Record Time!

This morning when I went out to water my freshly planted seeds, I was greeted with a surprise. Some of the seeds M, J, and I planted on Thursday (it could have been Wednesday, but I am pretty sure it was Thursday) morning had already broken the surface of the ground. I saw some bok choy, lettuce, and possibly spinach poking through. Yippee! I ignored the instructions of how far apart to plant the seeds, partly because I had the eager help of a 3 year old and a 19 month old. Once the plants get a couple of permanent leaves growing, I'll thin the plants out to a more reasonable distance apart. I am quite excited though. I wasn't sure what sort of success I would have this year because I shoveled half the garden myself and my shoveling skills leave much to be desired. (Curtis laughed at my shoveling. It took him 15 minutes to finish shoveling the other half of the garden when it took me 45 minutes for my sorry excuse for shoveling). We'll have greens this winter! (pictured is M helping to plant basil seeds last spring--a failed experiment unfortunately).

If you haven't planted any seeds or transplanted any plants, it is not late in this region. If you haven't done much before, transplanting herbs are a great place to start. The key to herbs is knowing how much sun and water they need. I learned quickly that while on the container, it may say full sun, it doesn't mean full Texas all day sun. (pictured are herbs from last June--mint, basil, and dill--all in full sun).

The following herbs do well with some afternoon shade, especially in the summer: oregano, mint, parsley, basil, and lemongrass. All are very fragrant and rather pretty so they could easily go in a bed in front of your house. All of the above except basil will also winter over in our mild TX winter. If the mint dies, give it a little time, it may just come back. Basil needs to be planted every year. Our mint typically looks like it dies each summer, but this time year, we see new plants coming up, just begging to be made into mint tea. The week long ice storm we had a couple of years ago couldn't even kill our oregano (we were hoping it would! That plant is huge!). The oregano is pictured to the right with lemongrass behind it. You get a bit of an idea of the size of the plant.

These herbs can survive with full sun, in fact like it just fine: rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and basil. Again, all but the basil will easily survive our mild winters.

There are a few herbs that do the best this time of year--dill and cilantro are the two that come to mind. Dill is used in a lot of Greek/Mediterranean food and is a nice seasoning for baked pot pie or soups. Cilantro is just super fabulous. The sad thing is, when cilantro is going strong there are no good tomatoes to be found any where.

If you haven't tried planting herbs before, now is the time to try. Use a flower bed or even just a pot on the back porch. Have a kid help transplant and water (it's important to water daily for a week or two after you transplant to help the plant get used to being in the new location). Wait a couple of weeks or so and enjoy a little extra seasoning to your meals!