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Getting Started With Herbs
Growing herbs sounds intimidating for new growers. A person recently told me that they had trouble growing tomatoes, so they’d never manage to grow herbs. In fact, the opposite holds true. Many herbs are quite easy to grow and forgiving of less-than-perfect conditions.
If you’ve dreamed of walking out the back door to snip a few sprigs of rosemary or nab some basil leaves to toss right into a dish, we’ll get you started. Once you’ve used minute-old herbs in your kitchen, you’ll never want to go back.
When to Start Growing Herbs
If you’re reading this in late winter or early spring, you can go plant some herbs right after you finish this article. But if you’re reading this in August or November, it’s still the right time to plant herbs.
Just like our veggie and flower gardens, the traditional time to start growing herbs is in spring, when the weather is warming and the days are getting longer. However, that doesn’t mean some herbs can’t be grown in the fall or even indoors at any time of year.
Many perennial herbs, like lavender or thyme, take quite a while to get going and seem to stay in tiny seedling stages practically forever, so it pays to get them started as early as mid-winter if you have the lighting and the space.
Annual herbs, and some biennials we grow as annuals, can be started a bit later, usually in early spring, and some can even be directly seeded in the garden. Many, like basil, are easily succession planted for a continuous harvest and can be started as late as a month before your first autumn frost. Of course, herbs intended to live indoors or be brought into the house as houseplants to overwinter can be started at any time of year.
Herbs can be started indoors to get a jump on the season or directly sown into the garden after the frosts have passed in spring. Here’s a quick list of recommended times to start each of the below suggestions when starting herbs from seed. Herbs which establish readily may appear on two lists. Transplanting herbs outdoors should nearly always be after your last spring frost.
Start these herbs 8-12 weeks before your last spring frost
Start these herbs 4-8 weeks before your last spring frost
Herbs suitable to direct seed outdoors
Don’t let the above lists discourage you from planting if you’re past the dates. We start lemon balm and others on the 4-8-week list early for a head start and to maximize our yield during the growing season. However, if you missed that window, you can start them later and get a harvest if there are a couple months before the fall frosts.
Splitting herbs into categories for easy growing
With so many flavorful herbs to grow, figuring out a way to organize them can help to make sense of it all and help to figure out what type of care each needs. Planting herbs together by their lifecycle and care makes it easy to grow a sassy patch of herbs without a lot of work.
Annuals vs. Perennials
While many herbs are perennials, some are annuals, and others we grow as annuals for their foliage. An annual herb like basil can be grown in any garden, but a perennial needs to be cold hardy for the location or taken indoors in the winter.
When planning an herb garden or even a multi-species container, it’s easier for new herb gardeners to keep annuals and perennials separate. You’ll have all your perennial herbs in one spot for fall garden chores and won’t accidentally dig up your oregano patch when preparing the garden for spring planting.
Dry-loving or Moisture-loving
From a plant care perspective, I find it easiest to divide herbs into two categories: dry and wet. I don’t mean dried herbs but rather those that enjoy dry conditions.
Many of our favorite culinary herbs hail from the Mediterranean region, where the soil is warm, the climate is dry, and the sun is powerful. Rosemary is a prime example. Rosemary does well in conditions mimicking its natural home–soil less fertile and on the drier side and lots of sunshine. Planting rosemary in the same pot with a moisture-loving herb like parsley will make it hard to keep both of them happy.
Herb Growing Tips
Gardeners often wonder why their herbs are growing so slowly or seem to not be growing at all. With perennial herbs, if you’re meeting their needs for moisture, light, and fertility, it’s likely normal. A perennial like lavender or rosemary will naturally grow slowly in its first year and much more rapidly in the second year.
For annuals like basil, it’s likely an issue of water, light, or nutrients. Check out these tips if you’re having trouble germinating or growing herbs.
Growing herbs from seeds
All seeds need moisture, warmth, and oxygen to germinate. But some are darn slow to germinate, and you may think you’ve done something wrong. It’s common for perennial herbs like rosemary and oregano to take weeks to pop up.
Use fresh seed, keep them warm, and maintain the seed starting mix moist but not wet–don’t let it dry out. To help with that, I cover mine with a humidity dome or plastic wrap after planting. It keeps the moisture in and helps keep fungus spores out. Once the majority of the little seeds have sprouted, I remove the plastic and treat them like any other seedling.
Don’t forget extra light; even at the seedling stage, most herbs want a full day’s sun or the artificial equivalent.
Sunshine, Soil, and Water
If you’ve split your herbs into wet and dry-loving categories, then this part gets easier. Most herbs like full sunshine, but many will do perfectly well in only partial sun. I regularly grow rosemary, sage, and oregano in only 4-5 hours per day of bright sun and filtered light the rest of the day. Despite all the proclamations that they need no less than 8 hours, they do just fine. They grow a bit slower, so I plant a few extra.
Drainage is important for all herbs, the dry-loving herbs especially. A soggy spot rarely does well for them. If you’re growing herbs in a raised bed, it should drain well automatically, but in-ground beds can suffer depending on the soil type. Mix in a healthy layer of compost to help with soil structure and porosity, and locate herb beds away from small depressions or other areas that drain slowly. Make sure the drainage holes are punched out and functioning in pots, and use a good quality potting mix. Adding some perlite will help as well.
Just because all herbs like drainage doesn’t mean you won’t need to water them, especially if you’re growing them in containers. Check the soil moisture with your finger before watering herbs. For dry loving herbs like rosemary or sage, wait to water until the soil feels dry 2-3 inches down. Most annual herbs like basil do well with a bit more water; treat them like a tomato or pepper and water when the soil feels slightly dry an inch deep. Don’t wait for them to wilt.
Herbs and other plants grown in containers outdoors may need watering daily in sunny, hot weather. Not only are they transpiring more water and growing faster, but the soil dries from evaporation more quickly.
Pinching herbs
Many annual herbs will benefit from pinching. It’s a process of removing the growing tip on a stem right above a node, causing the plant to send up two new stems from the pinched-off point. Even some perennial herbs can be pinched. Pinching helps to make a bushy plant with lots of foliage, which is what we’re after with annual herbs.
Start pinching when a plant is about six inches tall and has at least 2-3 sets of true leaves. Remove a growing tip once every week or two, depending on growth. After you’ve pinched a plant several times, go ahead and let it grow. You’ll have a much more full, well-leafed herb.