Herbs are great for cooking, enhancing flavors and creating depth in dishes. Herbs can also be used for medicinal and health purposes. Starting an herb garden, regardless of its purpose, can be slightly frightening and confusing. We are here to help. By following some simple tricks, you will be using your own home grown herbs for cooking, medicinal, or personal enjoyment in no time.
How to start your own herb garden
You can have an indoor or outdoor Herb Garden. Try indoor for easy cooking access. Start an outdoor garden when there aren’t any possible threats of frost.
Start with planting the better known herbs, such as basil, rosemary, or thyme. When you get more comfortable with the plants, expand your garden’s diversity.
Make sure you continually divide, trim, prune, and harvest your Herbs as often as possible. These actions will encourage growth, and help create a stronger more likely to reproduce herb specimen. Also to keep in mind, some herbs will grow flowers. If you trim the flowers every once and awhile, it too will promote further growth. Flowering herbs even attract butterflies, birds, sometimes rabbits and deer. But the herbivores tend to stay away from Herb gardens, due to their flavors and smells.
Running low on those tasty plants? Be sure to sow seeds about every four weeks to make sure you have constant stock and regrowth in your garden. Be careful not to overcrowd your garden, it may cause plants to wilt and possibly perish. Also be sure to plant similar herbs together. Some gardeners plant groups together based on use, species, or flavor.
And an Herb-Specific tip from Better Homes and Gardens: The darker the flower on Lavender, the stronger and more pungent it will be. The lighter flowers won’t be as flavorful or robust (Abels).
Starting any garden can be overwhelming. Herb Gardens are no exception. But if you research what you are planting, how to plant and care for each species of herb, your garden will grow and prove to be very plentiful.