I love herbs. Many are easy to grow. One of my very favorites is chives. Chives are a member of the onion family, and they will give a delicate version of that onion flavor to dishes. Here’s how to grow it.
How to Grow Chives
Chives need full sun, but other than that, they’re pretty easy to grow. They also have several benefits, in addition to being delicious. Their flowers are loaded with pollen and VERY pollinator-friendly. In a United Kingdom survey conducted by the AgriLand project (a British organization researching pollinators), it was rated in the top 10 for the most nectar production. So it will attract pollinators, and considering that about 87% of the fruits and vegetables we eat require pollination, that’s a good thing.
The oniony scent of the foliage is another benefit because many insects that eat our crops dislike the oniony fragrance or flavor. There are only a few vegetables you should avoid planting nearby. Chives can interfere with the growth of beans, peas, asparagus, and brassicas (including broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage). But it can do your tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, and melons a favor by not only attracting pollinators to increase your vegetable/fruit production, but it can help to deter tomato hornworms, cucumber beetles, squash bugs, etc.
Two Types of Chives
There are two varieties of chives that are most commonly grown. One is the regular chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and the other is the garlic chives (Allium tuberosum). Regular ones have those pretty puffy purple flowers that bloom in late spring.
Garlic ones, on the other hand, have pretty puffy white flowers in late summer/early fall (and they’re pretty enough to tuck in a flower bed, if you want.) They’re both delicious, though I do like the garlicky taste of the Garlic chives a little more.
One thing I have found out, is that the Garlic ones do seem to produce a lot of seeds and will often increase it’s spot by overseeding, so I just cut the flowers off when they begin to fade. And the fact that they bloom late summer/early fall when a lot of other flowers are starting to fade, is another thing I like.
Planting something I love, but also something that works for me, is really great. Not only do I love the culinary uses, but chives are pretty and work hard repelling bad guys.