Parsley and mint over winter

[lovelygreenleaves]

Is there anything I should do to help these survive over winter?

[grahamhobbs]

Parsley survives in our polytunnel over winter, so a cloche or equivalent will probably do, with perhaps a bit extra if you're in an area with hard frosts.

[JeremyinCzechRep]

Like Susie, I both freeze and dry mint. The dried version makes better tea and the frozen version makes a great addition to a wide variety of dishes - and mint sauce! My mint grows really well and then dies back in winter but bounces back in Spring - and that is after a Czech (minus 20 degree) Winter. Talking of which, it has been snowing for 2 days here and there are avalance warnings in the mountains - in October! The previous earliest avalance warning in the country was the 2nd of December.

[MKG]

I have to agree with the mint feeling - it's unkillable, so it happily survives the winter. The tops will naturally die back, but those runners are immortal. Parsley I leave to OH - I've never ever been able to grow it for some strange reason. I do know, though, that it's a biennial - so it's hardly worth trying to save.

If you're going to dry mint for winter, I'd advise you to dry it as whole leaves (ie don't crumble them) - it keeps much more of its flavour that way. Don't ask me why.

Mike

[Odsox]

If you're going to dry mint for winter, I'd advise you to dry it as whole leaves (ie don't crumble them) - it keeps much more of its flavour that way. Don't ask me why.

Why is that Mike?

[Millymollymandy]

My mint is always in pots so it goes in the cold frame and then sprouts more early in the spring than outdoors.

Parsley is a different kettle of fish given its enormously long tap roots so can't grow that in a pot. So it dies. Then I spend ages growing it all over again from seed and really I only have it available for use for about 4 months of the year, and hardly ever use it..... I'd really be better off just buying a bunch occasionally from the supermarket cos it lasts a good month in the fridge!

[StripyPixieSocks]

Even I can't kill mint so I doubt anyone else can :D

We thought our Mint had died and dug it out of the window box it lives in last year, only to find the roots were perfectly fine, we re-potted it and it grew like crazy all this year until a gust of wind knocked it off of the windowsill a couple of weeks ago! I'm sure the roots are still fine though once again!

Parsley will survive over winter, ours did last year even under 8" of snow it was still green but this year it hasn't done so well because Parsley goes to seed every other year BUT next year we will have good Parsley once again. Maybe you could sow some one year and then some the next so you could inside a good Parsley crop each year while one is seeding itself?

The only herb we brought inside last year was the Basil but that died anyway.

[bobby280]

I have mint and sage really flourishing in a trough. I was assuming these would be fine over winter but it seems not? Think I'll try and remember to put them in the garage whenever it's mega cold overnight but othjer than that...any suggestions?

[Millymollymandy]

They should be just fine Bobby (where are you located?) as both of them are fully hardy, it is parsley that isn't very hardy except in very mild weather or sheltered positions.

[bobby280]

Cheers. In Leeds. Does this site have any facility to thank or rate people - can't see it. Cheers anyway though.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Cheers. In Leeds. Does this site have any facility to thank or rate people - can't see it. Cheers anyway though.

I don't think it does have a system to rate or thank.

Your sage should be fine, we've had ours on a 1st floor windowsill in London for the last 2 years and it's all good, I know it's a few degrees warmer down here though but it shouldn't be much of a problem I don't think after all it's flourished for hundreds of years without human intervention :)

[Millymollymandy]

Cheers. In Leeds. Does this site have any facility to thank or rate people - can't see it. Cheers anyway though.

Never heard of that and would hate to be rated but what you can do is put your location in under your Profile in User Control Panel - it just helps us all when anyone asks about plant growing as some of our members are the other side of the world and we all have very different climates.

[MKG]

Rate people? Oh no. Oh dear me, no. Please God, no.

We'd all have to start being polite. And wash behind our ears before coming on the site. That would never do.



Mike

[Green Aura]

What is this.....polite? Que?

No mercifully no rating - we all just love each other. At a very great distance

[Peggy Sue]

Yes I'm the the que not to be rated too

My mint lives in a pot by my back door, I think that seems to be enough to keep it just about green in parts over winter, but my friend in Driglington near you can't keep her mint alive over winter, so that may be an indoors job or freeze/dry.

My parsley happliy overwinters no clotche open on the allotment, tides us over til the next sewing starts coming thoguh in spring...however for Yorkshire maybe you would need a clotche or a bit of fleece. We barely get a frost here, although it did make it through the (relatively) heavy snows last Feb (more than an inch in Cambridgeshire is heavy )