Herb Garden 2 (inactive)

[Sher]

Seeing your herb gardens is almost like a culinary botanical garden tour.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on what is going on with them.

[Shawn]

Everything is doing wonderful.  I often find from garden to Garden that my plans will grow differently. For example basil which we know is a fast grower however sometimes I'll plan it and grow slow. Guess it also can depend on the conditions inside the home or room that you have your gardens in. Regardless you are going and growing wonderful and I really like seeing all the different things you grow.

[kanewai]

And I have laid my second herb garden to rest.  This was planned - I'm leaving the country for six weeks (work plus vacation), so I knew this garden had an end date.   Just in time too; I had an infestation of white flies. I have no idea how they even got in the house.  I've started drying some of the herbs (oregano, thyme, sage, chives) as that will make a nice herb blend.  I made one last batch of pesto ... and ate it all straight from the bowl.  

Work has been insane the past few months, so I haven't had time to cook and experiment as much.  I mostly used the traditional herbs that I could just cut and sprinkle on whatever I was eating.

I planted fewer herbs between the two gardens, in order to give each more space.

The run-down:

Genovese Basil - The fastest grower and most prolific.  I did a better job of keeping it under control this round.

Mystery Basil - It was from an AG "Marseille basil" pod, but the leaves were very large.  It looked like pictures I see of "lettuce leaf" basil, but AG doesn't sell that.  The taste was fine, but I like the more prolific Genovese.

Dill - Stayed straggly.  The first round dill grew as fast as the basil.  Odd.

Chives - Similar to dill; didn't produce much.

Thyme - Grew strong.  

Spearmint - Much, much better flavor than the AG mint.   Grew fast, and liked to sprawl.  Required a lot of maintenance! Aggressive roots; I eventually moved it to a pot and it continued to thrive.

Zaatar - It grew, but wasn't as prolific as the first round.

Savory - What happened?  It grew, then flowered and died back.  It grew so well the first time.

Sage - Grew much faster this round.  I've been adding it to everything.

Rau ram - A Vietnamese herb. Wonderful, cool, mint-cilantro scent.  Best fresh.  The leaves are a bit woody, so I don't buy that it is a "cilantro substitute" like some blogs claim.  I've added it to red curry, and to dipping sauces for gyoza.  Is great with pho, but I don't know how to make pho.  I've seen a recipe for Vietnamese cold chicken with rau ram, but I didn't have time to make it.  This also had very aggressive roots, and used a lot of water.  I'll plant it again, but I'll only root the cutting in the AG, then move it to a pot.

I think that's it.  Round Three: sometime in October!

[Shawn]

Well it had a good run.

Safe Travels and we look forward to seeing you next garden in October