The Benefits Of An Herb Garden
A satisfying way to provide your kitchen with fresh herbs, indulge in a little gardening, and experience the joy of growing your own herbs is an herb garden. Herbs are relatively easy to grow, and can be grown in pots or in a bed in the garden with equal success.
When it comes to choosing the herbs you will plant, first look in your kitchen. Growing herbs you can use in your cooking is the most satisfying type of gardening, so check what you have in the spice rack. You’ll save money buying them from the store and you will also have fresh herbs that are more flavorful. The more popular herbs include chives, dill, rosemary, mint, sage, and parsley.
Good drainage is something your area needs to have and you need to make sure of this when you’re planting in the garden. You may have to dig quite deep, about a foot or two down, if the bed seems to get waterlogged and put in a layer of rocks then plant in the soil above them.
Easily grown from seeds are herbs and you don’t have to buy the more expensive plants if you don’t want to. You need to research to learn about how much space each plant will need, how quickly each herb will grow, and what their height will be. It may be better to contain more aggressive plants like mint in a pot so they won’t take over the entire bed. Perfuming the air and providing you with fresh herbs are the scented plants and they too are pleasant indoors in a pot.
Before you harvest your plants, wait until they are well established since cutting leaves from them too early will cause them to weaken and die. You can trim a little to use fresh in your cooking each day, or wait until the plant can provide a bigger harvest and dry the herbs for future use. Spread the herbs on a cookie sheet and for 2-4 hours, bake them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit in order to bake them. Store the dried herbs in an airtight plastic or glass container. In the first few days, you need to check if there are any moisture build up and if there is, you will have to re-dry them. Leading to mildew is moisture and the herbs will be made unfit for consumption.
Setting up the bed for your herb garden may take some effort, but when you have your own herb garden providing constant supply of fresh herbs then it will be worth it.
