The local greenhouse is closing out their annuals in anticipation of the arrival of their poinsettia crop. Hard to imagine, but it’s true.
This is an ideal time to buy up some cheap 4-packs of herbs and pot them for the patio. Come first frost, they should be well established and able to handle a winter indoors.
Fresh herbs in winter only require a little planning. I plant mine mid-summer when I can buy them on sale, plant them in pots that can be brought indoors, fertilize them, and give them a chance to grow healthy and strong by first frost.
I bring thyme, bay, sage, rosemary, and oregano indoors and grow them in my back hallway, near an east window. To economize on space, I plant thyme with the bay tree that I am training into a small topiary. The rosemary is trimmed into a conical form to be a Christmas tabletop decoration. All double as houseplants until they get too leggy to be attractive. Then they return to the back hall to await warm weather and their return to the patio.
I’m spoiled. I love being able to make salad dressing all winter long with fresh thyme. I put fresh sage in Thanksgiving stuffing. Pork roasts go into the oven dressed with fresh sprigs of rosemary. A fresh bay leaf in chili beats a brittle, dried one any day. All these take a little planning.
Herb plants (if you can even FIND them) are very expensive midwinter. But midsummer, a 4-pack of thyme will be less than two dollars and worth ten times that all winter long.
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