If you've ever bought a bunch of chives at the grocery store only to use a tablespoon and watch the rest go slimy in the crisper drawer, growing your own is the obvious solution. Chives are perennial — plant them once, and they come back every year. They're cold-hardy, drought-tolerant, largely pest-resistant, and happy in a pot on a windowsill or a corner of the garden. For the effort involved, few herbs pay off as reliably.

Starting from seed vs. buying a plant

You can start chives from seed, but it takes patience. Seeds germinate slowly (two to three weeks), and seedlings spend a long time looking like thin, floppy grass before they're worth harvesting. If you want chives this season, buy a starter plant from a nursery. A single four-inch pot typically contains a dense clump of a dozen or more individual plants, which you can divide and spread around.

If you want to start from seed — maybe you're growing an unusual variety, or seeds are all you have — sow them indoors about eight weeks before your last frost date. Keep the soil moist and warm, and don't give up if nothing seems to be happening for the first ten days.

Where to plant them

Chives prefer full sun but will tolerate partial shade, though they'll grow more slowly and produce less foliage in lower light. They want well-drained soil and consistent moisture, but they're not precious about it — compacted, average soil won't stop them.

In a garden bed, chives make good border plants. Their grass-like foliage is tidy, and in late spring they produce round purple-pink flower heads that are genuinely ornamental. Bees love them. In containers, a six-inch pot is the minimum; wider is better, since chives multiply and like room to spread.

The cut-and-come-again rule

The single most important thing to know about harvesting chives: cut them down, don't snip the tips.

Many people trim the tops of their chive plants, leaving the lower portion intact. This produces a ragged, slow-recovering plant. Instead, cut the entire clump to about an inch above the soil with scissors or kitchen shears. The plant recovers quickly, growing a fresh flush of upright new leaves within a week or two, and the harvest you get is younger, more tender, and better-flavored.

During the growing season — roughly spring through fall — you can harvest this way every three to four weeks. Stop cutting about a month before your first expected frost to let the plant store energy for winter.

Dividing and expanding

Every two to three years, a mature clump of chives becomes dense and crowded, which eventually reduces vigor. Spring is the best time to divide: dig up the entire clump, pull or cut it into sections of six to ten bulblets each, and replant them with a few inches of space between clumps. This refreshes the plants and gives you the chance to spread chives to new spots — or share them with neighbors.

The flowers are edible

Don't deadhead your chive flowers out of habit. The round lavender blooms have a mild, oniony flavor and make a striking garnish scattered over salads or compound butter. Let a few go to seed if you want the plant to self-sow and naturalize in a bed, though be aware that chives can spread enthusiastically if left unchecked.

Overwintering

In most of North America, chives die back to the ground in winter and return in early spring — often one of the first herbs to emerge, sometimes poking up through snow. They require no special protection in zones 3 through 9. If you want fresh chives through winter, pot up a clump in fall, let it experience a few weeks of cold (this rest period matters), then bring it indoors to a sunny window. It'll continue producing, more slowly, through the cold months.