Thanks for asking, Bonnie! I'll be watching for answers here too. My herbs are doing well this year and I was wondering how I can harvest and save them as well. Mine are basil, parsley & oregano. I haven't figured out what to do with mint or catnip. Can you dry catnip for cats?

I love your herb garden! Garlic is a very good thing!! LC Grace

I'm growing the dill for the butterflies and hope they are happy re-seeders. I haven't pickled in years, timing issues here as well. My basil just keeps growing all summer and I pinch off the blooms.

I potted up of a dozen 4" pots of oregano today from one packet of seeds in a milk jug! I'll plant some and give the rest away. I grow chives, oregano, parsley and basil becasue they are really the only herbs I know how to cook with! Sometimes cilantro too (not this year yet..)but as others have said, it almost always bolts before I can get one mexican meal cooked!

I grow all my herbs, both annual and perennial in 8 inch pots. Use miracle grow potting mix and cover the top of the soil with some bark mulch.

I winter over the perennials in a bed, dig them out in the spring and pot them up again. WS the annual seeds except for rosemary. that one i never have luck with.

Anyways, i pinch the annual seedlings back to get them to branch out and keep doing it to get a full plant.
Some of the branches I will let go to seed for WS next year and the rest I keep cutting to use fresh and to dry as well.

I've never found a difference in the taste by letting them go to seed and no one else i know has either.

The only one that is a problem for me is parsley. I've had one plant come back for me every year for about 20 years now. My son gave it to me for mother's day when he was 10 years old. He's 30 now.
I keep it for the sentimental reason, but there is no flavor in it. I sow new seeds for parsley every year.

Basil plants are lime, lemon, thai, licorice, sweet.

plus i also have, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarrogon, oregano, chives, garlic chives and dill.

I dry most of my herbs for the winter but not parsley. I personally find no taste or flavor with dried parsley and i can never get a rosemary plant to survive my indoor dry heat.

I use the microwave to dry the herbs. I buy the cheapest white paper plates in the market to use. Collect the herbs to dry, rinse them off and dry them well.
Then spread small amounts of the herb on the paper plate and pop them in the micro. 10-15 seconds at a time. keep checking to see if they are dry. when they are I let them cool, then pack them up.

I find the flavor stays stronger using the microwave and the color stays greener as well.

Half of my basil is dried, the other have i freeze in ice cube trays.

I bought some really cheap plastic ice cube trays just for the basil. I fill the cubes with pieces of the basil leaves. Fill them with water and pop them in the freezer. When frozen i pop them out of the trays and store them in freezer zippy bags.
When I want some I just take out the number of cubes I want and pop them into the recipe I'm cooking.

Fran

some pics of the herbs.

thai basil pinched and branching
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licorice basil pinched and branching
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lime basil pinched and branching
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tarragon branching well
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rosemary branching well
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oregano
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sage
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dill, still small but this is a dwarf kind that only grows 8 inches
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I didn't mention all of the annual herbs, because I am using all of the space in the herb bed for the perennial ones, but I have quite a few things in pots on the porch too:

marjoram (which looks just like oregano to me)
cilantro and dill (both going to seed already)
rosemary (no luck overwintering this indoors last year, but will try again)
mints (pineapple, orange, and chocolate)
oregano and parsley (these extra pots are to bring indoors in the winter so I'll have a fresh supply)
basil (sweet, lemon, cinnamon, dark opal, and lettuce leaf - some in the veggie garden, and some in pots on the porch)
red perilla (also called shiso. First time to grow this, and don't know what to do with it, but it has pretty purple foliage)

Bonnie

Bonnie: I too have been growing herbs for many years, and while I agree with what Littleone has written, I always remove the blooms of sage as it helps the plant get more bushy and it seems to slow the process of getting woody which they always do. I use them and the chive blooms for bouquets. I don't worry about the thyme flowers - they don't seem to have any effect on the plant or taste. I do not have the problem of bolting with Cilantro and I ususally have enough to freeze for winter cooking.

Please be very wary of oregano blooms. About eight years ago, somehow I let one plant go to flower and I have had oregano all over my lawn since then. It grows during the winter months by underground runners and is very dificult to get rid of, except by digging and re-seeding. I find that I have to harvest twice a year, so I prevent any blooms from forming. I also have 2 parsely plants that came back for the third time this year. They were also sending up flowering stalks, but I cut them off so the plant would continue producing shoots. There's nothing like having fresh herbs for your cooking. Good luck!!
Northerner.

I have a suggestion for the cilantro. It's true that it bolts very quickly, so the way I used to grow it was to cut the tops of the plants before the second type leaf appears, then immediately plant more seeds. Just keep your seed pack handy and plant the seeds as you harvest. That way you can keep it going all summer. Unfortunately I've developed an allergy to it so I can't grow it any more, but I always loved it.

You can always freeze any of the herbs too. Some freeze them right in ice cube trays. As for cilanto...it too can be frozen for later use, or if you are any where near a latin produce store, ask for culantro. It is used not only in Mexican foods but all hispanic foods. You should taste the black Cuban beans I make.

Alberta

Bonnie, you can let the dill go, cut the seedheads, and use one per quart jar when canning (put them in first). This makes for a really pretty, rustic-looking jar of pickles. If it's green you're after, though, I'd plant more, since it always seems (to me) that the flavor of the leaves fades after the dill's gone to seed

I used to drive myself crazy trying to keep basil blossoms pinched, now I just lop off the top 1/3 or so of the plants. Works like a charm, is a lot quicker, and the plants seem to like it!

I've never bothered with attempting to keep herbs such as thyme, oregano, lavender, sage, etc. pinched and in my opnion the flavor is just as good (besides, I think it'd be a losing battle).

I have the same problem with cilantro - by the time I get ready to use it, it's coriander! After being caught short so many times, I've now learned to sow it every 2-3 weeks through early August, and then I start sowing it in pots to bring in.

Grace, catnip is easy to dry. Just cut branches, tie the stems together, and hang somewhere out of direct sun. My cats like it a lot better before it goes to flower, but if you let it go to seed, the sweet little goldfinches will be all over those plants - they love it!

Thanks for the info on catnip! I let mine go to seed for 2 yrs already. I've got a pretty big patch of plants!

For those of you who freeze the herbs... can you do oregano in icecube trays for sauces as well?

I haven't used herbs in my sauces since last summer because I didn't know how to keep them! Thanks for all your answers to Bonnie! This was really an informative thread! LC Grace

My herb garden has most of the same plants. One addition I have is burnette. It is perennial here and has a sweet cucumbery taste. The leaves are added to salads.