Herb Care

Hi guys, I'm relatively new to growing things and the only thing I have grown successfully are cayenne and jalapenos.

I purchased a rosemary and thyme plant this weekend and I plan to grow them in pots in the garden. (In the uk)
I'm looking for caring tips, watering, harvesting etc.

Thank you.

 

Rosemary gets quite large, so I usually give it a good sized container if its not going straight in the ground.

For both Rosemary and Thyme, I find the care regime similar.

They both like a sunny spot, and they like it when their soil dried out between watering. I.e. keep them too well watered and they will suffer.

With the Thyme, because it is low growing, be careful not to let taller plants shade it out. It will suffer if it spends too much of its time in the shade.

Both get 'leggy' if you're not careful. You can reduce the problem by regular cutting it back but it is important to cut above the lowest green leaves, as I don't think they can sprout from old wood like some plants.

Rosemary can form very dense top growth and can effectively commit suicide by blocking its own light out by produce too much growth so that the sun can't get right to all the leaves, then it goes brown, then black, then it's pretty much had it. Avoid this by cutting the middle branches away regularly, to form a sort of upside down cone effect so the sun can get to it all.

Its not as fiddly as it sounds, and when you cut the middle out it will quickly start to fill in again so it doesn't look silly.

 

Thank you for that.

When you say cut it back regularly, do you mean just the tips or a full sprig?

As for watering, how often should I water? Bearing in mind we get a lot of rain in the uk...

 

Hey,
I recently moved a basil plant into the garden and it's lower leaves have started to look a bit sorry for themselves. How do I manage this? Any idea whats caused it?
Thanks

 

If you harvest it fairly regularly, and take whole sprigs off (leaving the bottom inch or so with leaves on) then you wont go far wrong. If you only takes the tips off, it will become bushy at the top at the expense of the leaves lower down, and after a while you wont get good sprigs off it any more as it becomes very woody.

For water, if they're in the ground, or it sufficiently sized pots, then they probably wont need watering. I had a big Rosemary in a large container on the patio for about 3 years. The only time I watered it was at the back end of a heat wave when we'd gone several weeks in a row with unusually warm, very dry weather. I can't remember what year it was, but it was one time when all the reservoirs were threatening to dry up a few years ago now.

If it was well watered in (Basil is thirsty compared to some herbs), then I'd guess the most likely cause is that it's getting ready to flower. It does this at the expense of the leaves, which effectively get starved as all resources are diverted to the flowers.

Cutting the top growth off, just above the bottom two good leaves, sometimes prolongs Basil, as new shoots take up the slack.

 

Thanks for that.

Seems like it will take care of itself once pruned etc. Hopefully i'll get a great bush out of it!