Why do the herbs always need to be picked when there is no other food in the garden to season with them?

I have more chives and catnip than we will ever use, so if you’d like some… please let me know. Of course, last week I also planted catnip seeds that I bought at Monticello. Because one can never have enough catnip. (Maybe this is why we have a grey cat who visits our back yard now…)

Catnip, the earliest spring herb:

Also, it looks like the thyme wasn’t even phased by 4 months of freezing weather and more than four feet of snow. Ready to use!

I cut down all the catnip in the garden, which should give some of the other herbs a bit more room to grow. I’m sure well get a couple more good pickings from it this year.

Once it’s dried I’ll bag it and hide it away for a snowy day!

We’ve been getting an average of two inches of rain per week. While all of the herbs are growing well, the catnip has really surprised me. It is currently the tallest plant in our garden – even taller than the sunflowers (though they’ll catch up soon enough!)