My Favorite Annual Herbs...........

If you like to garden, you probably like to eat or cook what you grow, so you gotta have lots of herbs. They make everything taste better, each herb adds a new level of flavor to your dish.
Cilantro


Last summer I purchased some really nice plants at my farmers market and I let them go to seed, so I had another crop in the fall that lasted all winter. Yesterday I cleaned up the bed, added some compost and tossed in some seeds I had saved from last fall. I decided I better protect the area with tomato cages to keep the chickens out. Notice I left a few plants in the bed to go to seed again.

Hopefully I will get a new crop of cilantro before too long............because I love cilantro, I want it growing year round. I put it in Salsa, and use it as a garnish on some of my favorite foods; Kitcheree, Hoisun Pork and Spring Rolls.

Treat Parsley the same way and it too will become a weed in your garden.


Cilantro Update
May 4

The cilantro seeds have sprouted, so I am looking forward to a new crop soon.

May 28

It's coming along. Some borage and calendula have volunteered in the bed. I need to weed them out, maybe transplant them somewhere else.

Basil


I started these seeds on wet paper towels on 4/1. On 4/8 I transplanted them into flats, today I transplanted them into individual dixie cups (3 plants per cup).

(I tried to start some basil seeds indoors in february, but none survived, I was able to germinte them, but then they got too saturated in all the rain, because I left them outdoors, unprotected).

Usually I can't plant basil seeds directly outdoors till June 1 around here, they won't germinate any earlier. But this year I tried Uncle Tom's Method indoors to get a jump start.........because I love basil, and can't wait to start picking it. So far, so good with the batch started in April. I just have to be careful and not leave them out in the rain.

I haven't figured out how to get basil to volunteer or even save the seeds yet.....something to work on this year.

Garlic




Garlic is planted in the Fall, I planted these last October. I expect to harvest them sometime in June/July. I interplanted my beds with herbs and flowers to make them look nice and stay healthy.