Properly start your aromatic plant crop

Perennial or yearly?

Depending on vegetation, we distinguish two types of aromatic plants: 

-       The perennials (mint, chive, thyme, rosemary, sage, tarragon, savory...) can live over two years. Some – said to be persistent – even keep their leaves during winter: they can render a meal even tastier all year long.

-       The yearly (basilic, dill, coriander...) to replant every year in spring after frosts or in summer. We harvest them in summer or autumn depending on the variety.

-       Good to know: parsley and chervil are biannual (two-year life cycle) but grown like yearly plants.

In the vegetable garden, the ideal is to vary the pleasures each season by growing both perennial and yearly plants.

Where to grow them?

Aromatic plants can be planted in the soil while respecting their needs: all require light, but it should be more or less direct depending on the type of plant. Mediterranean plants such as thyme, rosemary, sage, or even laurel love the sun, heat and drained soil – if not dry –, whereas mint, parsley, chive, tarragon, chervil, dill and basil enjoy rich and fresh soils, half in the shadow.

For those who do not have a garden, many aromatic plants are easy to grow in a pot on a terrace, a balcony or a windowsill, even in a luminous indoor room not to warm. They require an adapted breeding ground, put over a draining layer of clay or gravel. Those which needs are similar should be planted together (for instance thyme-rosemary-oregano or basil-dill-chive). Beware of mint which is invasive: better give it a specific pot!

3 advices for fulfilled aromatic plants

-       Young plants in pots pricked out at home are easier to achieve than sowing.

-       Be careful with excess water: plants must be watered when the ground is dry while being particularly sparing with Mediterranean species.

-       To pick it, scissors are mandatory in order not to tug on the roots.

And now, in the kitchen!