Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman
Oregano, Thyme, Sage, and Chives will come back year after year so place them where you want them in your garden. Rosemary will die off during the winter around these parts....they are perrenial in other locations but not up around here....you can always dig them up and pot them over the winter in your house and replant in the spring.
Basil will last a few weeks but things like Cilantro and Parsely will bolt in the heat...so you may want to stagger the planting times so you have it more readily available.
If you are going to plant Mints of any kind be careful....they will over take a garden over the years.
Most herbs are weeds and don't need much for them to grow....they will take on there owm....maybe throw down a little fertilizer for when you plant them but after that you should be good.
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I'm pretty good with herbs (probably because they're so easy) but not so much with veggies. Couple things to supplement your post from stuff I've seen/read and experienced from my mother-in-law's garden...
Rosemary, if well established, can winter over in the lower parts of MA. Two winters ago (before I bought a house), we had two rosemary plants keep nice and green throughout the winter. Just make sure to wrap them and dig out the heavy snow.
Chives and mint will *both* take over a garden over a couple years. Mint is much much worse but chives can be a pain too. The chives go to seed aggressively that even having them close to your garden will cause some rebel intrusion. The big concern with mint are the runners. I've had nice tall mint stalks fall over and send roots all in the course of a couple weeks. Mint is also a sneaky bastard an will send out shoots just under the soil surface and pop back up over a foot away. For chives and mint, I'd recommend keeping them in containers on a deck and well away from your main garden.
For sage (and maybe this is just me), it seems to only have a 3-4 year useful life. What I mean is that as the plant matures, it seems to lose some (if not most) of its culinary appeal and the leaves start to bitter. This might be isolated to the sage variety I used.
For basil, I find pinching the flower buds as soon as they pop up really extends the growing season. Also a high-nitrogen low-potassium fertilizer coupled with pinching the off flower buds has really helped me extend the growing season for basil. Come mid-summer, I try and put some basil in mostly-shade areas and that seems to extend the useful season as well.
Cilantro... I don't know. Seems by early-July it always goes to seed and dies off on me. We get tons of fresh coriander to make chili ans sauces with, but I'd love some help here as we love using fresh cilantro in our cooking.
Sorry about the huge wall of text... just last night I sat down and started planning out the flower beds and garden for our new house. Quite overwhelming looking at a completely stripped yard and trying to come up with a plan.
Christ, I feel a little bit like Raven with this post.