I’d like to start an herb garden in zone 7 next Spring.
I’d like it to reseed each year.
Garlic, parsley, cilantro, rosemary.
My rosemary never makes it through the Winter. The SOB across the street from work has a hedge of rosemary, damn his eyes.
What are your suggestions, Doper Gardeners?
Thanks, as always.
Are you looking for suggestions about how to keep your rosemary going through the winter, or general suggestions about an herb garden?
Cilantro is nice, but it seems to have about a 30 minute window during which it’s tasty and not dead yet.
I’d add oregano, thyme and basil to what you have there. Oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary are what I put in my spaghetti sauce, so I like to have them going.
Both, thanks.
I personally love dill, and it self-seeds nicely.
With cilantro, you might want to plant it at different times. It seriously has a very short window during which it’s good.
But then I have corriander, right? 
Supposedly, but I haven’t really been able to do anything with it.
Someone told me coriander is the seeds, but I didn’t really see a way to harvest them. I don’t think that dead, dried cilantro just equals coriander. (I know you’re joking)
Also, on cilantro: I didn’t find my stuff any better than the grocery store’s. Actually, that’s true of most of the herbs. But for some reason, I just like growing the other herbs better.
Do cilantro. See how you feel. It’s not taking up my space next year, though.
My cilantro theory is to have a row set aside, but only plant a few inches at first. Then every week, plant a few more seeds. That way, I have cilantro in the window freshness of for months.
Some years the theory even gets partially realized
Regarding self seeding: an abandoned garden looks like an abandoned garden, and relying completely on self-seeding will net you approximately the same effect. You will have to maintain some control.
Regarding cilantro: to have it fresh and “young,” I sprout in indoors, like wheat grass or pea shoots. Outdoors, planting a new crop every couple of weeks, in rotating spots, should give you the same results.
Regarding rosemary: if it’s hardy for your neighbor, try to reproduce the same conditions. Is his more sheltered? Are you planting yours above ground, in a pot? Try getting a larger, more well established plant, and mounding straw or other insulating mulch around the roots in the winter.
He’s several miles away. I’m in the country, he’s in the city so he’s five degrees warmer right off the bat.
I wonder if some varieties are more hardy than others.
I’m in central Indiana, in the suburbs. My chive patch has thrived for three seasons, now. In fact, I had to dig up half of it this spring. It keeps producing until the worst of the winter.
Thyme, up against the house, lasts through half the winter and comes up again in spring. It’s nice to have a little spare thyme. I like to grow thyme next to the walk; when you step on it, you get that wonderful aroma.
My oregano was pretty much horizontal the first year, but vigorous enough to keep me Italian all summer. This summer, it leapt up and out to the size of a small shrub. When it went to flower, the leaves went dry and leathery. I cut it way back, and the new sprigs were fresh and tender. With all that flowering, it probably has seeded to beat Hell.
Last year’s rosemary did not survive. Back when I grew roses, I could baby them through the winter by making a circle of fence around each one, filled loosely with tree leaves. Maybe it will work with the rosemary.
It might not work for you then, unless you can find a microclimate that’s a zone or two warmer. Say, an interior corner that faces SW, or a south-facing slope protected from wind, or some such anomaly. If there’s a side of your house facing south, plant it close to the house there. My mom’s south facing wall has a furnace on the other side of it, so she can grow semi-tropicals in Chicago in that spot. Anything like that at your place?
I live in the northern edge of 6, almost to 5.
I do grow rosemary, but I have it in largish pots that come in to live in my living room in the winter, where they look nice and smell nice. 
I have two plants that produce enough rosemary that I haven’t had to buy any in years–each of them are about two feet tall now. They go outside in the spring, and live on the edge of my herb garden.
Thyme seems to grow out of control, for me anyway. My original herb garden had oregano, a couple of kinds of basil, a couple of kinds of thyme, and some jalapeno plants. The basil has never done well. The first year, the thyme and oregano went crazy, and killed off everything else. They both died back over the winter, but came back again with gusto in the spring. The thyme won out this year. I had too many things going on this summer to be able to fight it, so now I have a very large patch of common thyme. Next sping, though, I plan to dig everything up, and start over again with small raised beds and/or container plots, to keep things in line.
I also have a separate mint garden. Mint is very controlling, and will take over any soil within just a couple of months if left to its own. We are lucky to have a smallish patch of soil that is completely surrounded by concrete or bricks, so the mint growing there can’t go any farther. There are probably five or six different kinds of mint, and they are all doing very well.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who’s noticed this. I’ve given up on having fresh cilantro around, and instead I just plant a bunch of it, wait for the right 30 minutes, then chop it all up and freeze it. Tastes just as good anyway.
I’ve never had cilantro do well in the south; it bolts/goes to seed, and never makes enough leaves to use.
Instead, I plant Vietnamese coriander ,which grows like a weed, providing plenty of cooking herb. The flavor is very close, and it lasts all summer.
For rosemary, some are hardier in zone 7. The main thing is to plant it in full blazing sun, with good drainage, (not cold ol Southern clay), some protection from winter winds is good. Don’t mulch it with hardwood mulch, that can cause rot. ‘Arp’ and ‘Tuscan Blue’ are reliable in zone 7.
Here’s a helpful link on growing herbs in the South, from Clemson University.
Do you have a south-facing brick wall? Better still a corner formed by a south-west facing wall and a south-east facing one; plant the Rosemary in sharply drained soil hard up against the wall. If the drainage is not natually good, dig in lots and lots of sharp grit and some organic matter first. The smaller-leaved, more tough/wiry varities will be more likely to survive. It might be best to grow it for the first year in a pot and take it inside for protection through the first winter; protect it with fleece in its first winter in situ.
You might also be best off begging a cutting of the nearest healthy-looking Rosemary plant you can find to your home, as anything surviving nearby would seem a good candidate variety.
Or you could just keep it in a large ornamental pot and take it under cover for the winter.
Thanks elelle. That’s great.
Mangetout: Begging a cutting is a great idea; he tried to give me a banana blant one year.