How to grow chives

Chives are a hardy herbaceous perennial that form dense, grass-like clumps of hollow, tubular, blue-green leaves in the herb or vegetable bed. Unlike annual herbs, an established clump returns each spring and pushes usable growth early, before most warm-season crops are underway. By mid-spring, round pink-to-purple flower globes rise above the foliage; they are edible, attractive to bees, and add ornamental character alongside other plantings. The leaves deliver a mild onion flavor suited to soups, salads, and herb butters, fresh or frozen.

The management step most likely to catch a second-year gardener off guard is deadheading the spent flowers. Chives self-seed readily, and a single season of leaving faded flower heads in place can scatter seeds into adjacent beds and paths. By the following spring, unwanted seedlings appear among established crops and in crevices that are difficult to clear without disturbing neighboring roots. A related harvesting error compounds the problem: cutting the entire clump to the soil at once leaves the plant without harvestable leaves for several weeks, a gap that selective cutting, taking only a portion of the foliage per harvest, avoids entirely.