Season your garden with fall herbs
This is — or should be — the most active planting season of the year for gardeners in southeast Louisiana. Still, even though there are abundant advantages to planting in the fall, gardeners tend to do more planting in spring.
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Although now is not the best time to lay sod or plant tropicals, we are entering the prime planting season for hardy trees, shrubs, vines and ground covers. Spring-flowering bulbs are planted in fall for spring bloom. Colorful cool-season bedding plants are planted now, as well as delicious and nutritious cool-season vegetables.
And, this is a great time to plant many of the hardy herbs we love to cook with.
For growing purposes in Louisiana, herbs can be loosely grouped into cool season-annuals, warm-season annuals (annuals live for one season and then die) and perennials (which live for several years).
Herbs to plant now
Fall is a great time to plant cool-season annual herbs and most of the perennial herbs.
Cool-season annual herbs are hardy enough not to be bothered by winter freezes, and actually prefer to grow in the cool-to-mild days and chilly-to-cold nights we have here during the cool season.
They should be seeded or transplanted from September through early February.
Later in the cool season, in March or early April, plant larger transplants, and you could still expect to get acceptable harvests in May or early June.
Still, fall planting will far and away produce the largest and longest harvest. Herbs we grow as cool-season annuals include parsley, cilantro or coriander, celery, dill, chicory, fennel, borage, arugula and chervil.
Perennial herbs
Perennial herbs are also generally not bothered by winter cold. Most of the perennial herbs are best planted from September through April, using transplants available at local nurseries.
Fall planting is particularly advantageous, as it allows these herbs to establish during the less-stressful cool season.
Some of the perennial herbs that do well here and can be planted now are mints, lemon balm, rosemary, burnet, sorrel, society garlic, catmint, garlic chives, oregano, monarda, catnip, anise hyssop, mountain mint, French bay, pineapple sage and rue.
A few perennial herbs that like the heat, and would rather be planted in spring, include Mexican tarragon, lemon verbena, lemon grass and society garlic.
A sensitive bunch
Another group of perennial herbs are more sensitive to heat and are best planted in the fall.
Thyme, sage, catnip and lavender fall into this category. Although they generally thrive in the garden during the cool season (October to early May), they struggle during our hot, humid summer. If you plant them in the fall, these herbs will be better-established and more likely to make it through the summer than when they are planted in the spring.
Because they are prone to root rot when it is hot, these herbs require excellent drainage to survive the summer. They may be more successful when grown in containers and placed in a location that gets some shade in the afternoon during the summer.
Even grown under good conditions, they tend to be short-lived and often succumb to root and stem rots in the hot, wet late-summer season.
Several perennial herbs almost never survive our summers and are best grown here as cool-season annuals. Transplants are planted in the fall, grow vigorously over the winter, produce harvests through winter and into spring and then typically lose vigor and die in early to mid-summer. Perennial herbs in this category include French tarragon, feverfew and chamomile.
Skip the basil
You may still see basil available in local nurseries now. Basil hates cold weather, and this is really late to be planting it.
However, who doesn’t love the wonderful flavor of fresh basil in the food we cook? You may plant basil in the ground now, and it will grow as long as the weather is warm enough. But, it will die with the first freeze.
Plant it in containers now, and you may keep it going a little longer by moving it inside on those nights it will freeze, and then back out during milder weather.
Most herbs require direct sun at least four to six hours a day and excellent drainage. Raised beds are a good idea for many herbs because of our more than 60 inches of yearly rainfall.
If raised garden beds are not practical for you and your drainage is poor, try growing herbs in containers using one of the soilless mixes or a light, well-drained potting soil.
Herbs should be fertilized moderately to avoid stimulating lush growth that will be less flavorful. Generally, fertilize herbs with the same products you use for your other plants, but at half the amount.
A prime spot
Locate your culinary herb growing area as close to the kitchen as possible, so they are convenient to use while you are cooking. If you have to walk all the way across the yard to harvest them, they’ll likely be under-used, and the herbs will become overgrown and wasted.
Herbs grow very well in containers. As an alternative to an in-ground garden near your kitchen, you can locate pots of herbs on a back porch, deck or patio to be convenient. And since you don’t generally need more than a few plants of each type of herb, a nice container herb garden does not have to include many pots.
