Greens & herbs
Epazote
Sow Apr to May with the beans.
- Outside
- Direct sow Apr to May
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- About an inch a week; mulched and deep
- Harvest
- Jun to frost, leafy stems
Care
- Water
- About an inch a week, deep and early, with mulch keeping the roots cool; skip any week that brings half an inch of rain. Steady moisture keeps the young leaves coming.
- Sow
- Direct sow in April and May, a couple of weeks apart across the window, in warm soil beside the beans it seasons. Warm-season seed rots in cold ground, so wait for the soil the beans wait for.
- Feed
- Light: compost scratched in at sowing carries a leafy annual. If the stand pales, the county's standing answer is compost and mulch before anything stronger.
- Ready
- Pinch or cut leafy stems once the plants fill out and keep picking; a warm-season annual cut regularly keeps producing until the mid-November frost.
- Trouble
- No Texas extension sheet covers it, and little troubles it on the record; the real risks are a cold-soil sowing and an August dry spell. The fixes are the beans' fixes: warm soil at sowing, mulch after.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 1–2 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in summer until water runs from the drainage holes, twice a day in a heat wave; afternoon shade is part of the summer deal.
- Feed
- Compost scratched in at sowing is plenty; a light drink every couple of weeks if the bag pales, held when days top 90F.
- Sow
- Sow direct in the bag across the April to May window and thin in place; the small-herb bag class suits a cutting annual.
The bean-pot herb, and easy from seed: sow it in April and May beside the beans it seasons, and pick leafy stems from June until frost.
Growing
Full sun, easy from seed, successive sowings: the growing guidance is short because the plant is easy. No Texas extension sheet covers epazote, so the record here is the national extension herb page, and it fits this climate's warm-season window exactly. Sow across the April to May window, with the beans it seasons, and the plant fills the summer herb slot the cool-season herbs have vacated. Pick stems through summer, and run a second sowing behind the first so young leaves keep coming if a plant runs to flower.
In the kitchen
A sprig or two in the bean pot is the classic use, and the reason the sowing calendar sits beside the bean rows. The pot of pintos gets it fresh from June to frost; this is the herb the rest of the salsa garden does not cover.