For all people who like to cook, savory is an essential part of the herb garden. It can be more or less work there, as there are two quite different varieties of savory. Here you will learn the most important things about the differences, about planting and caring for the two varieties, and about drying savory.
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Well-known savory – growing summer savory
We usually cultivate savory in the form of the so-called summer savory, which, depending on the region, can be sown in warm garden soil between April and May and safe frost-free from the time of sowing.
You should buy the savory seeds every year. You should make sure that you receive fresh seeds, it would be best if the germination capacity tested in the year of shipment is stated on the package of the seeds. Otherwise your sowing could be a disappointment, savory seeds cannot germinate for much longer than a year.
Savory should be sown in loose, humus-rich soil in as sunny and warm a location as possible. It will grow better if you prepare the bed a little before sowing, add compost and fresh soil and remove any existing vegetation.
You can sow the savory in rows, then a distance of approx. 30 cm is recommended, but you can also simply spread it over a large area, which results in a more natural-looking vegetation.
Sometimes you will read recommendations that you should plant 50 seeds in a row per linear meter, but counting will not be easy because savory seeds are tiny. A thousand seeds weigh 0.4 to 0.8 grams, 1 gram is 1,500 to 2,500 seeds, so you should estimate the sowing rate based on what’s in the bag, e.g. B. Spread 100 seeds over 2 meters. Or, to put it better, you simply have to try to distribute the fine stuff as well as possible in the soil; for area sowing, a fine sieve may be a good help, for row sowing a sheet of paper folded in the middle.
The seeds are only scattered and not covered with soil, so fine seeds are always light germs (they would have little chance of fighting against “rock-size” crumbs on the surface of the earth, the plant would die out).
The seedlings should show up within two to three weeks, some time afterwards (when they are a bit strong) you can isolate the plants. A plant should have around 15 cm of space around it. You can sow until the beginning of June, after which the harvest will no longer be ripe.
The location for the savory
He doesn’t really care where you sow the savory, the plant itself makes hardly any demands on the location and would probably thrive almost anywhere. However, you should keep in mind that you are growing a spice here, and that will develop a lot more aroma in a sunny and warm location than when it is grown with little light. Savory gets along better with a rather dry soil than with one that is too damp.
Caring for summer savory
Savory is pleasantly easy to care for, and once it has been successfully grown, you don’t have much to do.
It doesn’t even need a lot of water, the rain is usually enough for us, you should only water it if it has been drought for a really long time. Because savory likes to endure a little drought, but definitely not waterlogging or longer wet soil.
You are welcome to support the savory with fertilization with ripe compost, here the nutrients are made available in a way that is compatible with plants, and there is hardly any over-fertilization.
If you cut the herb back about four inches before flowering, you will encourage lush foliage for a bountiful harvest.
Because you can still regularly remove all competitive growth around the savory and occasionally loosen up the soil around the plant, need more care and you cannot give your savory.
Growing winter savory
The winter savory has the botanical name Satureja montana, which means mountain savory. It is the second species in the savory genus that is grown in culture, but is only very rarely grown.
The winter savory is perennial and can hardly be reached in its undemanding nature, it grows as an evergreen subshrub and will survive every normal winter in Central Europe without any problem. Winter savory originally comes from southern Europe, but is so frugal that it even grows wild in Central Europe, e.g. B. in Austria. The small half-bush can also be used as an ornamental plant, for example in rock gardens, from midsummer it forms a flood of tiny, but quite decorative pink to lilac flowers, and it also smells. In addition, the winter savory is a valuable plant for many insects, the nectar-bearing flowers are visited and pollinated by bees, bumblebees, various wasps and butterflies.
So actually a plant that every gardener should want. It is not so difficult to understand why the winter savory does not play a predominant role in plant production: Plants that have to be grown anew every year promise significantly more sales success than plants that can easily become several years old.
