If you’re planning to grow herbs, chances are oregano is going to be included in your selection. Good choice! Oregano is easy to grow and is a perennial herb, meaning that it continues to grow year after year. Whether you’re planting in your garden or as a houseplant, oregano is sure to be a winner.

Before You Plant Oregano

Find a Suitable Place:

• Oregano is a perennial, it typically produces quality leaves for 2-4 years, so choose an appropriate spot where it can stay.
• Marked by its Mediterranean origin, oregano likes to grow in full sun.

Prepare the soil:

• Light chalky soil is best for this herb.
• Oregano also requires well-drained soil.
• Fortunately, very little preparation is needed as oregano typically grows just fine in average soil.

Planting/Growing Oregano

What You Will Need:

• Oregano seeds
• Mulch
• Fertilizer (only for container plants)
• Garden spade
• Stick or other row marker

How to Plant Oregano:

1. Oregano seeds can be sown directly into the soil in the beginning of spring, usually around April.
2. Work the dirt with the garden spade until loose and form the rows marked with a labeled stick.
3. Plant the seeds 3/4 inch deep and 6 inches apart. Rows should be spaced 18 inches apart.
4. Cover with removed soil and pat gently to cover.
5. Water until soil is moist and cover the area with mulch to retain moisture and prevent weeds.
6. Seeds will sprout in approximately 2 weeks.
7. When seeds have sprouted, thin plants to 12 inches apart.
8. Seeds can also be started in containers around March and transplanted 12 inches apart.
9. Keep the soil moist for the first few months, after which the plant will be able to tolerate dry conditions, including drought.
10. Avoid adding fertilizer to garden plants to keep the flavor strong.
11. If planting oregano in a container, follow the same planting procedures to start. Transplant the seedlings to a 12 inch pot at the end of spring, usually around May.
12. Water container only when dry and feed twice during the growing season.
13. Oregano plants can grow a bit out of control, so cut back straying stems regularly to keep the plant at the optimum size.
14. At the end of the season, cut back the leaves and cover the area with mulch to protect the roots from the cold winter.

Harvesting Oregano

What You Will Need:

• Garden clippers or scissors

Steps for Care and Maintenance:

1. As soon as the plant is several inches tall and has developed a couple dozen leaves, it is okay to begin harvesting.
2. Pick the young leaves as they have the most flavor.
3. It is best to harvest early in the morning while the oils are the strongest.
4. Leaves are best harvested right before flowers form, usually in July. If seeds have already developed, the leaves will most likely have developed a bitter taste.
5. To extend the harvesting season, trim off the flowers as soon as they begin to develop. This stops the production of seeds allowing harvesting to take place into November.
6. Allow the plant to remain as the leaves provide necessary protection from frost and the cold winter. New plants will emerge in the spring.
7. Once the herb is rinsed with cold water, it’s ready to use, just chop for cooking or store whole leaves in Ziploc bags in the freezer or refrigerator.
8. Some feel oregano is best used dried. Harvest the leaves on a dry day and allow keep in a cool dark place until they are thoroughly dried out. Store in an airtight container. Dried oregano will last for 3-4 months.

Additional Tips and Advice

• Since the leaves of the oregano are eaten, avoid using any pesticides or sprays. If pests become a problem, try an organic treatment. Be sure to check the label carefully.
• Oregano is a must-have for Italian cooking. You simply can’t have pizza or spaghetti sauce without it!
• After 2-4 years, the plant starts to get woody and will need to be replaced.
• Oregano is a great companion plant for broccoli and beans. It deters the pests that tend to attack these vegetables.

Whether you’re looking for a topping for your favorite savory dish or just want to try a new herb, chives are a top choice for any gardener. A member of the onion family, this perennial herb is surprisingly simple to grow. Once the plants are established, you’ll have chives forever!

Before You Plant

Choose the Right Type of Chives:

• Two types of chives are available, depending on your taste. The most common type is the onion chive which has an onion flavor.
• A second variety, the Chinese Chive, has a hint of garlic flavor to it.

Find a Suitable Place:

• Chives can be grown almost anywhere. They thrive in both window boxes, indoor and out, as well as in gardens.
• Chive plants produce beautiful flowers which makes them a perfect addition to landscaping.
• An area with full sun is best, but a significant amount of shade will also be tolerated by this hardy plant.
• An area that provides good drainage will produce the best quality chive plants.

Prepare the soil:

• Before planting, loosen the soil very well and mix in organic matter or rotted compost. This provides the rich soil that promotes growth.
• Bonemeal can be added to the soil (about 1-2 cups per square yard) to create the optimum soil conditions.
• Chives prefer the acidity level of the soil to be around 6.0 – 7.0 pH. There are soil testing kits available at most gardening or home supply stores, or you can have your soil tested by a professional to find out if any adjustments are necessary.
• The above soil methods are optimal, but not necessarily required as chives will grow in almost any average, well-drained soil. However, if the soil is prepared as above, no future feeding will be required.

