![\"\"](\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Thanksgiving-669x1024.jpg\")
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Growing Herbs for Thanksgiving<\/strong><\/p>\n Every year at Thanksgiving time, many people scramble to try and find fresh herbs to use<\/p>\n for their Thanksgiving recipes. You find them in the store, in those little plastic<\/p>\n clam shells, kind of dry and wilted. The volatile oils have deteriorated, and while they<\/p>\n taste better than the dried version, you are not getting the best flavor. Growing fresh<\/p>\n herbs is so easy, why not do it yourself this year?<\/p>\n I’m going to separate them into growing groups. Certain herbs enjoy like growing<\/p>\n conditions, and you will save time and have more successful plants if you either grow<\/p>\n them in these groups or by themselves. You can plant them together in a large pot,<\/p>\n individually in smaller pots, or prepare a section of your garden for herbs.<\/p>\n Most herbs grow quickly, so if you decide to plant in containers, be sure to give them<\/p>\n plenty of room to spread out. If herbs become pot-bound, you may find that they require<\/p>\n more water. If this happens, you should re-pot them into a larger container.<\/p>\n Low Water sun Loving Herbs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Chives, Marjoram, Oregano, sage and Thyme prefer well draining soil and will do well with less water and more sunshine.<\/p>\n If you have a sunny window in your home, you can grow them indoors.<\/p>\n Chives prefer to be grown by themselves and will spread into a lager clump each year.<\/p>\n Marjoram and Oregano are close members of the same family. If you plant them together,<\/p>\n you may notice that the flavor will become more similar in both due to cross-pollination.<\/p>\n You probably want to avoid this. They are also both vigorous spreaders, so give them<\/p>\n plenty of room.<\/p>\n Marjoram grows exceptionally well with most other plants, helping to<\/p>\n improve growth and flavor.<\/p>\n Rosemary, both upright and trailing, grows extremely well in the Tucson area. It is great<\/p>\n in pots and also makes an attractive landscape plant. Once established, it requires very<\/p>\n little water or attention.<\/p>\n Rosemary and Sage make good companions if planted together.<\/p>\n Sage comes in many different varieties. Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) has the strongest<\/p>\n flavor, traditionally associated with Thanksgiving recipes. The difference in flavor is<\/p>\n fairly negligible between the other varieties (Purple, Golden, etc.), so you may choose to<\/p>\n plant them for color or growth habit as well as cooking.<\/p>\n Thyme grows well with any of the other sun-lovers. It has a tendency to spread, so again,<\/p>\n you need to give it lots of room. There are several varieties good for cooking, Common<\/p>\n Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) being the traditional cooking thyme. Lemon thyme is also<\/p>\n wonderful for cooking, with a strong lemon scent and mild flavor.<\/p>\n Moisture Loving Semi-shade Herbs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Basil, Cilantro\/Coriander, Dill, Mint and Parsley are all moisture lovers.<\/p>\n They want at least 6 hours of sunshine daily, but may need protection from afternoon sun in the<\/p>\n summer and fall.<\/p>\n Basil and Dill need protection from winter cold, anything below 40 degrees is a killer<\/p>\n cold. Grow these two in pots that can be moved indoors when the cold comes. A nice<\/p>\n sunny window will help them grow big and bountiful.<\/p>\n Cilantro loves the outdoors, as long as the temperature remains cool. When the weather<\/p>\n heats up, Cilantro wants to bolt! Bolting means the plant tries to send up a flower stalk<\/p>\n and make seed. In the case of Cilantro, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as the seeds are<\/p>\n Coriander! You really get your money\u2019s worth out of this helpful plant. You can also<\/p>\n save the seeds for next season\u2019s planting.<\/p>\n Mint loves water. If you plant it outside near a hose bib, under a dripping swamp cooler,<\/p>\n or anywhere else moisture collects, mint will not only thrive, but it might just take over!<\/p>\n If you want to keep mint under control, plant it in a pot. Mint is another plant that comes<\/p>\n in many varieties from one large family, so be careful of the cross-pollination and<\/p>\n mixture of flavors and plant them in separate pots. Chocolate-Spear Mint might sound<\/p>\n good in theory, but in practice, it\u2019s not really that tasty. Some interesting mints to try are<\/p>\n Apple Mint, Orange Mint, Chocolate Mint or Pineapple Mint if you are looking for<\/p>\n something new. You can also stick with the classics: Peppermint, Spearmint, Mint Julep<\/p>\n or Mojito Mint.<\/p>\n Now that you know what to plant get growing!<\/p>\n Herbs like plenty of food, so give them a balanced (all-purpose) organic fertilizer regularly.<\/p>\n If you are growing in the ground, this means every 6 weeks or so spring through fall. If you are<\/p>\n growing in pots, then the amount of water you are using means the nutrients get flushed<\/p>\n out more rapidly, so you\u2019ll want to fertilize every four weeks or so.