A plant guide
Herbs
Curated abundance with a touch of whimsy
Herbs are the easiest place to start, and the hardest to stop. Most of them want the same three things — sun, drainage, and a little neglect — which means one pot by the kitchen door can hold five of them and get along fine.
Quick tips
-
Sun first
Most herbs want six hours or more. A pot by the kitchen door usually has it.
-
Let them dry
Mediterranean herbs would rather be a little dry than a little soggy.
-
Harvest is pruning
Cut from the top third and it branches out sideways instead of shooting up and going to seed.
Where herbs belong
Start with the sunniest spot you can give them — six hours or more of direct light. If that spot happens to be by the kitchen door, better still, because an herb you can reach in your slippers is an herb you will actually use.
Almost all of ours will grow in a pot. A 12-inch container will hold three of the small ones comfortably, and pots solve the drainage problem for you, which is the problem that kills most herbs around here.
The one thing that goes wrong
Heavy clay and a generous watering can. Johnston County soil holds water, and Mediterranean herbs evolved on rocky hillsides where it drains away in an afternoon. If you are planting into a bed, work in something gritty and set the plant slightly high so water moves away from the crown.
Growing them together
Herbs with the same appetite share a pot happily. The dry crowd — thyme, rosemary, savory, oregano — go in one. Basil and sorrel want more water and are better off together in another. Mixing a thirsty herb with a dry one means one of them is always unhappy.
Cutting them back
Use them. Harvesting is the pruning — take from the top third, cut just above a pair of leaves, and the plant branches out instead of running to seed. The herbs that look best in September are the ones somebody cooked with all summer.
What we have
Basil 'Prospera'
$6
Ocimum basilicum
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Even moisture — the thirsty one
- Size
- 12–18 in
- Bloom
- Pinch the flowers off
Downy-mildew resistant, which is the difference between basil in August and a bare stem in August.
Good to know Harvest from the top and it branches. Strip it from the bottom and it sulks.
Oregano 'Italian'
$6
Origanum × majoricum
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Let it dry between waterings
- Size
- 12–18 in, spreading
- Bloom
- Small white flowers in summer
The one that actually tastes like the jar says it should.
Pineapple Sage
$6
Salvia elegans
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Moderate, steady
- Size
- 3–4 ft by fall
- Bloom
- Scarlet spikes, late summer
Crush a leaf and it really is pineapple. The hummingbirds find it before you do.
Good to know It gets big. Give it the back of the bed, not the front.
Dwarf Winter Savory
$6
Satureja montana
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side — it hates wet feet
- Size
- 6–12 in
- Bloom
- White, midsummer
Evergreen, tidy, and it holds its shape through a Kenly winter.
Red Veined Sorrel
$6
Rumex sanguineus
- Light
- part sun
- Water
- Even moisture
- Size
- 12–18 in
- Bloom
- Grown for the leaf
Lemony young leaves and a red vein that earns it a spot in a container even if you never eat it.
Good to know Pick it young. Older leaves turn tough and sour.
French Thyme
$6
Thymus vulgaris
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side
- Size
- 6–12 in
- Bloom
- Pale lilac, early summer
The cooking thyme. Narrow gray-green leaves, the strongest flavor of the bunch.
Lavender Thyme
$6
Thymus thracicus
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side
- Size
- 6–10 in
- Bloom
- Lavender-pink, early summer
Thyme that smells faintly of lavender — good along a path where you will brush it.
Mother of Red Flowering Thyme
$6
Thymus praecox
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side
- Size
- 3–5 in, spreading
- Bloom
- Deep rose-red, late spring
Low enough to walk on, and it takes the traffic.
Pink Chintz Thyme
$6
Thymus serpyllum
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side
- Size
- 2–4 in, spreading
- Bloom
- Soft pink, late spring
A creeping mat for between stepping stones. Bees cover it when it blooms.
Hi Ho Silver Thyme
$6
Thymus vulgaris
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side
- Size
- 8–12 in
- Bloom
- Pale pink, early summer
Silver-edged leaves that brighten a container all season, flowers or not.
Rosemary 'BBQ'
$12
Salvia rosmarinus
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side, sharp drainage
- Size
- 3–4 ft
- Bloom
- Pale blue, winter into spring
Straight, sturdy stems — the one that is actually worth stripping for skewers.
Good to know More rosemary is lost to wet clay than to cold. Plant it high, or in a pot.
Rosemary 'Salem'
$12
Salvia rosmarinus
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side, sharp drainage
- Size
- 2–3 ft
- Bloom
- Pale blue, winter into spring
The hardiest of the three — the one to plant if you have lost a rosemary to a cold wet winter before.
Rosemary 'Tuscan Blue'
$12
Salvia rosmarinus
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Dry side, sharp drainage
- Size
- 4–6 ft
- Bloom
- Deeper blue, winter into spring
The big upright. Give it room and it becomes a shrub you prune rather than a herb you pick.
Bay Laurel
$8
Laurus nobilis
- Light
- part sun
- Water
- Even, never soggy
- Size
- Slow to 4–6 ft in a pot
- Bloom
- Grown for the leaf
One plant supplies a kitchen for years, and it reads as a small evergreen tree in a good pot.
Good to know Bring it into the garage below about 20°F. It is the one herb here that will not shrug off a hard freeze.
A little field guide to the herbs on our bench.