General Herb FAQs
There are many questions about herbs. Here are some important questions and answers that will be helpful.
What is the best location for my herb garden? A location that will offer at least 4 hours of sunlight is best. An ideal location is one with 6 hours of sunlight. Be sure the location is well drained and ventilated.
What type of soil do herbs like? Most herbs do well with soil that has alkaline to neutral pH 7.0-7.2. Oregano, sweet marjoram, sage and rosemary especially need this. If you fiil a bucket 1/4 full of unsprayed lawn clippings and top with water, soak in the sun a few days this gives a good nitrogen boost to herbs.
How often do herbs need to be watered? This is a hard question to answer. If they are established in the ground with a good layer of mulch generally they may be watered 2-3 times a week. It is best to water herbs in the morning. Water herbs when the soil is dry to the touch. Do not overwater.
What are the best organic herbs to start a garden? Most herb gardens begin with culinary herbs such as basil (summer annual), oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, dill (quick growing annual), chives, mint (best kept confined or mint will take over the garden). There are many others to start with but these are the basics.
Does an organic herb garden need to be fertilized? Yes! Some slower growing plants like sage and thyme not as much. Others like basil and parsley need a lot. Fertilizers are best applied in the morning but never to stressed or dried plants because it may burn foliage. Soak these plants and feed the next day.
How can insects be controlled organically? Most can be controlled with neem oil (only use this if nothing else works). This needs to be used fortnightly. Bacillus thuringensis (bt) can be used on caterpillars. Use every 2 weeks in caterpillar season.
Will my herbs grow well indoors? Herbs do not grow as well indoors. A sunny porch or deck would work.
As we can see there are a lot of things to know about herbs. These are the most basic FAQs I found. They were helpful to me and I’m sure they will be helpful to you.
Petunia
Potpourri is a fragrant mix of dried flower petals, leaves, whole flowers and spices. It could be sewn into sachets, simmered in a potpourri burner, or displayed in an open bowl. By choosing herbs and flowers that dry well and maintain their fragrance when dried, you will be well on your way to scenting your home with the natural fragrance of last summers garden.
Your potpourri mix should include both flowers and herbs from your garden, and be chosen with an eye toward color and a nose for scent.
Fine Gardening Magazine
Herbs have been around since time immemorial. Ever since, herbs have served different kinds of purposes. Herbs have been used to treat illness and also in cooking. They are even believed to have magical charms. So if you do want to have your own herb garden, here are a few ideas on how to create one effectively.
Basil
Today there are sprays, scented candles, plug-ins, and even discs that promise to freshen your air by putting a variety of aromas into your home. However, when you know how to grow basil, you can have enough variety of fragrance to package your own potpourri! The most generally grown basil is the annual, ocimum basilicum that carries a minty fragrance that smells like well, it smells like sweet basil. In addition to having a wonderful fragrance, sweet basil is an essential ingredient in soups, stews, pesto sauce, and just about any tomato dish. Knowing how to grow basil is a must for every herb gardener. You can grow herbs both indoors and outdoors
Seed Kit
Bigger balconies may also serve as a seating area - a perfect place to relax after a day at work. just remember to use light furniture as moving it around might be a backbreaking task in bad weather.
Even if your apartment doesn’t boast an extended balcony, theres nothing to worry about. When it comes to gardens, size doesn’t really seem to matter and even the smallest square might support a mini-kitchen garden.
You might grow everything from tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant to oranges, all in pots. Admittedly, this is a bit more challenging than having just a few ferns and flowers. If you’re not willing to work that hard for fresh fruit and vegetables, ruminate on growing your own herb garden. Its the best option. Herbs can be grown in planters, needing just water and sunlight.
Replacement Grow Bulbs
There is nothing more pleasing than walking right outside your kitchen door and finding all the spices you will absolutely need for a tasty and fresh dinner. How about picking a bit of rosemary for those lamp chops, or cutting a bit of that fresh dill for that flounder you’re baking, or pulling some fresh oregano leaves to add to that spaghetti sauce or snipping some fresh basal for a tomato, mozzarella cheese and basal salad. The availability of fresh herbs might add a real kick to your ordinary dishes and turn them into something special. Fresh herbs are also likely to help you boost your imagination in the kitchen.
