Starting herbs indoors for mass plantings in the summer in Vermont

Many herbs like oregano, thyme, parsley, and lavender are grown in climates much different from Vermont. Therefore, if we want to grow them here from seed, we have to start them inside 8- 12 weeks before we plant them out doors. They need to have soil that’s around 80° in order to sprout and they need that intense, humidity and sun to grow into usable plants down the line. Lavender must additionally undergo cold stratification to simulate the natural winter conditions that are needed in order to break dormancy and improve germination rates.

Other herbs like cilantro and dill readily self seed in my garden so I would never start them inside because there’s thousands of them growing in my garden just because seed pods fell on the ground and rain came down and before you know it they’ve sprouted thousands of seeds all around. I let them do it Because they do such a good job of planting themselves. It would be a waste of my time to start them indoors when they are so prolific, even in Vermont’s cold weather.

Herbs, like oregano and thyme are perennials and most of the time they will survive the winter here. Normally gardeners who want more propagate them to grow larger amounts. That takes many years to grow enough to put up enough for the winter. Dividing them keeps them proliferating until evitably one hard winter takes them out and you have to start all over again. Sometimes you will find a generous neighbor who provides you with a nice division or you can buy them at local nurseries but they are among the pricier plants because they grow so slowly.

This is the first year I am going to start all these by seed because I finally have the grow room set up to take on this task. I’d like to actually make that my primary focus for summer 2025 because I found that these are the spices these are the herbs that I regularly use in cooking. I don’t take time to grow ones that I don’t use much because it’s so labor-intensive to produce them. They have to be trimmed a few times a year. And they have to be dried expertly or you simply won’t use them and you’ll continue to buy them from the store because if they’re not dry correctly, they either have no taste or they’re too wet and they get off smell to them. As the season progresses, I will be sharing exactly the process I use to grow, trim and cure herbs. I found that the end result is not something that’s available for sale because it simply cannot be done in a profitable way. However, on a small scale to inpress my family and friends is worth it. Guests wonder if I am just really good at cooking but my true secret is that the herbs and veggies I grow create an unforgettable meal.

Along with the herbs, I am starting a small amount of peppers and tomatoes. Given the amount of space that tomatoes need to thrive, they are not going to be the primary focus of my garden. Each of my tomato plants occupies 5x2 feet of prime real estate. I will plant probably four or five tomato plants and the same amount of peppers and that gives me more than enough fruit to work with if I had 20 plants, it would be a whole Nother situation. I just don’t need that much and what it comes to having to pick all that fruit and then store all that fruit and process it all it becomes a full-time job and it becomes more stuff than we’re gonna use and I don’t wanna put any labor or time into things that don’t benefit me and having too many tomato and pepper plant. Sure it’s great to give out the abundance and I will be doing that for friends of BB Lane Garden, but I’m not doing that for myself because it is creating more work when it is taking away from other things I could be doing that are more Beneficial. That is not to say if you want to grow 20 tomato plants that you shouldn’t but you have to mindfully think about what you’re gonna do with all those tomatoes because they’re all gonna become ripe around the same time and you’re going to live in the kitchen for a week or two and in the summer when this is happening, this is the last time of year I wanna be Stuck in my kitchen. I wanna be out sailing and hiking and recreating while this weather still good because we don’t get a lot of good weather here you have to take advantage of the seasons and at the end of the day if my pepper plants and tomato plants don’t do well there are always other people growing them that I can get by Phil from or I can get them from my local my local farmers who do a wonderful job doing heirloom varieties we’re so lucky to live in Vermont where we have all these farms that are really they’re not big factory farms they grow Very specialized very high-quality and that is a new thing that that typically had not been characteristic of Vermont until about the last 15 years.

While I was getting all these seats set up I also went ahead and got another batch of micro greens going which I absolutely adore now I can’t believe it took me this long to get them going but having micro basil to throw in smoothies and micro lettuce for salads it’s just they taste so much better before they get hard and better they I love the taste of small greens. I wonder if The reason why we grow large or want large plants and fruit is because when they go to market they get to charge you more for them now if they pick them earlier than they wouldn’t because they would be always by the way so when you’re growing at yourself, you’re growing up for the ideal taste not the ideal profit and what I found with lettuce is that Growing my own gives me the ability to eat it fresh like freshly cut which means I get the most nutrients out of it possible and you’re not gonna get that in a bag salad and again once it’s in a bag guess what it’s been introduced the plastic and while some plastic in our lives is OK it’s too prevalent so I am cutting down every way that I possibly can to get it out of my life and one of those ways is by growing my own salad greens.