By Bob Adam

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time

managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might

consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the

product might not seem as significant, you’ll still enjoy the

constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your

meals with.

First you’ll want to choose the herbs that you’ll plant. You

might have a hard time doing this because of the huge scope of

herbs available. But the best way to choose is to do what I did;

just look at what you have in your kitchen. By planting your own

collection of these herbs, you can save money on buying them

from the grocery store while having the added benefit of

freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include

rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among

others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should

remember that the soil should have extremely good drainage. If

the dirt gets watered and stays completely saturated, you have

no chance of ever growing a healthy plant. One of the best ways

to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot deep in the soil,

and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing all the

soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your

plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be

tempted to buy the more expensive plants from the store.

However, with herbs it is much easier to grow them from seed

than it is with other plants. Therefore you can save a bundle of

money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow at a

dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in

an open space then it will take over your entire garden in a

matter of days. The best way to prevent this problem is to plant

the more aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to

allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so

hard over, it can be fatal to your plant to take off too much.

If your plant isn’t well established, it isn’t healthy to take

any leaves at all, even if it looks like its not using them. You

should wait until your plant has been well established for at

least several months before taking off any leaves. This wait

will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your

plant will produce healthily for years to come

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Once you’ve harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you’ll

want to use them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them?

Well first the process begins with drying them out. This is

easily achieved by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking

them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours. After they’re

sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can consult the

nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively

flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should

keep them in a plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard

will not work, because it will absorb the taste of the herbs.

During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check

the container and see if any moisture has accumulated. If it

has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If moisture

is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew

while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should

probably consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a

little bit of work at first to set it up for optimal drainage,

and pick what herbs you want to grow. But after the initial

hassle, it’s just a matter of harvesting and drying all your

favorite herbs.

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The popularity of organic food and gardening has certainly increased over the last few years. Not only does it give you a sense of well being but people love the beauty of wonderful colored flowers and the taste of vegetables they helped create. Organic gardening tips on how to successfully start and care for an organic garden are becoming easier to find as this type of gardening continues to become more popular. Along with being relaxing, it is a very interesting hobby. Anyone can organically produce wonderful fruits, herbs and vegetables and know that they are healthy to eat and pesticide, herbicide and chemical free. There will always be garden pests but instead of using chemicals to deal with this problem, there are many organic gardening tips to get rid of them, similar to the way gardeners did many years ago before the use of pesticides and herbicides.

A good homemade pest deterrent to use in organic gardening is:

In a jar, combine 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil. Shake vigorously. In an empty spray bottle, combine 2 teaspoons of this mixture and 1 cup water. Use at ten-day intervals (or more often if needed) to rid plants of whiteflies, mites, aphids, scales, and other pests.

Following a few organic gardening tips, you will produce fruits, vegetables and herbs that are healthy, taste wonderful, are less expensive than buying produce at the grocery store and give you the peace of mind knowing exactly how they were grown and what was used on them. Aphids are annoying little insects that often cause a lot of damage in your garden. If you plant marigolds near your vegetable garden, the aphids will quit bothering your plants. If you already have an aphid problem, spray the infected plants with diluted soapy water and then spray them again with clear water. Organic gardening tips you should try are; instead of buying compost for your garden, which could contain chemicals, make your own while you cut down on garbage at the same time. Using your garden and kitchen waste is an excellent and very easy way to make your own compost. In your compost pile use peelings from carrots, potatoes and other vegetables, dead weeds, coffee grounds, egg shells and even the pruning from roses and other plants. The different textures help break down the compost quickly. Compost improves the soil texture, structure and aeration while enriching the soil, which stimulates root development. When choosing plants for your organic garden, make sure you choose ones that are well adapted for your area.

Here are a couple of great organic gardening tips that not only help keep your garden free of weeds but also keep the soil from drying out too quickly. Grass clippings and pine needles mixed or old newspapers make very good mulch, which keeps your garden weed free and the soil moist. Organic gardening tips help you grow healthy organic fruits and vegetable that you, your family and friends will love.

Most important of all, is to enjoy your organic garden and the fruits of your labor. Not only will you have the satisfaction of growing vegetables and herbs organically but you it will also inspire you in your culinary tasks.

Here’s to a great organic garden and fabulous, healthy meals.

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

About the Author: Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She has published other articles on Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at Container Gardening and Gardening Outside
and Herb Gardening

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This article is dedicated to planning a successful herb garden. If you have planted herb gardens in previous years this will help to revamp and refresh one already have.

Go to your Garden Center and see what herbs are available and suitable for your area. This is important if you are planning an outside herb garden. If you are planning an inside herb garden, since you control the atmosphere, you can choose whatever you like.

My suggestion here would be to select a theme for your herb garden. You can plant them for cooking herbs, cosmetic herbs, medicinal herbs or fragrance herbs use. Be realistic about your plants. Check your whole property to find the right spot. Look for sun or shade, type of soil, and how well the spot drains. These are all very import for picking the best place for your herb garden.

Once you have accomplished the above, pick your sunniest spot because herbs need a lot of sun (a good four top six hours daily). Be sure that the herb garden site is level and sheltered from wind. If your soil is a bit heavy ad lots of compost when preparing your site which will make the soil looser and help with drainage and texture.

Try to keep the herb garden close to the house to facilitate in picking the harvest and checking for troubles. If you can’t find a suitable sunny spot plant them in a garden container that you can move around to follow the sun. (This movement is a bit time consuming but it pay off in the end).

Look at the rest of your gardens. Are they formal or informal? You will want your herb garden to complement your house and garden. Look in books or magazine to get some inspiration. If you are creating a formal herb garden you will need to plant in straight lines and geometric shapes framing them with low hedges and paths. A fountain, bench or topiary shrubs are almost always used as the main focal point. Arrange the layout around a central axis. Then plant one kind of herb in each block, go for bold color and texture. Be warned a formal garden is labor intensive and will be expensive.

In an informal herb garden you can plant more flowing, curved beds and walkways. Add flowers and shrubs for a really exciting look. This type of herb garden requires less initial work and will be easier and cheaper to maintain.

Now it’s time to decide on which herbs to plant. The easy way is to make a list of the ones that follow your theme. Make up your wish list in three columns. Column one is the absolutely must have plants, Column two will be the ones that would be nice to have and Column three is oh well, not necessary. If you’re just starting out do between 5-10 herbs, (depending on your space). This makes the herb gardening more manageable.

Know which herb plants or annual or perennial, and make a note of them so you won’t forget. A small spiral notebook is a good place to make comments on the care of each of your herbs. Situate each plant according to height for maximum enjoyment of your herb garden.

Lastly keep them well fed and give them lots of love and you will a beautiful herb garden that is multi-purpose. You get to plant the herb garden, watch it flourish, and then you get to harvest it for whatever your purpose was: Culinary, Medicinal, Fragrance or Cosmetic.

Happy Planting!

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

About the Author: Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She has published other articles on Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at www.GardeningLandscapingTips.com, www.ContainerGardeningSecrets.com, and www.CruiseTravelDirectory.com or contact her at mary@gardeninglandscapingtips.com

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