Planting Chives

What You Will Need:

• Chive seeds or seedlings
• Prepared soil
• Fertilizer (optional)

Steps for Planting Chives:

1. Chives seeds can be started indoors (six weeks before spring) and then transplanted, or seeds can be sown directly into the soil at the beginning of spring.
2. Properly prepare the soil before planting.
3. Following the packet directions, sow the seeds onto moist soil.
4. If planting bulbs, it’s best to plant them in bunches – about 5 bulbs to a bunch. Space the plants about four inches apart.
5. Fertilizer is often unnecessary; unless soil conditions are poor and no additions were made to the soil prior to planting.
6. Over time the bulb part of the chives will grow and expand into a clump of bulbs. New plants can be propagated from this clump of bulbs using division. Every few years, dig up the root bulbs and separate into individual bulbs. Replant each individual bulb so the tip is level with the soil, about 2-3 inches apart. Each bulb will grow into a new plant.

Growing/Harvesting Chives

Chives continue to grow continuously all season long. They will grow year-round if planted indoors. To get the most from your plant, follow these steps.

What You Will Need:

• Garden clippers or scissors

Steps for Maintenance and Harvesting:

1. As long as weeds are kept under control, and they are watered when the weather is very dry, chives will continue to grow.
2. As soon as the leaves have reached several inches in height, you can start removing the needed portions.
3. Begin by removing the outer-edge leaves and working inward. Cut the leaves with scissors, leaving 1-2 inches above the ground.
4. Once flowers appear, purple pom pom flowers on onion chives or white flowers on garlic chives, cut the stems back.
5. To promote new growth, cut back whenever the height exceeds six inches.

Additional Tips and Advice

• Since the leaves of the chives are eaten, avoid using any pesticides or sprays. If pests become a problem, try an organic treatment. Be sure to check the label carefully.
• Chives are high in vitamin C.
• Chive flowers are edible and make beautiful additions to salads.
• When growing chives in containers, fertilize once a month and water whenever the compost begins to dry out.
• It is best to divide chive bulbs in either March or October.
• Avoid planting chives near onions as it increases the chances of a common pest, the onion fly, attacking your plants.
• Most chives will keep their leave through the winter. However, if the winter is harsh and the leaves die, do not worry – they’ll return with new growth in the spring.

Why not? Garlic is good in so many dishes (there’s even garlic ice cream at the Gilroy festival) and is so good for you – a great way to boost your heart health – that growing it in the back yard or a pot may not be a bad idea. In fact, it’s a good idea because what you will get can be much better than the commercial variety.

Growing Garlic

One thing you would never be able to tell by looking at the garlic in supermarket bins is that there are many different varieties, each with their own preferences in growing conditions – the mixture of soil, sun, and moisture. (The type found in supermarkets is usually Artichoke garlic.)

The good news, according to Gourmet Garlic Gardens, is that garlic is pretty easy to grow. But, that as the site cautions, getting great garlic requires some work.

Garlic comes in two subspecies. The soft-necked garlics were developed over centuries from the original hard-neck garlics through a process of selection; they include Creole, Asiatic, Turban, Artichoke, and Silverskin. Hardnecks come in five varietals: Porcelain, Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe, and Rocambole. Hundreds – perhaps 600 – of sub-varieties of these two varieties are grown throughout the world. The sub-varieties differ in flavor, pungency, sweetness, storage characteristics, growing preferences, and production. But, because most garlic originated in the Caucasus, a large number of them have become available in the United States in only the past few years.

It was only in 1989 that the Soviet Union allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to collect garlic sub-varieties over there and bring them into the USA. Growing the garlic was contracted out, so that new varieties are now available, though expensive. As they become more plentiful, their price will go down.

Organic Garlic

If you are going to grow garlic, do it organically. Pesticides are poison. Chemical fertilizers are not good for you, and they don’t do much for garlic, either, which prefers manure and compost, with some trace minerals added to the soil. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Choose the sub-variety you’re going to grow, checking that it’s suitable for growing in your area. Artichoke garlic will grow just about anywhere, but do you really want the same thing you can buy in the supermarket?
2. Plant in autumn close to the autumnal equinox in deep pots or raised beds with good drainage. The bulb should be above the water level and the roots below. Use higher beds in areas that get a lot of rain and very cold winters, and mulch heavily. In more arid areas, lower the beds and keep the bulbs shallow.
3. Break a bulb into cloves and soak each overnight in a water solution containing 2 tbs. of bicarbonate of soda and liquid seaweed to destroy any fungi spores. Discard the clove covers that will come off. Soak the cloves in rubbing alcohol for three or four minutes to kill any eggs of pests and plant immediately.
4. Put the cloves in holes about three inches deep and about the distance of two bulb-widths apart. Cover with a couple of inches of mulch. Drip irrigation is best for garden planting; keep cloves planted in pots moist but not too wet.
5. When the leaves start turning brown and wilting, it’s time to harvest the garlic – usually sometime in May or June. The longer you leave the garlic in the ground, the more potent and stronger the flavor becomes. Be careful not to damage the garlic while harvesting; loosen the soil with a fork before pulling the garlic loose.
6. Let the garlic sit for about three weeks in mild temperatures, away from sunlight, before trimming off the tops. Store it out of the sunlight in open containers, not jars or plastic bags. Garlic stores best between 55- and 65-degrees and between 40% and 60% humidity.