Overwintering Herbs?

[crazy_red]

Hello all!

Are there any herbs I could sow now in the green house or cold frame to overwinter for a quickstart next spring or that might give a winter crop?

I don't mind whether their soft or shrubby varieties -I am particlarly wanting to put lavender, cotton lavender, curry plant, sage, hyssop, thymes, winter savory, etc. into a herb border next year

- or am I just sufferring from obsessive compulsive newbie disorder?

I just neeeeed to be growing something, the compulsion is overwhelming

Red x

[coreopsis]

Do you have to grow herbs?If you are not too patient I would recommend growing amaryllis-it grows about an inch a day

[zazen999]

You can take cuttings of things and pop them in the cold frame.

To assist with my compulsion with growing stuff, i've started off lettuce, peas and broadies, and they have gone into modules/pots this last week. I've also got chives, garlic chives and other stuff in pots outside that have come up and are doing relatively ok. I've also got oriental lettuces and onions and shallots in the bed just outside the dining room, so when i get itchy fingers, i can go out and cut back the greens [and prepare them for a salad], and I can watch the onions as they grow through the winter. And, on a nice day, I will move the other onions in the next bed out into a permanent bed, I threw some old seeds in the corner and they are about 6 inches high and still quite thin. I've also got some shallots that got missed that need moving, so i'll move them if we get a good day over the winter to their final bed. And I have 2 pots of potatoes, that were grown from peelings, the foliage died off in Sept and I've just left them, I upended the pots last night and made chips...little projects around the place soon works off the OCD - esp when it is so cold outdoors.

Im also in the middle of a garlic trial, so I need to put garlic bulbs out at certain intervals...having dates of when to do things really helps with the addiction, as you know that you are going to put things out in x days.

If you want a little tester to do, take 6 garlic bulbs. Soak 3 in espom salts for an hour, and then plant the 3 soaked ones in one pot and the 3 unsoaked in another. Then pop in the cold frame and report back which sprouts first and has the best growth.

And what about cress and mung beans to keep stuff sprouting...

[ardroil]

can i take cuttings from mint plants at this time of year to replant, i have
chocolate, orange, grapefruit, ginger, and pepermint, but i would like more of them,
any info would be great,

[rustylady]

can i take cuttings from mint plants at this time of year to replant, i have
chocolate, orange, grapefruit, ginger, and pepermint, but i would like more of them,
any info would be great,

Tip cuttings of mint root really well in jars of water stood on the kitchen windowsill. As soon as you see roots pot them up into celltrays or small pots, keep them frost free and away you go.

[ardroil]

thanks rustylady, ill give that a go today, cheers

[crazy_red]

Thanks everyone!

*adds amaryllis to shopping list............*


Zazen, I'm glad i's not just me

I will report back wih the garlic experiment. The growing poatoes from peelings sounds interesting, what do you do?

Red x

[zazen999]

peel potatoes.

any with sprouts on, cut the sprout off but leave about 5mm depth of the original potato on. put these to one side.

put in about 5 inches of soil. You can put about 3 sprouts in one bucket.

cover with another 3 inches of soil and as the foliage grows, fill to top of bucket.

leave until foliage dies back.

use when needed.

the bigger the bucket/container the more potatoes you get at the end.

[crazy_red]

Thanks Zazen,

Looks like we're having chips for tea, I've got lots of sprouty potatoes!