Knowledge from Olle Garden Bed: Winter Herbs
Learn how to handle herbs when winter comes, including tips and techniques for keeping fresh and rich. The following content also has some reference value for raised garden beds.
Enhance the dishes with winter herbs to make the meal time in cold weather unforgettable. You can harvest fresh vegetables from the garden, hide the flowerpots in a protected corner, or cut your vegetables from the windowsill garden. No matter how you plant them, the taste of winter herbs is incredible. Learn which winter herbs work best outdoors, and tips for taking care of indoor crops.
Many winter herbs thrive easily outdoors in Zone 6 and warm areas. The list includes sage, common thyme, oregano, chives, chamomile, mint sugar, lavender and tarragon. Even in Zone 5, if you throw frost blankets on some of the most cold resistant herbs (such as thyme, oregano and mint), you can also sneak in and harvest under cover when the weather permits. The harvest may be small (more than one third of the plants are unwise), but in deep winter, when you live in a place that brings snow and cold in winter, any fresh green is a kind of enjoyment.
In warm areas, gardeners usually plant winter herbs in autumn - herbs that thrive in cool weather. It is best to pack winter herbs into a place that is easily accessible from your home. This not only makes the harvest fast in cold days, but also the plants near your home benefit from the mild microclimate created by your home.
Consider planting some of these winter herbs in containers. If the temperature drops sharply, you can drag them into a garage or shed. You can also carry an antifreeze blanket or pot cover to throw on the container on the coldest night.
In colder areas, winter herbs are best planted on sunny windowsills indoors. Good candidates for indoor harvesting include various herbs, many of which you can start in outdoor flower pots before the garden freezes hard. This list includes oregano, sage, thyme and chives. Dig a small cluster of these herbs at the end of summer, and then put them into a flower pot. With the arrival of late autumn, you will move indoors. You can also handle parsley this way, or simply plant it indoors.
Basil is easy to start from the seeds inside, as long as it is in the bright window. Facing south is ideal. Other winter herbs that like bright southern windows include rosemary, sage, chives and oregano. Potted bay or rosemary plants can be moved indoors when the temperature is determined. Both plants benefit from bright winter light. The bay needs good air circulation to maintain its best condition; Rosemary needed cool nights in the 1950s,
In order to transfer chives and tarragon to the room, potted them in late summer to let the leaves die of frost. Trim the dead leaves and leave the flowerpot in a cool indoor place for four to five days. The cool basement or auxiliary garage works normally. After the cooling period, place the flowerpot on the bright window. If the soil is dry, water it and wait for the growth to recover.