
Herbs · Temperate
Borage
Boraginaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 40 cm
- USDA zones
- 4a–10a
- Frost-sensitive
- yes
- Growth duration
- 8 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:sandyraised-bed mix
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Direct sow
Sow directly into the bed — no pre-culture needed.
Stachi's tip
Borage is a first-class bee magnet. Young leaves taste cucumber-like, blue flowers edible (salad garnish). Self-seeds prolifically — plant once and it stays.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Harvest
Good neighbours
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
No known conflicts.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
What comes after Borage?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Borage →Sources
- LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
- LWG Bayern – Kräuter zum Frischverzehr aus dem eigenen Garten (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/157754/index.php)
- Bingenheimer Saatgut – Grüne-Sosse-Kräuter anbauen (https://blog.bingenheimersaatgut.de/kraeuter-fuer-gruene-sosse-anbauen)
- Dreschflegel – Borretsch (https://dreschflegel-saatgut.de/borretsch)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Crop rotation
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage · LWG Bayern – Kräuter zum Frischverzehr aus dem eigenen Garten (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/157754/index.php) · Bingenheimer Saatgut – Grüne-Sosse-Kräuter anbauen (https://blog.bingenheimersaatgut.de/kraeuter-fuer-gruene-sosse-anbauen) · Dreschflegel – Borretsch (https://dreschflegel-saatgut.de/borretsch)
Related plants
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.