<\/p>\n Removing flowers from your herbs as they form helps keep them full and strong. If you<\/p>\n allow them to go to flower and then to seed, most herbs think they\u2019ve done their job and<\/p>\n get straggly and\/or die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing Herbs for Thanksgiving Every year at Thanksgiving time, many people scramble to try and find fresh herbs to use for their Thanksgiving recipes. You find them in the store, in those little plastic clam shells, kind of dry and wilted. The volatile oils have deteriorated, and while they taste better than the dried version, you are not getting the best flavor. Growing fresh herbs is so easy, why not do it yourself this year? I’m going to separate them into growing groups. Certain herbs enjoy like growing conditions, and you will save time and have more successful plants if you either grow them in these groups or by themselves. You can plant them together in a large pot, individually in smaller pots, or prepare a section of your garden for herbs. Most herbs grow quickly, so if you decide to plant in containers, be sure to give them plenty of room to spread out. If herbs become pot-bound, you may find that they require more water. If this happens, you should re-pot them into a larger container. Low Water sun Loving Herbs: Chives, Marjoram, Oregano, sage and Thyme prefer well draining soil and will do well with less water and more sunshine. If you have a sunny window in your home, you can grow them indoors. Chives prefer to be grown by themselves and will spread into a lager clump each year. Marjoram and Oregano are close members of the same family. If you plant them together, you may notice that the flavor will become more similar in both due to cross-pollination. You probably want to avoid this. They are also both vigorous spreaders, so give them plenty of room. Marjoram grows exceptionally well with most other plants, helping to improve growth and flavor. Rosemary, both upright and trailing, grows extremely well in the Tucson area. It is great in pots and also makes an attractive landscape plant. Once established, it requires very little water or attention. Rosemary and Sage make good companions if planted together. Sage comes in many different varieties. Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) has the strongest flavor, traditionally associated with Thanksgiving recipes. The difference in flavor is fairly negligible between the other varieties (Purple, Golden, etc.), so you may choose to plant them for color or growth habit as well as cooking. Thyme grows well with any of the other sun-lovers. It has a tendency to spread, so again, you need to give it lots of room. There are several varieties good for cooking, Common Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) being the traditional cooking thyme. Lemon thyme is also wonderful for cooking, with a strong lemon scent and mild flavor. Moisture Loving Semi-shade Herbs: Basil, Cilantro\/Coriander, Dill, Mint and Parsley are all moisture lovers. They want at least 6 hours of sunshine daily, but may need protection from afternoon sun in the summer and fall. Basil and Dill need protection from winter cold, anything below 40 degrees is a killer cold. Grow these two in pots that can be moved indoors when the cold comes. A nice sunny window will help them grow big and bountiful. Cilantro loves the outdoors, as long as the temperature remains cool. When the weather heats up, Cilantro wants to bolt! Bolting means the plant tries to send up a flower stalk and make seed. In the case of Cilantro, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as the seeds are Coriander! You really get your money\u2019s worth out of this helpful plant. You can also save the seeds for next season\u2019s planting. Mint loves water. If you plant it outside near a hose bib, under a dripping swamp cooler, or anywhere else moisture collects, mint will not only thrive, but it might just take over! If you want to keep mint under control, plant it in a pot. Mint is another plant that comes in many varieties from one large family, so be careful of the cross-pollination and mixture of flavors and plant them in separate pots. Chocolate-Spear Mint might sound good in theory, but in practice, it\u2019s not really that tasty. Some interesting mints to try are Apple Mint, Orange Mint, Chocolate Mint or Pineapple Mint if you are looking for something new. You can also stick with the classics: Peppermint, Spearmint, Mint Julep or Mojito Mint. Now that you know what to plant get growing! Herbs like plenty of food, so give them a balanced (all-purpose) organic fertilizer regularly. If you are growing in the ground, this means every 6 weeks or so spring through fall. If you are growing in pots, then the amount of water you are using means the nutrients get flushed out more rapidly, so you\u2019ll want to fertilize every four weeks or so. Removing flowers from your herbs as they form helps keep them full and strong. If you allow them to go to flower and then to seed, most herbs think they\u2019ve done their job and get straggly and\/or die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}