Your Guide to Growing Herbs
Growing herbs is a hobby that many people have grown to love. For those who wish to become involved in this wonderful hope, this short guide to growing herbs will help you well on your way.
Multiple Uses for Growing Herbs
Herbs are versatile. They can be used for many things including cooking, aromatherapy, for medicinal purposes and more. Let’s not forget their usefulness right out there in the garden as well when they are used as companion plants for the other things we might be growing.
Cooking with herbs lends a fantastic flavor to foods that is untouched by any other. Indeed, the use of herbs in most cases can make or break a dish, depending on what the dish is of course, and the herbs used in the process.
Once you have actually started your garden, you’ll wonder how you went so long without them. The purpose of this guide to growing herbs is to help you get started in the easiest possible manner and to maintain the garden as well.
-
Let’s Get Our Materials
The first thing that needs to be done is to get the necessities from creating the herb garden. Now, depending on what your primary use of the herbs will be, will determine how easy that part is. That is to say, you can purchase kits (likely a little cheaper than buying everything separate), that will include the popular varieties of herbs for that purpose. There are herb kits that contain the herbs used in making Italian foods, there are herb kits from growing those used in making herbal teas, etc.
Now, these particular kits may not include every herb you want, but that’s ok! You can buy the kit as a base, and then add the additional herbs that you want. Just make sure to add enough of the other materials as well so that you have everything you need to begin your growing herbs propagation.
-
Growing Herbs – Indoors or Out?
Depending upon where you actually choose to grow your herbs will dictate the panting time. In other words, if you choose to grow outside, then you will want to start your plants indoors about 3 weeks or so before the last frost hits. After the frost, the plants would then be strong enough to transplant outdoors. If you intend to keep them inside, then it likely doesn’t make much difference in when you start them.
-
Containers for Growing Herbs
For the purposes of this guide to growing herbs, containers means you are growing the herbs indoors, and can be pretty much anything that will hold soil, and allow it to drain properly after you have watered them. There are many different things that you can use to grow herbs indoors. But, as was previously mentioned, it must be able to properly drain. So, if you are using old coffee cans, then you will need to place holes in the bottom of the can, and use something under that to catch the water as it drains such as an old pie tin or something like that. Now, because the bottom of nearly anything you use is going to be flat, you will have to arrange a way that it is elevated a little to facilitate drainage.
-
Proper Care
Taking care of your herb garden on a day to day basis is easy. You simply need to provide plenty of sun for those that need it, and keep the soil moist for those that need it. You will find that some herbs will require less water than others and so on, but you will pick this information up as you go along by doing a little research before starting any variety.
If you have chosen to put your herb garden outdoors, then you are going to want to make sure you do what needs to be done to keep any pests off your plants, and to keep the weeds form growing in around the herbs and smothering them out.
-
Research and Learn to Grow Herbs
Doing some research to see which plants are companions to others can go a long way to eliminating the need for pesticides as there are some varieties of plants that naturally repel pests. Making use of burlap around the garden by laying it out and cutting holes through which you put the plants will also eliminate 95% of your weeding as well! I hope you enjoyed this guide to growing herbs.