Well, here's evidence that those four herbs are alive and (reasonably) well in my garden, despite the severe weather we had around Christmas time.
Parsley never does very well in my garden over the Winter. I count myself lucky if any of it is harvestable. Unfortunately we like to eat it in "vegetable" rather than "herb" quantities, so we often have to buy it!
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| Parsley |
Some of the Parsley has gone very yellow. Although it's not useable for culinary purposes, it does actually look quite pretty. These pots are inside my coldframe.
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| Parsley |
I have some mature Sage bushes, which are very hardy. Even in the depths of Winter we can usually count on being able to get some nice leaves. In this picture (taken on 9th Jan) you can see frost on the tips.
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| Sage |
The potted Purple Sage and Variegated Sage plants have gone very leggy. The only leaves are right at the tips of the branches. In the Spring I will probably re-pot them and take some cuttings. You can promote new growth from the crown of a plant like this by piling up compost in the centre of the pot and covering the lower stems. New shoots will almost certainly appear.
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| Variegated Sage |
The Rosemary is doing better than it did last Winter, when I thought I had lost it all to the weather. Although the bushes have a few brown leaves, they are looking pretty strong at present.
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| Rosemary |
This is the same bush, photographed on 18 December.
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| Rosemary |
At this point of the year the Thyme is (unsurprisingly) hibernating and conserving its energy. The leaves are small, tough and dry-looking. Probably not the sort of thing you would want in a casserole. But in the Spring the plants will put on new, soft growth. The plants in pots are relatively easy to look after, (I have a couple in the coldframe). This one is doing OK. It's one I don't usually cut for culinary purposes, preferring instead to let it flower.
The plants growing in the open borders are perhaps a bit less happy. This one is has got lots of leaves trapped in its foliage, and it probably hates being in the cold soil anyway!
It's a shame in a way that most of the herbs we like best are essentially Mediterranean ones - like Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and Basil. It means I need to take extra trouble looking after them and helping them survive the Winter. Hopefully I will reap the reward in the Summer...
You got some good herbs on the go there. Had a go at making some of my own sage and welsh onion stuffing balls last year... they weren't very appetising lol.
ReplyDeleteYour herbs look so good. Our parsley never live through winter and I am incredibly good at killing thyme, I don't know why. It is my favorite herb too. This year I am starting some from seed and we'll see if I can keep from killing it.
ReplyDeleteYou're ahead of me on the herb front, I'm managing to coax a few through the winter but not as big as some of your specimens.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you could pile up the dirt on them like that, what a great tip. My sage is looking very sad, ie dead, I'm not sure it's salvageable, but I will dig it up and give the compost piling a go.
ReplyDeleteThat rosemary looks great after it had such a cold blast earlier! Roesmary is my personal favorite! Just great in potato soup!
ReplyDeleteYour herbs look much better than mine. I am not sure if my rosemary is still alive.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to have herbs surviving too. My sage and thyme go scraggy every winter but I trim them back to new buds each spring and they seem to bounce back.
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