So You Want To Plant An Herb Garden?
Herbs have been around for a very long time and served different kinds of purposes. They’ve been used to treat sickness and season cooking as well as being used in many craft projects. Interested in starting your own herb garden? Here are a few ideas on how to start an herb garden.
Time to come up with a plan. Think about the various types of herbs you’d like to try and the purpose of those herbs, such as for specific recipes, etc. Would they be annuals, biennials or perennials? Make a wish list.
How much space will they occupy in your garden? If you want, you can purchase a book that can give you the right information on what specific plants you are planning to grow. You can also check out a gardening book or catalog or the nursery you purchase plants from to give you that information.
Time to draw out your plan on paper. Some suggestions would be to separate the annuals from the perennials. The reason for this is at the end of the season you can easily pull up the annuals without disturbing the perennials and make planting annuals next season easier. Sometimes you can plant the perennials on the perimeter of the garden, or in a section by their lonesome.
Some tips would be to consider planting the taller plants towards the back of the garden and the shorter ones in front. Give your plants plenty of space to grow and mature to avoid overcrowding. Be sure to take into account their sunlight requirements as well when choosing which to position to plant each plant.
If you don’t want to plant your herbs in your garden, or you don’t have a garden, you can always try planting them in container pots. There are big pots with three or more outlets in them. When planting, fill the container to the first level, then plant your plant. Then continue to the second level and plant, and so on until your pot is finished. Generally you want to plant the herb that needs the most water at the bottom and the one that needs the less, at the top. Use a good quality potting soil and make sure you’ve proper drainage.
You can design your garden in a creative manner. Try using a wooden ladder or wagon wheel and lay on top of the garden. Then plant your plants in between the sections for a square or circular division and interesting look.
It’s important to factor in the needs of each variety of plant. Many need alkaline soil conditions, so if you need to add any special additives you’ll already have that information on hand. If you begin your own seeds, be sure to read the packet on the seeds as to water, temperature requirements, as well as when it’s safe to plant them in the spring.
Herbs are some of the simplest plants to grow. You need to provide them with effective drainage, sunlight, enough humidity or moisture and fertile soil. With these basic conditions they’re bound to produce an awesome harvest.
You’ll also want to take into account what you plan to do with the harvest. Will you cook them fresh? Freeze or preserve them in some other way? You’ll discover that you have some favorites each year and which ones didn’t perform as you would have hoped.
