It’s all about the soil
Herbs come from di
ff 
erent habitats and soil conditions all over the world. You must know and respecttheir soil requirements to grow them successfully. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and sage need very well drained soil. They do not do well planted directly in our heavy clay soils. It is necessary to addcoarse sand or gravel to the soil. I plant them on a sloping site so the water will run o
ff 
and not collectaround the root zone. I mix a large amount of Permatil into the soil to open it up. It is also important thatthere is good air circulation around and through the foliage of the plant so that the leaves dry quickly oth
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erwise diseases can take hold. Leave plenty of room between the plants and prune them to keep themopened up. Often you will see rosemary in the garden center around the holidays pruned like cones. Don’tdo this. Mint and lemon balm do like moist soils so it is useful to add compost to the soil where they willbe planted. I like to plant them where the condensation from the a.c. unit drains out or where water fromthe roof runs o
ff 
. The annual and biennial herbs like soils rich in compost and nutrients so they can complete their life cy 
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cles quickly. Since we want to use the leaves, it is useful to add extra organic nitrogen like composted ma 
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nure to favor leaf production over flower production.
Harvest, Harvest Harvest
We are mostly interested in the leaves for cooking. A plant’s goal is to reproduce itself by producing seeds.If you keep cutting o
ff 
the tops of the branches, flowers can’t form so the plant keeps putting out new shoots in its e
ff 
ort to produce flowers and then seeds. By harvesting regularly you can keep the plant in a  vegetative state, constantly producing new growth. Sometimes the plant beats you to it and starts flower
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ing. At that point you can cut the plant back hard forcing it to flush out new growth. If you can’t use all of  your harvest for cooking right away you can dry it for use in the winter when the plants stop growing.By: Duane Marcus
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The Funny Farm
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 http://tinyurl.com/funnyfarm
ORGANIC GARDENING WORKSHO P 
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GROWING HERBS IN T  HE SOUTH 
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