How to Keep Your Annual Herbs Happy for Longer

Unless you live in a practically tropical climate, many of the lovely summer herbs you enjoy from your garden are grown as annuals. This means that they have one growing season and one chance to set a seed for next year.

Sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano can, for the most part, survive the cold temperatures of the winter, especially if you give them a good blanket of mulch. However, basil, dill, cilantro, borage, and German chamomile are examples of some herbs that we get one yearly shot at!

Perhaps you are frantically trying to grow enough basil to keep you in pesto for the winter or harvest enough chamomile flowers to provide you with months of sleepytime tea. Whatever the case, you want to make the most of the growing season you have and keep your annual herbs in tip-top shape.

Here are some handy tips for giving yourself the best chance at an awesome harvest from your annuals.

Get a Head Start

Basil, dill, cilantro, borage, and German chamomile all grow from seed easily. They also transplant well, so you have a chance to get your seeds growing before the sunny growing season starts.

You can check each seed packet individually, but for the most part, you can plant seedlings indoors about six weeks before the last frost date. You can check these dates by using a local almanac.

Once any danger of frost has passed, you can plant your seedlings out into your garden. Sure, you can direct seed them after the last frost date, but you’ll have to wait longer for your harvest!

Be Aware of Bolting

Source: Shawna Coronado Wellness Food and Garden/YouTube

Bolting is when a plant grows flowers to set a seed. Once your herb has flowers, all its energy goes into developing seeds, and less energy is spent on the leaves. Leaves are usually what you want with most herbs, right? One way to stop bolting is to keep your plants pruned back. This will encourage more leaves to grow.

Herbs bolt when they sense the weather warming up, so keeping your herbs well-mulched helps to keep the soil cool. Also, provide a little shade for your plants during the hottest part of the day. This is especially true for a plant such as cilantro. It is a cool-weather crop that really cannot handle the heat of summer.

Your plants are going to flower and set seed. This is their mission—to reproduce. Should you want to leave some of your herbs to bolt and go to flower, this will not only please your local pollinators, but you will also be able to save some seeds for next year. Some plants are prolific self-seeders, so you might find yourself with volunteers next season, too.

Pinching Off Flowerheads

Source: Chowhound/YouTube

So, you have kept your plants trimmed down but have started to notice flowers developing on your basil. What you need to do is pinch these flower heads off the plant. This is a really simple process and gives your plant longevity and a chance to produce more pesto-destined leaves.

Simply locate the flower and pinch off the flower bud cleanly with your index finger and thumb at the nearest intersection.

Harvesting Flowers  

Source: The Greek Vegan/YouTube

Now we have just gone through tips for preventing flowering, what about herbs that are grown purely for their flowers? German chamomile, for one, is grown for its sweet daisy-like flowers to make a bedtime tea. Borage, similarly, is grown for its pollinator-friendly flowers and for tea making, too.

Since you want the flowers of these plants, you’ll need to let them bloom. Don’t go pruning or pinching off flower buds, or you will have nothing to harvest. Allow the plants to flower, but make sure you harvest regularly. Since annual plants want to seed themselves and reproduce, taking the flowers from them will force them to produce more and more blooms. The more you harvest, the more flowers there will be.

Don’t Stress Out Your Herbs!

We have established that annual herbs want to produce flowers and set seeds before the season, and their life is up! As a result, if your herbs feel any kind of threat to their longevity, such as too much heat or not enough water, they are going to panic and bolt.

Planting herbs in containers is a great way to help moderate microclimates. You can move your plants into shadier spots during the blistering afternoon sun or move them indoors if you know a scorcher of a day is on the way.

If you have your plants in garden beds, a really good mulch can help to keep the roots cool. You can also strategically plant plants around your herbs that will provide a little dappled shade during the hottest part of the day.

Check seed packets for watering recommendations, and keep your plants appropriately watered. The threat of drought will make them bolt or just die!

Lastly, harvest your herbs regularly. If you don’t need to use them right away, you can learn to dry your herbs for the colder months. Regular harvesting will promote more leaf and flower production.

Related Content:

• 5 Reasons to Include Borage in Next Year’s Garden
• 7 Fabulous Herbs for Your Health
• The Essential Guide to Herbs
• Growing Your Own Perennial Culinary Herb Garden at Home

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