Creating a herb garden

Growing in popularity these days is herb gardening, and there are good reasons for this. One of the nice things about growing herbs is the fact that you can use them, which adds an unmistakable value to these types of plants. Remember that, apart from herbs being beautiful and spreading a wonderful smell in your garden, they are incredibly useful in the kitchen when cooking.

If you like using herbs from your own garden in your cooking, remember that you can harvest herbs to dry, so you will always have a supply in winter. In order to dry your own leafy herbs you start by cutting the tops, after which you wash them before hanging them out to dry until the water has evaporated. Then you bind the branches or stems, cover them in a paper back and hang it up again. Take the bunch out of the bag after a few weeks, take off the leaves and break them into small pieces before drying them in a warm oven; the dried herb should then stored in a glass jar.

Basil is probably the most grown herb in home gardens. The common green leaved basil as well as varieties like “Dark Opal”, will add a wonderful display in your garden, as they are very decorative. “Dark Opal” is gorgeous to look at with its darker red leaves and little pink flowers. However, basil is mostly used to season pastas and tomato juice, as well as being decorative.

A pretty herb looking a bit like grass is chives. Even though chives look quite fragile, they are strong as they will continue to thrive through dry periods in the growing season. Chives are therefore a very popular choice in herb gardening, and they are also very undemanding in their maintenance. Chives add a wonderful flavour when used in a variety of sauces, egg dishes and salads.

Another easy to grow herb is mint, which is a wonderful addition to lemonade and many other fruity summer drinks, or mint jelly or juleps. Growing mint in your garden will provide you with a wonderful unique smell. Some other herbs often seen in gardens are sage and thyme. These are both very popular in soup and added to meat dishes like sausages, pork, chicken or turkey. Sage is also a decorative addition to any garden, as it has wonderful flowers with little blue spikes.

And who doesn’t know lavender, with its most distinctive smell amongst herbs? Lavender is commonly used for its fragrance in linen cupboards, or added to candles and perfumes. The leaves and little purple flowers will delight just about anybody.

In addition to the above, you will generally find the following herbs in herb gardens: borage, which is popular with eggs; sesame, often used to add flavour to bread, cookies and crackers; sweet marjoram, wonderful in soups and salads, as well with fish and lamb; dill, used for pickling and flavoring meat. With their decorative value, added smell and use for cooking, growing herbs in your garden will be very satisfying. Home grown herbs will also be cheaper and more flavorsome than herbs from the superstore.