by Graham Kerr
I grow oregano and marjoram as far apart as possible in my herb garden to reduce the risk of cross-pollination. While the mild differences between the two may seem like splitting hairs, for me discovering and distinguishing these subtle differences is what’s such fun!
Oregano
Perennial/Hardy
Water: Light
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: All vegetables
CON: Not close to marjoram
Pests: Aphids
Diseases: Root rot
Soil: Well drained
Fertilizer: Low compost; fish emulsion 2-3 times per season
pH: 6.0-7.0
Varieties: Aureum (creeping gold), Kaliteri (silver, gray leaves, spicy taste), White Anniversary (tender for sauces)
Zones: 5-9
Planting: Seed (indoors on soil surface) 4 weeks before last frost, then set out after last frost; thin to 18 inches
Germinates: 10-21 days
Harvest: From seed, 50-60 days
Rotation: None (perennial)
Edible: Leaves and flowers
Parsley
Petroselinum crispum (curly leafed); Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum (flat-leafed Italian)
In my earlier professional kitchen days, a chef asked me to chop some. I busily picked off the curly tops when he yelled, “It’s parsley, not a poodle!” I replied, “This is how our chef instructor at Brighton Tech School for Hotel Management told us how to do it.”
The next moment there was a swish and a dull thud, and a 12-inch carbon steel Sabatier knife buried itself in the wooden kitchen wall just above my head. “I said chop it,” yelled the chef, who I later learned had been a circus knife thrower. I chopped at lightning speed and have never looked back.
One little trick: when you’re done chopping a small heap—say 1 cupful—put it in a dry cloth towel, screw it up in a ball shape and run it under cold water, wring every last drop out of it and turn the bright green flecks into a small bowl, then leave it to dry out in the refrigerator, where it’s easy to get at for garnishes.
As a garnish, I use the flat-leaf Italian parsley as uncut sprays and the curly as chopped. The stalks of both finely chopped are a fine addition to omelets and scrambled eggs.
Now for the garden! Parsley isn’t easy to start from seed; in fact, some old wives’ tales suggest that it “Goes down to the devil seven times before it comes up.”
It does, in fact, take almost as many weeks to germinate (5-6 weeks), but it can be hastened with an overnight soak in warm water, and it’s useful to use a thermal insulated mug to retain the warmth.
I’ve learned to keep a pair of garden scissors in a lidded plastic container in the herb garden for ready use. It really does pay to snip all herbs and not tear or bend and break their stems. As with other leafy plants, always cut from the outside, 2-3 inches up from the soil, and the center will gain from the extra energy. You’ll notice a tall flower stalk developing; cut this as it forms—you want leaves, not flowers.
Parsley
Biennial/Annual
Water: Keep moistened, occasional watering in dry conditions
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes
CON: Carrots, celery
Pests: Loopers, mites
Diseases: None
Soil : Sandy loam, well composted, good drainage
Fertilizer: Heavy feeder; fish emulsion 3 times per season
pH: 5.5
Varieties: Giant of Naples (flat leaf), Moss Curled (curly leaf)
Zones: 2-10
Planting: Seed ¼ inch deep, thin to 8 inches; early spring before last frost
Germinates : 35-42 days
Harvest: From seed, 70-90 days
Rotation: Keep location for annual use
Edible: Leaves and stalks
Rosemary
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary is one of my all-time favorites, and fortunately, it grows abundantly around our house. Yet there is an old wives’ (not husbands’) tale about this herb: if it grows well, then the wife is the one in charge.
Our plants grow tall and wide, so they are placed at the back of the herb patch. Like other pungent herbs, this one repels small insects, butterflies, carrot flies, and ticks. So you may want to plant a couple of starts in your raised-bed areas at one end on the north or east side, so that their size doesn’t rob other plants of the sun.
It’s a brilliant flavor companion to all meats but especially, to my taste, with lamb. It has a multitude of uses. When your plant (and marriage?) has strengthened, you can strip off the spiny leaves and use the stems for skewers. I put rosemary and orange zest in low-fat egg custards to compensate for the removal of fat—it works really well.
If you grill, you can add both rosemary and fennel branches to the coals just at the last few minutes of cooking to add a smoky flavor that is really different. The aromatic smoke glaze is a real winner, and it’s pretty spectacular!
Finally, if you boil or steam rice—especially brown rice—you can add a rosemary branch to the water and pick up a heady background scent to what otherwise can be pretty dull stuff!
You may also want to pair rosemary with peas, potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, and tomatoes. (Wrap a branch in cheesecloth so that it’s easier to remove before serving.)
You will see from the zones (8-10) that this herb doesn’t like extreme heat or cold. Because of this, you may wish (if you live where it gets really cold) to buy a lightweight container, at least 12 inches in diameter, and grow your rosemary in light, well-drained soil. Be sure to punch holes in the container and buy a drip tray to catch excess water when you bring it indoors for the winter. We are in Zone 7, and our rosemary did well for 6 years; then came our deep freeze, and our trusted bush died, which apparently gave me the chance to reclaim my husbandly role!
