Pretty, yellow splashes of color that bring the sun into the beds. But it's not just the attractive flowers that make you want to bring this plant into your garden. Since it is edible, it can also be an ideal addition to your herb garden. What should you consider if you want to plant olive herb? What location and care does the herb plant need?
Easy to care for and also pretty to look at - this is the Santolina viridis, which, as you might have guessed, comes from the Mediterranean region. Since this useful plant also works wonderfully as an ornamental plant, it is finding its way into more and more gardens.
As already mentioned, caring for the Mediterranean herb is anything but complicated as long as you provide it with the right conditions.
The plant is:
- hardy
- evergreen
- perennial
- characterized by a pleasant scent of olives (hence the name)
- summer blooming, from June to August, with the flowers also smelling of olives
- All parts of the plant are edible, but the flowers are harder and therefore less popular
The right location for the herb plant
Given its origins, you can probably guess that this plant islike sunny and warm. This is also quite practical as this applies to most herbal plants. Accordingly, you can create a herb garden or a herb spiral without having to worry too much about how to combine the plants to suit the location.
The soil is ideally dry and poor in nutrients. The herb cannot tolerate waterlogging at all, so it must be loose and permeable. Lime is also beneficial.
So as long as you find a spot in the sun, you can plant olive herb for any purpose. It's not just in the herb garden that it looks great. The plant also looks very beautiful in a normal flower bed, as well as as a gap fillerto border the bedit is ideally suited (it grows between 30 and 50 cm high).
Which plants make good neighbors?
Since the requirements for location and care are pretty much identical to those of lavender, sage, rosemary, savory, etc., they are also perfect planting partners in the bed. Just imagine the interesting contrast between thelila Lavendelblütenand the bright yellow balls of the olive herb!
Mugwort and lovage are bad neighbors for the olive herb, as are shade plants or those that need a lot of water.
How to plant the olive herb
The Mediterranean plants can be added to the bed in spring; March is already suitable for sowing.
Depending on whether you want to plant entire groups of olive herb or as solitary plants, you need at least 3 olive herb plants per square meter, but no more than 5. When planting solitary plants, ensure there is sufficient distance from surrounding bedding plants. They need a free radius of approximately 30 or 40 centimeters.
Who oneHerb garden on the balconyor who has created a terrace can also cultivate olive herb in pots. But good drainage is important because waterlogging would quickly destroy it. Drainage holes and a layer of gravel or clay shards under the layer of soil are ideal.
Proper care of the Mediterranean plant
It's not enough to just plant the plant correctly, you also have to care for it properly from now on.
- We've already mentioned it a few times, now we'll emphasize it again: water little, because too much moisture leads to root rot.
- Santolina viridis likes it dry and is only watered when it has not rained for a long time.
- The preferred nutrient-poor soil already shows that fertilizer is unnecessary. So you can skip this care measure completely.
- Olive herbtends to woodiness. You can prevent or at least delay this by pruning it after each flowering phase. To do this, cut back about a third of the total height. This also promotes bushier growth.
- Although the plant is hardy, it still needs protection in the winter. In the garden, this means a layer of brushwood, for example. Potted plants even need winter quarters in a bright place.
Harvest olive herb
If you plant the olive herb to harvest a delicious spice, you will be happy that you can do this all season long. So there is no specific harvest time.
- It is best to always cut off the shoot tips (5 to 10 cm).
- Pluck off the leaves because, like rosemary, they serve as a spice.
- Then chop the leaves small.
- Use them fresh or dry them (but then they will lose their aroma) and store them in a dry and dark place until use.
- It would be even better if you pickled the herb. Oil or vinegar is used for this.
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