How to grow summer savories

Summer savory is a fast-growing annual culinary herb grown for narrow, aromatic leaves valued for a mild, peppery flavor often described as a bridge between thyme and mint. Plants form an upright, multi-stemmed clump reaching about 18 inches tall and spreading 1 to 3 feet, staying productive from a single spring sowing through summer. Because it grows quickly and the leaves are best picked before the plant flowers, it works well as a cut-and-regrow herb tucked near beans, where cooks reach for it most, rather than as one big harvest.

The hardest part of growing summer savory well is harvest timing rather than the plant's culture, which North Carolina State Extension describes as low maintenance in full sun and well-drained soil. Leaves picked before the plant flowers carry the tangy, marjoram-like flavor cooks want; leaves left past that point lose much of that character as the plant shifts energy into seed. A second-year gardener who lets the herb bed go untended through a busy stretch of summer often comes back to a plant already in bloom, and the harvest that follows is thinner and later than intended. The one cultural risk extension guidance flags is soil that stays damp.