Herb Garden Report

Last September, end of September, I got some herb plants; Greek oregano, Italian parsley and basil. I gradually added to this group over November to January; thymes, another basil plant, cilantro, chives and some catnip. I bought a bronze fennel mostly cause I liked the way it looked, pretty metallic touch. It could be used for herbs, though, too.

These plants transplanted well into containers, produced pretty well and thrived until about April-May. I was able to use them in my own cooking and dehydrated some of them. Mostly though, I just liked them growing there and smelling so good.

RESULTS:

The sunshade I put up in mid-May probably helped keep them going a couple of more months. The basil and cilantro went to seed and even clipping off the flowers they didn't do so well and died sometime in June.

The parsley went to seed, too, but it still produced some until about June-July.

The fennel just didn't make it through the heat and the catnips got exposed to the sun too much for a few days and they didn't make it. this was sometime in June.

I had two thyme plants, one was a very lemony thyme. One went just seemed to give up one day and the other one is still alive today.

the oregano plant produced less and less the past 3 months but was alive until I think it drowned the week we had 3 monsoon storms in addition to my watering the day or so before that happened. It just was so water logged after that week I thought that's what killed it.

Factors that I don't know how they affected the plants:

Type of pot they are in;

Whether the plant would do better in the ground and not in a container;

Regularity of feeding, since May this has been spotty;

Life cycle of the particular plant;

Should I be going only by the Low Desert Planting schedule that I have a copy of from a local organization or can't I just grow them whenever they'll grow?

CONCLUSION:

This was a success as far I'm concerned this time around; first time I'd done it, got pretty good production from the plants for 6 or so months.

I want to add some rosemary and get some lavender to grow at the other end of the patio. My friend, S. has lovely lavender growing in her yard and I want to have some, too.


I also had very good time doing all this and I'm going to do it again.



peace, shamba