Home Herb Garden Tips and Advice

Using Herbs from a Home Herb Garden

Once your herbs are planted, you can watch them grow and flourish. Herbs are so useful, not only for cooking, adding to oils, but also for medicinal uses. However, your home herb garden requires just a bit of work.

Herbs can become a part of your daily life. You will get so used to adding an extra special flavor that can only come from your home-grown herb garden. You most likely will be harvesting (picking) your herbs daily. Harvesting is very important. Timing is everything. If you are using the herbs for an immediate use, obviously the best time to pick them is when you need them. But, if you are planning on drying or freezing the herbs, it is extremely important to harvest them when their flavor is at their peak. It is better to pick the young leaves several times a season rather than waiting until the entire plant is mature.

Pick the herb flowers either right before they are ready to bloom or when they first open their petal. It does not matter if you are using the herbs immediately, drying or freezing, the morning is the best time to harvest the herb flower or leaves. This is when the concentration of rich oils that give the herbs their aromas and flavors is strongest.

Many people that have their own home herb gardens harvest by the phases of the moon.

They say that herbs that have been harvested around a moon calendar retain more nutrients and flavor. Pick your herbs in the morning as usual, but check a moon calendar to find the best phase of the moon.

One of the big pleasures of having your own home herb garden is that you can eat your foods without having to wash it. There are no pesticides or chemical to rinse off.

If you plan to store your herbs for a few days, hold off washing them. When you do wash the herbs and if there is a large quantity, you can use the sink and place 2 tablespoons of salt in the water. This will get rid of insects without damaging the plant. After removing the herb, dry them in a salad spinner. The exception is parsley. This is one herb that stays longer and fresher if you seep it in cool water as soon as you pick it. This herb will not wilt by following this procedure.

Although different types of herbs have their own list of instructions, typically there are three ways that people preserve their herbs for later use: drying, freezing or preserving.

Drying is one of the simplest and most convenient ways to preserve your herbs' leaves and flowers. Hang drying is an especially great way to preserve large quantities of herbs. You will need a well ventilated, dark, dry location. Your attic or a small dark room would be ideal. Don't bother to wash them. Tie small bunches of herbs with twist ties, rubber bands or elastic threads and hang them so that air can circulate freely. Hang them one foot from the wall and leave at least 6 inches between bunches. Most herbs dry within two weeks. They will feel crackly to touch. These herbs are much more concentrated than fresh herbs. Store in tightly closed jars/bottles and store in dark part of your kitchen cabinet.

Freezing captures the full flavor of herb leaves. Cut the herbs into ¼ inch pieces and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Once frozen, place in a bag for more efficient storage. A neat trick for using your herbs in soups/stews is to place your chopped up herbs in an ice tray and cover with water and freeze. These cubes are handy to add to a simmering pot of soup or sauce.

The third way is using a medium. You can use either vinegar or salt.One great example is to use chopped mint, basil or tarragon with vinegar. It will stay preserved for months. If you'd like to make flavored salt, just alternate layers of fresh herbs between salt. When completely dry, separate the brown herb from the flavored salt and store in an airtight container.

Herbs transform ordinary meals into magical delights. Even if you already cook with herbs, having your own herb garden will inspire you to experiment and discover new ways of making an old recipe new.

Home and Garden Tips

Planning and planting a garden is easier than you may think, and fresh grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers are great rewards that are worth a couple weekends of getting your garden underway. Below are a few basic tips to use around your home and garden.

1. Before you begin to dig up a place in your yard for your garden, decide how much work you want to put into gardening and how big of yield you hope to harvest. If you just start tearing up yard, you may end up with too much garden and wasted space.

2. Many will till their garden twice before planting. The first till is to break up and loosen hard soil to about 12 to 14 inches of depth. The second should till compost and fertilizer into the soil.

3. Depending on your soil type, mix in compost material and possibly peat moss to add nutrients and to aid in water absorption and drainage.

4. Keep soil around the base of plants loose to aid in water and nutrient absorption.

5. Watering more deeply allows longer periods of time between watering. If it is sunny and hot, water in early morning or at night. There is less water evaporation at these times which allows water to soak into the soil.

6. For lawn care, one deep watering is better than watering lightly several times. In normal summer conditions, lawns need about one inch of rain per week.

7. To help keep water from evaporating from lawns, keep lawns cut at about two inches, or so. Not gathering grass clippings will allow for natural compost to develop which adds nutrients to the soil of your lawn.

8. To slow evaporation from your garden, put a couple of inches of mulch on the surface of the soil.

These are basic home and garden tips that can be used in most climates and regions of the country. Your local home and garden professional can also give you helpful tips, especially those that may particularly apply to the local area in which you live.

Wonderful Tips and Information in Preparing For Fall Vegetable Garden

Fall vegetable garden starts to be grown in four season countries to extend plants growing season. This method is efficient in getting more and more crops for resident's consumption. In addition, you could also prepare for making such a fall vegetable garden by yourself by considering the following orders. Many winter crops that are planted in the garden, for instance carrots, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are more agreeable to mature in cooler weather. Then when you can grow from seed or require transplantable plants will depend on the kind of soil in that the plants grow.

Apparently, August 1 is the time to plant veggies in a garden. Particularly in the center of the country, a fall vegetable garden is perfect with the veggies that living further north with the planting schedule depending to the location.

The Preparation of the Ground

What you need to do first in preparing for a garden is preparing the appropriate ground.

remember to remove all the plant remnants and weeds from the ground.

Regard that almost all of the plants will own a 60 to 80 day maturity period, so that the suitable time to plan can be set. Crops that live well in the months of hot summer maybe will not stay alive in a cool climate harvest. As a result, the first day in winter will end most of their life.

Diligence and Planning Needed

Veggies, just like lettuce and cabbage may have better growth if cultivated from plants that are four to six weeks old.

Finally, bear in mind to give correct watering to your fall vegetable garden. For obtaining much better harvest for your fall vegetable garden, don't be doubtful to collect as much information as possible about the method of growing season.

Okay, have fun gardening!




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