Rosemary
Perennial
Water: Light
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Cabbage family
CON: Cucumber family (gourds; gherkins)
Pests: Mealy bugs, scales (an insect that sucks plant juices and can promote mold)
Diseases: None
Soil: Light, sandy, well drained
Fertilizer: Fish emulsion 2-3 times a season
pH: 6.5-7.0
Varieties: Rexford (for culinary), Spice Island (4 feet tall), Roman Beauty (small)
Zones: 8-10
Planting: Cuttings ¼ inch deep, 24 inches apart
Germinates: 18-21 days
Harvest: From cuttings, 60 days
Rotation: Permanent
Edible: Leaves
Sage
Salvia officinalis
Since sage, like rhubarb, comes from Siberia, it is what I would call robust! Sow in late spring, and allow it to grow for an entire season without harvesting, as it needs to mature. In the autumn, cut it back and cover well with mulch. The next year it will burst forth with great flavor. Every third year, simply divide it in early spring.
Sage has a powerful almost overwhelming aroma, and yet the leaves are actually quite mild—milder and in the same flavor range as rosemary. Because of this factor, the fresh leaves are often added to a dish at the last moment, or buried within vegetables, meats, or poultry to be touched by its scent.
There is, for example, a great Italian veal dish called saltimbocca that marries air-dried ham (prosciutto) with fresh sage leaves and uses thin slices of veal to encompass these flavors like a sandwich. A truly wonderful example of the benefits that sage can bring
Perhaps the greatest, or most popular, use is the dressing (or stuffing ) for poultry. For some years now I’ve used a small onion and a small orange—both stuck with four cloves holding four sage leaves each—as a roasting seasoning, put inside the bird in place of the dressing and discarded before serving.
I make the dressing separately, using 2 cups whole-grain bread (cub
ed) moistened with ¼ cup good chicken stock, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves, ¼ teaspoon fresh thyme, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ cup dried cranberries, and one diced Bosc pear. All of this goes into a small loaf pan and is baked alongside the roasting bird for at least 40 minutes.
I do this because I’m nervous about the potential for blood to move into the stuffing and potentially breed bacteria in its warm, moist well-insulated center! (The onion and orange are discarded but give a great flavor to the bird.) Also, the dressing itself is much lower in fat in that it doesn’t absorb it from the bird.
Now, all this is for carnivores, and this book is 99.9 percent vegetable and fruit oriented, so what to do? I make the dressing just described with a vegetable stock and use it to stuff winter squash. It can be placed in a halved acorn squash or even a small delicata, covered with foil, and baked with, obviously, no fear of flesh contamination.
If you have a special reason to start your sage bush from seed (such as a friend who has a particularly aromatic variety unable to be found as a starter), then you’ll have to do this on a sunny windowsill (or greenhouse). Sage doesn’t germinate outdoors very well. It needs a soil temperature of 55ºF-80ºF and takes 7-21 days to show signs of life. If you start from seed, let the plant develop without harvesting in the first year.
Sage
Perennial
Water: Light
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Broccoli, cabbage family
CON: Cucumber family
Pests: None
Diseases: None
Soil: Well-drained, loam
Fertilizer: Light feeder; fish emulsion twice per season
pH: 5.5-7.0
Varieties : Common garden, blackcurrant, pineapple, tricolor (for a great multicolor floral display in the garden), Greek (too strong from culinary use)
Zones: 4-8
Planting: Seed (indoors on soil surface) 6-8 weeks before last frost, then set out after last frost; thin to 24 inches apart
Germinates: From seed, 7-21 days
Harvest: From seed, 75-80 days
Rotation: Replace completely (or divide) every 4 years; don’t follow cabbage family
Edible: Leaves
Summer Savory
Satureja hortensis
There are two kinds of savory: summer and winter. The winter variety can be coaxed into becoming a low hedge and is named Montana pygmaea in its dwarf variety, which is low enough (4-5 feet tall) to see over to talk with neighbors but not good enough for the kitchen, as it is coarse, dry, and bitter.
However, both varieties of savory have this one remarkable and useful quality: they are natural insect repellents. In some locations, they appear to keep down the leaf bugs and weevils that typically go after beans. And if you crush either type of savory, the moist paste can be used to ward off mosquitoes and/or bring some relief to wasp or bee stings.
Like most seed-sown herbs, these are sown directly on a moist surface. They need both moisture and all the light they can get. Be sure you get really fresh seeds, no more than oneseason old. If you’ve already got a plant growing, you can either divide it or take a cutting. If you are using a container, make sure it’s a good 6 inches deep.
Again, like other flowering herbs of reasonable height (8 inches and above), watch out for flower stalks and cut them back before they bloom, to strengthen the aromatic qualities of the leaves.
There’s a wide range of uses for summer savory, beginning with every bean dish you’ve ever thought of. Somehow the peppery—almost mint-like—flavor works very well. If you’ve ever made your own sausages from scratch or bought plain (low-fat) sausage meat, then add summer savory and celebrate!
If you enjoy really complex tossed salads, then adding a few fresh leaves will provide a wonderful peppery taste.
