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Woo hoo, it's that wonderful time of the year once again!...
At least in our hemisphere, it's a glorious time when we see the earth literally bursting with new life, freshness and vibrancy. I love this exhilarating season that compels me to alter my cooking style to accommodate all the wonderful produce that is so abundantly available.
For me, fresh herbs pair beautifully with spring and summer produce and add another layer of delicious flavor to this delightful seasonal cuisine. Although I enjoy cooking with fresh herbs all year long, I have to control myself a bit during the cooler seasons since most of my herbs are taking a long winter's nap and the herbs are expensive at my local grocer, many of them having been imported from who-knows-where.
Come spring and summer though, my heart and my palate are thrilled to be able to utilize an almost endless supply of fresh herbs - growing right on my back deck! There is one slight problem, however, that I used to run into shortly after the lovely baby herb plants began to grow. This "problem" involved my laziness, or maybe it sounds better to call it my busy-ness. Whatever you blame it on, you too may struggle with this problem. It's called "the hot summer sun".
It's usually not long after the first spring whiffs of honeysuckle or lilac for a string of warm, eighty-degree days to creep into our forecast. And all it takes is one or two of these hot sunny days and a busy schedule, on my part, to turn my beautiful potted herb garden into a dismal, wilting mess! Sure, a little water will do a decent job of reviving, but often, it seems that the plants are never quite the same.
A number of years ago my brilliant husband came up with an amazing solution to my problem. It's simple, yet highly effective and now I never worry about my little herb friends, no matter how scorching the weather is. My herbs are as beautiful in the middle of the hot Southern summer as they are in May. I shared this post last spring, but since then, we have had a ton of new visitors to The Café so I thought we'd share it one more time as you get ready to do your spring planting. Oh, and be sure to check back for some fabulous fresh herb recipes this week; Herbed Potato Rolls and a wonderful Herbed Ricotta Tomato Tart - we had both for dinner tonight and they were a huge hit!
Herbed Potato Rolls
Endless Herbs without Endless Watering
This is Scott, Chris' resident photographer and confidante (translated - husband!). If you've followed The Café for a while you might have been wondering; "Where does this girl get all the herbs and flowers that she uses as garnishes and ingredients in her recipes and photos?" Well, today we'll explore the answer - It's called an Herb Rack Drip System.
Three Cautions
First - Check the drippers periodically to make sure they're not clogged - If you see a stressed plant, that's a give-away.
Second - Because the plants are in the restricted space of a pot, fertilize them regularly. The daily drip system tends to wash out vital nutrients all plants depend on from the soil. I use regular Miracle Gro and mix it up in a sprinkling can.
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Hey guys, I just found your blog this morning and i'm loving all the tips. I'm also a techy enthusiast when it comes to gardening, and I do have a dripping system everywhere as well - they're great! I did have some questions on your post:
- how to know when to add water? or how much dripping is adequate? Most times i do overwater them.
- somewhere in the post, you also mentioned to fertilize frequently. What is your definition of frequently? Weekly? Monthly? Daily? what quantities? And the same question would be applied to the pest control piece: what is the optimal usage for it?
thanks a lot, and keep up the great posts! 🙂
Hey Rafael! Scott here! Water, fertilizer and pest control. Great questions, hard to answer, but I'll give it my best. You really need to do two things in regards to watering. One - know what each plant needs - they are all very different so I study the needs of the plant and change out the drip heads depending on how much they need. Heads come in 2GPM (gallons per minute), 1GPM, 1/2GPM and maybe even smaller. Since you can't individualize the amount of time you water your plants - adjust how much water gets to your plant per minute. The second water tip is literally on the tip of your finger! Most plants don't like wet feet (roots). Stick your finger in the soil of each plant regularly and that will tell you how much a plant is absorbing what you're feeding it. Fertilizer varies again from plant to plant but generally, in the summer when it's hot in North Carolina, I fertilize at least once a month because much of the nutrients are washed out of the soil by the watering and being potted, the plants don't have a whole lot of soil to pull their food from. Pests - whole books have been written on these guys! My first line of defense is proper watering, second - making the plant material taste yuck to them (simple solution of soap and water or products like Bayer Natria or Garden Safe. Many others are available. But you've really got to take the time to study which insects affect which plants and which time of the year. Some insects are even so dumb that, if you place a light plant covering over them at certain times of the year, they can't find the plants and will just move on to terrorize your neighbors plants!
I usually don't leave negative comments on blogs, but with yours I feel compelled to.
Well your content is pretty good, you have such an outrageous amount of ads on the sidebars that it's pretty much unwatchable.
I won't be back. I know you want to monetize your blog, but there's other ways to do it then overwhelming viewers with frivolous advertisements. Rd Cross, SEO toolkit, solar power? C''mon, none of this is related to food or gardening.
such a wonderful post! i have dreamed of an herb garden but have run into almost all of these same problems. excited to give the drip system a try this year!
Thank you so much for sharing your propagating and irrigating ideas, as well as your recipes. I'm new at gardening and all is very much appreciated!
I too have a husband who is not a handyman, but a big heart and as I read the posts, a thought occurred to me. There are planters that hook on to the deck railing and then all I have to do is figure out how to do the water system.
Thank you for the ideas!!
hehe 🙂
This is a great idea, I showed my husband this and the wonderful guy said he would build it for me. (though he did say it will cost me) ha ha.
This is a great idea, I showed my husband this and the wonderful guy said he would build it for me. (though he did say it will cost me) ha ha.
aaw..scott is genius to come up with this water system idea and very thoughtful too!!looking forward to your potato rolls!
Brilliant! My poor plants often suffer from my 'business' too. Can't wait for those recipes.
Brilliant! What a sweet husband you have to set that up for you, Chris so you don't have to worry about your herbs. Very nice!
This is just a beautiful garden.
The potato rolls look delicious. Blessings, Catherine xo
amazing Chris! there's nothing like fresh herbs. I cant take my eyes of your potato rolls!
That is quite a set up, I would love to have something like that but AZ is tough on plants!
Just let us know - we'll head over your way! It would be fun to get together again anyway!
Sooooooo, when can Scott come out and make one of these for us? Hubby knows which end of the hammer to use but that's just about it as far as his handymanness goes. He's a total computer geek.
Now you've reminded me that I need to go water my herbs. ::sigh::
Sweet post. Sweet husband.
I really need a balcony so I can have at least a couple of pots of herbs. That's the drawback of living in a big city 🙁
What a thoughtful gift Scott! Thanks for the idea and all the tips on getting it started. Chris you are one lucky lady. Looking forward to the recipes and I just know you stashed a couple of those rolls in the frozen pea bag for me.
I would love to have a herb garden like yours!
Looks wonderful!
Thank for all these tips, I'm keeping all of these!!!!! Plus the tart looks amazing Chris!!!!
Wow, genius!:)
Hi, Love your herb garden, so lovely.
Your potato rolls and tomato tart look excellent and tempting too. Very well baked and beautiful click.
Have a nice day. Regards
You have me pumped up! This weekend I'm planting my herb garden. Some herbs like oregano and thyme came back, but my dogs ate the others. I put up a fence last year, so this year they will be protected! I can't wait to get some basil into the ground!! Thanks for the informative post!!
Wow, your plants are lush and beautiful, so I see this system really works! You are a genius!! You have a huge and well tended system! Can't wait to see that potato roll recipe!
Like Marina,I dream of a herb garden like yours! I also love the photo of the herb garden in the wheel barrel. I'm doing as full salad and herb garden this summer and found this post very inspiring. Can't wait for the recipes this week.
Wow, I dream of such herb garden one day! Perfect gift from perfect husband! 🙂