Gardening Blog

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing
an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and
maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as
significant, you’ll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh,
delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First you’ll want to choose the herbs that you’ll plant. You might have a
hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the
best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your
kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save
money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit
of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary,
sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that
the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and
stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy
plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot
deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing
all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your
plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy
the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much
easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you
can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow
at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an
open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of days.
The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive
plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it
can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant isn’t well
established, it isn’t healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks
like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well
established for at least several months before taking off any leaves. This
wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant
will produce healthily for years to come.

Once you’ve harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you’ll want to use
them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the
process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing
them on a cookie sheet and baking them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4
hours. After they’re sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can
consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively
flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a
plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it
will absorb the taste of the herbs. During the first few days of storage,
you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has
accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If
moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew
while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably
consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work
at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want
to grow. But after the initial hassle, it’s just a matter of harvesting
and drying all your favorite herbs.

In many climates, it is extremely difficult to maintain an outdoor garden. If the temperatures are below freezing for a good portion of the year, it might be wise to bring your plants inside and start indoor gardening. Alternatively, you can do indoor gardening just to give your house a more natural feel, along with some nice decorations. Flowers blooming in your house add a lot to the décor, especially if you have the pride of having grown them yourself. If you are interested in starting to garden indoors, read on and find out some of the basics.

Some plants are simply not suited for growing in an indoor environment. If they take a large amount of water, then you will probably want to keep it outside. Watering a plant a lot, you can easily end up drowning it with too much water, or not giving it what it needs out of caution. So try to pick a plant that doesn’t require too much water. Another bad aspect of indoor gardening comes when a plant drops leaves or flowers all over your floors. Make sure you’re familiar with what the plant does during all seasons, so that you don’t end up with a huge mess on your floor.

Next you have to make sure that you will give the plant the attention it needs. Especially if you have many different plants across your house, it will be wise to set up a routine for watering. Figure out how often each plant needs watered, then color-code them with small tags or marks on the pot. Maybe you will water red tags once a week, and green tags will get watered every Tuesday and Thursday. It all depends on what types of plants you have. Just make sure you have some sort of system so that you will remember the individual needs of each plant.

The supplies are the final important part of indoor gardening. Naturally you will want pots that will blend in with your current décor. This will be fairly easy to accomplish. You can get ceramic pots, clay pots, metal pots, or wooden pots in any design. You can hang them from the ceiling, set them on tables, or place them in the corner. Just think about how big the plant is going to get, how fast it will get there, and what parts of your house need decoration. Indoor gardening is a fun and rewarding hobby, and fortunately it is easy to get started.