It is rather incomprehensible that winter savory is so rarely grown in our garden. It could have something to do with the fact that summer savory is touted as having a sweeter taste, while winter savory is defamed as bitter. You should perhaps check for yourself whether this devaluation is really justified by trying. Because the winter savory simply has a higher thymol content, which makes its aroma more pronounced, actually exactly what people strive for when they grow spices.
If you want to sow winter savory, it should be done in late spring, after the ice saints, in warm soil the seedlings will develop better. Sowing is done in the same way as with summer savory.
Caring for the winter savory
In terms of care, the only difference between winter savory and summer savory is that it is even more undemanding and easier to treat.
But in contrast to summer savory, it survives the winter, which is why pruning care is added to it: In spring you should cut the herb back to just above the ground so that it sprouts with new, tender shoots. In between harvesting, you should always cut entire branches to where the lignification begins – if you persevere from the beginning, you will be able to prevent the lignification from progressing. Towards winter you can cut back all of the savory for this purpose, but this should only go just over the wood. The savory does not tolerate a cut in the wood, which is why pushing back the lignification is such a constant struggle (although it is not very tragic if you lose it,
Now you can also help the winter savory with a little compost. There is no evidence for the sometimes (without justification) widespread view that savory does not tolerate organic fertilizers. Rather, organic fertilizer is superior to mineral fertilizer in that it is more slowly available to plants (less risk of over-fertilization) and, along with fertilization, the biological, physical and chemical properties of the soil at the same time.
harvest
Both savory herbs can be harvested throughout the growing season, not just until flowering, as is often advised.
Because it is true that the leaves have the strongest flavor shortly before the blossoms unfold. So if you want to harvest leaves to dry, then harvest them. But this aroma travels into the flowers when they break open, so you can pick and use them too. Their strong aroma should differ slightly from that of the leaves, it should go very well in salads and cheese, plums and pears.
So if you want to dry the savory, you can decide: Either you cut the shrub almost bare just before flowering, or you just let it continue to grow and develop its flowers and harvest fresh leaves by late autumn. When the flowering is over, you harvest, after drying you have an interesting mixture of savory leaves and flowers.
In both cases, harvest the whole branches to dry, let them dry lying in an airy environment or tied and hung up, and after drying, strip the leaves (and flowers) from the branches. The result is called “savory rubbed”, with the professionals the spice is removed from the branch with a grinder. The stripped savory is now stored in light and moisture-proof containers for further use. In contrast to some other herbs, when dried, savory keeps its flavor quite well.
You can also soak the savory in oil, the aroma is transferred very well to the oil, or you can freeze it in small portions.
Multiplication
Winter savory is easy to propagate by cuttings. You cut the cutting (a non-lignified tip of the shoot in full length), remove the lower leaves and place it in a bowl with water. When the first roots have formed after a few days, the small plant is carefully moved, in a pot or directly in the bed.
Summer and winter savory – the differences
- The summer savory has the botanical name Satureja hortensis, which means something like garden savory. This savory is native to the eastern Mediterranean and the countries around the Black Sea, but has spread widely throughout the world as a herb. However, only where it is nice and warm, which is why we only cultivate summer savory as an annual, it does not survive frost.
- The winter savory Satureja montana = mountain savory is the second, far too seldom cultivated species of the genus, perennial and robust and easy to care for. Saturejae Aetheroleum, the pure essential mountain savory oil, is coveted in herbal medicine from this savory. In addition, the savory is considered a folk remedy; as a tea, it is said to stimulate the appetite and digestion and, with its anti-inflammatory ingredients, is good for coughs and bronchial diseases.
- Sometimes you will find other types of savory at markets or in herb-loving nurseries, e.g. B. the Iranian savory Satureja thymbra or the lemon-scented savory Satureja montana citriodora for example. Certainly interesting for passionate cooks.
Conclusion
Growing savory is not a big problem, even for beginners in the garden. Especially if you decide to grow the long-lived winter savory, the supply of fresh savory to your kitchen will be assured for many years to come.