How to Grow Basil
Today there are sprays, scented candles, plug-ins, and even discs that promise to freshen your air by putting a variety of aromas into your home. However, when you know how to grow basil, you can have enough variety of fragrance to package your own potpourri! The most generally grown basil is the annual, ocimum basilicum that carries a minty fragrance that smells like well, it smells like sweet basil. In addition to having a wonderful fragrance, sweet basil is an essential ingredient in soups, stews, pesto sauce, and just about any tomato dish. Knowing how to grow basil is a must for every herb gardener. You can grow herbs both indoors and outdoors
Basil comes in over 160 varieties that, in addition to the sweet basil fragrance, offer other aromas like those of lemon, licorice, and cinnamon and foliage colors that range from emerald green to royal purple. Learn how to grow basil and you provide a treat for you eyes as well as an aromatic treat for you nose.
Generally, when just learning how to grow basil, you will want to start your plants from seeds. Until basil stems are nearly mature, they are quite fragile and easily broken and bruised so transplanting young basil cultivars could be an exercise in futility. Luckily, basil is one of the cultivars that could be seeded directly into your garden and in fact, if you reseed your basil plot every three weeks, youll have fresh basil all summer long.
Basil is a low-maintenance plant. Although it prefers full sun, it will grow in partial shade. Once seedlings are established, basil is also drought tolerant and will actually provide better flavor if you dont fertilize it! One tip you should understand about how to grow basil and preserve its full flavor for culinary use is to pinch off flower spikes as they form.
Part of the fun of knowing how to grow basil is the many different ways to preserve it after harvest. You might harvest your basil anytime by snipping off its leaves as you absolutely need them and they turn many ordinary dishes into delicacies when used fresh. Basil might also be dried by snipping some stems and hanging them in bunches together. Air-drying basil in this way is a great way to add its aroma to your kitchen! When your basil bunches are completely dry, you can crumble the leaves and store them in glass bottles. Basil may also be preserved by freezing. Freeze small quantities of fresh basil in plastic bags or chop the leaves and freeze them in water in an ice cube tray.
Basil is an effortless -growing herb that is full of possibilities for home, fragrance and culinary utilize. In addition, its as well suited for container growing as it is for direct seeding into your garden. Learning how to grow basil is a sweetly satisfying part of gardening, no matter what variety you choose to grow!
Creating Your Own Garden in Small Spaces
Anyone may have a garden, even those apartment dwellers living in the smallest apartments. If you have a balcony, all you absolutely need is a little imagination and patience, and a bit of a green thumb and you too can have a pocket garden assessment of value bragging about.
The balcony is actually the most underused space in an apartment and its precious space for wannabe gardener. No matter how small your balcony might be, its adequate space to support a number of potted plants. But there should be some order in the way the planters are arranged, or the overall space could finish up looking cluttered. One could also hang a few pots from the balcony roof and walls, but do not go overboard and generate the balcony look like a tropical jungle.
Bigger balconies may also serve as a seating area - a perfect place to relax after a day at work. just remember to use light furniture as moving it around might be a backbreaking task in bad weather.
Even if your apartment doesnt boast an extended balcony, theres nothing to worry about. When it comes to gardens, size doesnt really seem to matter and even the smallest square might support a mini-kitchen garden.
You might grow everything from tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant to oranges, all in pots. Admittedly, this is a bit more challenging than having just a few ferns and flowers. If youre not willing to work that hard for fresh fruit and vegetables, ruminate on growing your own herb garden. Its the best option. Herbs can be grown in planters, needing just water and sunlight.
If you still feel that the balcony is too small, theres one more option. Create the illusion of open space. A crystal-clear sliding glass door between the room and balcony along with continuous flooring between the spaces can achieve the look of wider-open spaces without costing you a fortune.
Growing an apartment-friendly garden on your balcony isn’t hard by any means. All it takes is a little bit of instant. You will be proud of yourself for the work that you’ve created and the beauty thats right outside your apartment - no matter how far up you are. From the second floor to the fifteenth and beyond - a beautiful garden could just be only a few steps from your door.
Preserving Flowers From A Potpourri Garden
Fresh cut flowers all spring and summer are one of the bonuses of having a flower garden. Wouldn’t you love to extend that bonus throughout the year? By choosing the right flowers and learning methods of drying and preserving flowers, you may fill your house with the beauty and fragrance of potpourri all year long.
Growing a Potpourri Garden
Potpourri is a fragrant mix of dried flower petals, leaves, whole flowers and spices. It could be sewn into sachets, simmered in a potpourri burner, or displayed in an open bowl. By choosing herbs and flowers that dry well and maintain their fragrance when dried, you will be well on your way to scenting your home with the natural fragrance of last summers garden.
