Herb Gardening

August 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

This month rainfall should begin to increase due to the closer passage of many tropical storms or depressions. Next month, however, is our wettest month and that’s something many people don’t like to look forward to.

Because of the extra moisture many herbs are getting a lot of disease problems and aren’t doing as well, but experienced gardeners know that this is a phase they have to go through and later in the fall when things begin to dry off and our wet season ends herbs will make a rapid recovery.

If you’re growing herbs in containers, make sure that these are kept perhaps under solid roofs so you can control how much water they get and they will perform a lot better rather than letting them be outside getting soaked by the almost daily rains that some people are getting.

Many people are thinking about preparations for the fall and if you have an herb garden that needs renovation or needs additional soil brought in and bedding up and other preparations you can do it this month, but many people hold off on actual planting of the outside garden until September or October when we start to get a little bit less rainfall.

Our official dry season doesn’t begin until about the first of October and after that point it’s much more comfortable working out in the landscape in your garden as well.

If you have questions about winter maintenance in your herb garden, check with fellow members at monthly meetings or your local county Extension office.