One of the easiest and most rewarding things for a gardener to grow is a selection of herbs. It’s fun to use your own fresh herbs in cooking, they are interesting to learn, the most common ones all have the same growing requirements, and animal pests tend to leave them along.

First, cooking. That is when you make your own meal from a series of ingredients instead of buying in at McDonald’s or tossing a frozen bag of pasta into the microwave. Just thought you might want to know. It takes a combination of time and thyme, but on those days when the weatherman has you cowering inside from the elements (Rain today, run for your lives! Hot today, for goodness sake don’t go out there!!), it can be fun to spend some time following a classic Julia Child recipe instead of downloading apps onto your I-phone. But that’s just me.

Anyway: more on herbs as I understand them. Spices and edible herbs are used for flavoring food. Spices are tropical, are often seeds, and often come from trees, shrubs or vines (pepper; cinnamon which is tree bark; vanilla which is the seed pod of an orchid). Our common herbs are more temperate in origin, and look like your standard garden plant, sometimes annuals, usually perennials.

Just because something is called an herb DOES NOT MEAN IT IS EDIBLE. Herb usage was traditionally medicinal, the province of shamans, monks and witches; the flavoring aspect was just a byproduct. (Take two leaves and call me in the morning, if you’re still alive.) Example: Rue is one of the herbs that is usually sold at garden centers. It’s a pretty blue-leaved plant, but can cause a dermatitis reaction like poison ivy on some people (you will rue the day…). So, once you step away from the common herbs like basil and thyme, Google that bad boy before you throw it in the soup.

Right off, I can’t think of any that are North American in origin; they often come from the Mediterranean area, basil originally from India I think. On the whole, they do best in full sun and need good soil drainage. The flavoring frequently comes from oils that develop most strongly in hot weather. That’s why your basil tastes better in the summer than in the winter. When dried, some herbs hold the flavor, others lose it, especially the leafy herbs. That’s why dry basil and parsley are not as good as say, dried rosemary.

Harvest your herbs early in the day for best flavor. Growing them on a sunny windowsill? Some herbs are okay in a south window, but especially in winter, it’s going to be tough to have enough light for them to thrive or develop much flavor.
The strong flavors of herbs should repel deer, so if you have deer problems, try planting some sage or thyme. Let us know if they graze on your basil. We keep lists.

A good place to see herbs in action, so to speak, is at the huge herb garden at the National Arboretum in DC. Depending on what they have going on this year, will be able to observe things like which lavenders or rosemary varieties do better in our climate, and which herbs are more ornamental. The herb garden is near the visitor center and the Bonsai pavilion. The Arboretum is free, of course, and well worth a trip any time of the year.

For beginners, basil is a great plant, and can easily be grown in a pot on a sunny deck. It is an annual, it grows fast, and you harvest the leaves and soft tips. As the summer progresses and the plant matures, clip off the flower spikes and discard them. Make your own pesto. Probably okay to plant now. They are notorious for rotting off at the soil line in cool weather.
Also easy to grow: parsley (grow as an annual); dill (annual); fennel (seeds out badly, watch out for this one); chives (perennial); thyme (perennial); sage (perennial); oregano (perennial); and French Tarragon (perennial).

Rosemary and lavender: perennial but touchy; siting in good drainage is critical, and for rosemary, some varieties are more winter hardy than others. We have a huge rosemary shrub at the exit at our garden center in Beltsville. It is in a raised bed with great drainage, and has the heat of a poorly insulated building for company in winter. Here’s hoping you try some herbs this year!

Herbs in Pots and Containers

Thinking of growing your own fresh herbs? Thyme is one of the easiest herbs to grow, as French Thymewell as one of the most versatile. Like most herbs, it is best planted in full sun and needs well-drained soil. It grows well in containers, too.

During the first year, harvest sparingly. Leaves can be harvested throughout the summer by cutting stems, but the flavor is best just before flowering. To dry, cut stems just as the flowers begin to open–dried thyme retains its flavor better than many herbs.

'French' Thyme

Slow to release flavor; thyme is usually added early in the cooking process; but it is a strong flavor, a little goes a long way. When cooking, use 1/3 as much dried as fresh thyme. In the garden, or in pots, thyme mixes well with lavender, rosemary, basil, and oregano.

Supertunia

Supertunia- ” The Queen of Petunias” Supertunias bloom from early spring until frost, with a slight fragrance especially late in the afternoon and early evening. To really show off in their trailing habit, place them in a hanging basket or container, as a ground cover on a slope, or cascading over a wall. In containers, feed them weekly or every two weeks with an all purpose fertilizer to promote continuous bloom. With their funnel-shaped flowers, they are sure to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. No dead-heading required and once established, they will tolerate dry conditions. They like full sun, have a vigorous growth habit and are pet friendly. They come in a wide range of colors, including red, white, and blue for your Memorial Day and Fourth of July decorating, as well as pink.

Million Bells

Calibrachoa (Million Bells)- Resembles mini petunias, with plants covered in hundreds of blooms from spring to fall. Long branches of flowers cascade over the sides of baskets and containers, attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. Million Bells is “self-cleaning”–no deadheading needed, the old flowers just drop from the plant. For best results, grow in full sun and fertilize at least every two weeks throughout the growing season. Million Bells also come in a wide range of colors!

