Creating a Herb Garden
The Joy and Pleasure of Producing Your Own Herbs…
Whether they be used in the creation of culinary delights, for their pleasant aromatic foliage, beautiful flowers or magical charms, these days herbs have become a must have for many homeowners.
Creating your own herb garden is not a hard task. You can include herbs as part of your vege garden or grow them in a separate area outside. They can be grown in containers, window boxes, hanging baskets, or even inside for your all year round enjoyment!
Tips For The Herb Garden
- Herbs are classified into annuals, biennials and perennials. Annuals bloom one season and then die, biennials live two seasons and only bloom in the second, and perennials bloom each season for a number of seasons. Taking this into account you may want to grow particular groups of herbs in separate areas, particularly the perennials.
- Plant your herbs in a sunny corner of the house, preferably in the northeast.
- When planting herbs from seeds, it is possible to sow them in shallow boxes in late winter and transplant them outdoors in the spring being careful not to cover the seeds too deeply with soil.
- Note that some herbs transplant well, while others do not. Most biennials for example should be sown late spring directly into the ground.
- Good drainage is a must as herbs do not grow in wet soil. You can improve drainage by placing a layer of crushed stones a few inches below the top soil.
- Mix the soil with compost and sand to lighten the texture, increase fertility, and retain needed moisture.
- Avoid fertilizers as these tend to be too rich resulting in excess foliage with less intense flavors
- Plant your herbs in a pot in the ground if you do not want them to spread into the rest of your garden.
- Begin your herb garden with the herbs you enjoy using the most and build on it from there.
- Label your herbs in order to identify which is which to start off with. You will come to learn the look, smell and colour of the different herbs as you use them more often.
- Pick fresh leaves as soon as the plant has enough foliage to maintain growth.
- Most perennial herbs are hardy plants that are able to survive extreme winters. For those less hardy ones such as rosemary and oregano, dig up, place in potters and move inside to a sunny spot over the winter.