Although you can grow herbs as ornamentals for their beauty and appearance, and some people seem to just collect and grow herbs for the sake of growing them, it’s important to remember that, above all, these are meant to be useful plants.
The culinary herbs I’ve talked about are not meant just to grow in a garden or a pot, but are intended to be harvested regularly to flavor and enrich your home cooking.
So, unless you just want to look at them or enjoy the satisfaction acquiring and successfully growing a collection, you should choose herbs at the nursery you will actually use in your cooking.
Before you go to the nursery, check your kitchen cabinet and think about what herbs you commonly use in your cooking. Those are the herbs you should choose to grow first, because you are familiar with how to use them.
Don’t wait for spring to start a new herb garden or add to an existing one — plant hardy herbs now.
When fellow gardeners are purchasing and planting herbs next spring, you will be enjoying bountiful harvest from well-established, vigorously growing plants.
DAN GILL’S MAILBOX
View full sizeDodder, parasitic vine, produces no leaves and does not photosynthesize. It obtains all of its food from the plants it is growing on.
I live in Metairie, and beginning the year after Hurricane Katrina I annually experience some vine-like thing that wraps around two plants in my garden and almost smothers them. One plant is a vinca, the other a mum. The plants grow within a foot of each other. Nowhere else in my yard is there a problem — just this area. This problem returns every year in the fall. I mechanically remove the thing, but it continues to grow back. I have seen the same thing wrap itself around plants in the marsh east of the Bonne Carre spillway. What is it? How do I get rid of it?
Craig
This clearly is dodder (Cuscuta), and you must not allow it to grow in the garden at all. Shortly after dodder seed germinates, the seedling finds a host plant to attach to, or it withers and dies. Once in contact with a suitable host plant, the dodder produces structures that sink into the stem of the plant and enter the circulatory system, much like vampire teeth. The vine produces no leaves and does not photosynthesize, obtaining all of its food from the host plants it is growing on. If you look closely at the vines, you will see flowers and seed pods. These plants are annuals and die off in the fall. However, before they die, they produce large numbers of seeds that fall to the ground and sprout and grow the next year. By allowing the dodder to grow to the point of blooming and setting seeds, you are allowing abundant seed production, and this ensures the vine will show up again year after year. At this point, remove the infested plants and the dodder vine attached to them, bag them and dispose of them. It would be a good idea to remove the upper inch or two of soil in that bed, bag and dispose of it, as it likely is full of dodder seeds. Plant some annuals in that area next year and see if the dodder shows up and infests them. If you see it, remove and dispose of it immediately. You will need to be ruthless, frequent and persistent over time in your efforts to control this parasite. It’s possible Katrina spread the seeds out of the marsh and into your area. This vine does indeed grow in the Bonne Carre spillway marshes along Interstate 10. It looks like yellow-orange Silly String sprayed all over the plants.
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I’m growing a variety of peppers (cayenne, Tabasco, Habanero, etc.). I know I can order seeds online, but what is the process to take seeds from my existing plants? How do you dry/treat/preserve them to be viable next year?
David Miller
First, allow the fruit to fully ripen. I like to wait until the pepper actually starts to shrivel slightly before I harvest it. Open up the fruit, and extract the seeds. Using a strainer, rinse the seeds thoroughly under running water. Spread the seeds out on a paper towel and allow them to thoroughly dry for a few days to a week. Then, store the seeds in an air-tight container in your refrigerator until you plant them next year.
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We have some azalea bushes in our front garden. There are some random branches sticking above the rest of some of the bushes making them look less attractive. Is it OK to trim them to make the bushes more uniform at this time?
Nancy Colomb
Sure, go ahead and prune. It’s not uncommon for azaleas to send up these stray, awkward-looking, vigorous shoots. You will lose whatever flowers the shoots would have produced, but removing them will not affect the blooming of the rest of the shrub.
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Dan Gill is extension horticulturist with the LSU Ag Center.
Send mail to:
Dan Gill, garden columnist
The Times-Picayune Living Section
3800 Howard Ave.
New Orleans 70125-1429
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