Benefits And Uses Of Growing Herbs
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Raised bed herb garden.
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Whether growing herbs for culinary, medicinal or ornamental value, they make a worthy addition to any garden. Growing herbs for nutritional purposes is above all the most rewarding.
They easily add flavor to your meals while improving your health due to their vitamin, mineral and other nutrient content, not to mention save you money.
Growing herbs indoors in a sunny windowsill, just steps away, enables you to harvest healthy ingredients all year round. They smell and taste great and are an exceptional addition to many recipes and add nutrition to your daily diet.
Herbals supply nutrients that are beneficial to preventing and treating of many health conditions. So, you may want to consider planting herbals to benefit your needs. For example, growing herbs for the purpose of herbal teas, or for natural cold and flu remedies. Whatever your needs may be. Some have multiple uses - like mint, it is used for cooking, tea and pest control.
Many herbals are delicious brewed as tea. Grow a tea garden in containers planted with bee balm, chamomile, mint (peppermint, apple mint, orange mint), lemon balm and lemon verbena.
For growing culinary herbs include basil, dill and summer savory. For perennial culinary herbs include mint, rosemary, thyme and tarragon.
The best growing herbs for kitchen gardens include: anise hyssop, chives, Chinese or garlic chives, lemon verbena, French tarragon, lemon grass, fennel, copper fennel, lovage, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, sweet basil, sweet marjoram, Greek oregano, parsley, rosemary, sorrel sage, summer savory, lemon thyme and thyme. Keep in mind their growth rate, there are slow growers, moderate growers and vigorous growers.
Slow growing herbs include bay, rosemary and winter savory. Pick only a few leaves their first season. Wait until fall of its second year, after the plant is fully established, before cutting one quarter off the top. Cut back to a leaf node to stimulate growth.
Moderate growing herbs include lavender, hardy marjoram, pineapple sage, common sage and thyme. They tolerate 2 light cuttings per season. Cut off 1/3 of the new growth in early summer and another 1/3 in early fall. Time the last cutting to allow any new growth to harden off before a heavy frost.
Vigorous growing herbs include french tarragon, lemon balm, mint, basil, oregano and summer savory. They will tolerate 2 or more harvests a year. Half of their new growth can be cut off once in late spring, a second time in summer and again in early fall when their essential oils are at their peek.
Aromatic herb seeds include dill, brown mustard, caraway, coriander, fennel, black cumin and sesame.
Herbs for potpourri include lemon verbena, borage (flowers), calendula (flowers), lemon grass, bay, lavender, lemon balm, mint, sweet marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage, violet (flowers) and ginger root.
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