Taking out the Herbage

This is the time of year to be cleaning out the herb garden. Time to prune back the overgrowth. Figure out which ones have survived. Divide the ones that have spread beyond their zones. Plan for the next plantings.

It's a dirty job, but it smells wonderful! Especially when you start with the mints.

Yes, I said mints. Plural. I have five different types of mint plus catnip, which is in the mint family.

Back row: chocolate mint, grapefruit mint. Front row: orange mint, spearmint, peppermint

I keep my mint in pots. It tends to take over the world if you don't. And come summer time, like in the picture above, if I don't prune them back regularly some will send out runners which try to root in the ground around the pots.

So this is what they look like after a rough winter:

Scrawny, scraggly, sometimes bare stems. But if you look closely you can see new growth peeking out from the soil line. If new growth is coming through all of the old growth can go.

Pruning back

New growth peeking through

Because mint has a tendency to root, I usually prune it back in my washrack area and let the stems dry out before tossing them onto my compost pile. I also use this as a chance to remove any leaf debris that has collected in the crowns, pull out any weeds that are trying to get established, and top dress with fresh potting mix. Then they go back to their usual spot next to the raised bed herb garden.

The raised bed had different issues. Cool season weeds like henbit are trying to camouflage themselves. The sage is starting to get a little lanky. The lemon thyme, first planted last spring, is in a spot that makes it very happy. A little too happy.

L to R: lemon thyme, rosemary, German thyme, chives (in front of German thyme), sage, Greek oregano (in front of sage).

The plan for this bed is to initially cut back about half of the sage to stimulate growth of new stems from the crown, clip back the dead chives, prune the oregano, and get the lemon thyme down to something about 1/10th of the size of the current plant. I ended up with six little thyme plants and another four from dividing the oregano, all of which found new homes with my coworkers.

As I was cleaning up this bed I realized the front boards on the raised bed are pulling away from the braces, especially on the corners. I won't be able to add in new garden soil or apply the straw mulch until that is repaired, but that's for a later blog post.