Growing Herbs – Part III

Rosemary

Since we are at the start of summer I think it’s time for an update on the status of my indoor herb garden! To refresh your memory I am growing two plants from seed: Cilantro and Thai basil; and two plants which I purchase as seedlings: Rosemary and French Cooking Thyme. Much to my surprise, all the plants are doing spectacularly well! As you can see in the pictures below, both the Rosemary and Thyme have filled out nicely, and I have been using them in my dishes for a few weeks now (stay tuned for my next post). The scent of these plants is simply amazing, anytime I step near my windowsill I am hit with their fresh earthy aroma and it is great!

Cilantro

The Thai Basil is also coming along nicely. You can see this one beautiful plant below which I just transplanted to a bigger pot today. I also have another small pot with three seedlings growing in it, however they have not grown as tall. My guess is that they are too crowded right now, and I will be attempting to separate them out a bit and transplant them into bigger pots in the near future. I have been able to use a bit of the Thai Basil for cooking already. I had many smaller seedlings growing as well (I probably sowed WAY too many seeds at first, but hey I thought my chances of producing a viable plant were pretty slim!), which I have pulled up over time in order to clear more soil for the bigger plants. Rather than wasting these guys I have thrown them into a few vegetable saute’s and they have tasted amazing. The flavour at this point is much more subtle than the Rosemary or Thyme, but that could just be due to the plants immaturity.

Thyme

As for the Cilantro, it too is doing fairly well although it has been the most challenging of the plants to grow. Unlike the other herbs, it does not have a particularly strong main stalk and thus has tended to spread out quite a bit. This causes the plants to become entangled, so every few days I had to spend some time gently straightening them out. Tying them to stakes when they got large

Thai Basil

enough certainly helped. Unlike the Thai Basil, the smell and taste of these small Cilantro plants is quite bold and striking. Personally I love the taste of Cilantro and I have used a few of the smaller plants which I pulled up in a batch of home-made guacamole that I whipped up last week, along with some green garlic and lemon juice (and avocados of course).

Overall the experience of growing these herbs has been extremely rewarding and well worth it. The cost, in terms of both time and finances, has been relatively small and the rewards are big. There is something deeply satisfying about flavouring your dishes with herbs that you have grown yourself, and it makes eating them all that much more rewarding. I still plan to add a few more plants to the collection on my next trip to the farmers market, and I look forward to the days when I have my own yard to grow more than just herbs in!

-JR