From Seed to Harvest: Growing Herbs at Home

My husband said to me recently as he was building his shed/workshop, “There is no better feeling than to look at something like this and be able to say, ‘I built that.’” That stuck with me and made me realize that is why I have come to enjoy gardening more and more over the years.

It’s the same with flowers, herbs or vegetables. I can look at my gardens and say, “I grew those.” It gives me, and I know my husband as well, a sense of accomplishment from creating something from very little. His starts with lumber and mine with seeds.

For me, growing herbs is about more than having them on hand for cooking because, if I am being honest, I don’t really cook all that much. I enjoy the practical aspect of having them outdoors to help deter certain pests, the elegance they bring to a garden, container or even a kitchen counter, and the calming and familiar scents they carry.

Over the years, I’ve had mixed results, but I have never given up. It is so satisfying to see those seedlings stretch up through the soil while I have my strategy written out, hoping that this will be the year I conquer all of them.

Hope is what we all have every year, no matter what is being planted. Hopes for a beautiful flower garden that fills the yard with amazing scents, for vegetable plants to flourish and supply us with food, and for herbs that we can admire and preserve long after the growing season is gone.

This year, I decided to try using a greenhouse, which was an unused aluminum frame I wrapped in plastic. It is rustic, but it serves the purpose, and so I filled my 4-inch pots with soil and seeds, labeled each one and waited. I watered them every day and kept a notebook with me in the bag I carried to the greenhouse.

I recorded when they were planted, when they germinated, when I fed them and how they responded. It was a very hot summer here in Maine this year, and I was thrilled that despite the heat, they seemed to be thriving. Even my basil plants were cooperating for once. That’s another story, but I still love basil.

I learned when to move them from the greenhouse to the garden, and I kept most of them in their containers. Even with no door on the greenhouse, I saw signs of wilting and knew it was just too hot for them.

Moving them completely outside gave me mixed results. My dill, which I was very much looking forward to using, decided to tap out this year. Thyme and sage flourished, oregano is taking over one part of a garden, and parsley did not grow for me at all. Finally, I went against advice and planted mint, so let’s just say I know someone who will be very happy to have a truckload of mint for tea all winter long.

I don’t consider these failures at all because I learned so much. Mostly, I learned that once you plant 10 basil plants assuming only one will grow, that is when basil will decide that this year they all will grow. I now have plans to make and freeze pesto. To me, that is a nice surprise.

Growing anything takes patience, and you never know what each year will bring. I think that is the best part and why I truly enjoy doing this as much as I do. It can be challenging, no question, but one thing I have come to understand and appreciate is that there is always something to learn. Some varieties may flourish while others do not, and next year may bring completely different results.