Time to Plant Some Perennial Herbs

November is here. I didn’t believe it until that cold front blew in on Wednesday.

It felt like hunting weather, which seems appropriate, since deer season opens this weekend, along with duck season for folks south of Interstate 10. The rest of us have to wait until next Saturday to bag some ducks.

This is also the perfect time of year to plant perennials, especially herbs, which pair well with any game you might harvest.

If you enjoy the culinary arts as I do, then you should grow herbs and lots of them. They add flavor to dishes and don’t take up much room in the garden. Most herbs grow wonderfully in containers as well.

Many of the woody herbs like thyme, oregano and lavender don’t like our Texas summer heat. It’s nearly impossible to get them started during the summer. But they thrive once the temperatures drop this time of year. One major exception to this rule is basil, a sun-loving annual herb. Basil is best planted in the spring or summer, since frost will kill it.

Herbs don’t need much fertilizer. Mulching with earthworm castings once or twice a year should provide all the nutrition needed for perennial herbs. Herbs seem to lose their flavor if you fertilize them too much.

Here’s a list of my favorite perennial herbs:

Thyme - this herb goes into most dishes in our house. It pairs wonderfully with rosemary and garlic. Thyme grows low to the ground and should be pruned (and used) regularly. Stems grow woody if left unpruned. Plants can be propagated by dividing. Thyme does not like soil that stays wet.

Rosemary - another musthave herb in the garden. I love barbecuing whole, split chickens seasoned with rosemary, olive oil and garlic. Also excellent with beef and wild game. Rosemary grows in an upright fashion, although there are some creeping varieties. Other varieties can reach five feet tall. Rosemary needs well-drained soil. It will freeze. I lost all of my rosemary plants during the hard freeze in February. Water lightly but regularly.

Oregano - indispensable for Italian dishes like pizza and pasta. Oregano grows easily in healthy soil. I have few problems with it other than stress from extreme heat and drought. It likes well-drained soil but I have found oregano to be more forgiving than thyme and rosemary. For the landscape, it works as a great ground cover to replace grass in sunny areas.

Marjoram - a cousin to oregano with a sweeter flavor. It’s growth habits are nearly identical to oregano. I think it pairs well with eggs and dishes with cream. Try it in mac and cheese!

Lavender - perhaps the most challenging herb to grow for us Texas gardeners. It hates wet soil. It doesn’t really like rich soil. Excellent drainage is key to keeping it alive. Do not overwater. English lavender is easier to grow than the french varieties. Cindy Meredith at the Herb Cottage near Moravia offers lavender varieties that are more suited to our area.

Parsley - parsley is actually a biennial plant. It will usually grow for two seasons before going to seed. I prefer the Italian flat-leaf varieties. It can be grown easily from seed in the spring. Transplanting this time of year also works well.

Chervil - you will rarely see this herb for sale in grocery stores because it doesn’t have a very long shelf life. Chervil’s lemon-anise flavor fades with long cooking, so its best used at the end of cooking. It doesn’t retain flavor when dried, so it must be used fresh. I think it pairs well with seafood, especially fish. It looks like Italian parsley, and it is cold tolerant. I grew it this year (from seed) for the first time ever and I love it.

Chamomile - this flowering, apple pie-flavored herb grows well here, but it cannot tolerate weed competition. There are two main varieties. Both are compact, short plants. German chamomile is more popular and grows in a slightly more upright manner. Roman chamomile grows more in a creeping fashion. Dried flowers are used to make a mood-relaxing tea. I grew Roman chamomile this year and struggled with weeds.

Chives - these plants in the onion family taste like their bulbous cousins. There are two main varieties. Onion chives have pink flowers that bloom in the early summer. Garlic chives have flatter leaves and white flowers that bloom in the late summer. Garlic chives are more prevalent in Asian cooking, but they are much easier to grow. I often have to replant onion chives from year to year. I’ve grown several patches of garlic chives that keep growing year after year. Garlic chives tolerate our heat better. Big clumps should be divided every few years.

Sage - I struggle growing culinary sage around our place. I have planted several varieties of ornamental sage that grow well for me year after year. The culinary varieties seem more challenging. I think my problem in the past has been too much water. I’m going to attempt to grow some in containers this year.

Tarragon - you will probably never find true French tarragon plants for sale, because they don’t make seed and only grow from cuttings. French tarragon won’t really grow in our hot, humid summers, anyway. There are two substitutes. Russian tarragon is a relative to the French variety. The flavor is quite weak and it can become a weed in the garden. Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida) is actually a marigold with leaves that taste like tarragon. It grows well in Texas and produces beautiful small flowers during the summer and fall. I love seasoning fish with it.

Mint - this plant is more of a useful weed. Plant it once and you’ll probably never get rid of it.