New Herbs for 2022

[chrysanthemum]

Three of my four kids are sick, not badly so, but enough that I decided that the little ones could have a day off from homeschooling.  I therefore took some time in the morning to move some soil and do a little transplanting.

I have a planter that the previous owners probably built to fit an area under a south facing window in the backyard.  It gets a lot of hot afternoon sun and can dry out fast, but it also gets pounded by runoff from the roof when there is rain, since there are no gutters on that part of the house.  I’ve grown some herbs there before but had nothing (except a very few garlic chives) coming back this year, so it was a blank slate, so to speak.  I wanted to establish something that would grow in front of the window, if possible, so I’m giving lemongrass a try.  I’ve never grown it before, but when I can I like to add something new, and if I can get it established, it should be able to take the heat there.






The first picture shows the whole planter (with some rose foliage in front of it).  The taller blades are my garlic chives.  The lemongrass is tiny, right in the middle of the top tier.  I grew it from seed, and it has been slow, but it had some decent roots, so I decided to transplant today.

In the front on the left, I also transplanted some Mexican Mint Marigold which I’ve also seen called Texas Tarragon, as it’s used as a substitute for French Tarragon.  I tried growing it last summer from seed, but I didn’t get good germination and growth.  This spring I started a few plants inside.  Two of them are in my cinder block bed, but I wanted to put this last one in this planter.  

I put mulch on the planter to help control soil splashing and compaction when the rain comes.  That might defeat my hopes to have the plants reseed themselves.  (The other plant is a Balsam flower (Touch me not), which is a notorious reseeded, I hear).  I’ll have to be pretty diligent about keeping these watered as they’re getting adjusted to this spot.  I hope they’ll do well.

[heavyhitterokra]

I hate to hear that the kiddos are not feeling well. I know you'll take very good care of them though. Some of my best memories are of sick days spent with Mom. It seemed like we had every kind of flu known to man as kids, Hong Kong flu, swine flu, bird flu, it didn't matter, Mom always made us feel better with the Vicks vapor rub, hot towels, and lemon tea.

Lemongrass might do very well in your climate. I've grown it here before, but our season is really too short for it and it does not overwinter here at all. Which reminds me, have you ever tried growing sugar cane there? That might also do well in your climate, plus it would be lots of fun for the kids. My brother-in-law from Louisiana used to bring me sections of sugar cane to try here. All you have to do to get it started is leave it laying in wet sand. It's easy to grow but can't take our cold winters. The kids sure had fun chewing on it though.

[chrysanthemum]

They’re not miserable thankfully but just sick enough to get out of having to do schoolwork.

I’m not sure that Lemongrass will overwinter here either, but we should be able to grow it in the long hot season at least. I’ll have to see how big it can get in one summer (which really includes much of spring and fall here too) if that one little seedling survives.

I can’t say that I’ve thought of growing sugar cane here. I think of that as needing lots of space and moisture, maybe from seeing fields of it in Louisiana or Mississippi when I was little. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in real life other than through the car windows.

[heavyhitterokra]

I've grown sugar cane in a large container. The sections I had were about a foot long. It did fairly well here until Autumn, I tried to bring it inside for the winter, but it didn't like that and expired before Spring returned.

[chrysanthemum]

I just thought I’d update this thread with a couple of pictures of my lemongrass and Mexican Mint Marigold.  They’re both doing okay in their planter and getting bigger.  I’m pleased.







I haven’t used any of the lemongrass because I just need it to grow and spread, but I have used a few leaves of the Texas Tarragon.  It has an almost licorice flavor, but it went nicely in a cream sauce on trout a while back.  (Our grocery has had trout on sale a couple times recently, so we stocked up.)

[heavyhitterokra]

What a cool spice/herb garden. I didn't know what Mexican Mint Merigold was until I looked it up. A person can learn something new here every day. It sounds like that variety ought to get along just fine there. The Touch Me Not in the background looks really good too. That surprised me. Every time I see that growing around here, it's either in heavy shade or near lots of water. Of course, the wild stuff around here is not the same thing, but only a distant cousin. We call it "Jewel Weed." It has orange blossoms, speckled with yellow. When it goes to seed, the little pods burst open if you touch them, spreading their seed everywhere.

God sure makes some cool stuff! And so many different ways to spread, some by rhizomes, some like walking onions that fall over with heavy seed heads, some like stick tights, some by exploding seed pods, some like milkweed, thistle, and dandelion that spread by tufts caught in the wind, some by live stems that form heavy foliage that falls over and lodges, some like apples that that animals eat and redistribute, and some like peaches that spread by way of animals carrying the fruit away and discarding their seeds elsewhere. What an amazing array of creation!

[chrysanthemum]

I had my camera out back this morning, so I thought I’d get some pictures of my lemongrass and Mexican Mint Marigold.  They’ve sure grown.

[chrysanthemum]

I just thought I’d update this thread with a picture of this same herb planter.  The Lemongrass at the top has grown very big in the past month or so.  The Mexican Mint Marigold is there, but it and the Balsam flowers have fallen over and started growing back up.

[amyinowasso]

Years ago I wanted "Mexican mint" because it was supposed to be alleopathic to bind weed. Turns out Mexican mint can be used for both tagetes minuta, the plant I was looking for, and tagetes lucida,
also known as Mexican tarragon. I now use black mint to describe minuta as a common name to keep from confusing myself. In case you're wondering the bind weed grew up and twined around the black mint before the end of the season. Both T. lucida and T. minuta are said to have a tarragon flavor, but T. lucida has showier flowers.
I didn't research T. lucida much, but minuta is used to make a chilled beverage, a tea and may have antiviral properties.

[chrysanthemum]

Mine is the Tagetes lucida, and it has grown tall.  I’ve used the leaves a couple of times, and the plant showed above did flower a little bit at one point, but mostly it has been just foliage.  The other plant in my cinderblock bed has never flowered.  I’ve read that one can make a tea out of this type as well.  Perhaps I’ll have my younger daughter give that a try today. She enjoys brewing up herbal concoctions.

[chrysanthemum]

I took a picture of the lemongrass planter this morning just to have a record of it before the cold comes in. It’s not supposed to freeze tonight, but I don’t know that lemongrass can handle non-freezing cold. It will certainly be put to the test tonight and in coming days.

[chrysanthemum]

It got down to 37 this morning, but the lemongrass looks just fine. It’s in a protected spot, and I’m sure there’s a lot of heat still from the house, but it survived its first real cold.

[chrysanthemum]

The lemongrass didn’t survive the harsh winter down here, but I have some nice garlic chives filling in the planters in addition to some sage, mint, oregano, Texas tarragon and volunteer balsam.


This area gets a lot of runoff from our roof, so I’m not sure how it’s going to fare with our forecast heavy rains tonight and tomorrow.