Wintering my Herb bed

Yesterday was cold, but it was pretty outside. So we got the herb bed ready for winter.

When I planted my lemon balm this past spring, I didn’t do my research. So, I didn’t realize that it was a member of the mint family…. And it spread like crazy. It choked out my lemongrass and chives and tried to with my spicy globe basil. In the spring, I’m going to try to dig it up and containerize it.

Yesterday pulled the chives and basil. The lemongrass was long since gone. I brought the basil inside because it had bolted and I want to collect the seeds. So that’s a project for this week. It’s currently in a bucket waiting on me in the garden room.

I harvested lavender, sage, lemon balm (smells so good…like lemon pledge without the chemicals) and rosemary. I then cut all but the lemongrass balm to about 3-6” tall. I left some leaves on the plants.

After that, we put compost in all around the plants and throughout the bed to the height of the bed and then covered with a water resistant blanket. The compost had ants in it, so we sprinkled cinnamon all over the compost. This will also help deter mold/fungi.

So one day this week I have to deal with preparing herbs for preserving. I’ll probably keep a small portion of each fresh and dry the rest.