gardengus said: cilantro planted about 10 days ago

always good to have fresh on hand , but I do freeze some for the between times.

Ten days? Mine takes 3-4 weeks to come up!!! And then not all the seeds do come up.

I hope to do beter with this sowing but we will see.

Lemon balm. It grows like a weed and such a useful, pleasant herb and a great tea.

MatthewC
I agree! If you like the lemony herbs I also highly recommend lemongrass (beautiful landscaping plant as well) and lemon verbena (the most potent lemon scent and taste). They are both also good for teas and cooking. Both tender in colder climates.

Let us know your climate zone and location so we can better converse.

I still have purple basil and some of my DMR types growing.

In the greenhouse, I've got basil, oregano, marjoram, sage, and parsley. Tried to start a new planter of thyme, but so far no luck. After cutting, they hang in bunches under the stairs in the basement.



When they're dry, I remove the stems and then rub them through a colander, which fills the house with a grand aroma. This is a blend of Mediterranean herbs for red sauce, roast chicken, etc.

Beautiful

We need some ''smellovision''on this Herb site

gardengus said:
Great ideas, Deeby
I may try the face thing I have rosacea and can't use most things

It is also a great deterrent to damping off , high in sulfur, a natural anti-fungal. I use it in the greenhouse on seedlings.

I know this is an old thread, but I have used it on seedlings as well.

As a parsley alternative, I grow carrots for the leaves. They are in the same family and taste just a touch different.

I don't grow them from seed for the carrot. I cut a little bit extra off with the top when cooking with whole carrots and plant it. That gets the second year flower for the black swallowtails and I share the leaves with any caterpillars. The flavor does not change a lot in my experience when they flower so no bolting concerns.

Clever Idea maybe I will start saving my carrot tops for the butterflies

I think that "carrot top" idea is a good one!

gardengus said: Clever Idea maybe I will start saving my carrot tops for the butterflies

I've found cutting about an extra inch down compared to where you would normally cut off the top is enough to get a full 2.5-3 foot plant. Rooting them indoors in water has not seemed to make a difference. I've only done a handful in each of the last two years so it's a small sample. I've also gotten them in during fall or early spring so they have lots of time to root in the ground during the cool and wet spring before they really get growing. If starting later or in dryer periods rooting inside might help.

They cross breed with Queen Anne's Lace (aka wild carrot) so you would likely be disappointed if you have any of that in your area and tried to save seed to grow carrots. I usually pinch off the flowers when they are getting long in the tooth to save myself weeding later.

I have never grown carrots.

Newyorkrita said: I have never grown carrots.

I tried growing them once for the actual carrots. I was so successful that you could still almost say I have never grown carrots. I left one of the runts in the ground to overwinter.

Now I grow carrot leaves.

I am going to have to order more cilantro seeds. Don't have any more seed.

I do love the taste of fresh cilantro. My first planting has been out now for a few days. Planted in a big pot.

I do have more seedlings to plant out. But I think with Cilantro the best way to do it is with succesion plantings. That way when the plants want to bolt I have others coming along behind them to use.

Several herbs are best as succession plantings, best used young.

I love fresh Cilantro. My seedling that I am growing.

@gardengus What method do you use to freeze cilantro? The only way I've ever found is to freeze it in ice cubes and then I can only use it for soupy type things.

The herbs I most frequently grow are cilantro, which I can't recall ever taking more than about a week to all come up (but maybe my memory is faulty, I'm about to plant this year's first crop) and Thai basil. This year I'll be planting some red valerian for the flowers, and I've got several lavender plants I've put out after all the lavender I bought from Home Despot died last year (it was in 100% coconut coir). I typically grow several kinds of basil, this year it'll be 3 kinds of holy basil, two kinds of Thai basil, and some cinnamon basil. I accidentally ended up with more cinnamon basil than I wanted. I bought those separately and each time I picked up a pot of cinnamon basil thinking I'd bought some other kind of basil the last time, so instead of lemon basil, regular basil, and cinnamon basil, I ended up with just the cinnamon LOL!

I also have 2 Barbecue Rosemary to put out, and some oregano and fennel, in addition to the dill I planted the other day.

I clip my cilantro rinse and pat dry then wrap in cling wrap and freeze .
I chop it frozen.

gardengus said: I clip my cilantro rinse and pat dry then wrap in cling wrap and freeze .
I chop it frozen.

That sounds good. I will have to try that.

My dear friend bought a small pot of dill and one of cilantro at the local nursery. They both died on her even thought the Parsley and chives are doing good.

What a bummer so I dug up some of my volunteer dill plants for her. And some small cilantro plants. Now she has a small potted herb garden. Oh yes, she has basil