I know some have herbs started already

too early in the year for me to be doing much outside(12 degrees this morning) so I am reading and planning and will order seeds next week

Are you ready for spring?

Great to see a new thread, Cinda!

I am ready for spring! Can't wait to explore the wonders of gardening in a new climate.

I'm ready! I will be planting lettuce and spinach next weekend. I have lots of little parsley seedlings in the garden; I will pot them up for the MG sale. We will be growing 3 basils, dill, oregano, thyme, cilantro and bronze fennel for the sale. We grow the bronze fennel because so many folks around here have butterfly gardens, and the Black Swallowtail cats eat the fennel. They also eat dill and parsley!

so when do you have the MG sale there? and how many plants do you grow for the sale?


I always have a lot of bronze fennel in my herb garden and some in my flowerbeds , it is a very pretty plant and like you said the butterflies love it
It also looks very nice in cut flower arrangements , the soft leaves are a nice filler.
If you are into press- drying flowers and plants it is also great for that .
personally I don't care for the flavor , but it looks very nice on the top of fresh baked bread loves.

Our sale is the first Saturday in May. This year that turns out to be the first day of May! Well, the number varies on how many we have. You know you get years when the seed doesn't sprout, etc. in 2018 a lot of the seeders had damping off disease , so we were down in numbers that year. Overall, we usually have anywhere from two thirds of the plants frown from seed to one third of the plants dug from our gardens, some years it's more half and half. We average anywhere from 1500 to 2500 total plants for sale every year. I could give you a more exact amount, but would have to drag out my folder and correlate some figures. I think my estimates are pretty close. This year a lot of new members are doing the seeding, and I don't know how much experience they have, with the exception of a mother/ daughter team who actually own their own nursery.

Exact numbers are not necessary just curious , thanks
I missed so many plant sales last year
even the herb fair was order and pick-up
hoping for a more normal year this year

We are, too. But we are having the sale online. We won't know until March if the University of Arkansas , our parent extensive office head, will even let us have an in-house sale, that's too late to scramble together an online sale. Because this is our first online sale, there will be a lot of work involved and a lot of new organization for me to do. I can do an in-house sale with my eyes shut....this is making me tear my hair out!

I'm planning on trying some new herbs this year and planting them in a variety of locations. Should be interesting. I've actually got a thread looking for herb ideas but I just bought 5 more seed packets today. I'll probably start seeds inside mid to late February. Maybe more in mid March but my herbs took forever last year when started mid March so I'm starting herbs and peppers a bit earlier. I'm hoping to have extras to sell (part of why I'm trying new things is because other people might like them).

Spring can't get here soon enough. We had 15 inches of snow away the start of the week. I'll be interested to see how a few of my herbs overwinter. They're in small pots buried in a larger pot covered in leaves up against the house (currently buried in snow). It's got chives, garlic chives, oregano, and chocolate mint.

Ceckery, Those like snow if the roots are buried enough to stay warm. Lemon thyme is well liked down here too, and loves the snow. Just keep the wind off them. I don't seed most of my herbs, I have a great nursery with an awesome selection of herbs...parsley I do seed, fennel I need to seed, and the really small fern leaf dills survive the cold.

My lemon balm and my mints sailed through the winter here. I had cut back my oregano in the fall, and of course it put out new growth; that hasn't seem to have been bothered because this year has been pretty mild so far. Temps lower than average, but for anyone else in colder places our winter weather would be considered quite balmy!

I have an oregano question???

I have oregano (3 plants in 3 places and all I harvested this past year had no smell or flavor
these plants are 3-4 years old , cut back regular for fresh growth , I noticed no smell in the early summer harvest so I re-harvested in the fall...still no good

should I dig and toss? Why have they lost their flavor ?

I had to purchase oregano and that is the first in over 20 years

I had not noticed a total loss of odor. I have noticed diminished odor when there has been too much moisture. Did you have a wet summer?

I just gave up and threw out a new mint because it had no smell AT ALL. And it was a Kentucky Colonel which is very strongly scented. I thought I had covid! I later tested negative.
Lynda, it was the mint I told you about.

No heat. Too much water, variety, Need to trim em and allow to regrow, quit fertilizing, they need conditions only a weed loves. Neglect.

Well, about the oregano..... ? Mine is 6 years old, in full sun, I never fertilize, and supplemental water only during a drought. It has stayed strong. I do cut it back at least three times a year. Deeby, I dumped my Kentucky Col. mint.Absolutely a dud. I don't think the tags got switched where I purchased it from. This was a Bonnie plant from Lowe's. I will use my spearmint and peppermint. Kind of thinking about the Mojito, but after my experience with the Col, probably won't buy one. If I do purchase a new mint, I will get chocolate. I like that one and have grown it before.

Oregano. In a plot 4'x4' and raised in a slight mound, maybe 5" above the surround. Was trimmed back by 50% during late summer if I remember right. This is Hilltop Oregano a Texas variety by Madaline Hill here in Houston area. ALWAYS smells and tastes like oregano should. We get humidity that also keeps groundwater high half the month. It needs room to spread a bit.





Kentucky Colonel spearmint. 36" x 36" raised bed to keep it separate from my other mints. It also needs room to walk around. It creeps west and south in the winter and Spring, then turns and runs to the east shade in summer. It had covered the whole plot til I yanked out all but a spot about 12" wide in Oct? Strong also.


Mojito mint, it also walks and I yank it back in the Fall. I also occasionally thin out during Spring.


Peppermint hiding on the east of the cilantro, it is also walking. All are strong mints and they need the traveling to keep from dying.


I use these around other plants and they get the same watering whatever the other plant growing there gets. If I keep them in small pots they invariably perish, but these spots are going on 6 yrs.

Kat, beautiful oregano! Your Col mint looks totally different from mine. I'm sure mine is an imposter!
Here's my oregano.
This pic was taken in early spring.

I don't normally water my herbs and never fertilize , but I do add some compost as a weed deterrent .
I guess I will test the oregano this spring and purchase some new ...but I will pinch and smell and taste before purchasing a new start.

Kat, your Kentucky Colonel looks exactly like the one I've been looking for for YEARS.
Does it have quite a strong smell?
If it does would you consider mailing me a sprig to root?

Sure Deeby, it looks sad right now, but send me an address.