Earlier this week, I was cleaning up my little herb garden after the winter . . . and found a surprise.
I’m not talking about the “surprise” garden stone, although it actually does kinda surprise me every season when I uncover it again. (I made that the year my One Little Word was surprise, by the way.) And it wasn’t finding a tennis ball under my chives. (I’m always finding random dog toys in unexpected places in the garden.)
What I was surprised about . . . was how many of my herbs from last season made it through the winter — and look ready for another season! That just never happens. It’s a huge indicator of just how unusally mild our winter was this year!
I mean, the chives are perennials, so they do come up again every year. (Although they’re not usually as lush and full – and ready to blossom – at this point in the garden year. So that IS a surprise.) And parsley is a biennial plant, and mine is in its second year . . . so that’s not a surprise either, really. (The fact that the rabbits haven’t eaten it to the stems yet is rather surprising, though.) But for the first time in my personal herb gardening history here in Michigan, I have rosemary, sage, oregano, and thyme that all (seemingly) made it through the winter!
I’m going to keep a close eye on these . . . stragglers . . . from last season, watching how they grow this spring. Maybe I’ll replace them with fresh plants. But maybe I won’t.
And it’s sure nice to have useable herbs this early in the season! Surprise!
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How about you? Any surprises in your garden this year?
I have had sometimes had luck with herbs over-wintering but never consistently. That’s a good surprise! I love how you edged the herb garden with bottles, it looks very cool.
I cut back the sage and rosemary last fall and rooted them in the house, but the sage plant outside has not given up! The rosemary, which also was looking pretty good, did not make it past the early spring night that the temps dipped into the 20’s. And my chives are just loaded with blooms! Crazy weather…
We’ve got spinach and chard that overwintered and are ready to eat. While it’s lovely to have early greens, I wish that tomatoes were able to do the same thing!
Rosemary that survived a Michigan winter…definitely bittersweet!
The ‘joke’s-on-me’ surprise I’m finding is that I planted ~160 daffodil bulbs, plus a few dozen other spring bulbs, last fall. I actually drove to OH to purchase them, b/c I fell in love with some pink daffs in Bluestone’s online catalog. Every single bulb I planted has come up….except for those 16 pinks!! I can only laugh. And maybe they’ll come up next month. Or next year!
Enjoy some spring in your kitchen, Kym. A treat!
No surprises as of yet, but I’m still working through a lot of weeds!
I’ve had thyme survive for several years at a time, and this year the sage is looking good, too. Never have I ever with rosemary!
My chives are back but looking rather sparse, so I think I’ll need to replant them where they get a bit more sun. And my oregano seems to be doing well, even though a section died off. The thing I’m most happy about is my lavender, which our landscapers seemed to try to kill last year. It’s back and looking better!
The biggest surprise in my garden? Me! 😉
I’ve had a number of herbs over-winter (parsley and rosemary), but it is rare. Colin has sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme and something else re-appearing in his herb garden. Time to cook!! We had a salad last night that included some chard that over-wintered. boy was it good to taste that!!
I love a surprise in the garden. Generally thyme, oregano, chives, and lavender survive the winter here. After a few years, the thyme gets a little too leggy and needs replacing. My small herb garden is my favorite garden bed. Have I mentioned that previously, like about a thousand times? I think we are at least three weeks ahead.
Well I’ll make up for you, I lost my rosemary and many other herbs this winter. Bought new this week but have not yet planted. (Oklahoma)
I remember when you made the garden stone. Chives have overwintered every year, but not much more. If I planted into the ground many herbs would survive, but in the pots, not so much. This year I put the rosemary into a small pot and brought it in the house. We used it on occasion and now I have a beautiful healthy plant to add to the patio. It even flowered during the winter months. So pretty.
“Black thumb”me is lucky enough to have a neighbor with a bountiful basil crop each season which she shares liberally with me (as in “pluck what you need anytime”). Really comes in handy with Caprese which we love.