I love growing herbs and I love to win. Two things that shouldn’t be in the same sentence, but here’s my story of warning for you regarding some plants. I use a lot of oregano in my cooking. I use it fresh; freeze it; and dry it – so I can use my herbs yearlong. I began an oregano plot that was about 4-feet by 5-feet because I knew the plant would spread on its own and I wanted to have lots of space for my plants to expand. The first year it was beautiful; second year absolutely stunning; by the third year it ruled my life.
Sometime in that 3rd year, my 3-4 oregano plants outgrew their bed and expanded into my flowers, my mutant strawberry patch (more on that later) and into my other herbs (see photo above). I decided to get serious, grabbed my shovel and dug out clumps of it to move to other locations on my property. (A problem with some gardeners – you never intentionally kill a perfectly good plant – you just find it a new home.) I dug and dug until I was happy with my results and had, once again, a manageable oregano patch. But to my dismay, by the end of the year, it had taken over again and I regretfully admitted defeat. The oregano had won and it could do whatever it wanted.
The moral to this story is to be careful of what you plant and where you plant it. Herbs like oregano, mints, feverfew, and chamomile will spread either through root runners or by self-seeding (the ability for a plant to drop seeds that will germinate). Flowers like allysum, cosmos, nasturtium (header photo), sunflowers and tobacco plants can self-seed and germinate too.
If you want volunteer plants (term for plants that have resulted without a human planting the seed) self-seeding is great! It helps increase your plants without having to buy seeds or plants a second time. But if you don't want to deal with spreading herbs plant them in pots and for self-seeding plants, deadhead (term for removing the spent flowers) the flowers before they go to seed. If you’re diligent and do maintenance on your plants, you can beat these beasts, but if you sit back and just admire your work, the plants will win every time!
Sometime in that 3rd year, my 3-4 oregano plants outgrew their bed and expanded into my flowers, my mutant strawberry patch (more on that later) and into my other herbs (see photo above). I decided to get serious, grabbed my shovel and dug out clumps of it to move to other locations on my property. (A problem with some gardeners – you never intentionally kill a perfectly good plant – you just find it a new home.) I dug and dug until I was happy with my results and had, once again, a manageable oregano patch. But to my dismay, by the end of the year, it had taken over again and I regretfully admitted defeat. The oregano had won and it could do whatever it wanted.
The moral to this story is to be careful of what you plant and where you plant it. Herbs like oregano, mints, feverfew, and chamomile will spread either through root runners or by self-seeding (the ability for a plant to drop seeds that will germinate). Flowers like allysum, cosmos, nasturtium (header photo), sunflowers and tobacco plants can self-seed and germinate too.
If you want volunteer plants (term for plants that have resulted without a human planting the seed) self-seeding is great! It helps increase your plants without having to buy seeds or plants a second time. But if you don't want to deal with spreading herbs plant them in pots and for self-seeding plants, deadhead (term for removing the spent flowers) the flowers before they go to seed. If you’re diligent and do maintenance on your plants, you can beat these beasts, but if you sit back and just admire your work, the plants will win every time!
No comments:
Post a Comment