An herb garden can bring a person a lot of pleasure because there’s so many things that can be done with herbs such as herbal crafts, herbal teas and herbal seasonings. On top of this, you get to care and tend for the plants which, if this is all you do, is enough reason to grow an herb garden. Seeing how the herbs mingle together and enjoying their fragrance are other benefits.
By planning your herb garden, you will eliminate any frustration that may arise from planting an herb in the wrong area. For example, if you plant Basil in a very shady area, it will not grow as well as if it were planted in a warm, sunny area. Also, your herb garden will bring you more satisfaction if you plan which herbs you will use.
The first thing to think about when planning your herb garden is location. Full sun is the best for herbs, but it has been my experience that most herbs will grow in partial shade. If your herbs are planted in partial shade, they may not grow as fast as when planted in full sun, but they will do just fine. The place to avoid is full shade, herbs simply will not do well in full shade.
When you have decided on a location for your herb garden, it’s time to figure out which herbs you’d like to grow. To figure this out, ask yourself why you want to grow herbs. Is it for cooking, teas, potpourri, fragrance, or a combination of all these? Whatever reason you decide you’re growing herbs for will help you decide which herbs to grow. If it’s for cooking, which herbs do you currently use? You could grow these, plus others that have caught your interest in the past. If it’s for any of the other reasons, do some research first to find out what herbs are good for that interest. Visit the library and choose books on that subject, or search the Internet for information. Ask your herb growing friends.
You will also need to find out if the herbs you have chosen will grow in your zone and soil type. Again, the library and Internet will be good sources of information.
Now that you have chosen the herbs you want to grow, it’s time to put them into a plan. First, make a list of the herbs you will be using, leaving a space for its’ description of height, foliage and/or flower color, and spacing requirements. To find these requirements, look these plants up in a gardening reference book. Decide what shape of bed you’d like and what size. Keep in mind that to be easily accessed, an island bed (a bed that can be accessed from all sides) should be no wider than 5 ft, and a border bed (a bed that can only be accessed from the front) should be no wider than 2 1/2 ft.
Now take a piece of paper and a pencil and sketch in the shape of the bed. Look at your list of herbs and place your herbs according to height, and which plants would compliment each other. You can do this by sketching or writing in the names of the plant. If you change your mind about something, simply erase and change. As you are placing your plants, make notes of how far apart the plants should be spaced. You may even want to go as far as using colored pencils to do some color coding or to color in the color of the plants. This sketch is your rough draft. You can use this as your planting guide.
The planning process can be just as enjoyable as planting and caring for the herbs. It also enables you to get to know your plants before they are even planted. Finally, as mentioned above, it will save you a great deal of frustration, so take the time to plan your herb garden.
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Growing an organic herb garden is a delightful project. The fragrant plants not only look and smell good they are also good for flavoring foods.
Indoor organic herb gardens have the advantage of being year-round, giving a continuous supply of fresh herbs. An indoor organic herb garden can be as small as a few pots on a window sill or as large as a greenhouse filled with containers of aromatic organic herbs.
Herb Choices
There are many ways to decide which herbs to include in your organic herb garden. Here are some ideas.
1. Italian Herb Garden: Plant rosemary, oregano, basil, fennel, and chives. Terra cotta containers will make your indoor organic herb garden look authentically old world.
2. French Herb Garden: Begin with lemon basil, marjoram, and parsley, and add other herbs you like to use in French cooking.
3. Fragrant Herb Garden: Choose angelica, bergamot, catmint, chamomile, thyme, lavender, lemon balm, mint, and sage. This organic herb garden is a natural air freshener.
4. Tea Herb Garden: If you enjoy herbal teas, your organic herb garden might focus on appropriate herbs for your tea: catnip, chamomile, lavender, lemon grass, mint, and peppermint.
You may not want to theme your indoor organic herb garden, but simply grow a few herbs that appeal to you.
Containers
Many herbs are well-suited to container gardening, but you will want to choose containers according to the herbs you intend to grow.
