hi this is Barbara from midsummer farm in Warwick New York I wanted to talk a little bit with you about marjoram today I'm gonna actually be transplanted on my marjoram plants and I started just past winter in the house and did some larger sized containers marjoram is a tender perennial it is not going to make it to the winter around here in New York State so I do put them into big pots they actually like pot culture a lot they do just fine and you can bring them inside the house in the winter time either keep them dormant or just keep picking and enjoying them because it's a fabulous urban doesn't seem to mind it being inside the house either in the wintertime you just want to make sure that you spritz a little or get the moist because the house is very dry air in the winter time a little bit different from the summertime air that they experience outside here these are some of the margarine plants I started from seeds this past winter I start any herbs I'm going to want to grow from seed I start in late December early January sometime around there I start them in suit flats like this a little bit of potting soil in there for seed starting soil a piece of rubber put some of these lights sixty-five seventy degrees is perfect so your house temperature is fine I use just a regular fluorescent lightbulb no fancy girl lights I put right close to the trailer sort of provides extra warmth and gives them plenty of light and once they are big enough to be transplanted which is basically when you can pop them out of here with enough roots that they don't get all scraggly and the dirt falls away but they hold their own I've popped them into pots like this so these are ready to now be transplanted into a larger pot marjoram is just such a nice it pops right out the roots are they're not root bound at all we don't need to go in there and screw up these roots and causing some kind of transplanting stress it's not necessary just very carefully what's really horribly worth balance here we had them in these pots of a couple of years we would then squish up their roots and sort of spread them out and I would have to deal with a little bit of transplanting stress but I think they'll be relieved to get out of the root bound situation but this one is actually just perfect we're gonna place it into our pot press our dirt around really simple really gentle the plant is hardly going to even know it got transplanted except all of a sudden is gonna realize as it's growing that's woods have extra space to go and it's just going to flourish the one thing that I do now - if I give it a little trim anything is really tall I trim off and you could just use these you know I'm going to save them for maybe making a lovely potato leek soup with marjoram it is excellent I love potato leek soup as a way of really experiencing the herb flavor and marjoram is an unusual herb flavor it's not not able to be replaced with oregano despite how many recipes I see that today hoe right yeah margarine or oregano you could use a ratio - you really can't a regular hard rubber very very different flavored herbs marjoram has a musky florally kind of a scent but our trip special oregano is hard in this area mordrem is not it a little bit more effort into marjoram but there's a lot of contention as to what is a true martyr there's a lot of contention as to what is a true oregano at this point shopping for oregano plants I would I really recommend that you taste the herb before you buy it there's so many hybrids and varieties that we really wouldn't even pay attention to the label of the irregular plant you have a bunch of super hot spicy kind of oregano stand in personally I prefer a true non hybridized Greek or Italian oregano where you get that full you know palette of flavors just pop it out perfect roots really looking good just pressing in gently you don't have to grab marjoram from seed all right don't look like you to grow from seed you could as was demonstrated in this marjoram plant and the branches start to come down you could actually press them into the soil just pressing the branch in like that and by doing that it will start to form roots at the base of this plant so you can actually get yourself a new plant a new marjoram plant from these roots in about three to four months they should be roots underneath they cut the branch off the mother plant and have another whole plant that's really the most stable way especially if you have a lot of oregano and a lot of large herbs growing on your property that's really the most stable way to actually propagate new plants margins and Oregano's will cross pollinate all right so that's really all this to it give them a nice trend actually it's time to trim your marjoram so it's going to give them a little boost of hormones a little boost of growth hormones set from the stem and then we're down the stem from the cut piece down it's gonna start sprouting more branches so by giving them the trend that lets them focus on their roots as you're transplanting them which is what she wants is to really focus on and it lets them really start to branch out from the sides so they get nice and bushy that best applies to all herbs really you just want to keep them wild trimmed you use them they want to be used and keep cutting and then bushier and the more groups you know dude just gonna be absolutely gorgeous because that's what they really need so there are marjoram plants we've got our trimmings from our transplanting which I'm going to bring inside it dries well just lay them out a piece of cheesecloth they are kind of small they're just the babies that we trimmed or I think I would have put this right into a nice potato leek soup wouldn't spill put tons of it in there get a real burst of marjoram flavor I'll have the recipe below for you to also use and it actually works to all kinds of herbs if he loves lead use any herb you just want to get more familiar with rosemary would be excellent in it and then the last step I am going to do just usually when you're transplanted something right away you don't add fertilizer for a couple days yeah that's a good so settled but because he's popped out of the pot so easily they hardly even know they got transplanted yet I'm gonna give them a little bit of a fish emulsion liquid fertilizer it's just a concentrate that I added to the flour powder some water very light I thought I did half and what if also on the packaging this is actually it's a Omri listed product so it is actually good food organic certified growers if you're looking for a good soil amendment that you can actually trust that it is actually organic I always go it's something that is Omri listed it's om are I listening there's a little square logo on the packaging that is it's a large room so enjoy growing up kind of outdated old-fashioned but very traditional and classic herb it's the perfect herb for making all those fabulous French dishes that call for you know things like old soup chickens and roosters and you know all that kind of old game kind of thing it's a great meat herb but I'm the vegetarian potato leek soup with it is excellent too so enjoy your marjoram