We cut quite a bit of oregano and it was very overgrown. Last year it hadn’t gotten nearly as big so today I went ahead and cut off a bit, my daughter helped me. She only enjoys cutting the oregano because of how it smells and how easy it is to see where to cut. It got us a pretty large bowl that we’ll dry out and use for cooking or whatever we want.
This year my goal is to save up enough oregano to turn it into an oil. I hear that oregano oil is amazing when cooked and using oregano from home is entirely different than the oregano that you get in the store.
Fun fact: the oregano, basil and other herbs that you get in the store are usually multiple different types of those plants all mixed together to make the product. When you use individual types of oregano or sage or rosemary you are changing your dish because they all taste and smell just a little bit different.
I had no idea before October 2019.
This was the reason that we were cutting anything. This has gotten out of control. It was bushing out of the fairy garden which made me think that something happened to make it grow like this. I didn’t add any fertilizer to the fairy garden because I wanted to be able to see the little houses and walking paths that we made.
The sage doesn’t look like a lot but it really is and there is so much more that I left behind. This seems as though it went from one plant of sage to three individual plants. I didn’t think it had spread so fast, but I am impressed. The smell is distinct and I am curious as to what our Tri color sage will look like in a few months or even next year. Especially seeing how happy and healthy this particular sage is in our very neglected fairy garden.
I like to think that the fairies take care of it because I am busy caring for my other plants.
This is my salad barnett and rosemary. I tried to leave the rosemary alone a little bit because it took heavy damage from the winter storm. I dare to say that the rosemary was protected by the other plants that surrounded it. The taller plants (sage and oregano and english thyme) were surrounding the rosemary and although one of my oreganos did die, I contribute that death to keeping the rosemary alive.
The rosemary is spreading out and reaching to the other plants and I am glad, I didn’t know if it would come back this time around. I was extremely nervous because this is one of my favorite plants. Rosemary is something that I would love to spread out all over my property. I planted around six more plants this year and plan on propagating many more throughout this year.
Salad barnett has become the bane of my existence. I am not telling you you shouldn’t plant it in the ground. I’m only saying that this is the most invasive plant in zone 8a I have ever seen before in my entire life. People warn you about mint but they never warn you about this herb right here. We had already cut quite a bit and threw it into the compost, but this is what we can harvest after three days. I was not expecting the kind of growth that I am experiencing with this herb that I don’t even know what I can do with.
Finally, this is my english thyme. I know it doesn’t look like a lot but this really is a lot. The plant grows upward and some of the plant had started to grow to the side. I wanted this to be more of a bush and so I cut a few of the runners. There is still quite a bite there but I will say that this it is delicious. I enjoy every years harvest of english thyme because I can add it to so many different things.
I am excited about the herbs that we are collecting already. It isn’t even half way through April and we’ve got enough of these herbs to last us until May. That is amazing to me.
Each one of these herbs cost me three dollars and they have already saved me at least ten dollars each. That’s return value that tastes much better than anything that you’ll find in the stores.
Toad's Permaculture 