Has anyone had luck with getting oregano, mint, thyme, lavender, etc. to live through multiple seasons in a garden or a yard?  If so, which ones have worked for you and do you have any special tips that may lead to success?

First off they all want full sun. Lavender is not reliably hardy here. Some years it will survive some it won’t. Both lavender and thyme need a well drained soil and won’t like wet feet. Mint can take wetter soils and more shade than the others and can actually get invasive. Oregano can be a bit invasive if it is happy too.

Improve the soil with organic matter (manure, compost). You can just layer it on top of the soil. Cover with mulch and go light, if any at all, on fertilizer with herbs.

Chives and marjoram I think are perennial here as well.

Oh yea, rosemary can be perennial too if it is in a protected micro-climate.

what he said.

chris knows his plants and stuff.

i had a lot of mint and rosemary when i lived in the city. both had been there for years, until a weird winter killed off the ‘mary.

I would pot the mint separately - otherwise it will, in my experience, run amock.  Oregano and Thyme also do well in nice big pots or flower boxes.  Another advantage to having them in the pots is that you can bring ‘em inside and enjoy nearly year -round.

Great, thanks for the advice.  I have a large wooded/brush area in my yard that is basically over-grown, but I do try to keep it somewhat under control.  I’d actually be fine with mint or oregano spreading quite a bit, but it is a shaded area. The kids would love having a little mint forest. Good idea to keep the others potted.  We do have an annual herb and veggie garden but the mint and oregano have not come back the previous 4 years.

One more question.  It’s not an herb, but has anyone had luck growing asparagus here?  I’d love for that to get out of control.  My in-laws have a patch of beautiful asparagus that comes back every summer up in Wisconsin.  I believe it’s in a marshy type area so not sure if I could pull it off

Why thank you Piffy for the compliment. I am still learning a lot about how how to grow things in this climate.

Steamboater what kind of conditions were your mint and oregano in, like sun/shade, wet/dry, bare dirt in the vegetable bed or in a mulched soil?

I am at 4000 ft elevation. It gets cold! The mint, oregano and thyme are all reliably hardy. They are growing in what is in essence a wildflower meadow where the dried plant remnants and blown in leaf litter cover the soil during the winter. This cover will mitigate freeze/thaw cycles and frost heaving that can lift plants and roots making them more susceptible to winter kill.

I have not tried yet, but you should be able to grow asparagus just fine here. Good garden soil will be just fine. It does not need boggy conditions.

I have not tried yet, but you should be able to grow asparagus just fine here. Good garden soil will be just fine. It does not need boggy conditions.

it does take a couple years to establlsh, though, yes?

It takes a couple of years to reach full production. This fact sheet from Purdue Extension service says you can do a limited harvest the first year.

So far, we have put up 30 quarts of tomato’s. 28 quarts of potato’s, a bushel of green beans, which is 30 pints, 3 bushels of sweet corn which is 90 pints…

our gardens, 6 acres, haven’t even nearly came in… we stagger our plantings but this year it has been WHAMM-O !!!

Although tomatoes do often re-seed themselves, i’m not sure they could really be considered an herb, or perennial.

LWW60 - 22 June 2009 08:36 PM

So far, we have put up 30 quarts of tomato’s. 28 quarts of potato’s, a bushel of green beans, which is 30 pints, 3 bushels of sweet corn which is 90 pints…

our gardens, 6 acres, haven’t even nearly came in… we stagger our plantings but this year it has been WHAMM-O !!!

that is a nice start .... next batch o tomatoes calls for salsa recipes!!!