Post by Indilwen on Sept 1, 2011 13:11:55 GMT 12
Growing Your Own Herbs
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). And you can use a coffee filter on the bottom of the planter to help keep the plant inside where it needs to be. Ife it seems the plant is getting crowded then gently take the plant out of planter lay on pold newspaper and take a knife(long one) and cut the root ball starting from the base of plant working through to bottom do this twice to make 4 separate plantings.Then re-plant into another planter. I also take old burlap cuts into a square shape and tie around the new root balls to keep it all tight and nice for the next plantings. This is also a great way to start gift plants. get 4 terra cotta planters decorate for the corners or elements and put an herb to represent each corner or element and plant the root balled herb, then give to friends and loved ones as a great handmade home grown gift.
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. You can however groom your planted herbs, much like the tomato plants, pinch the tops of the leaves after they are about 3 - 6 inches tall, what this does is allow the bushing effect to start and you will have a plump plant instead of a lanky one.
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. Or do like me chop and freeze or dehydrate in the dehydrator machine and bottle or jar the fresh dried herbs.
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 So will some plastics that is why I use glass. Also you can paintthe jars to keep the herbs from the sunlight and light from bulbs. During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has accumulated ( you can place a coffee filter inside if you like to absorb some of the moisture but I don't recommend it because the filter tends to absorb flavor also). 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. If it does mildew throw herbs away and clean jar with a soap/bleach solution and rinse very well.( use the same process if your planters get moldy or mildewy is that a word? well you see what I mean)
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 and most of all enjoying all your favorite herbs.
Thanks to Shel for this article...
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). And you can use a coffee filter on the bottom of the planter to help keep the plant inside where it needs to be. Ife it seems the plant is getting crowded then gently take the plant out of planter lay on pold newspaper and take a knife(long one) and cut the root ball starting from the base of plant working through to bottom do this twice to make 4 separate plantings.Then re-plant into another planter. I also take old burlap cuts into a square shape and tie around the new root balls to keep it all tight and nice for the next plantings. This is also a great way to start gift plants. get 4 terra cotta planters decorate for the corners or elements and put an herb to represent each corner or element and plant the root balled herb, then give to friends and loved ones as a great handmade home grown gift.
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. You can however groom your planted herbs, much like the tomato plants, pinch the tops of the leaves after they are about 3 - 6 inches tall, what this does is allow the bushing effect to start and you will have a plump plant instead of a lanky one.
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. Or do like me chop and freeze or dehydrate in the dehydrator machine and bottle or jar the fresh dried herbs.
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 So will some plastics that is why I use glass. Also you can paintthe jars to keep the herbs from the sunlight and light from bulbs. During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has accumulated ( you can place a coffee filter inside if you like to absorb some of the moisture but I don't recommend it because the filter tends to absorb flavor also). 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. If it does mildew throw herbs away and clean jar with a soap/bleach solution and rinse very well.( use the same process if your planters get moldy or mildewy is that a word? well you see what I mean)
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 and most of all enjoying all your favorite herbs.
Thanks to Shel for this article...