How to Harvest Herbs

With the high price of supermarket herbs, growing your own is not only rewarding but economical.

Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this guide will help you learn how to harvest herbs, how to prevent bolting, and how to ensure a successful and sustainable yield throughout the year.

So, grab your snips, roll up your sleeves, and prepare to elevate your herb-growing experience to new heights!

Use the Right Tools

It is important to use sharp, clean gardening tools to harvest your herbs to avoid spreading disease among plants. Blunt tools can bruise the growing stems, preventing your herbs from reshooting and negatively affecting the shelf life of your freshly harvested herbs.

It is best to use small tools so you can easily cut what you need and an ideal tool choice is the Darlac Compact Snips.

Harvesting Different Types of Herbs

There are two main categories when it comes to harvesting herbs – herbs that grow on stems and herbs that shoot from the ground. They need to be harvested in different ways to maximise their chance of regrowing.

Stem-Growing Herbs

Herbs that grow on stems include basil, mint, thyme, oregano, lemon balm, rosemary, and sage.

If they aren’t harvested, the stems will grow taller and taller and eventually flower. Cutting the stem just above a set of leaves is the best way to harvest these types of herbs. They will then produce side shoots, resulting in a bushier plant and more harvests for you!

Example of best harvest point on basil plant

Example of best harvest point on mint plant

Ground-Shooting Herbs

Herbs that shoot stems right out of the base of the plant include chives, coriander, dill, lemon grass, and parsley. These herbs are best harvested by cutting right at the base of each leaf that you want to harvest. Start with the older outer leaves and leave the young shoots to grow larger for your next harvest.

Example of best harvest point on chives plant

Example of best harvest point on parsley plant

How to Prevent Your Herbs from Bolting

Even once your herbs start to go to seed, or ‘bolt’, you can get a few more harvests from them before they turn bitter. For stem-growing herbs, cut the flower buds off as soon as you notice them appear. This will buy you a few more weeks of harvesting.

For ground-shooting herbs, particularly parsley, dill, and coriander, keep an eye out for early bolting signs. A tell-tale sign is that the plant will start to develop a thick central stem and the leaves on this stem will be much finer and noticeably different from the other foliage.

Cut this flowering stem out at the base as soon as possible to buy yourself a few more weeks of harvesting.

Flowering stem of a parsley plant showing thick stem and finer foliage