by Leslie Cox; Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014

There is something seductively sensuous about herbs. Steeped in ancient folklore, they exude a haunting fascination to know the mysteries of their past. Unearthed scraps of old parchment have been preserved to impart a continuance of history. These fragments of herbals disclose the lives of ordinary people, their beliefs, their domestic chores, their gardens and the foods they ate. Written in expressive language, they eloquently recount about plants to grow for tasting, eating, smelling and curing “maladies”.

Planting an herb garden is a re-connection to the past. It is a step down the garden path towards previously unknown pleasurable experiences. Slumbering senses are awakened at the touch and aroma these plants impart. Crushing a mint leaf “doth invigorate”; rubbing a lavender bush relieves “all griefs and pains of the head”; “chamomile takes away weariness”.

Herbs are also wonderful plants to introduce new gardeners to the joys of gardening. Besides making you feel good when you are weeding around them, they provide visual pleasure in the garden setting. You will harvest a bounty to be utilized throughout the year. And with few exceptions, herbs are virtually bullet tough for hardiness and very easy to grow.

Now that you have decided you would like to grow some herbs, next thing is to determine how many varieties. If you only choose the usual culinary herbs: parsley, thyme, sage, chives, basil, etc., they are easily tucked into the garden beside plants. Herbs are excellent choices to include in any landscape design for a number of reasons which we will not go into here.

If you are wading into herbal mysteries in a big way and if you have the garden space, you may want to embark on a more formal traditional herb garden design. There are a number of books available to help you with this landscaping project, if you so wish. For now, we will carry on with the intricacies of growing them.

Most herbs are very easy to start from seed: chives, thyme, basil, savory, Russian tarragon, chervil, cilantro, mustard to name but a few. Some seeds such as angelica, sweet cicely, lovage and alexanders need stratification…a two month cold period in a fridge in order to trigger germination.

Be patience with seeds such as parsley, sage and rosemary. They can take up to 28 days to germinate. Lavender seeds may be slow to sprout too although I have had some germinate in as few as 7 days.

Lavender is really best grown from cuttings so there is no confusion if you desire a particular cultivar. There are so many different cultivars of lavender available making it easy to get them mixed up. French tarragon, the best culinary tarragon, can only be propagated by cuttings or division. Packets of tarragon in the seed racks will always be the Russian variety.

When starting herbs, or any other plants, from seeds or cuttings, it is essential to have proper equipment. Everything is available at your local nursery. You will need:

• Seed tray or any suitable container with no holes in the bottom.
• Plastic cover that will fit over the seed tray to keep the humidity level up, as well as allow light through.
• Soil-less seed starting mix. (I add extra perlite to my starter to increase drainage.)
• Somewhere warm to put the seed trays. Most seeds germinate best in soil that is around 15 °C (60 °F).      Use a heat cable if trays will be in an unheated greenhouse. If kept inside, most houses are warm enough.

One additional item that has helped me tremendously in my propagating efforts is my fluorescent light shelf unit that my husband built for me. Young plants do much better when their light requirements are properly met. No need to build an elaborate affair as long as you can suspend lights over the seed trays. Fluorescent lights are the best, but a regular lamp will do in a pinch, as long as it is directly over the seed trays.

Note: You can buy either the special “grow” fluorescent light tubes, or if you have a two tube fixture, buy one “cool” tube and one “warm” tube to provide the plants with the full light spectrum.

There are some good books available on how to start seeds which you may want to reference. For an overview, this is my procedure:

• Fill seed tray or smaller seeding containers with soil-less mix; tamp mix down gently, but firmly, leaving about a quarter inch (0.6mm) headspace.
• Water mix, but do not saturate. (I use chamomile tea as it helps to prevent “damping off”, the fungus that is so detrimental to young seedlings.)
• Using a ruler edge, or other suitable straight edge, press out rows for seed planting. (Skip this step if you are using small containers.)
• Sow seeds along etched row. LABEL EACH ROW.
• Cover seeds with a light layer of soil-less mix, perlite or turkey grit from a livestock feed store. (I have used all three; my preference is the soil-less mix.)
• Cover tray with plastic cover and place under lights. Be patient.

It will not be too long before seedlings start to poke up. Basil, cilantro, chervil, etc., will be sprouting in 3-7 days. Rosemary and thyme will take 14-28 days.

The tricky part comes when you have planted a few different varieties in the same tray. There is a danger of the young seedlings succumbing to damping off if you leave the plastic cover on. However, take the cover off and you release the humidity that the remaining seeds need to germinate. You will have to exercise judgment in managing a balanced environment for both seedlings and un-germinated seeds. Take the cover off for a few hours, then give the unsprouted seeds a light sprinkle of chamomile tea before replacing the cover. Do not water the seedlings.

A way to circumvent this dilemma is to use smaller pots for each seed variety and place several together in the larger tray under the plastic cover. This will allow you to remove each small tray to another large tray as the seedlings come up, reducing the risk of losing your entire crop to damping off.

Early civilizations all had mystical and medical treatises about the sacred and healing properties of this group of plants. Herbs, with their ability to nurture or kill, have long been depended upon not only for food and medicine, but also for protection against all things incomprehensible.