Spring is here and at Behnke’s we have beautiful cool weather annuals just waiting to bring smiles. Now is the best time to take a few pansies, ranunculus and primroses and create an early spring container garden for your deck or patio. These cool weather flowers are just the ticket! Every color you could wish for.

If it’s herbs you’re thinking about, we have just the right flavors for you.  Start with the classic Italian perennials herbs–thyme, rosemary, and oregano–to create your own Italian garden. Add your basil at the end of April or later, when it’s reliably warm. Basil needs heat to thrive. Select one of the many beautiful pots we have located at both of our garden centers, some soil and and of course your herbs, and you’re good to go!

Add your basil at the end of April or later, when it’s reliably warm. Basil needs heat to thrive. Select one of the many beautiful pots we have located at both of our garden centers, some soil and and of course your herbs, and you’re good to go!

Behnke’s also has EarthBoxes, great containers to plant your herbs and vegetables in. Now would be the time to select your lettuce and other cool season vegetables. Plant them to enjoy salad in a few weeks time.

The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. The maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort. EarthBox comes in terracotta or green.

Gardening Basics: Simply Put – Pansy Tough

The National Weather Service is forecasting a colder than usual winter for us this year, with average (or, unable to predict) precipitation. So we’ll see how our hardcore gardeners with Zone Denial do this year. Someday we’ll do an article on hardiness zones, but basically, the system is based on the coldest temperatures reached in winter for a given area, based on historical data. Plants are rated for their ability to survive the winter within a range of zones from 1 to 11, with 11 being tropical/Hawaii and 1 being very cold Alaska/Fairbanks.

In the Maryland suburbs, we are zone 7A, while in the center of DC, it may be 7B or even 8. If a plant is rated “zone 8,” it is unlikely to survive outdoors in winter in, say, Gaithersburg or Leesburg, but it might in DC. If it’s rated Zone 5, if it dies in our area, it won’t be because of temperature.

“Zone Denial” is planting things that are marginally winter hardy in an area and hoping they make it through, by mulching, planting against a south facing wall, praying, and so on. Some years they do, some they don’t. (“It grows in Mexico, maybe it’ll make it here, oh please oh please oh please.”) For the rest of us, we can plant flowers that are cold-temperature tolerant to start with, and, for that, nothing beats pansies.

Pansies flower and look their best in cool weather; that is, in fall and in spring. They may be either fall or spring-planted. They will usually be in bloom when you purchase them, and, If fall-planted, continue flowering into December or later. They stop blooming during the cold of winter, when temperatures are consistently below freezing, but if given some care, the plants will hunker down and survive the cold.

As the days get warmer in March, pansies begin to flower again, and look downright spectacular in April and into May. As the temperatures get hot going into summer, the plants get leggy (stretched) and the flowers get smaller. Flower breeders continue to make pansies more warm-temperature tolerant so they can be planted earlier in the fall and last later in the spring, but in our climate, they generally look so miserable in summer heat that gardeners replace them with summer annuals.

As recent immigrants from Germany in 1930, the Behnkes were used to fall-planting pansies, and promoted the idea here, where the practice was uncommon. Even early on, pansies were an important item for Behnke Nurseries, with tens of thousands of seedlings planted out in the ground or beds for sale in strawberry cartons in the fall.

The primary winter-care requirement is to make sure that the soil is watered if it gets dry. Pansies are shallow-rooted, so a couple of weeks without rain or snow signals the need for water. Same thing for your evergreen shrubs, especially broadleaf evergreens like camellias or rhododendrons. This has to be done when the ground isn’t frozen to do any good, preferably after several warm, sunny days that occur occasionally in winter. A light mulching in late fall will hold moisture in the soil and reduce frost heave. Frost heave occurs when the ground freezes and thaws, and the freezing squeezes rocks and recently planted plants out of the ground.

The other thing you can do for your pansies is reduce desiccation from the wind. “Desiccation” is drying out: you know that winter air has low humidity, causing your skin to dry out. Plants continue to lose moisture to the air, even if the ground is frozen, especially when planted in an exposed location and it’s windy. If they lose too much they reach what is called the “permanent wilting point.” This means they won’t revive even if watered; they’re dead; they’re pushing up daisies.

Snow is the best protection from wind, but if snow is lacking, to reduce the drying power of the wind, you can make a mini-windbreak. Another European and Behnke tradition, is to use leftover Christmas greens. Branches cut from a discarded Christmas tree and laid upon the pansy bed give protection from the wind while letting some light into the plants. If you don’t celebrate Christmas or you have an artificial tree, consider stopping at a Christmas tree lot after Christmas for a post-holiday special. At that point the tree will be cheap or free, as you are saving the lot owner the cost of disposing of the tree.

So: for loads of color in fall, and a repeat performance in spring, plant pansies, keep them watered through the winter, and if necessary, protect them from drying winter winds. And if you want to grow mangoes outdoors, move to Hawaii.