Growing Herbs 101

Growing Herbs 101

Introducing: Growing Herbs 101. This is a basic guide to getting started growing herbs. It’s not difficult at all but you will have to understand the proper care of each one since each variety may have different needs that need to be attended to.

Pure Herbs

If you want pure herbs that are the best available, you have to grow them yourself. There’s no place on earth to get anything more pure and natural than those that are produced in your own herb garden.

Growing herbs is not a difficult undertaking. It just takes a little research into what works best for each individual herb as far as the growing technique goes.

Indoor Herb Gardens

Growing herbs in doors where possibly is arguably one of the best places to get the herb garden set up. There is less likely-hood that you will require insecticides to keep the bugs off the plants, and when you use nutrient enriched soil bought from the garden center, there is a lesser possibility of the herbs being overtaken by weeds. Herb gardens that are grown indoors are generally of the portable variety, meaning that they can be moved around as needed to get more sun, etc.

Decor

Growing herbs indoors can also lend to the decor of the home, adding charm and in many cases even the fragrances give the home that warm and welcome feeling.

Growing herbs can be accomplished in a typical flower pot, you can use wooden flower boxes on the window sills, and many will even grow from hanging baskets strategically placed throughout the home.

Growing Herbs Outdoors

There are some varieties of herbs that are simply not suitable for growing in the house. This is especially true of rosemary, which grows like a bush or a hedge and needs to be outside. You have to know the requirements for the herbs you are growing outside just as you did for those grown indoors, because these too require certain elements of care in order to thrive such as sunlight, water, etc.

When you are preparing to set out your herb garden, you first have to cultivate the soil. The ideal soil conditions for growing herbs are:

1.  Loose, fine soil

2.  The soil should be rich in nutrients. While some types will grow in just about any soil conditions, there are many more that require rich soil. Even the ones that will grow in most any soil condition will still fare much better if the soil is fertilized.

3.  Growing herbs requires that the plants have plenty of water without “drowning” them.

Using Herbs

When you use fresh herbs, it’s a little different than their dried counterparts. The reason for this is that those that are freshly picked are actually about 1/3 water than those which have been dried. So when you recipe called for a particular herb, you may want to use a little more than you would otherwise.

One exception to this will perhaps be peppermint which is quite strong in any case, so you will want to add it sparingly until you get it to the strength of flavoring that you wish the product you are making to have.

Storing Fresh Herbs

After the herbs have dried, you can simply store them in an airtight container. This will help them to stay fresh. Each should have a separate container to prevent the flavors from intermingling with one another. This again, is especially true of the peppermint will over overtake anything it is being stored with.

If you are interested in trying your hand at growing herbs, you should know that there are a number of kits available on the market that will help you to get started and include everything that you need to do so.