Satureja hortensis
Summer savory
Common names: Savory
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 15 cm, rows 25 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Apr–Jun
- Harvest
- Jul–Sep
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 1 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Bogdan assumed (based on copyrigh… · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
Summer savory is the classic seasoning herb for bean dishes, it makes them more digestible and gives them a peppery, slightly bitter note. In the garden it is a good companion for beans and is said to help keep black bean aphids away.
Care instructions
Sow the annual summer bean herb at the end of April directly between the beans or in a sunny spot. Water sparingly, as it prefers drier, leaner conditions. Harvest the shoot tips just before flowering in July for the most aromatic flavor.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–Jun
HarvestJul–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 12 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 10 to 18 days
- Light
- Needs light to sprout
- Sowing depth
- Press in, don't cover
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, well-drained, lime-loving, lean
Summer savory likes light, loose and above all free-draining soil. Loamy sand or sandy loam with some lime is ideal, because the plant loves lime rather than avoiding it. It cannot tolerate waterlogging at all; a rather poor to moderately nutrient-rich, well-drained site gives the best flavour.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring before sowing, or when planting out, work a thin layer of mature compost shallowly into the soil. That is usually enough for the whole season. On very sandy soil you can mix in some horn meal. Further feeding is not necessary and would only dilute the flavour, because too much nitrogen promotes leafy growth instead of essential oils.
Overwintering
Summer savory is an annual and dies off after the first frost. It cannot be overwintered. At the end of the season, let a few plants go to seed, collect the ripe seeds and store them dry and cool, and sow again in spring: start them in a pot on the windowsill from March, or sow directly in the bed from May (light-germinating seeds, just press them down, do not cover with soil).
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
Summer savory is an annual plant and is propagated exclusively by sowing. It has no perennial root structure to divide, and the plant dies off after the seeds ripen. (Do not confuse it with the perennial winter savory, Satureja montana, which can also be propagated from cuttings.)
From March you can start seeds on the windowsill: scatter the tiny seeds thinly on moist seed compost. Summer savory is a light-germinating seed, so do not cover the seeds with soil, just press them down lightly. To spread the fine seeds evenly, mix them beforehand with some dry sand. At 16 to 20 °C the first seedlings appear after about 10 to 15 days. Keep the seed evenly moist, but not wet, until germination.
From the end of April to mid-May (after the Ice Saints) you can sow directly outdoors or plant out the young plants you have raised; keep a row spacing of about 25 to 30 cm. For a second harvest in late summer, a follow-up sowing in June or July is possible. Note: use the freshest seed you can, as germination falls off noticeably after a year.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
nightshade family (Solanaceae)
particularly well establishedYou will find that basil next to tomato and pepper improves taste and keeps whiteflies and aphids away.
For example PotatoTomatoSweet pepperCocktail tomatoEggplantCape gooseberry and 14 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
You will notice that the intense scent of basil, thyme, and others confuses the cabbage whitefly and keeps it away from the cabbage family.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: bio-gardening intercropping practice
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Summer savory yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
Notes from real gardens
What other gardeners have written down about this variety, anonymous and voluntary.
No notes shared yet. Will you be the first to write one down?