Herb Garden in 2010

 I'm not sure when in the summer I decided I was going to do a post on the herb garden through the season.  I never got around to doing it, but since I have enjoyed seeing some posts on gardens or areas of them through time, I decided today was the day I was going to do it.  Well, it took me awhile to start seeing the herb garden in my iphoto library, then I ended up exporting over 40 photos, and I didn't even get all the way through July.  I decided to post what I have, and finish up in another post.

The first one I found was from March 26, when the chives were coming up.

April 12, the woodland phlox were up in the tub.  The chives were up well, with salad burnet and a few kinds of thyme to the right of them.

 I thought this was the year I was going to have to replace the sage, but I cut it back to see what it would do.  The tarragon was coming up in the corner.

 
Here's a wider view.

I don't remember how long we'd had the rosemary plants outdoors, but they were looking a bit rough after being inside for the winter.

The next few photos were taken May 2. 

I don't show this part of the back yard often.  The deck is on the left, and the herb garden on the right. My father-in-law put lots of cement down, in an effort to stop water getting into the basement.  It still does, though. A few years ago, I tried to talk Larry into letting me hire someone to take out a couple of the squares, but he didn't like the idea. We had to put the fence around it to keep Heidi out when she was a puppy.  The reason the extra fencing is over the chain link is because Heidi used to jump the fence.  One of these days, I'd like to tear down the deck and build a smaller patio. 

I also grow herbs in pots.  The little area here is awkward to me.  I would still love to take out some of that cement.

I have shown this woodland phlox before.  I moved it from where we lived 13 years ago.  I plant some out of it in the ground from time to time.  It doesn't live more than a few years where I put it, but it thrives here in full sun, even though it's supposed to prefer some shade.

The chives were getting ready to bloom here, and the sage leafed out nicely.  It's hard to see, but I think the salad burnet was getting ready to bloom, too.

On May 8, the sage was full of flower buds, too.

Here's the salad burnet.

The chive blooms were closer to opening up.

When I was a girl, we used to eat the green seed heads of this clover. I still do once in awhile, but they are more sour than I remember.  There was lots of this in the herb garden this spring.  Can you see the dill coming up?

Here it is.

May 15, the chives and salad burnet were looking quite lovely.  The ones on the left, that are more of a purple, are onion, or giant chives.  The blades are larger than other chives.

The sage was still holding its buds.  That's a mint of some kind on the other side of the fence.

I tend to take care of other areas of the garden before tackling the herb garden.  On May 22, I stopped to document the mess here.

By May 24, the sage had joined in with its flowers.

Oregano was coming up nicely, and rabbits decided they wanted to eat the woodland phlox.

The tarragon grows pretty fast once it comes up.

The dill plants that weren't as crowded were larger.

I did some thinning and weeding this day and the next.  I don't remember if I ate the lamb's quarters that was growing in the corner.

 May 25, I went ahead and cut back the salad burnet and chives before they went to seed.  I usually don't get it done this soon, but wanted to go ahead so they could regrow and I could use them for cooking. 

I used to use thyme more often in cooking than I have been lately.  There are salad burnet seedlings coming up in the thyme here.  I don't remember which kinds of thyme I have here.  I know there are some citrus, variegated, English, and silver thymes.

I used to pull parsley plants that came up in the spring, because, as a biennial, they bloom the second year, and the flavor isn't as good, but lately, I've been leaving them for the swallowtail caterpillars.  But, this summer, I read that one shouldn't let them bloom because the wasps that eat caterpillars are attracted to them.  I already have flowers that the wasps love, so I don't know if parsley blooms are going to cause any more to show up.  I'll have to look into it some more and decide what to do.

I have summer savory come up from last year's plants going to seed each year.  Sometimes it gets a bit leggy.  I cut this one back so it will bush out more.

Oh, I see I didn't eat the lamb's quarters.   I did munch on the lambs quarters from my garden across the street from time to time.   Here's what ended up on the compost pile.

I don't remember when I planted these basils with the chives that lived in the pot over the winter.  This is from May 29.

The thyme in this pot also lived there over the winter.  I added a different kind of sage, parsley, and I think the little plant in the back is a lemon verbena, which I used fresh to make tea with.

Look how nicely the chives regrew by June 8.  The thymes were blooming at this time.

The salad burnet was coming back up, too.

I planted more basil in the corner.  The oregano that I cut back the days I was tending the herb garden was bushing back a bit here. 
 

The summer savory straightened up and started bushing out.

I wanted to include a photo of what was in this container covered with the "pretty" silver tarp.  On June 19, I got some photos of our grandson playing in the sandbox we provided him.

On July 8, the garden was looking pretty full.  Look, the chives bloomed again a bit!  I'm thinking it was because I cut them back before they had a chance to produce seeds.

By July 20, the dill was blooming, and the sage was looking like it never had any problems over the winter.

The 2 oregano plants are blooming.  It looks like I didn't keep up with the deadheading on the basil by the fence.  The pretty black eyed Susans are in our next door neighbors yard.  They look nice with the herbs.

 

Even after finding the photos, it took me a long time to do this post, because I accidentally put duplicates in it, and then, when I tried to do the dates, got so confused, that I had to start over, and do a few at a time, putting the dates in as I went.  I was glad to hear we were having a snow day today, so I could finish up.  Even though it took so long, I look forward to finishing up the rest of the season.

This winter storm is covering a lot of the U.S.  Wherever you are, I hope you are safe and warm.  I always say that I don't mind this kind of weather in the winter, but once April gets here, I want 60s and 70s, with rain, but not too much for planting, and no snow.