Spice Up Your Life This Winter With a Kitchen Herb Garden
by Permian Basin Master Gardener Barbara Porsch
Now that most summer gardens are declining and winter doldrums might be setting in, fend them off by spicing up your life and food with herbs. At my favorite grocer the other day, I noticed huge racks of beautiful herbs at the exit. You can grow all these herbs in the winter, and if you have a bright, sunny window, you can have a kitchen herb garden. It's handy to pinch off a leaf here and there to flavor your food.
If you don’t have the requisite bright, sunny window, you can grow these herbs outside in a warm, sunny bed. For convenience, it is great to keep them close to the kitchen door, but if I want parsley or sage to liven up a recipe, I don’t mind the trek across the yard.
The most popular herbs to grow in a window, and the easiest to grow outside, are parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. I ought to write a song about that. Oh wait! It has already been done. All of these herbs will winter very well here. Parsley especially will reseed and try to take over a garden space. The parsley I saw the other day was flat-leaf parsley. It has better flavor than the old-fashioned curly parsley everybody used to use only to decorate a plate. It also reseeds better.
A six-inch pot per plant is adequate for a window garden. Put a paper coffee filter in the bottom and fill it with good-quality potting soil. After planting the small herb, water it well, then water only when the soil feels dry. Too much water will kill them. Especially the rosemary doesn’t want wet feet. A dilute fertilizer occasionally will promote good growth. If they start looking yellow, they have probably had too much water.
Another herb you can grow both inside and out is chives. When using chives, don’t just give it a butch haircut; go down toward the base, cut a few stems,then chop them up. If you cut the tips, they won’t continue growing and will just look brown and bad. Also, cutting at the base encourages new growth. Oregano could also be available now and would be a good choice.
Especially remember to use them. The more you pinch off, the better they will grow. If they don’t survive, don’t fret. Just go get another one. These basic herbs have so many uses that it would be impossible to list them all. Once winter is over, plant them outside.
If you have questions, call the AgriLife offices in Odessa at 498-4071 or in Midland at 686-4700. Additional information and our blog, with access to past articles, are available at westtexasgardening.org. Click on “resources”.
