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The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

471 - Herbs All Season: How I Use My Garden Herbs Year Round — Fresh, Dried, and Blended

The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

Jill McSheehy

How To, Education, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.7 • 830 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You spent the money on herbs. You watched them grow. Now what?

There's a whole season of flavor sitting in your garden, and most of it never makes it to your kitchen. This episode walks you through how to actually use what you grow — fresh, dried, frozen, and blended — from the first oregano harvest in spring all the way through cilantro in winter.

Free Download: Herbs Quick Reference Chart A handy cheat sheet for growing and using your favorite kitchen herbs. http://journeywithjill.net/herbchart

🌿 Live Workshop — Everyday Kitchen Herbs (Tuesday, May 19th) Join Jill live in her garden as she walks you through 12 kitchen herbs — growing, harvesting, and using each one. You can ask questions in the chat in real time. Register here → https://journeywithjill.net/herb-workshop

Key Takeaways

  • Harvest perennial herbs like oregano, mint, and thyme in spring when they're at their peak — before summer heat sets in
  • Preserve flavor by storing dried herbs whole in jars, then grinding only when you're ready to use them
  • Basil pesto freezes beautifully in silicone trays, giving you homegrown flavor all winter long
  • Cilantro does best when you let it self-seed and volunteer — your fall and winter harvest will be stronger for it
  • You don't have to do all of this at once — pick one herb, one method, and start there

Resource Links

Free Download: Herbs Quick Reference Chart → http://journeywithjill.net/herbchart

Everyday Kitchen Herbs Workshop (May 19th, live) → https://journeywithjill.net/herb-workshop

Connect with Jill:

Ready for a simple system to plan and track your whole garden? My Complete Garden Planner makes it easy → https://shop.journeywithjill.net/

Sponsors for This Episode

Garden in Minutes — Easy-to-install garden bed irrigation that takes the guesswork out of watering. Use code Jill at checkout for 7% off regular-priced items → http://journeywithjill.net/gardeninminutes

Gardening advice shared in this podcast is based on my own experience in Zone 8a (Arkansas) and from the feedback I receive from others in different gardening contexts. Your results may differ depending on your location, climate, and growing conditions. Always check your local extension service or trusted resources for region-specific guidance.

Some links mentioned may be affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there and welcome back to the Beginners Garden podcast. Today we're going to be talking about

0:05.0

herbs and it's the perfect time to be talking about them because right now when I walk outside in

0:11.3

my garden, it is obvious that herbs are the queen of the garden. This is their time to shine and they

0:18.2

are so beautiful when they are growing, but that's only the beginning.

0:24.2

I also want to be able to use them, as I'm sure you do too. And not just because the herbs that

0:30.1

you get at the grocery store, fresh or dried, can't compare with the flavor of fresh,

0:35.0

but there is so much more. I have a jar of Italian seasoning

0:39.7

on my spice track right now that I made myself. Every herb in it came from my garden. I also have

0:46.4

basil pesto in my freezer that my son has been eating since he was a baby. Well, not that exact batch,

0:53.3

but you know what I mean. And over the winter, I harvested

0:56.8

fresh basil in January with some careful planning. But none of that happened because I'm an expert

1:04.3

cook. If you know me, you know that that's the furthest thing from the truth. It happened because

1:10.0

I figured out how to actually use what I'm

1:13.0

growing season by season and as we all do, I continue to learn new ways of using what I grow. Today,

1:20.7

I'm going to be walking you through how I use herbs all year, spring through winter, whether that's

1:27.1

fresh, dried, frozen, and blended mixes,

1:30.9

and some other unique uses. There's a particular way I learned to use spearmint from some friends

1:37.3

I met in Brooklyn. At Chimituri, my husband always asks for on his steaks, something I learned

1:43.9

about basil from a professional chef

1:46.1

when I went to Disney. I'm going to be sharing all of that with you today and more. And if any of this

1:50.8

sounds like something that you want to put in place in your kitchen, this episode is for you.

1:56.8

Before we get into it, though, if this episode gets you excited about your herb garden,

...

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