If you don’t want to devote your time to maintaining a large fruit or vegetable garden, try starting and maintaining a herb garden. While the product may not appear to be as significant as the availability of fresh, wonderful herbs to season your meals, you will appreciate the consistent availability of fresh, tasty herbs to season your meals.
You should begin by choosing the herbs you’ll be planting. You may find it tough to do so due to the large number of plants available. The simplest way to make a decision is to do what I did and look at what you already have in your kitchen. You may save money on these herbs by growing your own rather than buying them in the store, and you’ll get the added benefit of freshness. You can start with rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley, to name a few.
When choosing a location for your herb garden, keep in mind that the soil should drain well. If the soil is flooded and remains completely saturated, you have little chance of ever growing a healthy plant. Digging a foot into the earth and laying down a layer of broken pebbles before restoring the dirt is one of the most effective techniques to remedy the drainage problem. This will allow all of the water to drain and your plants to thrive.
You might be tempted to buy the more expensive plants from the shop when you’re ready to start growing herbs. Herbs, on the other hand, are far more straightforward to grow from seed than other plants. As a result, sticking to seed packets will save you a significant amount of money. Some herbs grow at a startlingly fast rate. Put a mint plant in an open place, for example, and it will swiftly take over your entire garden. The simplest way to avoid this problem is to plant the most aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).
Taking too much off when harvesting the herbs you’ve worked so hard to develop can be fatal to your plant. Even if your plant doesn’t appear to be using them, it’s not a good idea to take any leaves if it isn’t well established. Make sure your plant has been well established for at least a few months before removing any leaves. This wait will be well worth it, since your plant will continue to produce healthily for years if it is allowed to develop normally.
Once you’ve harvested your lovely fresh herbs, you’ll want to use them in your cuisine. What makes you think you’d grow them any other way? Drying them out is the first step in the process. This is easily performed by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours. Once they’ve dried enough to use in cooking, consult your favourite cookbook for instructions on how to appropriately flavour a dish using them.
If you want to conserve your herbs for later use, store them in a plastic or glass container. The flavour of the herbs will permeate into the paper or cardboard, rendering it useless. During the first few days of storage, you should inspect the container every few days to see if any moisture has accumulated. If this is the case, you’ll need to remove and re-dry all of the herbs. Mildew will grow on your herbs while they are being stored if there is any moisture left over after the first drying step. Mildew is an annoyance that no one enjoys.
So, if you enjoy herbs, gardening, or both, consider planting your own herb garden. Setting it up for optimal drainage and deciding which herbs to grow initially may take some time. Then it’s only a matter of gathering and drying all of your favourite herbs.
