Hello! Things have been quite busy in the greenhouse the last few months, and we’re working hard every day to fill the place up. This week I got most of the 4″ potted herbs planted. I’m doing things a little differently this year; I cut back on my cutting order, limiting myself to varieties that consistently perform well in our area and to just a few new varieties*, and dropping some of the non-culinary plants. There will still be a terrific variety of herbs but my hope is that by doing away with some of the plants that cost me lots of time and effort to maintain (ie cutting back), I’ll be able to do a better job with mixed planters and especially with herbs grown from seed (things like cilantro, dill, chives).
There are also a few varieties that will be MIA this year that were not intentional. I got an early shipment of cuttings in December; the plants were affected by cold during shipping and some died. Among these…. English and Lemon thyme. Luckily, those flavors can be substituted with the ‘Tabor’ and Variegated Lemon varieties. A few things were unavailable when I ordered them, including Sweet Marjoram. Gasp! I’ve never not had that before.
On the plus side, the unexpected absences and shortages are balanced out with some other pretty awesome plants, like ‘Silver Edge’ and ‘Goodwin Creek’ lavender! We haven’t had them in a few years and I am very glad to have them back. The lemon verbena crop is the perkiest it’s ever been (I think we had just five pots of it last year!), and the Applemint is unusually spearminty and delicious-smelling. Everything is looking healthy and should be quite nice by the time we open in April. It shall be a good year!
*New varieties…. mints. They sucker me every time with their fancy names, so we’ll wait and see if they live up to the hype. :)
