If you don’t have the time or inclination to maintain a large fruit or vegetable garden, consider developing an herb garden. Despite how small it might seem, you will still benefit from having access to fresh, wonderful herbs to add to your food.
To begin with, choose the herbs you want to grow. Due to the wide variety of plants available, it may be tough for you to do so. However, the simplest way to get started is to look at what you currently have in your kitchen and see what you can do with it. You may save money on grocery store purchases by cultivating your own collection of these herbs, and you can also guarantee their freshness by doing so. Rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley are good places to start.
Make sure that the soil in the area where you plan to grow your herbs is well-drained. It’s impossible for any plant to thrive in soil that is constantly and permanently soaked. Drainage problems can be solved by digging a foot into the soil and laying down a layer of broken rocks before re-filling the soil with dirt. This will allow the water to drain away from your plants, keeping them from wilting.
Buying more expensive herbs from the supermarket may be tempting when you’re ready to plant your herbs. Herbs, on the other hand, may be grown from seed far more easily than most other plants. The savings you’ll realize by sticking to seed packets will be enormous. Certain herbs are capable of growing at a phenomenal rate. Put a mint plant in an open area and it will quickly take over your landscape. This problem can be avoided by growing more aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).
Taken in excess, the herbs you’ve worked so hard to grow can be poisonous when harvested. Even if the leaves appear to be dormant, removing them while the plant is still establishing itself is harmful. Before removing any leaves from your plant, you should wait at least a few months. Your plant will continue to produce healthily for years to come if left to grow unfettered, so this wait is definitely worth it.
You’ll want to use your delicious homegrown herbs in your cuisine after you’ve harvested them. Is there any other reason why you would have cultivated them? To begin with, they need to be dried out completely in the sun. Bake them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours on a cookie sheet, and you’re done! You can use them in cooking once they’ve dried properly, so check out your local cookbook for tips on how to do so.
A plastic or glass container should be used if you plan on storing herbs for future use. Because they will absorb the herbs’ flavors, paper or cardboard will not be a good substitute for herbs. You should check the container frequently during the first few days of storage to make sure no moisture has accumulated. If this has happened, you’ll have to remove all of the herbs and re-dry them. When storing your herbs, mildew can appear if there is any moisture left in the herbs after the first drying operation. Everyone hates mildew.
As a result, if you’re a fan of both herbs and gardening, you should think about setting up a herb garden. In order to get the greatest drainage and choose which herbs to grow, it may take some time at first. After the early difficulties have been overcome, it’s merely a matter of picking and drying your preferred herbs.