1. Those tiny herb peat pots sold in discount stores give the wrong idea. Your indoor organic herb garden will not last long with such small thinking.
2. Begin with containers a bit larger than those in which the live nursery plants were purchased. This will give your plants room to start growing.
3. Once your herbs are stabilized and growing well, transplant them into larger containers.
4. Basil, mint, oregano, and sage are examples of herbs that can be grown in pots of about 8 to 10 inches.
5. If you want a large crop of herbs that is constantly being replenished in your organic herb garden, use 3 to 5 gallon containers. This will assure you of having plenty of rosemary, basil, etc. when you want it.
Container Soil
Indoor organic herb gardens call for building organic soil. Your soil should have a pH of about 7, since herbs prefer a more alkaline soil. If yours is too acid, add some calcified seaweed. Be sure you use only organic fertilizers to build your soil.
Indoor Lighting
An indoor organic herb garden will need lighting, especially if your room is not sunny. Lighting is especially important for year-round indoor gardens.
Different plants have different light requirements, some preferring bright sun and others preferring shade. Most herbs prefer full sun, but there are exceptions, so learn what each of your herbs needs.
Incandescent lights, even though called “grow lights”, are a poor choice for your indoor organic herb garden. Fluorescent lights are better, and have the advantage of being inexpensive, easily available, and easy to set up. The best choice for lighting your indoor organic herb garden is high intensity discharge lighting, often called HID lights. These are even more affordable and efficient.
Useful and Beautiful
An indoor organic herb garden can be both useful and beautiful. Herbs are generally eager to please, and require little maintenance. Simply give them the right food, water, and sunlight, and they will reward you abundantly.
©2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about organic gardening at http://www.organicspringtime.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site, each one dealing with some facet of organic gardening. If you want information on locating live organic herb plants for your organic herb garden, you won’t want to miss Anna’s article on the subject.
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Herb gardening is becoming more and more popular every day and for good reason. Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose and with herb gardening, you can actually get to use your plants. When most people think of herb gardening, they automatically think of cooking, but herbs are also grown for their pleasant aromas and their beauty.
One important part of herb gardening, is drying the herbs, for use during the winter months, especially if you plan on cooking with them. First, the tops of leafy herbs have to be cut, washed, and hung up, for the water to evaporate. Then, tie the stems together and hang them up in a paper bag, to dry properly. After two, to three weeks, they can be removed. Crumble the leaves, dry them out in the oven and store in a glass jar.
One of the most common herbs gown in herb gardening, is Basil. “Dark Opal” and regular Green Basil, are beautiful additions to any garden and are often used as decoration. Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves. Basil isn’t just used for its looks, it is used for extra flavour in tomato juices and pastes.
Chives are very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass. They are much stronger than they look however and will grow well, through a drought. Their toughness and sturdiness makes Chives a perfect plant, for herb gardening, especially if the gardener doesn’t want plants that require a lot of hassle. Chives are good when used in salads, egg dishes and many different sauces.
Mint is also very simple to grow and is good to use in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade and any other kind of fruity drink. Mint is also good in herb gardening, for its unique minty smell. Two herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden, are Thyme and Sage. Both of these herb gardening favourites, are used for flavouring soups, chicken, turkey, pork and other sausages. Sage is also grown sometimes, for its beautiful blue spiked flowers.
Lavender is probably the best smelling herb, in all of herb gardening and is often used in candles, as a perfume scent and to improve the smell in linen chests. The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely.
Other types of herbs often grown in herb gardening, include Borage (used in salads), Chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet Marjoram (flavours lamb, fish, salad, and soup), Sesame (flavours crackers, cookies and bread) and Dill (flavours meats and used in pickles). Herb gardening allows gardeners to use herbs from their own garden, for cooking, looks and smell. Herb gardening will produce much fresher herbs, with more flavour than store-bought herbs and are a lot cheaper.
Sally Robson is an up and coming, South African internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet. She and her husband Derek, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. She also has a passion for gardening.
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