herb gardening

Herb Gardening At Home
By Simon Morris

Herb like vegetable can be very useful and rewarding. Having an herb garden can produce Culinary Herbs as well as Aromatic Herbs, Ornamental Herbs, and Medicinal Herbs. The most commonly grown, and arguably the most useful herbs grown are the culinary herbs. Though aromatic herbs can make for a good perfume or incense and medicinal herbs are used for organically grow medicine. For a beginner to get an idea of which herbs to start in their first garden, it is always a good idea to take a trip to your supermarket and have a look at the herbs sold there. You can come up with your own mix of herbs that fit you best. Herbs will not only make your food taste fresh but also can keep your home smelling good all year long.

The first step when growing herbs, like growing a vegetable garden, is to plan out the size of garden you desire. For a regular home kitchen herb garden, the space needed should measure at least 18" by 5". You should separate the herbs by characteristic, placing the perennials with the perennials and the annuals with the annuals. Another helpful step is to label each type of plant you grow.

The next part is preparing your soil. Good drainage is by far the most important thing to remember when preparing the soil for your garden. A good idea is to place gravel about 18 inches under your soil bed so the water drains easily. You should also mix in good compost or mulch to help keep the soil from gathering and keeping to much water. Also as expected if you use fertilizer, use sparingly and only use organic. Using a garden tiller can help with mixing the soil properly. Water access is also something you should keep in mind, sprinklers or drip systems

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are best but if this is not possible a garden hose with a garden reel set up can do the trick.

Drying the herbs is the next step. There are various ways in which to dry herbs though I find an easy and useful way is to use a paper bag and your closet. You can just wash the leaves of your herbs and tie them together. Next you can place them in a paper bag and hang the bag in your closet. They should be kept in dark the whole time if possible, preferably in the range of 70 to 80 degrees. After a few weeks of this you can crush the leaves up and pace them in a gar. This is how I have dried the herbs in my garden and for me it has works well giving fresh herbs every time.

Some of the more often grown herbs include chives, dill, fennel, mint, various onions and basil. Basil is an excellent ingredient to add to any pasta or Italian dish. Fresh or dried chives can go great with baked potatoes, or a salad. Chives are very sturdy plants and will hold up to rougher conditions than the average herb. Mint can also be grown with out allot of hassle and can go well with a jelly, or the now famous Mohito alcohol drink. The most commonly grown aromatic herb is lavender. Lavender smells great and can be used in numerous applications. You can use lavender in candles, incense and perfume.

An herb garden can be an exiting and rewarding hobby to pick up. Fresh homegrown herbs have a much brighter taste than store Bought. It can also be an excellent conversation peace when throwing a dinner party. With the proper preparation an herb garden can literally grow itself. There is not much to it after the soil and water preparation. Give it a try and taste your fresh homegrown results.

Simon Morris is a long studied landscape design expert with 25 years of field expirience. You can find more articles written By Simon Morris on his Gardening website www.Garden-now.com. You can also find his articles on www.linkmyarticles.com.

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