Spring Herb Inventory

I wanted to do an inventory of how my herb garden (which is kind of scattered across the back yard) has done after its first real winter.

This rosemary is up against the back of the house.

This rosemary is up against the back fence.

These are additional rosemary starts.

The parsley did well. But then parsley always does well.

I thought I'd lost the chives, but lo! and behold!

The tarragon seems to not mind winter too much. I have a cutting of this one growing in a pot in the greenhouse. It didn't do any better than this.

I also thought I'd lost the (greek) oregano. So I put the dying plant outside. During winter. Where it seems to have made a comeback.

Winter savory also did well. I guess a plant with "winter" in its name should do well in winter, eh? (Now to figure out how to use it!)

The thyme didn't like being transplanted last fall. But it seems to have survived the winter reasonably well.

I don't know whether to consider lavender an herb.

Now for the ones that didn't do all that well.

First, the sages. Pineapple sage is OK. Not overwhelming.

The Common Sage, or Salvia officinalis, also survived, but did not thrive.

The worst of the bunch were the mints. Spearmint is supposed to survive everything. It's hard to kill sometimes. Winter didn't quite kill it. But it came close.

The lemon balm looks completely dead. But then there's some growth down at its base. I'm not sure if that's new lemon balm or just really healthy weeds.

This is another one I need to learn how to use.

The chocolate peppermint may not have survived.

The common peppermint looks like it's just about gone too. Good thing I have a couple of starts in the greenhouse. I also have some seeds coming for a fresh genome.

This will be one of the major crops this summer: we will make peppermint tea. And a lot of it.