🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
Move through the SoilCommander growing library like a course: keep the navigation in place, open the next lesson, and build your garden plan step by step.
Moist but well-drained (RHS); NC State: rich, moist to dry, tolerates high organic matter, good drainage, occasionally wet soil acceptable, highly resistant to heat and drought.
Lifecycle
Bushy, upright annual with toothed, aromatic, often red or purple leaves and insignificant white flower spikes in late summer (RHS). NC State: grows quickly and aggressively, self-seeds prolifically via wind dispersal, and is described as high maintenance as a result.
Propagate by seed (RHS; NC State). Grown in full sun or partial shade, in fertile, moist but well-drained soil (RHS); NC State notes it is highly resistant to heat and drought once established, spaced under 12in apart.
Growth and spread management
3
NC State: grows quickly and aggressively, self-seeding prolifically via wind dispersal, and is high maintenance as a result -- pinching off flowers before they go to seed is recommended to help slow the spread, an important step given the plant's invasive listing in several US states.
Flowering
6
RHS: insignificant, 2-lipped white flowers borne in erect spikes in late summer.
Harvest
8
RHS: used as a herb, the aromatic leaves harvested through the growing season; also used as a foliage carpet bedding plant. NC State: fast, aggressive growth means leaves are available across much of the season.
When to pick: RHS: grown as a herb as well as a foliage bedding plant; aromatic leaves are the part used. NC State: fast, aggressive growth with prolific self-seeding, so leaves are available through much of the growing season.
Storage
Used fresh -- neither source gives a specific drying or storage method for this crop.
Light: full sun to partial shade. Soil: rich, moist to dry, tolerates high organic matter and well-drained conditions; good drainage, occasionally wet soil acceptable; highly resistant to heat and drought. Hardiness USDA zones 10a-11b. Size: 1-3ft tall, 0.25-1.5ft wide, spacing under 12in. Growth: grows quickly and aggressively, high maintenance, self-seeds prolifically via wind dispersal. Propagation: seed. Pests/diseases: no serious insect or disease problems. Toxicity: can be toxic to cattle. Invasive status: listed invasive species in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Management: pinch off flowers before they go to seed to help slow the spread.
Soil: chalk, clay, loam, sand; moist but well-drained; pH acid, alkaline or neutral. Sun/aspect: full sun or partial shade, south-facing, sheltered. Size: 0.1-0.5m height/spread, 1-2 years to maturity. Hardiness H3 (-5 to 1C, coastal and relatively mild UK areas). Propagate by seed. No pruning needed. Pests: generally pest-free. Diseases: generally disease-free. Best grown in fertile, moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade; used as a foliage carpet bedding plant but also as a herb.
2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Plan next season before the problems start
This page gives you the thresholds; the planner turns them into your own calendar. It works from what you can observe and measure in your garden rather than from dates written for somebody else’s latitude.
Science-based growing guides · Thresholds that hold in any climate
This guide states the conditions the plant itself responds to — soil temperature, frost tolerance, day length — rather than dates, because the same calendar month means opposite seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. Anything genuinely restricted to one part of the world is named as such rather than presented as universal. Written and maintained by our editorial team against international horticultural research and extension sources.
Sketch your exact plot shape, pick your crops, and get a spacing-accurate bed layout with companion pairings and a rotation plan. Spacing, companion pairings and rotation are the same in every climate and both hemispheres — pair the layout it gives you with when to plant to set your own timing from soil temperature.
