January
2009
Organic Herbal Gardening For Beginners, At Home0
Working on organic herbal gardening inside a building is a great way to provide your family with fresh produce and also with beautiful greenery. In fact the sweet-smelling herbs not only look and smell good; they are also great for adding flavor to your cooking.
Organic herbal gardening in the house has certain advantages over outdoors growing. You are much less season-dependent, and you can have a plot of plants that is just the size you need it to be within constant reach of your kitchen.
There are very few herbs that cannot be grown organically indoors, so rather than thinking about herbs to avoid you should focus on the plants that will go well together. It is great to have an organic garden theme!
If you are partial to herbal teas, your organic herbal gardening efforts could focus on suitable herbs for tea-making, such as catnip, lemon grass, chamomile, lavender, mint, and peppermint. You can then mix these with organic tea or use them by themselves to make your mornings and afternoons more pleasant.
As for the pots, you need to make sure that the ones you get are right for the herbs you want. Not all herbs are suitable to all kinds of containers. Specifically, for some plants you need a pot with a minimum size.
Make sure that you don’t get any tiny pots meant for growing from seed, unless that is your original intention! In fact, better to get slightly bigger pots if you have the space in your growing area.
Bigger pots will give your plants room to grow, and will mean that you will have more herbs at your disposal. The result? Healthier and more flavorsome dishes! And when a herb outgrows its pot, transplant it.
Concerning extra soil and fertilizer, you should make sure that only organic earth and additives are used for your herbs. This will ensure better quality, flavor and health benefits, with little effect on the cost of growing your herbal garden.
The next crucial step is to think about the lighting. You should put the plants next to a good source of natural light, possibly a southwards-facing window. Don’t automatically put the plants in full sunlight, as some grow better in a shadier spot. You may want to experiment with electric grow lights if there isn’t a lot of light where you live, but this isn’t usually necessary.
If you give it a start, you will quickly find that organic herbal gardening is a pleasant and engrossing hobby, as well as a very handy one. It’s not hard, and with a minimum of effort your cooking will end up being much more flavorsome.