How to Select Herbs for Your Herb Kitchen Area Garden
If you have chosen you want to develop your own kitchen herb garden, you need to initially pick what herbs to grow in it. As soon as you have done that you can start preparing your herb garden strategy and start taking a look at things like herb garden kits or herb seed brochures. To make things as easy as possible for you I have composed this article to teach you about the "3 things every herb gardener needs to understand" before heading out to buy herb plants or seeds.
How many different types of herbs do you wish to plant in your cooking area herb garden? Most people, when they are setting up their herb garden, choose about 5 or 6 kinds of herbs. But a recognized little to medium-size herb garden could have as many as 20 to 30 different types of herbs. However, I recommend that you start with simply a couple of, and build up the numbers of herbs as you gain experience.
If you have an interest in a specific kind of herb (garlic for instance), there are lots of resources available to help you investigate your picked herb and understand how to cultivate it successfully. But, if you spend excessive time on research, you'll never get your kitchen area herb garden developed. This post will help you to make your research task easier by teaching you about the different types of herbs that you could pick to grow in your herb garden, and provide you some concepts on how they could be used in and around your home.
1. The Main Categories of Herbs
Herbs, like other plants with which you will be familiar can be taken into three different categories - annuals, perennials and biennials. Annuals like basil, cilantro, and summer season savory die when the very first frosts show up, and they therefor need to be planted as seeds each year (or as plants if you purchase from a nursery). Sage and winter season savory 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 very first growing season and after that 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 should prepare the soil initially by simplifying until it has a great texture. Next make it extremely a little damp and plant the seeds in shallow rows. Lastly sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top and company it down.
Some herb seeds are difficult to sow because they are extremely great. The trick to sowing them uniformly is to blend them with very fine dry sand (like kids's play-sand). Spray the sand and seed mixture onto your seed-bed and after that cover with soil as described above. Another excellent tip is to cover your herb seed bed with wet sacking, woven cloth or absorbent paper to keep the soil moist during the period of germination.
3. The Different Uses of Herbs
Herbs are frequently put into categories which describe how they are frequently used. Cooking herbs are most likely the most popular for the herb kitchen area garden. They can be used in a wide variety of different methods cooking. Herbs like garlic, chives, thyme, sage, basil, majoram and mouthwatering have strong flavors. They are used often in different types of food, but just in small quantities (but that naturally relies on individual taste preference).
Fragrant herbs are grown for the smell of their flowers or foliage. Aromatic herbs like mint, lovage, and rosemary contain necessary oils which can be used in perfumes, aromas and toilet waters. Some aromatic herbs like lavender are used as complete plants. They are dried and put into muslin bags and then used around the home to scent linens and clothing. Another popular use of these herbs is to make potpourri, a mixture of dried, fragrant herbs which is used to provide fragrant aromas in houses. You may typically come across ornamental wooden bowls of potpourri including lavender, lemon verbena, marjoram and mint. There are great deals of combination's of herbs which can be used to make potpourri. If this is something you would like to try, you'll have great enjoyable comprising the natural mixtures.
Some herbs are also used for to promote health and aid recovery. These are called medical herbs. There are great deals of stories and examples of how herbs have been used for medical functions, a few of them returning to the times of the ancient Egyptians.
Present medical knowledge still recognizes that some herbs are beneficial to health, but many claims produced medical herbs are now believed to be over-rated. If you do decide to use herbs from your cooking area herb garden for medicinal functions you need to exercise care. Whilst many herbs are completely safe, others (such as hemlock) can be dangerous if eaten.
Some herbs are grown simply for their appeal; they are called decorative herbs. These herbs have vibrantly colored flowers and foliage. Valerian for example, has crimson blossoms and borage and chicory have blue flowers.
However, although these categories are useful, 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 actually provided you some ideas which will promote your interest in herbs and allow you to pick those kitchen garden herbs that will be of most use to you.
Discover a lot more about selecting your garden herbs [http://www.herb-gardening-help.com/choosing-your-garden-herbs/] by visiting Adam Gilpin's site. On his website you'll find extra details and images to complement this article and great deals of ideas and ideas about all elements of herb growing. You'll also learn about how to use herbs to produce remarkable meals and promote health and well-being.
To help herb gardening novices Adam has created a complimentary email teaching course on herb growing, and for those who want to take the next step in learning about the terrific world of herbs Adam has produced a digital book "The Secrets of Effective Herb Growing". Both of these discovering resources can be accessed on Adam's site.
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