How to grow savory in the garden, planting and caring for a plant in the open field

Savory or chobre, also known as pepper grass, is a very fragrant, one-year, upright herbaceous, rather branched, half-shrub up to 70 cm.

The stem of pepper grass is covered with a violet down; leaves are narrow with a sharp tip, dark green in color. The plant blooms with very small light purple, light yellow or pink flowers.

Savory is considered a good honey plant. Seeds of dark brown color, can germinate even after seven years of storage.

Oriental countries and areas of the Mediterranean are considered the birthplace of chabra. The plant has a very ancient history.

Pepper herb is used mainly as a spice to give the dishes a characteristic aromatic flavor. Savory is added to meat dishes, soups, sauces, side dishes and even dairy products.

In fresh form, along with basil and coriander, pepper grass is good to add to pickles for the preservation of tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms. Also, this herb is used in smoking meat and sausages. The particular popularity of chabra is given by its relatively low price compared with, for example, such spices as ginger, pepper or cloves.

In addition to cooking, pepper herb is also used as a medicinal plant: it has bactericidal and strengthening properties, improves digestion processes, and facilitates the flow of tonsillitis and respiratory infectious diseases.

Tea from chabra has a rather pleasant taste, which plays an important role in the treatment process.

How to choose a place for planting chabra in the garden

Garden savory is represented in several varieties, none of them is selective, cultivation, as a rule, occurs in open ground. However, since not everyone has the opportunity to grow savory in the garden, you can plant the plant on your windowsill and have spiced and fragrant fresh grass at hand throughout the winter.

Where to plant savory

Pepper grass is a light-loving plant, therefore the place for its cultivation should be open, warm and sunny. In the shaded areas, this fragrant grass feels uncomfortable.

Savory badly gets on with weeds, therefore before planting this grass, the site set aside for planting must be thoroughly cleaned from extraneous plants, first of all from those that form root shoots or multiply by underground stems.

Savory may well perform decorative functions, this grass is able to decorate an alpine slide, an artificial pond or garden paths, so when choosing a place to plant you can use the opportunity to combine business with pleasure.

What soil is needed for planting

Fertile soil, light in composition, is best suited for pepper grass.The pH level is not lower than 6. The savory grows well on loam or sandy loam soil. It is important that the soil is loose (well-aerated) and moderately wet.

Savory garden: planting rules

Garden savory is grown from seeds, moreover, this grass perfectly reproduces by self-sowing, therefore, having properly planted the plant once, for many years to come it is possible to admire the new fragrant lawn for no additional costs.

When is the best time to plant savory

Garden savory is an annual plant, so the answer to the question when to plant it is obvious: in early spring, of course. You can immediately sow the savory in the open ground, but it is much more efficient to grow this spice from seeds first in containers for seedlings.

Sowing is carried out in early spring starting in March. When the weather finally gets better, sprouted savory can, without worrying, be transplanted to the site previously reserved for these purposes.

It is best to do this at the end of May, and then before autumn the grass will have time to go through the full life cycle and give seeds. If the savory is sown directly in open ground, this should be done a little earlier - from late April to early May, but you need to be guided by the weather, because the shoots of chabra do not tolerate frost.

If savory is grown on a windowsill, the time of planting does not matter so much, but given the length of the day, the plant feels comfortable and develops normally, it is better to do so in March.

As an alternative, the winter method of sowing pepper grass is often used. After the onset of sustained cold weather, so that the seeds do not germinate ahead of time, they are sown in the grooves with a depth of 0.5-1 cm, after which the soil is well tamped down from above. Top bed can be powdered with humus or manure.

Chabra forerunners

Pepper grass grows well in places previously occupied by vegetables such as cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and root vegetables, regularly fed with organic matter.

Also good precursors of pepper grass are cereal grains, as well as winter crops that have been sown on well-fertilized and rested soil. Such cultures themselves are well cleaned from weeds, badly affecting the growth of chabra.

The bad predecessors of pepper herb are any of her relatives from the family of yarnotkie - mint and lemon balm, thyme, basil, rosemary, sage, marjoram, marjoram, etc.

Landing pattern

Savory makes quite high demands on the fertility of the soil, so before planting the grass, the plot should be fertilized and only after that sown with seeds. Compost or rotted manure is used as top dressing. The fertilized soil needs to be dug deep, leveled and watered.

In order to prepare the seeds for planting and to ensure the best germination, they must first be soaked for a day, wrapped in a damp towel, then dried and sown immediately. Such seeds germinate after 3 weeks.

Rules for the care of chabra in the garden

To obtain a good crop of chabra, it is not enough to properly plant it, the plant also needs to be provided with proper care.

How often do you need to water the savory

Savory needs moderate watering. During the period of seed germination, you need to ensure that the soil does not dry out by gently watering the bed every couple of days.

When the plant grows up, it is watered in the same way as regular lawn grass - depending on the temperature and dryness of the earth once or twice a week.

Soil care rules

For the chabra, the absence of weeds is very important, therefore the areas sown with this plant should be regularly weeded and cleaned of weeds. In addition, the friable soil is necessary for the chabra, which is especially important to control in hot weather when the earth dries out and becomes stone.

This procedure provides the necessary plant aeration in the upper layers of the soil, and also helps to retain moisture in the ground. In addition, thanks to the loose soil, the culture is better provided with the necessary nutrients and trace elements.

How to feed a plant

Savory is an unpretentious plant, but the size of the crop and its quality depend on how you take care of it.

Before planting and immediately after harvesting the plant in autumn, the soil should be fertilized with complex mineral supplements, for example, with a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium preparation (nitroammofoska). On a bucket of water used 15-20 g of the drug.

Also, before sowing, urea can be applied to the soil at the rate of 10-20 g per square meter. The savory also needs regular fertilizing with organic matter, especially for grass grown on the windowsill.

How and when to harvest the chabra

Savory is a very useful and fragrant herb, but in order to preserve all the microelements contained in it, the crop should be harvested in the early flowering stages (which does not exclude the possibility of picking leaves for salad throughout the season).

Pepper grass is trimmed with a sharp knife so that shoots no higher than 10 cm are left above the ground. As a fresh plant, you can use it immediately or put it in a glass with water to keep the grass faded for several days.

For longer storage, savory is necessary to dry. To do this, cut branches laid out in a single layer on a dry horizontal surface (preferably on fabric or parchment) and placed in a well-ventilated place, protected from direct sunlight.

When the grass is completely dry, the leaves and flower beds should be cut off and stored in well-sealed glass containers or fabric bags. Periodically dry grass should be checked for signs of aging.

Seeds of chabra are obtained by cutting off a fully ripened plant and hanging it up for drying by flower beds down over previously spread paper.After the seeds have showered, they need to be completely dried and laid out for storage in paper bags.

Pepper grass is a rather unpretentious spice in planting and care, but its harvest, taking into account the possibilities of long-term storage, may last for several years, while during the whole warm season this beautiful ornamental plant, organically fitting into the garden landscape, will please the eye with its flowering appearance and spicy aroma, at the same time being a source of fresh greenery for an improvised picnic.