Spice Up Your Life With and Herb Garden!
There’s nothing like accompanying your pasta dish with sweet basil. Wouldn’t it be great to grow your own fresh herbs? Well you can, from cuttings or seeds. Herb gardening adds more flavor to your world and adds a great dimension to your thriving garden.
Herbs are annuals, biennials and perennial plants. Herbs like Basil, Coriander and Dill are annuals that bloom for one season only and then die. Caraway and parsley are biennials that live for two seasons and bloom only in the second season. Perennials like chives, fennel, mint and tarragon ‘die’ over winter and then blossom each season once the plant has established itself.
A 20 by 4 foot plot of land in your garden would be the perfect size for your herbs. This way you can separate the plot into individual sections corresponding to your herbs. Each mini plot is about a 12 by 18 inch herb garden. With the many herbs that are being used, colorful and frequently used herbs can be planted around the borders of your plot. Parsley and Purple Basil are examples of colorful border herb gardening.
For your herb garden to thrive the soil should not be very wet. Herbs do not grow well in saturated soil. To make your herb plot well drained, remove about 15 to 18 inches depth of soil. To the bottom of the hole add some crushed stone or other material that is similar to the stones.
A compost and sand mixture added to the soil will lighten the soil’s texture making it easier for the water to seep through the soil and drain away. Hummus will enrich the nutrients within the soil and restore the soil’s Ph level. Then refill the hole higher than it was originally.
Most can be planted in the ground late winter. Herb gardening requires that you first grow them indoors in shallow trays. The herb seeds must not be covered with a thick coating of soil. The soil needs to be light and well drained. This type of soil texture will ensure that your herb gardening gets off to good start.
Once your herbs are planted outdoors there are a few insects that can attack the plants. Aphids like anise, caraway, dill and fennel herbs. The red mite spider attacks low growing herbs. Rust can be a disease-like status for mint plants.
Whether you use herbs for cooking, medicinal use or even aromatic usage, the art of herb gardening has always been popular with gardeners far and wide. Join their ranks and enjoy the pleasures of using your own herbs.
Join us in our next article while we discuss the topic of horticulture.
