Hello out there, We're here in Kansas City, and ran across this while looking for hints on how to grow herbs. Seems simple enough, but they do need their own space, so it seems. About eleven years ago when we first moved in, it started out as a simple thing plant a few little plants from the "City Market." There is no such thing as full sun in our yard, so we picked the sunniest spot hoped for the best. The catnip lasted about fifteen minutes, before D. C. discovered it, i think he ate it. The lemon balm, sort of took over it's box, really fast. We were hoping to plant all sorts of things there. The peppermint was in a less sunny place but after a couple of years didn't look bad. The sage, in the same box as the peppermint, produces quite a bit of sage, even though the pussy willow tree (them things grow fast, only six years old), now shades it most of the time. About nine years ago we decided to take the box back from the lemon balm, so in the fall pulled it up and shook the seeds out by the fish pond, it likes it there. And cleared the strawberries, and chives which were sharing the box, and put the peppermint there, oops. Actually it's not as bad keeping the peppermint in check. This year though it's competing with tomatoes, tomatoes are winning. That battle's going on at the other end, so the chives and strawberries are sort of safe. We still pull lemon balm out of there. We never did find much use for lemon balm, and have way to much peppermint. This year though we started on other herbs, oregano, and thyme being the predominate perennials. Three kinds of oregano, and two types of thyme. The spicy oregano was rescued from the peppermint box, the plain oregano, and English thyme was borrowed from my mom's garden. The Dittany of Crete (fuzzy oregano), and lemon thyme, are just little seedlings. Gradually they're all be getting their own little two foot by two foot by ten inch boxes, just to keep them out of the grass. While the plants keep showing us what they can do, we're gonna need some clues. This forum looks like a good place to start. Thank you all for having us. jeffrey
Welcome to Gardenstew from a very wet Vermont....I too have had to build a box to grow my sage in. I moved all my other herbs inside, due to my neighbors cats using my herb garden as their litter box. The sage does very well in a huge box my hubby built around it and it has a chicken wire top to keep the kittys out. We would love to see pictures of your boxes and gardens.
Hello PepperSage / Jeffrey I am glad you joined the Stew. Welcome. You seem to be into herbs. lovely stuff. I grow some garlic, parsley, rosemary, lavendar, basil, capsicum(cayenne and bell peppers) and some oregano and thyme.
Hi Jeffrey and a BIG WELCOME from a very humid Scotland. I grow a few herbs sage, different mints, rosemary and lemon balm. The lemon balm certainly does take over doesn't it but smells gorgeous? I hope yo grow more next year bow that I have a greenhouse to start the seeds off in.
Hi Jeffrey, welcome to GardenStew from north Texas where 'full sun' has been taken to the extreme this summer. Yes, please, pictures...we love pictures.
Hi Jeffrey and and a big welcome to GardenStew. Great to hear about your herb adventures, interesting reading. Don't forget to check out our blogs, member map and upload any plant images you have to PlantStew for all to see Details here: http://www.gardenstew.com/plantstew/help#3 // frank
Thank You all for the very warm welcomes. So you want pictures... Here's the box the sage is in. The sage was just trimed yesterday, it was bigger. Yes I planted the violets, they're pretty. the two boxes came with the house, but it was to dark to take a good picture of the whole box, or the other one. This is where we put the plants this year, that needed to go in the ground while we decided on what to do with them. The oregano in the center was moved last week. It now lives here, this box is a little bigger than the rest will be. 12x10s seemed better. We found this in our yard, just before the 4th of July, normally our cats won't let others come around. Again thanks for all the warm welcomes. Jeffrey
ok here's the fabled box that keeps getting replanted and taken over, i have a plan for next year, HAH Mom would really be upset that i don't make it more pretty.
