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How
To Grow And Handle Fresh Herbs
From Your Garden Beds Or Your Container Garden
By Mary Hanna
In any recipe calling for herbs, use fresh herbs. Preparing the herbs
for your dish is easy. The more tender herbs like mint, parsley, basil
and cilantro can be gathered in a bowl and snipped with scissors. This
is the fastest and safest way to chop the herbs. If your recipe calls
for the more hardy herbs like oregano, rosemary, or thyme you should
use the stripping method. Hold a branch of the herb upright in your
fingers and run the fingers of your other hand down the stalk stripping
the tiny leaves free. The flavor will be more intense if you have
gathered the herbs from your herb gardens or container gardens because
they will be absolutely the freshest herbs available.
The best way to have fresh herbs is to plant and grow them yourself. No
longer is there a designated “herb garden”. They
can be found in your flower beds, along walkways or in pots on your
porch. Many ambitious gardeners are finding new ways to incorporate
herbs into their garden beds and their container gardens.
Many gardeners are unaware of the beauty of flowering herbs and never
consider planting them within their flower beds. Some herbs that have
beautiful flowers are purple coneflower, catmint, bee balm, yarrow,
pinks, lavender, pot marigold, borage, feverfew, and nasturtium which
is particularly lovely in fresh salads.. Many other herbs, such as
parsley are excellent next to flowers of all sorts because of their
spectacular foliage. When planting red or blue flowers, place purple
basil around them for an artful arrangement.
Thyme
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Another area to consider is to use herbs as ground
cover. The herbs that are suitable to this are the low
growing oregano, chamomile, woolly and other creeping thyme, mint, and
rosemary. Not only will it look pretty but it will be absolutely
fragrant. Just be careful of the mint family, they tend to take over
everything.
One of the best ways I have grown herbs is in containers. In fact, I
like container gardening so much I wrote my eBook “Container
Gardening Secrets” (available at
ContainerGardeningSecrets.com),
so everyone could enjoy this type of gardening. The beauty of a
container garden is that it is portable and can be changed at a
moment’s whim. When there is no more room in your garden,
start a container garden which you can place on your door step or
patio. Use them to fill in bare spots that come up during the gardening
season or put them on a sunny window sill in your home for easy
harvesting. Best of all you can bring your herb containers inside over
the winter months and continue to harvest for months to add to your
tasty meals or to be used for medicinal purposes.
Another way to employ pots in your garden is to plant invasive herbs
such as mint into a pot and then plant pot and all into the ground.
This is an easy trick to keep those “creepers” from
taking over your garden beds.
Plant a container garden near your door with the cherry pie scented
blue flower heliotrope and other fragrant herbs such as rosemary, thyme
and basil. Every time you walk by you will be greeted with there
delicious scent.
Some herbs that have grown on rocky hillsides over the centuries such
as thyme, oregano and lavender are perfect for cracks in flag stone
paths or walls and rock gardens. They thrive in hot dry areas with good
drainage. Some believe that those herbs grown in these conditions
produce much better flavor.
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Now is the time to plant your herbs, whether it is in a garden bed, a
cracked wall or a container garden. Use your imagination. Consider
color height and texture when planting your gardens. Not only will it
be visually pleasing but your cooking will improve too!
Happy Gardening!
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Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.
Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This
allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She has
published other articles on Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her
websites at
http://www.GardeningHerb.com,
http://www.ContainerGardeningSecrets.com
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