Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

On Friday my friend Currynapper* put this photo on Facebook with the caption

"For some reason, I'm quite satisfied by this.”

This led to quite a long thread, including a side thread (fibre?)

Mrs Elswitch Thanks to Bentonbag we now have them all growing in the garden. We were missing the sage until Fester abused their sage bush!

Bentonbag Ooo Matron - that sounds slightly saucy to me.

Currynapper Are you growing them in the right order Bentonbag?

Bentonbag They're scattered all over. Not sure the parsley will make it though, need to get another pot from Sainsbury's or elsewhere.

Mrs Currynapper From left to right ish - Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley Sage. 

My parsley is also looking a little sad.

Bess Cavalier Bentonbag are the cats eating it? I gave up on parsley when I discovered it was the cat eating it.  I'd been blaming the slugs.

Bentonbag Never seen a cat or a slug eating parsley.  Basil, on the other hand, can only be grown in the house as even if it's in a pot 3ft off the ground the molluscs get it.

Here are my herbs.

Parsley 

My Dad used to say “Parsley seeds go down to the Devil seven times before they grow”.  It’s a bugger to germinate and if they do you end up with a feast or a famine, then the chef forgets where they are and never picks any.  Last year I got pots of curly and flat leaf, repotted them in much bigger pots with very richly fertilized compost and put them on a table outside the kitchen door.  They thrived and were used.   

I had hoped to keep this one going a second year and have repotted it again, but it’s not looking very good so far.  

I keep looking for more on the living herb shelf in the supermarket but no joy so far.

Sage

They say sage grows well in a home where the wife wears the trousers.  This flourishing descendant of the cuttings Dad gave me decades ago is actually growing in a large terracotta pot.   Dad said you should never let sage flower and I try not to but the flowers are lovely.   It’s very easy to propagate from cuttings.  Whenever any gets snapped off I put it in a pot of very wet compost, and that in a receptacle full of water. By the time the water has dried up the sage has usually taken.  I have a pot of cuttings for Mrs Quilt when this present unpleasantness is over.  There will doubtless be more breakages when I pull that grass out, so there’ll be another pot rooting away soon.

Rosemary

This was grown from a cutting too, after a storm battered the previous plant.   

As you can see it likes the front garden and is flowering like mad.

Thyme

In a window-box and only recently acquired as a living herb pot. There was a lot of ornamental thyme growing in the front garden when I moved here (1987) but it has all been outgrown.  I've had very little success trying to grow it by the drive, where it is sunny and dry.  So I'm just hoping it will like it here. 




*who's birthday it is today.  Happy Birthday