Gardening Clinic: Planting and Enjoying Herbs
For the January 2025 Home and Garden Club meeting, master gardener Daria Wicks discussed the benefits of herbs and creating herb gardens. Thirty-five HGC members and guests heard that herb gardening has been practiced for centuries and used for culinary, medicinal and spiritual purposes. The benefits of growing herbs include low maintenance, cost-effectiveness, enjoyment of flavors, scents and improving the environment, she explained.
Wicks gave tips on combining herbs for natural pest control, harvesting, caring and cooking with herbs. When planting an herb garden, she suggested starting with perennial herbs such as chives, sorel, lovage, mint, marjoram, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, thyme and sage; and annual herbs which would include basil, dill and cilantro.
She described two types of herb gardens:
A garden for cooking ingredients would include basil, mint, oregano, thyme, bay, parsley, cilantro, chives and lavender.
When planning a tea garden, include herbs including lemon balm, mint, chamomile, rosemary, lemon mint, peppermint and spearmint.
Wicks also demonstrated how to plant herbs in a container, including the type and size of pots to buy, along with a suggested garden soil, and, most importantly, an easy way to place herb plants within the container.
All participants received a copy of her informative presentation slides, along with a booklet she prepared, “From Garden to Table—Stuff That’s Good to Know,” with recipes and instructions. The presentation sparked many questions from attendees. At the conclusion of the program, three newly planted containers and several plants were given as drawings to ladies in the group.
Harvesting Your Herbs Golden Rules:
- Use a clean pair of scissors—use a little rubbing alcohol on tool between each use.
- Harvest herbs when their leaves are dry.
- Take no more than a third of any one herb within a given week.