Farm Garden, Gustav Klimt, 1907
So far my herbs looks pretty good. Perennials that never acted like perennials in the past have decided to. Fennel and tarragon have reemerged for the first time ever. That is exciting. The more predictable perennials are out and doing well, too. Those would be sage, thyme, borage, oregano, rue, chives, salad burnet, mentuccia, lovage, and all my mints. Other stuff—rosemary, marjoram, parsley, summer savory—I had to plant fresh.
I have a bay laurel bush I bring indoors for the winter and out again every spring. This year when I brought it out it got attacked by gypsy moth caterpillars, but I sprayed it with something called Monterey B.t., and that seemed to help. I just hope it stays helped. I don’t want to spray it again. I get so upset when bad things happen to my herbs. My basil—Thai, Genovese, and opal—are all completely screwed, eaten down to the dirt line. I can hardly see what’s left. I tried both Neem oil and a vinegar-water mix. There’s some type of bug that I can’t see chewing on all three types. It’s making me crazy. Now I’ve decided, without knowing if it can be effective or not, to surround the basil with hot chili plants, thinking they might deter whatever or whoever is assaulting them. Desperate. If anyone out there knows of a real solution, I’d be grateful to hear about it.
That’s it for now. I’m thinking about making a ricotta–and–spring herb calzone, maybe using parsley, marjoram, savory, basil (if it ever comes back), spring garlic, and possibly some scamorza. I’ll play around with the idea. If it comes out nice, I’ll post the recipe.
Happy spring cooking to everyone.
Erica De Mane 
Your herbs are doing a far sight better than mine! We are having more heavy rainfall and it’s only 12C! My poor basil! So sorry to hear about your poor basil! Flame thrower is my answer. I often wonder if slugs come out or snails at night and gnaw on things…in the morning all you have are stubs. For some reason I’ve yet to find mentuccia. I lost a rosemary but for some reason the pot of tarragon made it through the winter. Happy gardening and where would we be without our herbs?
Eleanor, Yes, basil is a bitch. My new theory is rabbits. I’ve never seen them eating the basil but we’ve got them all over the yard. I’m going to spray deer and rabbit repellent around, not on, the basil, and see if that has an effect. I’ll let you know how it goes. XX Erica
Best of luck. My battle is with squirrels! Little brats nibble on the half-grown apples on our little tree and then throw them on the lawn. I’ve tried so many things, nothing much works…haven’t tried draping netting over the tree yet. We let them have there way with the figs so you think they’d leave the apples alone!
It’s not just you. I’m in Chicago and any basil not in raised beds have been pretty thoroughly chewed. It has been raining so much here that what I normally use to keep critters at bay keeps getting washed out. Trying to cover all bases, but in the past diatomaceous earth, slug bait and that rank “critter repellent” that smells a bit like Vicks Vapo Rub, has done the trick. No luck this year, though the repellent has seemed to keep the alleyway pitbulls at bay, while not bothering the local cats, so I’ll give it points on that front. My wife has noted that there are tons of small white moths around. She had some very Willy Wonka sounding name for them, but claimed that in the UK, in their larval form, the moths will eat the living s#*t out of anything green. Seems plausible. I hope that you are able to turn things around with your herb garden.
Hi Craig, My lawnmower guy thought it might be slugs coming out at night in secret. I tried the Slugo but that didn’t help. Finally I dug up all my plants, putting them in pots, and sticking them on the deck. We shall see. Good luck with yours. P.S. we’ve also got those white moths all over right now, but my basil problem pre-dated them, so I don’t know what’s going on.