Growing Rosemary

Ahh, Rosemary! 

The herb of fall.  This beautiful plant is one of my very favorites.  It is so earthy and rich and woodsy.  It provides a subtle hint of flavor to everything it touches. 

It’s beautiful in bread, on grilled chicken or steak, or on roasted potatoes. 

And although some people struggle with growing rosemary, it’s really not difficult once you know a couple of tips. 

Which I’ll share with you in just a minute. 

But first, did you know that Rosemary has many health benefits to boot?  Here are some of the things that Rosemary is known to support.

• Healthy looking hair
• Healthy digestion
• Supports respiratory function (especially when used in essential oil form and diffused)
• May help to reduce nervous tension
• Reduces occasional fatigue

So incorporating rosemary more often into your diet could be a game-changer for you.   

It is a very grounding, earthy plant with calming properties.

If you don’t want to use it in its fresh or dried form, you can also look into the essential oil version.  

I love essential oils because they are the “essence” of the plant (meaning the aromatic part of the plant) with all of its goodness in an easy to use concentrated format. 

It is SUPER important to be sure you are buying a pure essential oil with the highest quality (especially because the essential oil industry is by and large unregulated and many essential oil companies make adulterated products). 

I have done a LOT of research into essential oils and have come to trust one particular company.   

You can read about which company I trust here. 

And you can read more specifics about rosemary essential oil here.

And now, back to the topic of this post… 

Growing rosemary – tips and tricks

Here are some growing tips that will be helpful if you are trying to grow rosemary in your herb garden.   

• Rosemary is a perennial and will survive a mild winter, but only down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.  If your area gets colder than that, you can dig it in the fall and bring it indoors.  Or try putting a wall-of-water or some other protection around it.  Sometimes, you just have to replant if it winter-kills.   
• Rosemary is extremely difficult to start from seed.  You can certainly try but it is usually started from cuttings.  I’m planning to write a post about this in the future, but for now, check out this helpful guide from one of my favorite blogs, Growagoodlife.com.
• Rosemary loves full sun and well-drained soil.  It is a heat lover so the warmer the better.  My most successful year growing rosemary was when I planted it near a south-facing wall.  It loved the extra heat from the wall and it grew so large that I dried it and gave sprigs of it away as Christmas gifts along with a recipe or two!   

There you go!

As long as you apply these tips, your rosemary plant should be happy and grow well.  I generally have good luck with my rosemary growing well during the season.  If it happens to not survive the winter, I usually just go to the garden nursery in the spring and buy a new plant.  It happens.  

And as I mentioned before, rosemary is SUPER hard to germinate from seeds and is usually propagated by cuttings so buying as a seedling is a must.

In the fall, you can cut the stems and hang upside down to dry.  Once they are fully dry, you can strip the leaves/needles from the stems and store them in an airtight container (preferably glass).  You will find that this gives you a much higher quality of dried rosemary than what you will find in the spice aisle!   

When using herbs in a recipe, the general rule is to use more if it is fresh and less if it is dried.  Which might seem backward.  But the reason is that when it is dried, the oils are more concentrated so you don’t need as much to get the same flavor.   

Some of my favorite ways to use rosemary is on grilled chicken, in homemade bread, and on roasted potatoes.   

My next post will be a “Rosemary potatoes 3 ways” post so be sure to stay tuned for that! 

Yum!! 

If you need help getting started with gardening in general, check out my posts about how to start here or here.   

Need a great recipe for using rosemary?  Check this out!

Are you interested in growing other herbs in your garden?  Check out my herb page here. 

Interested in learning more about essential oils?  Check this out! 

I hope you give growing rosemary a try!  

It’s a beautiful herb that doesn’t get near enough credit.   

What do YOU like to make with Rosemary?  I’d love to hear YOUR experiences with it in the comments below!  

Happy Rosemary growing!!