Morningsun Herb Farm

This is the time of year when the same questions come up many times regarding herbs and vegetables, so perhaps it is time to revisit some of these topics as we enter another summer of herb growing.

 

1. Why can’t I grow cilantro?  You can, at your weekend home in Carmel.   Cilantro is a cool season annual, it does not like temperatures over 90 degrees, and it prefers high humidity.  Even in the shade, hot dry California summers are too much for the delicate nature of cilantro.   Grow cilantro from transplants March thru early June, and in the mid fall through early winter.  If you insist on growing cilantro in the summer, direct sow in a shady well composted area of the garden, with ample water and fertilizer.  Harvest as soon as you get several sets of leaves.  If you continue to direct sow throughout the summer you can get a regular harvest.  There are two other possibilities however.  The first is to grow culantro (Eryngium foetidum), a tender perennial that is related to cilantro but will withstand more summer heat.  It has somewhat prickly leaves, and the prickly flowers should be removed as soon as they start to set, but if grown in afternoon shade it will actually produce plenty of leaf material throughout the summer.  It is slightly stronger than cilantro.  In Vietnam the common name is ngo gai, in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic it is commonly called cilantro.    A second substitute to grow is Vietnamese coriander, also called rau ram or pak pai in Thailand.  The botanical name is Polygonum odoratum – it is a knotweed, which often strikes fear in gardener’s hearts because knotweeds can be such vicious weeds.  We have grown a stock plant of this in our demonstration garden for ten years, and it has stayed well behaved.    Although it is listed as a tender perennial not liking extreme heat, it fares beautifully in our afternoon shade garden, and has returned from dormancy with flying colors the last 10 winters.  I think it is a great cilantro substitute, with a pleasant lemony cilantro flavor.  For our 2009 Open House we featured it in a salad recipe with jicama, red cabbage and carrot, and it was a big hit!

2. Why does my basil flower, and how do I make it stop (or is it too late?)   Basil is a warm season annual, and it’s entire goal is to produce flowers, seed and die.  Your entire goal is to stop it from producing flowers and keep it in vegetative growth.  Any bit of stress will send basil into flowering mode – a dry down or lack of fertilizer is common, especially because we forget that basil prefers more water and fertilizer, especially nitrogen, than most other herbs we commonly grow.  If your basil is flowering, prune back not just the blooms, but several sets of leaves, even up to half of the plant, and fertilize.  Using a liquid fertilizer usually gets the fertilizer to the root zone more rapidly – try a sea kelp/fish emulsion blend at the recommended strength, or if you are using an inorganic such as Miracle Gro use it at half the recommended strength.  Using a slow release granular fertilizer will give more gradual release of nutrients, but needs to be worked into the soil and watered in on a regular basis, usually once a month.  In containers, fertilize basil every 2 weeks, and in the ground fertilize once a month.  This is much more frequent than any of our perennial herbs, which we fertilize maybe once a year in the ground!

Basil also prefers more water than most herbs, in beds several times a week, and in containers often every 2 to 3 days.

If you are struggling with basil, try growing ‘Pesto Perpetuo’ which never blooms and is a bit more drought tolerant.  Some basils such as African Blue are sterile and never produce seed, so allowing them to bloom doesn’t really affect the flavor of the leaf.

3. My herbs are all blooming.  Can I still use them?  Although annual and biennial herbs such as basil, parsley and cilantro are grown for their leaves and are prevented from blooming because it terminates their life cycle and affects their flavor,  perennial herbs are relatively unaffected by blooms.  Although some energy goes into the bloom, and some people believe that the flavor of the leaves are affected, in truth most of us just don’t have that fine of a palate to tell the difference.  Actually, any plant that you can eat the leaves, you can eat the flowers, and it is always a pleasant surprise for our garden tours to try the flowers of Italian oregano, thyme and rosemary!   Herb flowers are sweet and robust flavored at the same time, adding complexity to a dish.  Whereas the leaves of winter savory may be overpowering for grilled fish, the flowers have a spicy pepper kick, but also a nice mellow flavor to them that makes them very appealing for light summer fare. 

 

My favorite flowers to cook with are winter savory, caraway thyme, Thai basil, Italian oregano, pineapple sage and any of Agastaches and Monarda.  Besides the obvious place to use herbal flowers in vegetable salads, many herb flowers are excellent in fruit salads as well.  Try the licorice scented flowers of Agastache ‘Summer Breeze’ mixed in with nectarines or peaches for a great kick, or cinnamon or lemon basil flowers mixed with butters to put on your morning toast and honey.  An unusual treat are the flowers of Salvia melissodora, or Grape scented sage, which bloom all fall and winter with the delicious scent and flavor of grapes.

 

One other important note about herb flowers is that they bring visitors to the garden that both delight us and assist us with pollination.  Basil and rosemary brings in honeybees and other pollinators, Agastache, Monarda, and Salvia are terrific for hummingbirds, and dill, lovage and parsley are important for both adults and the larval stages of butterflies.

