At the Herb Garden with James Steele
by Mary Adams
James Steele and his herbs at the Downtown Union Street Farmers Market in Gainesville. Photo by Mary Adams
Ask the average person to name four herbs and they are likely to quote the popular Simon and Garfunkel album title, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. At The Herb Garden, a wholesale nursery in Melrose, James Steele produces 100 different herbs in any given season. At one time he grew as many as 200 varieties, but decided to focus on the culinary, medicinal and ornamental herbs that perform best in north Florida.
Steele, a native Floridian, has been growing herbs for 40 years. For the past 22 years he has taught classes on cooking with herbs as well as growing the plants. Born and raised in Miami, his original career as a land surveyor enabled him to travel all over Florida in the 1970s. He ultimately decided that north Florida was where he wanted to live.
His love affair with growing herbs began when he lived in Europe for nine years. He was particularly impressed with the large assortment and baskets of fresh, scoopable herbs sold in stores in Amsterdam. Upon his return to the United States, he decided to change careers and earned a degree in horticulture.
The Herb Garden’s charms are many. Photo by Mary Adams
After working at a local nursery for several years, he opened The Herb Garden in 1989. Besides marketing his plants within a 50-mile radius, including Gainesville, Ocala and Jacksonville, he also supplies local restaurants with culinary herbs.
From an outdoor pavilion a vegetable garden stretches towards the road, behind which are the greenhouses. The crowing of roosters mingles with traffic noises from a nearby highway. Under the table a kitten is purring.
Steele nods to the Jimmy Buffet memorabilia behind him and says, “I used to be a Parrot Head.” A freshly-brewed pitcher of ice tea holds sprigs of mint and stevia, fresh from his nursery. The stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana) is also on the table. Its leaves are a natural sweetener, but will become bitter if left in the tea for too long.
Roselle is a Florida heirloom plant. Photo by Mary Adams
Steele thinks that stevia, lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) and Florida roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) are underutilized herbs in Florida. Lemon grass, popular in Thai and Vietnamese cooking, is both versatile and tasty. Steele likes it sautéed with fresh vegetables. He also enjoys fish steamed on top of a bed of lemon grass. Roselle, also known as Florida cranberry, is an annual herb that can grow almost seven feet tall in one season. The fleshy red calyx that forms at the base of the hibiscus-like flower has a flavor much like cranberry. It can be used to make tea, jelly, cranberry bread, etc.
Lovely Spanish lavender struggles in Florida’s heat. Photo by Mary Adams
Steele believes that the key to healthy herbs is vibrant soil. For plants in the ground, he makes his own compost, incorporating ingredients like bone meal, cottonseed meal, blood meal and green sand. He is a firm believer in fertilizer for potted plants, but recommends not using a heavy hand and prefers a slow-release like Osmocote or Dynamite. This ensures steady growth. Too much fertilizer can result in a huge plant with no flavor.
Almost all herbs love sun and need four to five hours a day, if not more. The bigger the leaf, the more the plant is prone to wilt. Planting large-leaf varieties in filtered light might be best. Narrow-leaf herbs like rosemary usually don’t have a wilt problem and can take direct sunlight.
Herbs conserve water by secreting volatile oils to block the microscopic pores in their leaves, thus reducing the amount of water vapor released. It is critical to let them dry out between waterings. This is especially important for culinary herbs because the more oils they secrete, the stronger their flavor.
The challenge in growing herbs revolves around water. They need complete drainage and will rot in standing water, and Florida’s torrential summer rains can splash bacteria onto the plants. At that time of year, it’s a good idea to move them to a covered area and always water them at ground level, never from above.
Greenhouses protect the herbs more from summer rains than from winter cold. Photo by Mary Adams
If anything can go wrong, Steele says, it will happen in July or August. In summer it’s normal for herbs to wilt and look ugly. To compound the problem, gardeners prune their herbs when they wilt, but don’t cut back on watering. With the loss of leaves, the plant loses exit points for evaporation. Steele says, “When you prune the plant, remember to prune the watering as well.” If you can resist, wait until September or October for plant clean-up and maintenance.
Herbs do best in Florida from mid fall through the end of spring. In the winter they may not grow as fast, but they usually do fine with north Florida freezes.
Steele cautions against growing potted herbs indoors. It takes them longer to dry out, it is too easy to over water and gardeners frequently pick the wrong window for light. He prefers growing herbs outdoors in the ground where there is more room for the roots. The requirement is good soil. For herbs grown outside in containers, he prefers clay pots since they breathe and allow for better evaporation.
An assortment of spring lettuces grows along a fence. Photo by Mary Adams
When Steele started out, there were no books available on growing herbs in Florida. Ninety percent of his knowledge came from first-hand experience. More than once he lost a thousand cuttings due to over watering. Although he uses root hormone to propagate because it enables him to get his product to market about ten days sooner, he doesn’t feel it is necessary for the home gardener. He prefers to grow annuals from seeds and perennials from cuttings. Cuttings insure the plant will be the same as the parent; using seeds is like having kids, you never know what you’re going to get!
His personal favorite herbs are marjoram, oregano, rosemary and culantro. Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) and cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) are two completely different plants. Visually they would never be mistaken for each other. Cilantro looks a lot like parsley. Culantro has long serrated leaves. Culantro is a perennial with flavor eight to ten times stronger than cilantro. The heat in warm climates causes cilantro to go to seed. That seed is called coriander. (Generally, leaves are herbs, seeds are spices.) Culantro is a more successful herb to grow in warm climates.
Could there be a re-write of the popular song “Scarborough Fair”? Are you going to Melrose, Florida? Marjoram, oregano, rosemary and culantro. Nah. But a day at The Herb Garden can be as enjoyable as a day at the fair for Florida herb growers.
Mary Adams earned her degree in Environmental Horticulture from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
© 2011 Mary Adams. Originally published in Florida Gardening, Feb / Mar 2011. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Resources
The Herb Garden: http://steelesherbgarden.com
Herbs and Spices for Florida Gardens, Monica Moran Brandies
Florida’s Best Herbs & Spices, Charles R. Boning