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Have you been enjoying the warm weather this past week? I sure have. A few years ago, in March one afternoon, I found myself sitting at Secrest Arboretum and was looking at the witch hazel displays and talking to the new pastor for my Wooster church. He has a wonderful wife, and she asked me an interesting question about how she could get started growing her own herb garden? She likes the idea of stepping out her own back door and getting her own cilantro and red chilies. There is no question that I’ll help her with this project. But frankly, I may have an alternative motive. After all she is an amazing cook, and I know that I’ll be blessed with some of her amazing plates of food.

To help her I always begin with the normal questions you might ask with any kind of garden. First what kind of an herb garden do you want to grow? There are herb gardens raised for their culinary aspects, medicinal qualities, insect attracting qualities, dyes you can make from certain herbs, insect repellent qualities, soil enhancing qualities, and the list continues. Many herbs you encounter grow their best in the sun, but there are herbs that do well in the shade.

Our second question is how much space do you have for growing your herbs? Some mints are amongst the most aggressive and invasive plants that I have experienced. There are other herbs that can be kept well in containers and can provide you with many wonderful years of life from a container. If you have a number of goals for a particular area in your yard, you may want to consider some of these herb ideas. The final question is water — can it also be a challenge? There are many herbs that find their origins in the Mediterranean area and others that prefer wet soils. You really do need to answer these questions first, then you purchase the herbs you want.

More: A Stroll Through The Garden: Dandelions and wild edibles

More: A Stroll Though the Garden: Witch hazel - a favorite scent

Herbs can be planted in containers, and I would recommend a container for some of the aggressive herbs, like members of the mint family. Containers can be moved from a shelf in your kitchen to a larger pot on the patio. Make sure that the pots have holes in the bottom. Most of the herbs you encounter will do well with standard two-parts potting soil and one-part coarse sand. As you put your soil in the containers, leave about one inch at the top for a way to water and the water to settle in the pot. Soak your herb seeds for a couple of hours then plant the seeds following the instructions as if you were planting in a regular garden soil. Place the container in a south or west window, and water the herb plant when the soil is dry to the touch before you take it outside.

Oregano

Oregano is a semi-evergreen that is a tender perennial in Ohio. To overwinter this tender-perennial, you will need to provide some protection. As a companion you can place both peppers and tomatoes near the oregano. There are many benefits of growing these plants together. This oregano is for the most part native to the Mediterranean. For first timers, I prefer to grow greenhouse plugs because they have the greatest chance at success. Our oregano has a great flavor and is very useful in many different ways. Clip smaller stems off the main stem. One noted factor of oregano is that it is very flexible and can endure this kind of pruning. If it has been established it comes back. You can use oregano when roasting a chicken, worked into dinner rolls, as one of the herbs for a perfect burger, mixed in a pot of with black beans, or finish a tomato sauce seasoning for spaghetti. Some of the healing aspects of oregano are that it helps with two different enzymes called carvacrol and thymol which are both used as antioxidants, antifungals, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral. A quality that I learned recently about oregano is that it does battle cancer.

Cilantro

Cilantro is a tender perennial that prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Harvest cilantro until the flowers start to show. You can extend the harvest a short period longer by removing the flower. This cilantro will self-seed as seeds fall to the ground. You cannot dry cilantro very well, which means that you need to use fresh cilantro quickly or process it in some other way. I love cilantro in a good salsa, and it can help with female challenges.

As you probably know there are lots to herbs. These plants are amazing and have been a part of our world since we existed. The challenge, as it was then, is we just don’t know very much about them. The Wooster OARDC web page has a daily revision of the soil temperature link, and I saw that the soil temperature is around 40.4 degrees 5 cm down March 10, 2021. If you have any challenges in your garden this week, e-mail me at ewlarson546@yahoo.com. I shall add some columns to my website at ohiohealthyfoodcooperative.org soon where you will find links to the blog where we can talk about the topics mentioned.

Eric Lawson of Jeromesville is a veteran landscaper and gardening enthusiast and a founding board member of the Ohio Chapter of Association of Professional Landscape Designers. He encourages your gardening questions by sending an email to ewlarson546@yahoo.com.            

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