And if all this wasn’t enough, in the midsummer it will break out into a choice of three colors of tiny flowers—pink, white, and lavender—that simply smother the plants and bring in the bees to get everything up and running.
Summer Savory
Annual
Water: Light
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Beans, sweet corn
CON: None
Pests: None
Diseases: None
Soil: Sandy, well-drained loam
Fertilizer: Light feeder
pH: 6.5-7.0
Varieties: Aromata (best for culinary use)
Zones: 5-9
Planting: Seed ¼ inch deep (seeds must be fresh), or cuttings ¼ inch deep (best to use tip cuttings); plant out after last frost 10 inches apart
Germinates : 7 days
Harvest: From seed, 60-70 days
Rotation: Can follow any crop
Edible: Leaf
Tarragon
Artemisia dracunculus
I’m not a great fan of the Crusades, but they did do one great service: in the midst of their pillaging , the crusaders discovered and brought back to the West the herb tarragon, without which many of the great French classic dishes would not be possible.
The French have an incredible buttery sauce, béarnaise, that owes its anise-type flavor to French tarragon. It was this sauce that helped me see how the same herb could elevate fish and poultry and many vegetables, like asparagus, broccoli, carrots, peas, and tomatoes, to an entirely new level.
A great way to use the herb is to create a tasty vinegar for use in salad dressings: Wash and dry the herb and place in a clean (sterilized) jar about one quarter full. Top it off with Japanese rice wine vinegar, seal, and keep in a cool dry place. Please don’t try this with oil, as there is a rare but possible risk of Clostridium botulinum with any raw plant kept in oil.
There are two varieties of tarragon: French and Russian. Although the original comes from Siberia and the Middle East, the Russian should be avoided as a culinary herb because it lacks the essential estragole that provides the licorice flavor.
Tarragon isn’t grown from seeds, only cuttings and starts. It annoyingly wilts in warm to hot weather, so zones 9 and above should be avoided. It’s also more comfortable in moist but not wet soil that is never less than pH 5. As with the other herbs, cut back in the late fall, mulch deeply, and divide every third year to keep it vigorous.
Tarragon
Perennial
Water: Low
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: All vegetables
CON: None
Pests : None
Diseases: Mildew
Soil: Rich, sandy, very good drainage
Fertilizer: Light feeder; fish emulsion 2-3 times per season
pH: 6.5-7.0
Varieties: French (for culinary purposes); Russian and Mexican are unsuitable for cooking due to bitterness
Zones: 4-8
Planting: Cuttings 18 inches apart; divide and replant every third year in the spring
Germinates: 5-10 days
Harvest: From transplant, 60 days
Rotation: Don’t follow sunflowers
Edible: Leaf
Thyme
Thymus vulgaris;T. citriodorius
We have friends who planted lemon thyme between fairly wide-spaced paving stones in a garden patio. It’s gradually grown into every space and looks fantastic. It’s remarkably resilient, and on a warm evening, the crushing it gets underfoot sends up the most delicious aromas, not unlike the chamomile planted amid the grassy lawns of Buckingham Palace, which smells like green apples as you take tea during a midsummer visit . . . or so I’m told.
This is a ground-hugging herb—never taller than 9 inches, and half that for the creeping T. citriodorius (lemon thyme).
There are more than 60 varieties listed, and while I haven’t tried them all in the kitchen, so far the combination of citrus/lemon and mint flavors have captured my enthusiasm, and I now use it exclusively.
Since lemon thyme won’t grow from seeds, you have to resort to one of two
propagation techniques: division or layering. Division is simply easing an established plant out of the ground and cutting vertically through the roots to separate a clump. Both sides are then replanted with a 6- to 8-inch space all around.
Layering is a gardening art form that involves growing a stem as long as possible. Then (while the root is still buried), strip off the leaves and lay it on the soil. Dig a small shallow hole/ trench, scrape the underside of the stem with a knife, then fill the trench with sand and peat moss. Press the scraped stalk into the sand and hold it there with a U-bent piece of wire pushed down like a staple. The roots should grow out from the wound. You can prop up the end of the stalk on a small stake to get it looking upward!
Of course, you can also buy your starts from a good nursery, but be sure that it’s lemon thyme.
Plant it in front of the taller herbs, which logically belong at the back of a bed, and it’ll be easy to harvest.
You can get great success using it on asparagus, beans, broccoli, carrots (along with nutmeg), sweet corn, eggplant, potatoes, spinach, and tomatoes.
Thyme
Perennial/Hardy
Water: Light
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Cabbage family
CON: Cucumber family
Pests: Aphids
Diseases: None
Soil: Light, well drained
Fertilizer: Some feeding (light) and fish emulsion 2-3 times per season
pH: 5.0-5.7
Varieties: Lemon thyme, orange thyme (both good culinary herbs)
Plant Care: When the tiny underbrush leaves dry out, snip down to main stems 3 inches above soil level to regrow the top leaves
Zones: 4-10
Planting: Seed ¼ inch deep, after last frost; can be divided in the spring; thin to 6-12 inches
Germinates : 8-12 days
Harvest: From seed, 70 days
Rotation: Permanent
Edible: Leaf