Your potpourri mix should include both flowers and herbs from your garden, and be chosen with an eye toward color and a nose for scent. A potpourri garden might add several (or all!) of the following:
Fragrant Herbs and Flowers for a Potpourri Garden
Lilac this flower is both beautiful and fragrant. To use in potpourri, dry the flowerets separately on a drying screen. For use in dried flower arrangements, use silica gel to dry whole flowers.
Lavender another fragrant purple flower, lavender dries well. Hang in bunches upside down in a dark, dry room. Both leaves and flowers carry the fragrance of lavender and could be used in potpourri.
Roses Roses are a beautiful addition to any potpourri. For fragrance, separate the petals and dry on a drying screen. If you want to incorporate whole rosebuds from your potpourri garden, they’re best dried in silica or another desiccant, but small, delicate rosebuds could be dried on screens as well.
Mint Theres an amazing variety of mints available, and nearly any will add a hint of fresh spice to a potpourri. If you choose to grow mint in a potpourri garden, be sure to cage the roots so that it doesn’t take over the entire plot. To dry, either air dry tied bunches, or dry separated leaves on a drying screen.
Lemon Balm This perennial herb has a light lemony-mint scent that enhances the fragrance of roses and lilacs. The leaves should be picked before the plant flowers and dried quickly its one of the few herbs that benefits from drying in a low oven on a screen.
Violets Sweetly scented and brightly colored, violets preserve their color well through drying. To dry, nip the flower off just at the base of the head, and lay on drying screens in the sun.
Flowers and Herbs for Color in a Potpourri Garden
Many of the herbs and flowers listed above are brightly colored as well as fragrant. There are some flowers, however, that will add little to the fragrance of potpourri but dry so prettily that its a shame not to include them.
Calendula Bright yellow or blue petals construct calendula a pretty addition to a bowl of potpourri. To use, you can either dry the entire flower head, or separate the petals to dry on a flower screen.
Pansies A relative of violets, pansies retain their bright color when dried in silica gel. They’re a wonderful addition to a potpourri garden besides their appearance, they’re edible and wonderful in salads or as candied decorations on a cake. In potpourri, the dried petals or whole-dried flowers generate a beautiful accent.
Create Your Own Special Herb Garden
Herbs have been around since time immemorial. Ever since, herbs have served different kinds of purposes. Herbs have been used to treat illness and also in cooking. They are even believed to have magical charms. So if you do want to have your own herb garden, here are a few ideas on how to create one effectively.
Plan The Layout Of Your Garden
Consider the herbs you want to plant. Think carefully about their types. Would you like annuals, biennials or perennials for example.
How much space will they occupy in your garden? If you want, you may purchase a book that can give you the right understanding on what specific plants you are planning to grow.
List or draw your garden on paper first. Separate the annuals from the perennials so when the time comes that you have to pull out the annuals, you wont be disturbing the perennials. Perennials could be planted on the edge of your garden so when it is instant to till your garden, you wont have a hard time.
Another thing to remember is that you have to plant the tall ones at the back and the shorter ones in front. Also, do be sure that you provide your plants with enough space to grow properly. Proper positioning will help you in this area.
Some Design Ideas
You could consider having a square herb bed. You could have your square bed divided into four by creating two paths to cross at mid point, each measuring 3 feet. You could border it with stone or brick. A wooden ladder may also do the trick. You could lay it down on your garden and plant your herbs between its rungs. You could also choose to have a wagon wheel bed. Planting here is like planting with the wooden ladders. Plant your herbs in between the wagon wheels wedges.
Get Your Plants Growing
Of course, different plants have different needs. This is the reason why you have to determine the herbs you want to plant in the planning stage. This can more or less help you find out how you should care for your plants. With starting seeds, remember its germination and soil temperature rules. If you see the seedlings sprouting, check the plants air circulation, humidity, and sunlight. When you beginning to see some leaves appear, allow proper spacing.
Herbs are actually one of the easiest plants to grow. You only absolutely need to provide them with a successful drainage, sunlight, enough humidity or moisture, and fertile soil. Even by just meeting these minimal requirements, you will overcome in producing a grand harvest.
So as well as the immense satisfaction in cultivating your own choice of herbs, imagine the pleasure knowing that you are using your own fresh produce in your cooking.
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