May 17 Column: Grow an Herb Garden

It has been so gratifying to witness the surge of interest in growing a vegetable garden this year — truly the bright spot in this COVID-19 situation. But along with those veggies, why not also grow an herb garden? That’s the topic for my garden column today. Here’s a link to it in The Spokesman-Review: Spice up your garden with culinary herbs.

In it, I discuss the most popular culinary herbs you can grow and include some tips you might not know about.

I think herbs add so much to the dishes we prepare and feel it’s important that herbs be planted where they are quickly accessible. So right outside your front or back door is ideal, or in containers. But planting them within your veggie garden works great, too.

Many herbs are perennial, meaning they’ll come back every year. If you grow some of them and are planting them within your veggie beds, remember that you’ll want to leave them in place at the end of the season and plant around them in future years. Some herbs an annuals so this won’t be an issue with them… not that it’s necessarily a problem!

No matter what, I hope today’s column will encourage you to grow your own herb garden. It’s quite easy to find plants at garden centers these days so keep an eye out for them.

If you’re curious, the photo at the very top of this post is of cilantro. And the photo above is of a dill flower head.

In this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I finally planted my tomato seedlings.  And if you’re wondering, the photo below is of ‘Chef’s Choice Orange’ tomatoes, my very favorites for tomato sandwiches! Hope you enjoy the video: