How to Pick Herbs for Your Herb Kitchen Area Garden
If you have chosen you want to create your own kitchen herb garden, you should initially select what herbs to grow in it. Once you have done that you can start preparing your herb garden plan and start looking at things like herb garden packages or herb seed brochures. To make things as simple as possible for you I have composed this article to teach you about the "Three things every herb gardener requires to know" before going out to buy herb plants or seeds.
The number of different kinds of herbs do you want to plant in your kitchen herb garden? Most people, when they are establishing their herb garden, pick about 5 or 6 kinds of herbs. But a recognized small to medium-size herb garden might have as many as 20 to 30 different types of herbs. Nevertheless, I recommend that you start with just a few, and develop the varieties of herbs as you acquire experience.
If you are interested in a particular kind of herb (garlic for instance), there are lots of resources available to help you investigate your selected herb and understand how to cultivate it effectively. But, if you invest too much time on research, you'll never get your kitchen herb garden established. This article will help you to make your research study job simpler by teaching you about the different types of herbs that you could pick to grow in your herb garden, and give you some ideas on how they could be used around your home.
1. The Main Categories of Herbs
Herbs, like other plants with which you will recognize can be put into 3 different classifications - annuals, perennials and biennials. Annuals like basil, cilantro, and summertime tasty die when the very first frosts get here, and they therefor need to be planted as seeds each year (or as plants if you purchase from a nursery). Sage and winter tasty are perennials and can endure chillier temperatures. They will return year after year. Finally there are the biennial herbs. These form their leaves throughout the first growing season and then flower and seed during the 2nd season. After this they pass away.
2. Tips on Growing Herbs in Your Garden
Biennial herbs like angelica and parsley can be sown in the garden in the late spring. Before you sow your seeds you need to prepare the soil initially by simplifying till it has a fine texture. Next make it extremely a little wet and plant the seeds in shallow rows. Lastly sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top and company it down.
Some herb seeds are challenging to plant since they are extremely fine. The secret to sowing them uniformly is to blend them with extremely fine dry sand (like children's play-sand). Sprinkle the sand and seed mixture onto your seed-bed and after that cover with soil as described above. Another great idea is to cover your herb seed bed with damp sacking, woven cloth or absorbent paper to keep the soil moist throughout the duration of germination.
3. The Different Uses of Herbs
Herbs are typically taken into classifications which describe how they are usually used. Culinary herbs are probably the most popular for the herb kitchen area garden. They can be used in a vast array of different methods cooking. Herbs like garlic, chives, thyme, sage, basil, majoram and tasty have strong flavors. They are used regularly in different kinds of food, but just in small quantities (but that of course relies on individual taste choice).
Aromatic herbs are grown for the smell of their flowers or foliage. Fragrant herbs like mint, lovage, and rosemary consist of important oils which can be used in perfumes, fragrances and toilet waters. Some aromatic herbs like lavender are used as complete plants. They are dried and taken into muslin bags and then used around the home to scent linens and clothes. Another popular use of these herbs is to make potpourri, a mixture of dried, aromatic herbs which is used to provide aromatic fragrances in houses. You might often come across ornamental wooden bowls of potpourri containing lavender, lemon verbena, marjoram and mint. There are great deals of mix's of herbs which can be used to make potpourri. If this is something you wish to try, you'll have great fun making up the organic mixes.
Some herbs are also used for to promote health and aid recovery. These are called medicinal herbs. There are lots of stories and examples of how herbs have been used for medicinal purposes, some of them returning to the times of the ancient Egyptians.
Present medical knowledge still acknowledges that some herbs are beneficial to health, but many claims made for medical herbs are now thought to be over-rated. If you do decide to use herbs from your cooking area herb garden for medicinal functions you need to work out care. Whilst many herbs are completely harmless, others (such as hemlock) can be unsafe if consumed.
Some herbs are grown simply for their appeal; they are called decorative herbs. These herbs have vibrantly colored flowers and foliage. Valerian for instance, has crimson blossoms and borage and chicory have blue flowers.
However, despite the fact that these classifications work, many of the herbs you can grow in your herb garden have numerous usages. For example, mint can be used to make mint tea or used in cooking. It can even be used in the garden for insect control!
I hope this post has provided you some ideas which will promote your interest in herbs and allow you to select those cooking area garden herbs that will be of many use to you.
Learn a lot more about selecting your garden herbs [http://www.herb-gardening-help.com/choosing-your-garden-herbs/] by checking out Adam Gilpin's website. On his website you'll find extra details and pictures to complement this short article and great deals of concepts and suggestions about all elements of herb growing. You'll also find out about how to use herbs to create remarkable meals and promote health and well-being.
To help herb gardening beginners Adam has created a complimentary e-mail mentor course on herb growing, and for those who want to take the next step in discovering the fantastic world of herbs Adam has actually produced a digital book "The Tricks of Successful Herb Growing". Both of these finding out resources can be accessed on Adam's site.