It's Time to Prune Herbs in the Herb Garden

Reader Contribution by Lemon Verbena Lady
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You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com

Mother Nature has been quite generous with rain in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania this spring. Now is the perfect time to get out between rain showers and prune herbs before the real growing season starts. I particularly like to prune pineapple mint, thyme and rosemary-leaf santolina. This is a photo of my pineapple mint patch before I got in and pulled out invading lawn grass and trimmed back the dead wood of the mint plant. It may not look like much, but I was able to get out some excess mint more easily.

Here is a photo of my pruned pineapple mint (in the upper half of the photo below). I love to use pineapple mint in a tea blend with lemon verbena and lemon balm. Simply combine a couple of herb leaves in a tea ball or self-seal tea bags to make a delightful brew. I also like to use young pineapple mint leaves in a fruit salad or a green salad–this is the time that the leaves have the most pineapple flavor. In the bottom half of my photo below is my lemon thyme. I love to pull out weeds or grass between the thyme branches with tweezers. It works very well. If you have a favorite way to pull weeds out between thyme branches, please leave a comment or email me at lemonverbenalady@hotmail.com

Another herb I like to prune this time of year is rosemary-leaf santolina. I first planted this herb in 2007, and it obviously likes where it was first planted. I bought it from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm out in Huron, Ohio. They do not mail-order herbs any more, but if you are going to be taking a family vacation to Cedar Point this summer, the farm is just south of there. They have an annual herb farm on June 25 and 26 with a Caribbean theme. Well-Sweep Herb Farm in New Jersey still does mail-order and they sell this herb. It makes a beautiful herbal shrub in your landscape. The leaves are shaped like rosemary, but smell like santolina with a camphorous aroma. I use the leaves in sachet bags that I put in with wool sweaters or winter clothing.

Here is the finished herbal shrub. There are some herbs that are underneath this shrub that need to be moved. Hopefully, I’ll get to move them in a future post and show you the process.

I’ll leave you with my herb garden on Easter. It is very green and lush from the rain and a bit more pruned.

If you have a topic you would like me to write about, please leave me a comment or lemonverbenalady@hotmail.com. Talk to you soon.

  • Published on Apr 24, 2011
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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