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Re: [ENABLED] Strawberry jars

On Fri, 16 Jan 1998, AMARIS wrote:

> Is there a specific kind of soil that's better for herbs? Is it difficult to
> grow from seed?
>
> Can anyone advise as to which herbs are better to grow outdoors and which ones
> do OK indoors? AMARIS

Amaris, you're in the western part of Oregon, aren't you?  We've mostly
got clay in the valley, with some lenses of sand and gravel.  In general,
herbs don't taste well in very fertile soil (the sort African violets, for
instance, love), though they may grow well.  High N fertilizers are
bad news for herbs.

Anyhow, our USDA zone 8 climate is mild enough that strawberry jars
and potted plants survive the outside pretty well in winter... really
well if you cluster them when the weather gets cold and tarp them,
or at least tuck them up close to the house walls.

Strawberry pots or even the pyramid gardens work well for growing a lot of
herbs in a little area... easy way to make a pyramid garden is to knock
together several square frames, open top and bottom, of decreasing size...
stack them so that the corners of the upper frame wind up resting on the
middle of the square below it.  I'd have to hunt up the old slide rule to
do the math, but if you start with a 4 ft, 3 ft, 2ft, 1 ft square frame,
it'll come out about right.  (Let me know if you want to do this, and I'll
do the calculations).  That gives you triangular planting pockets on each
of three levels, and the one foot square on top, which gives you lots of
planting room.  The square on top may not be useable for anything but
something fairly decorative if you don't have much of a reach.

You can also grow many herbs in those hanging plastic bags with
slits in the sides. "Black tie blooming bags" is one brand.

Herbs can be annual, biennial or perennial; many of them start easily
from seed, but some of the more "elite" forms have to be vegetatively
propagated, which means you buy plants or swap cuttings with someone.
In my experience, few do well indoors in an Oregon winter without
grow lights.  On the other hand, I'm still getting borage, chives,
and mint from my raised bed in the back yard right now.

Easy species from seed for beginners, in my experience (some will require
a long time to germinate, like parsley, but they will!):  basil, parsley,
borage, chives, catnip, most mints (though they won't have the clean
flavors of commercial peppermints or spearmints), lemon balm, dill,
fennel.

Rather than trying to teach you everything about herbs here, may I
direct you to the big Rodale Press book on herbs, called Rodale's
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs.  I checked the Powell's web
site, and they've got a used copy for $13, if your library can't
get you one (they're very common in libraries).

Another good resource is the culinary herb faq,
http://sunsite.unc.edu/herbmed/culiherb.html.

A good place for cheap but good seed is Pinetree, in my opinion:
most packets are in the $0.60 - 0.75 price range, and they offer
some mixed packets, like about 10 different types of basils in
one packet... fun to try!  Drop a note to seeds@maine.com to
request a catalog.

And another good spot and good catalog: Richter's herb specialists
in Canada.  http://www.richters.com to get their online catalog,
request a printed catalog, get to their Q&A sheets, etc.  Conrad
Richter has a *lot* more different types of seeds and plants than
Pinetree has, and the catalog is quite informative.  My experience
with Conrad via email is that he's very knowledgable.  I've not
ordered plants from him, but friends who have say that they've
come through in perfect shape.

Kay Lancaster    kay@fern.com
just west of Portland, OR; USDA zone 8
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