Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are a cool-weather perennial herb that emerges in spring, provides a mild onion-flavoring for meals, and deters pests in the vegetable garden.   They can easily be grown from seed or from dividing the root mass.   They do best in full sunlight, but may become dormant in summer.    By cutting some of he tubular green leaves, we can promote more leaf growth.    Chive flowers are a garden favorite.    After flowering the plant will develop seed heads.    Since it produces many seeds, be sure to harvest them rather than letting them disperse into your garden (they can be prolific).

The edible flowers attract pollinators.   Stems with flowers make a nice cut-flower arrangement in the house.   We harvest the soft green leaves in the growing season for soups, stews, and potato dishes.    We compost the stiff stems, but we are careful about composting the seedheads, since the seeds may stay viable and multiply in unforeseen spots.   We sometimes harvest the leaves and freeze them for later use.    We have dehydrated the leaves, but this seems to remove the flavor.

Chives are a mild herb for culinary use, but they also have some mild herbal remedy benefits.

We divide the larger bulbous masses every few years and transplant  them to isolated spots away from the main flower beds and vegetable beds.    We sometimes provide a light layer of mulch around the plants in summer to retain moisture.    We never directly water chives.    Since they are in the veg garden, they are watered by an underground sprinkler system on a rotation.

Chives have been planted and used as a herb for 5000 years and will continue to be a valued plant for our home garden.

All photos taken by the author from the home garden and shared here as an album link (Chives) and as a slideshow: