Annie's Herb Garden

08/10/2024

The growth in the herb garden has been a little different this year. There are some plants that are growing beautifully, and others that are not. Most notable is the basil. And my sage seems to have developed a disease. So some adjustments will need to be made this fall.

07/08/2024

How beautiful the herb garden looked in the morning sun!

So far, I've harvested marjoram, tarragon, oregano, and some thyme. In fact, I just planted a new lemon thyme plant this morning so I can have more.

My basil is looking better with the hot, humid weather we're having, but it has a long way to go. So I picked up a small basil plant to keep on the deck for my immediate needs.

And while I was picking up those new plants, I found this very unusual looking lavender plant. The plant stick says it's Spanish lavender. I'm going to put it in my perennial garden as I already have a huge lavender plant in the herb garden.

06/20/2024

One month later, and some hot weather, and the garden is taking off! I noticed this morning that I need to start harvesting. The oregano, thyme, and marjoram are ready.

Herbs that I added since my last post: green and purple basil, fennel, stevia, rosemary, and parsley.

05/19/2024

It's now 2024 and I didn't post at all last year! I did maintain the herb garden, however. Maybe this year I'll be better about getting this page updated.

Here is a recent pic of the herb garden, along with my garden girl. The garden shaped up easily this year. I did have to dig out a very significant amount of spearmint. So far, most everything came back and I only had to replace two marjoram plants.

Soon I'll be adding a couple more herbs.

10/06/2022

Well, it's now fall here in upstate New York. I had some time off this week, so I was able to get in the herb garden and get it cleaned up and ready for winter. It looks so good! I wish it would stay this way.

As you can see, I had some company in the garden. Mr. Finn had a lovely nap in the sun. Miss Kitty was around too, but I didn't catch a photo of her.

09/11/2022

09/11/2022

I managed to harvest enough herbs for drying yesterday from my overgrown garden. This will make a small amount of Annie's Herb mix, which is all I need. I just put the basket in my dining room and over the next month or so it will get nice and dry. Of course you have to take care not to overcrowd the herbs. And as a bonus, the smell in the house is amazing!

As usual, I was joined by my garden helpers.

08/30/2022

The garden looks a bit different in this post than the last!

It had such a good start back in late June. I had it under control. Then in July I went on a small vacation and when I returned, I started getting sick. I was sick with pneumonia for three weeks. And BOOM! The garden exploded!

The good news however, is that there's plenty I can salvage and harvest.

06/20/2022

You guys know I'm just an amateur, right? I try different things, and learn something new every year. I love to add herbs to my cooking and so I love to have an herb garden. It's just a few feet from the back door.

I'm very late, but this past weekend I finally got the garden trimmed, fertilized, and mulched. And the weekend before, I planted basil, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, and new this year......lemon verbena.

Some failures this year (and there were many).....the lemon grass and fennel did not come back. The bee balm came back, but very sparsely. I had also hoped that the marjoram might come back as I let it flower, but it didn't. And I trimmed the thyme, lavender, and two of the sage so severely they didn't come back at all. I couldn't find the purple basil this year, so it's green genovese only. And yesterday, I planted one lone thyme plant to make sure I had some.

And as always, my garden girl, Miss Kitty, is there to help, or at least supervise!

05/22/2022

Well, it's spring in the garden. Some of the herbs have begun to grow, like the chives and oregano and mint, but the others will come later, and I'll be planting the annuals in the next couple weeks.

Before I took this pic, I cleaned out the weeds, and also trimmed back all the herbs that over wintered, like the lavender and thyme and sage.

The bushy herb in the front is sweet woodruff, which is really pretty, but I don't harvest it. It makes a nice ground cover, but I need to pull it out down to the stones so I have more room for other herbs.

My garden girl, Miss Kitty, wasn't visiting when I took this pic, but rest assured, she still helps me in the garden!

10/03/2021

Wow! It's been 2 months since I posted anything about the garden! I've been taking pictures though.

The purple ruffled basil was amazing this year! It really flourished. Much better than the genovese basil. I have harvested quite a bit of it - some in frozen cubes, and some dried.

I grew one lemon grass plant this year. To the left of the purple basil. It's gorgeous, but have only used it once.

And then there's the fennel! I grew it last year, and used it, but wasn't going to plant it again. Then it came back on it's own in the spring, so I let it grow. Well, it has produced so many seed heads that I have harvested them this year to dry. I adore fennel in some foods!

And lastly, my beautiful garden girl, Miss Kitty, posing so beautifully in front of the fennel.