2025 will be Grow It Eat It’s Year of Herbs! So I thought I’d look forward to the coming year by featuring some seasonal flavors. No, not pumpkin spice. We can grow some of the aromatic, usually seed-based spice plants in our region, but many of them (such as cinnamon and nutmeg) require a very different climate with year-round warmth. Herbs, which are usually leaf-based, are much easier. Two garden favorites are also popular at this time of year in food, drink, and special treats. Let’s talk about rosemary and peppermint.
Maybe we think about rosemary in December because of those sheared “Christmas trees” you can buy in stores and take home as a holiday centerpiece. I would not count on having those live very long, though they are pretty and fragrant for as long as they last. Rosemary doesn’t like the warm dry air inside our homes, and it’s hard to keep potted rosemary watered well enough not to dry out while still not rotting its roots. Rosemary is one of the Mediterranean herbs that evolved to grow in rocky soil near the sea, which is not a climate that exists in your dining room. It doesn’t really exist in central Maryland gardens, either, but I’ve managed to keep rosemary going for a few years at a time by giving it well-drained soil (gravelly is great, but raised bed soil will work), full sun, and protection from winter winds. Rosemary has a reputation for dying in cold winters, but the factors that really kill it off, from my observations, are sudden plunges in temperature, wild temperature fluctuations in general, and too much moisture at the root level. If you know there’s an Arctic air mass coming, you can try temporarily wrapping the plant – don’t leave it that way all winter, though. It’s tougher than you think.
Rosemary is a great way to give your meals a wintry, pine-foresty flavor. It’s used in meat dishes and with roasted vegetables, and in stews and baked goods. If you take care of your outdoor plants, you can harvest from them all year long; rosemary is an evergreen herb as long as you treat it right.
Peppermint is another garden plant with a reputation, and in this case it’s well-deserved. Mints spread vigorously by root runners, and will happily take over your entire garden if you let them. Peppermint is one of the worst offenders. If you want to grow it – and you should, because it’s a great flavor element to have handy – grow it in a container, preferably close to your house, like on a deck or patio or front stoop. If you do plant it in the ground (and I did this, because I wanted more than would grow in a pot), make sure it’s in a location where the root growth will be constrained by pavement. It will still become a ground cover in that area, but walking on mint and releasing its scent can be very pleasant. I’ve been able to keep mine more or less under control, with some aggressive weeding. But I previously had horrible experiences with mint in (or near) vegetable gardens, so… just don’t. It will even escape from a pot through the hole in the bottom and start growing into the soil underneath, so put those pots on impermeable surfaces.
If you are going to grow peppermint, start by buying a plant. Peppermint (Mentha x piperitai) is a hybrid of two species of mint, and therefore doesn’t come true from seed (in fact it seldom produces seeds). In general, it’s easier to buy herb plants rather than growing them from seed; rosemary, for example, will grow from seed, but it takes a looong time. Let someone else do the work!
Peppermint can be used in flavoring meat and vegetable dishes, especially Middle Eastern ones, and to make wonderful herbal teas. Spearmint is a better choice for cocktails and refreshing cold drinks. (Same planting considerations; spearmint is also a great spreader.) When we think of peppermint in December, it’s mostly because of candy canes and other sweet treats, including peppermint-flavored cocoa and chocolates. You probably won’t make those from your own garden peppermint (which tends to die back some in the winter anyway, though it will usually come back in spring if given some protection from freezing winds), but if you’re interested in where they came from, try this recent episode about mint from one of my favorite podcasts, Gastropod. The discussion focuses on the commercial uses of peppermint and how they developed over the last few centuries, and it’s a great listen.
Both peppermint and rosemary are in the mint family, as are many of the other culinary herbs we prize in our gardens. In this upcoming Year of Herbs we’ll post a lot about how to grow and use those and many others. In the meantime here’s a post on herbs in veggie gardens I wrote a few years ago – start planning now!
Happy holidays and best wishes for a fragrant winter season!
By Erica Smith, Montgomery County Master Gardener. Read more posts by Erica.