I've starred this Sharon - great info! Thank you so much

Thanks Sharon!

Good to see this, Sharon. For me in Zone 8, its too much rain. The oregano is gone, and most of the rosemary. Im trying to devise an indoor growing area where I can grow herbs next to a S. window--maybe with grow lights. I used to use incandescent lights for the heat, but those are hard to find anymore.

I've tried growing my rosemary inside, it just doesn't do well at all, and I've come very close to killing it just trying. But I've planted it this time in an area that is within a few feet of my house and the wide overhang of the roof sort of protects it. I also built up the soil over the years, built it up in height, not to what I could call a raised bed, but it does look like a little hill, with pavers around it to keep the soil from washing. Anyway, they are a bit protected from the rain and snow, but the soil beneath stays fairly moist. My house is built east to west, so they get mostly very good sun through the day in the back yard. I couldn't do this in front because of the shade.

I don't know a thing about grow lights, if it doesn't make it outside, I'll just have to start over. But it worked well last year and by accident it worked well the year before. Now that I'm really making an effort and have devised a plan, this might be the year of failure. But we'll see!

Thanks, Gloria! Happy Thanksgiving soon.

Enjoyed your article as usual.
I had sowed seeds of parsley a few years ago in winter as a way to have some ground green cover, Nothing happened but when I cut back my summer annal the parsley was hiding underneath! Timing is important.
I wonder if anyone has tried to grow basil indoors

Thanks Anna.

Don't know about the basil indoors. I should have thought to try it when I brought my coleus cuttings inside; I could have done the same for the basil, though it was pretty tired by then. Brown and dead mostly. So I don't know.

Honestly, my feeling is that it might lose some of its flavor, but that's just my mind playing tricks probably. Maybe we should try it.

Thanks for the information Sharon. I have some herbs that I am afraid I only use rarely in cooking (thyme, oregano). But I love going out and brushing up the plant just for the wonderful fragrance they emit. I had no idea that some herbs were cold tolerant, so if mine are still going, maybe it is worth going out to the barren garden just to brush up the plant for a whiff.

I grow basil indoors on a sunny windowsill. I also root cuttings in water and when a sufficient amount of roots have formed, I plant in a pot. I've always got a place to put at least a small pot of basil. This year, besides sweet basil, it's cinnamon basil and boxwood basil.

Forgot the photo of some of the cinnamon basil going to seed last month. The Boxwood basil behind it had already bloomed.

Good to know!

Great to know, Song -- I have no idea why I've never tried it. Thanks!

My rosemary shrub will never die outside here, I bet. The Bronze Fennel keeps going. Lemon Grass will die if the winter gets very cold, but normally it's fine out there. Stinging Nettle hangs in outside...I mostly put it in tea, it's good for people and also host plants occasionally to butterflies. Some of the mints survive either in the ground or pots. Sometimes the cilantro and parsley keep going outside. Thyme and oregano, other herbs I can't think of now. A friend of mind grows lots of herbs through the winter.

My bronze fennel goes dormant every year, but by then the swallowtail cats have devoured it anyway. Stinging nettle is usually around most of the year as well but my mints also go dormant. Not yet, today they looked like a sea of emerald after yesterday's storms, but soon they will die back. I lost a great rosemary to the drought last year and the one I have now is fine for the moment, but we'll see. Usually they survive 3 or 4 years at best. It really never gets to shrub size here.