Water Cooler: Tips for pruning your herb garden

Herb gardens are great for beginner gardeners because they’re so low maintenance, but they do require a little bit of upkeep. Pruning herb gardens helps prevent herbs from becoming bitter due to flowering and from developing woody stems that result in an undesirable texture for eating.

Annual herbs such as dill or basil don’t usually require pruning as long as they are being harvested somewhat regularly. Usually they will remain tender and in good shape throughout the season.

Perennial herbs on the other hand, such as oregano, sage, lavender, rosemary and thyme will continue to fill out and become large bushes if left to their own devices, and along with that comes leggy, woody stems.

Pruning helps keep all of this in check while promoting new growth and optimal flavor. Here are a few tips to get started.

First remove any dead stems. This is usually done in spring, but you can remove dead and broken stems all season .

During the peak of the growing season, regularly pinch off leaves from the top of the plant using either your fingers or any type of cutting tool. If you find yourself unable to use all the pruned leaves, you can start drying or freezing them to have during the winter season or they also make a great gift to friends and family.

In addition to regular pruning, you should also harvest about 1 to 2 inches off the stem of the plant in order to encourage the stem to regrow into two diverging branches. This helps the plant bush out and encourages maximum foliage.

As late summer arrives, go through your herb plants and deadhead old flowers and any growth that appears to be shriveled or spent. Deadheading plants encourages continued plant growth as it tells the plant to stop putting so much energy toward producing seeds in the faded and pollinated flowers and to redirect that energy into continued production. Make sure to get this step in long before the arrival of fall in order to reap the largest and healthiest harvest possible.

For large herbs that have become leggy and overgrown, you can prune up to a third of the plant so it will produce new green growth in the spring instead of becoming overtaken by a large woody base.

If your herb garden is more for ornamental purposes than for consumption, you’ll want to change your pruning strategy a bit to prioritize the plant’s appearance.

Instead of lopping off new growth from the top, pinch off any new growth to encourage the plant to produce more branches and to develop a strong root system.

Herb varieties that bloom throughout the season can be cut back to the first set of leaves. Once the blooms have faded near the end of the summer, shape the plant into a mound in order to set it up for the best looking growth possible come next spring.

In general, do not prune too late into the season as this can weaken the plant too much before it begins to transition into winter dormancy. It can also throw off the transition by encouraging it to produce new growth too close to the frost. When new leaves are killed by the frost it adds additional stress to the already weakened plant and it may not survive the winter.