Starting herbs from seed
Spurred on by the permanent flower/herb beds I'm adding against the newly skirted sides of our trailer,
I decided to branch out into some additional herbs this year, and also
expand our planting of thyme. (Because there's never quite enough thyme
on our homestead!) While most perennial herbs are best purchased as
plants, I always like to test my green thumb against minuscule seeds, so
I filled a flat with chamomile, Greek oregano, thyme, fennel, lovage,
and poppies.
Of
these, the chamomile is a self-seeding annual and the middle four
should establish themselves as long-lived perennials. Poppies, on the
other hand, are typical annuals that are planted in our main garden each
year as a matter of course. So why include them in the herb flat?
The trouble is that my planting calendar says to seed poppies outdoors now,
but our weather forecast has promised us at least a week below freezing
with an ultimate
low of -16 degrees Fahrenheit. Sure, I could just put off planting the
poppies the way I have the lettuce and will the early peas. But I often
end up thinning and resetting garden-seeded poppies, so I figured I'd
test them out as transplants instead this year.
Will the herbs be our
first garden sprouts of 2015? Not at all! Onions started in flats at the
beginning of February are beginning to send up green leaves at the
moment. A perfect visual tonic for a February cold spell!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I have several things started inside,,, but all this ice and snow is bumming me out!I need to start more herbs too , thanks for reminding me with this post,, same here never enough thyme! A tree fell and crushed my Hugh tunnel I was planning to plant peas in early this year.. so looks like I'll be putting that off for a few weeks... I'm so spoiled with being able to plant early... but the winters we've had the last two years are making me have to rethink! btw, do you grow artichokes or rhubarb?