4. I guess it’s too late to plant this year.  Never, if you are reading this and you live in California.  We live in the land of milk and honey.  Sure, sure, the state is handing out IOU’s and our houses are worth half what they were worth a year ago, but we can grow perennials and vegetables year round.   So long as water is available, you have an irrigation system in place during the hottest months of the year, and you aren’t slogging around in the mud compacting soil during the winter, there is always something you can be planting.  In August I usually suggest to avoid planting California natives and to wait to plant out heat intolerant vegetables, but hardy perennials such as lavender, penstemon, sage, even daisy flower members such as Rudbeckia and Echinacea, will transplant fine so long as irrigation is available.  Cutting back large leafy plants before transplanting may remove flowers, but will reduce transplant shock.   And fall planting is the BEST time to plant most hardy perennials.  Planting from mid September until early November  allows even the brownest thumb out there the chance of success.  So, if you don’t want to waste water getting plants established during the hottest part of the year, why not spend that time enjoying some herbal tea, mapping out your garden and planning for some fall planting.  One of the best benefits from planting in the fall can be on your wallet, since almost all nurseries have great sales to promote fall planting and decrease inventory.

5. Why are my tomatoes not setting/not ripening?   Hopefully the heat from the last week is finally kicking in, but even on July 4^th I wore a sweater during the windy evening.  When night time temperatures are cool, fruit set and ripening is slowed.  This is often more true of heirlooms than hybrids, while cherries often will set even under cooler conditions…

6. Can I use fresh herbs for tea or do I have to dry it first?  I am always surprised by this question, but it makes me realize that we are used to buying little packages of dried up stuff, and we are a little bit disconnected from our garden.  Lemon verbena, which I think makes  the most refreshing tea possible, is easy to grow and easy to use fresh in tea.  Use 1 tbsp of fresh leaves or flowers for each 8 oz cup of tea.  Squeeze or gently twist the leaves to release the oil, and place them in water that has been brought to a boil.  Turn off the water (don’t boil the leaves and flowers) cover the pot and allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes.  Try some of the stranger plants you would never think of using for tea, like lemon basil or lemon thyme, which are both delicious after dinner digestive teas.

7. My lavender looks leggy/woody/old.  When do I prune my lavender?  The most serious pruning is done after bloom, and it should look rather sad looking after pruning.  While you cannot prune below all of the green material and expect the plant to survive, you can prune down to just a few sets of leaves.  Do this every time the lavender blooms and you will keep your plant looking compact and vigorous, and maximize the life span.  After pruning, fertilize with an organic fertilizer that includes sea kelp (or at least use sea kelp) to minimize shock.  Rose shows you how to keep your lavender plants looking great here! 

Of course, some lavenders seem to always be in bloom.  Often French lavender,  Goodwin Creek Grey lavender or sweet lavender will bloom even during the winter, so at some point you have to make the decision to go ahead and prune to shape the plant and remove spent blooms.  I like to prune these lavenders in August even if they are blooming heavily, to be sure they are blooming with lovely flowers for November and December.

8. Can I leave this plant in the container I bought it in?  Well, you can, but it will never flourish. Since our plants are grown in 3 or 4 inch pots, they are easy to transplant with a minimum amount of shock, but will definitely get root bound, get hungry, not be very productive, be more susceptible to disease and never give you all of the delicious flavorful foliage and flowers that you will want.

9. Why is my plant yellow?  Generally, there is an easy answer for about 75 % of all those yellow plants, especially because they tend to be basil, tomatoes, other vegetables, or citrus where these symptoms first show up.  My first question is always ‘How often are you fertilizing?’  This is often met with a blank stare, or with the statement “Never, do I need to?”  the answer is yes, especially when these plants are grown in containers, thereby restricting the root system to a very small space.  In general, lower leaves yellowing or overall yellowing tends to be a nitrogen deficiency, easily overcome with higher nitrogen fertilizers.  If using organic fertilizers such as fish emulsion, it may need to be applied every several weeks during the growing season.  Dry slow release fertilizers will need to be applied every 4 to 6 weeks.  Faster acting inorganic fertilizers will overcome the symptoms more quickly, but any excess nitrogen is more quickly lost during watering.  The best way to get an accurate diagnosis, of course, is to bring in a nice sized leaf sample showing the symptoms to a nursery.

10. Why did my plant die?  Well, my first employee Pam would respond to this question with ‘Some plants have no will to live’.  Of course, I used to hear her threatening plants that weren’t growing well with certain death, I guess scaring them into thriving was tough love.   When people ask me this question though, I usually have about 25 questions to ask them back.  Remember, some plants only live one season, and some perennials, such as thyme, are short lived, usually only lasting 2 or 3 years.  Of course, there is too much versus not enough water, root systems being girdled or eaten by gophers, insects, the accidental overspray with herbicide, too heavy pruning, ‘vacation neglect’, differences in watering and fertilizing needs in containers vs in ground growing,  planting in the wrong place, plants being overtaken by other plants, the problems with neglect in general and a myriad of other possibilities!

When you have this question, I always suggest bringing in as much of the plant and its symptoms as possible.  This includes roots if they appear affected.  Also, the more information the better – it is a bit frustrating to be asked why a plant isn’t growing, ask 20 questions about it, and then finally have someone say, “well I planted it 2 weeks ago, I just thought I would see some growth by now”…ah, I never thought to ask if the gardener was impatient.

 

We of course get many other questions during the growing season, but these ten probably make up at least 50% of the daily questions!  I hope this helps answer some of the burning questions you have had this summer!