Herbs in the home

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KirsteenA

Tenderfoot
Oct 25, 2016
61
0
North of the Wall
Not the type with artificial lighting and extra insulation in the loft! We've had a summer of fantastic fresh herbs thanks to the gumtree greenhouse, but of late they have gone all stemmy, spotty and generally sick. Its been a bargain compared to buying for recipes but now I've got in the habit of using loads, any tips for keeping them indoors? Previous experience has been of supermarket pots quickly dying - we are mean and don't have the heating on much, is this austerity incompatible with winter herbs?
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
I grow sage, mint, rosemary & thyme all year indoors under a pair of 24" fluoro lights.
Big plastic pots (6" dia x 9" tall) are much more resilient to drying out. Water soluble fertilizer every 3 months.
The lights are an inch from the leaves. Double the distance and you have 1/4 the light.
Temp is never more than maybe 65F. Two+ years and they seem to thrive on neglect.
 

KirsteenA

Tenderfoot
Oct 25, 2016
61
0
North of the Wall
Thanks, thats encouraging. Cold also killed our sourdough culture so may have to relent (typing wearing a down jacket!) on the heating front. I think I've made a mistake not repotting before, supermarket ones seem doomed no matter the temperature.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Seems to work OK.
I taught Uni biochemistry courses for more than 30 years.
One fact I drummed into the students was the role of temperature on reaction/metabolism speed.

If you change the temperature by 10C, the speed of the reaction changes by a factor of more than 2X, often about 2.3X.
So you drop the room temp by 10C. Yeastie beasties don't like that and they slow down to less than 1/2 what they were doing, warmer by 10C.
Hypothermia kills you that way.

Case in point: Cold winters here, I heat my house, always trying for 20C in the kitchen.
However, it is cold in all of my cupboards and closets, all over the house. Thermometers say 12C.
This is a big deal with flour temp to make bread. When I think of it, I take the flour out the
night before to "warm up!" for the next day's baking.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Herbs don't do well here in Winter. Short days, overcast skies, chilly wet….not much fun for them even indoors where it's warmer though.

Some will thrive in a sheltered spot. Sage, thyme, rosemary(if you get the spot right, it prefers it drier) are usually available all year. Things like mint, lemon balm, savoury, oregano, and the like just don't have leaves in Winter, or certainly not ones worth using.
Plan ahead, dry them or chop finely and freeze in ice or butter, is the best advice I can offer.

Bread's easy though, if you have a microwave. Most of the time it's empty, but it's a lovely snug space to keep dough, and it'll rise happily in there too. Just give a few seconds burst of power every so often to warm things up.
Sourdough will happily live in there if you keep it in a bowl or jug that you can heat up (you can sit it in hot water to do that if you prefer) and cover it.

M
 
Dec 6, 2013
417
5
N.E.Lincs.
I’m on the East coast just on the civilised South side of the Humber so am generally pretty lucky winter temperature wise, rarely does it get down much below minus 5 and more often tends not to get down to less than minus 2 so a lot of the herbs Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme etc. though they would not win any rosette’s at Chelsea do survive and are still usable all winter long….several years ago I was struggling to get rid of an old fridge/freezer and ended up removing the doors off it and turning it onto it’s back then ¾ filling it with soil, with a large sheet of glass from a replaced double glazed window I had a very effective insulated cold frame which is brilliant for keeping the more susceptible herbs in. One that I do keep in the house is a Corsican Mint, a very tiny leafed ground cover plant that really packs a flavour and smell and also conveniently will grow in the same pot as practically any other house plant I use to decorate the windowsills (not only does it grow it looks quite good too).
If the insulated cold frame is used though it is a good idea to plunge the herbs into the soil in their own pots, some of them, Mints especially will very quickly take over if their roots are not restricted.

D.B.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
This is neat. I like your cold frame, DB. I can go to the transfer station/dump and load a couple of them, any time.
Often thought I'd like an extra frost free month at each end here (April and September.)

I know about mint in the garden. Just about as bad as horseradish.

I started one of everything a couple of years back, they all on my front door step. Deer didn't bother to eat them.
September and the deer cropped off the flatleaf parsley (my favorite) so I thought that I'd bring the rest in and see how they did.
I have a bunch of shelves and light banks in my downstairs kitchen. Lo and behold, they really do thrive on neglect!
The deer spit killed the parsley, not unexpected. There's a 12" cube pot of chives outdoors that can take -20C and 36" snow.
I might cut and repot half and see what it does indoors.
 
Dec 6, 2013
417
5
N.E.Lincs.
Have to agree about the Horseradish it can certainly spread, the good thing is though I do like the young leaves and they are one of the earliest things to emerge here so I tolerate it, the big leaves later make really good sun protection too for standing seedlings under in their pots. I had to laugh last year, the farmer next door sowed half a dozen separate 1/2 acre area's of Kale as winter cover for the Pheasants.....The Deer allowed it to grow to a height of about a foot before they invited all their friends around for a party and took it back to bare soil in a single night.

D.B.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
We've got deer in the village all winter, they're already browsing dead veg in my flower beds. The peony tops go first.
I see their footprints in the snow 12" from my front door. They won't eat the lilacs or the roses
but every other dang thing that isn't fenced in, down it goes.

Love the kale story. Best thing you can do with kale. Kale-fed venison. . . . . . I wonder. ... .. .
Knock one down = fair compensation for crop damage. Can be done here, even for Canada geese in pea fields.
 

KirsteenA

Tenderfoot
Oct 25, 2016
61
0
North of the Wall
Thanks for advice, I'm hopeful I can have home made pesto in the depths of December! I was reminded of another idea for sourdough/proving bread - put it in a coolbox with a hot water bottle.
 

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