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Planting Your First Herb Garden

October 11th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

After you have decided that you would like to plant your first herb garden you might be trying to figure out where to start.  You will need to decide where you would like to plant your herb garden.  You can grow an indoor herb garden as well as an outdoor garden.  Picking which herbs you would like to grow will be necessary.  Location for the garden and type of herb will need to correlate.  Planting an herb that likes the direct sun in a shady location will not result in a successful garden.

Because it is your first herb garden it might be in your best interest to start out small.  Pick only one or two herbs that have similar requirements to grow.  Once you have had success with those two then you can add more into the garden.  Also keep in mind that each herb plant yields a considerable amount of food so you do not want to overplant anything or you might end up with too much to use before it goes bad.

Once you have decided on a location and the herbs you would like to grow it is time to get started.  Pay careful attention to the requirements noted on each of the packages for your herbs. Plant each herb according to the directions into your new herb garden.  Pay special attention to the germination time so you can begin to watch for sprouts.  In no time at all you will have fresh herbs in your garden that you can season your favorite meals with.

How Do I Store Items From My Herb Garden

The best way to store herbs that you have picked fresh from your garden is to dry them.  Drying herbs is relatively easy.  Once you have picked the herbs you want to store make sure to thoroughly wash them and let the water dry off.  Once they are free of the excess moisture you will want to fasten the stems together with some string.  Place your prepared herbs into a paper bag.  You will need a location where you hang the herbs inside for a few weeks until the drying process is complete. 

After you remove the herbs crumble them up into pieces.  Spread them out on a pan and cover them with a cloth to dry out a little further.  When complete all you need to do is add your herbs to airtight jars to keep them preserved for use during the colder months when fresh herbs are not readily available from your herb garden.

Vegetable Gardening Tips

October 7th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Vegetable Gardening Tips

Vegetable gardening has lately become just as popular as going to the grocery store fore produce.  Vegetable gardening can produce vegetable that are usually cheaper than store bought, and vegetables from a home vegetable garden definitely taste better by far.  Vegetable gardening is no different than growing herbs or flowers and if the proper steps are taken and the plants are give the proper care they will flourish and produce very tasty vegetables.

First you must decide what size of garden you wish to plant and then select a place for it; somewhere that has good drainage, good air flow, and good, deep soil.  It also needs to be able to get as much sunlight as possible.  Because vegetable gardens have such tasty rewards, many animals, such as dogs, rabbits, deer, and many others will try and get to your veggies.  One way to prevent this is to surround your garden with a fence, or put out a trap to catch mice, moles, and other animals.

Before planting, the soil must be properly prepared.  Good soil for vegetable gardening is achieved by cultivation and the application of organic materials.  The soil must be tilled (plowed) to control weeds and mix mulch into the soil.  If you have a small garden, spading could be a better bet than plowing.  Mulching is also a vital part of soil preparation.  Organic matter added to the soil releases nitrogen, minerals, and other nutrients plants need to thrive.  The most popular and best type of mulch you can use is compost.  While the kind and amount of fertilizer used depends on the soil and types of plants, there are some plants that have specific needs; leafy plants, like cabbage, spinach, and lettuce usually grow better with more nitrogen, while root crops like potatoes, beets, turnips, and carrots require more potash.  Tomatoes and beans use less fertilizer, while plants like onions, celery, and potatoes need a larger amount.

One thing that is vitally important in vegetable gardening is the garden arrangement.  There is no single plan that will work for every garden due to varying conditions.  One popular way to arrange a vegetable garden is to plant vegetables needing only limited space together, such as radishes, lettuce, beets, and spinach, and those that require more room together, such as corn, pumpkins, and potatoes.  Try and plant tall growing plants towards the back of the garden and shorter ones in the front so that their sunlight does not get blocked.

When you are finally ready to begin planting your vegetable garden, make sure and plant at the right time of year.  If you are dying to get an early start, you may want begin your garden inside in a hotbed and then transplant when the weather permits.  After you are finished planting, make sure your vegetables receive the appropriate amount of water, which depends on the type of plant.  Most plants will need the equivalent to about an inch of water per week.

Weeds must be controlled in vegetable gardening because they will take up water, light, and nutrients meant for the vegetables and they often bring disease and insects to the garden.  You can get rid of weeds by cultivation or mulching.  To protect against disease and insects you can buy seeds that are disease resistant or use controlled chemicals.

Vegetable gardening is many people’s favorite form of gardening because you can actually taste the fruits of your labor.  Vegetable gardening is not that expensive to start and the taste of home grown veggies definitely beat out that of supermarket vegetables.  Your vegetable gardening days will be full of produce if you take the proper precautions when planting and continue maintenance of your garden.

Herb Gardening Tips

October 6th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Herb Gardening Tips

Herb gardening is becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason.  Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose, and with herb gardening you can actually use your plants.  When most people think of herb gardening they automatically think of cooking, but herbs are also grown for their pleasant aroma and their beauty.

One important part of herb gardening is drying the herbs for use during the winter months, especially if you plan on cooking with them.  First the tops of leafy herbs have to be cut, washed, and hung up for the water to evaporate.  Then, tie stems together and hang up in a paper bag to dry.  After two to three weeks they must be removed; crumble the leaves, dry them out in the oven, and store in a glass jar.

One of the most common herbs gown in herb gardening is basil.  “Dark Opal” and regular green basil are beautiful additions to any garden and often used as decoration.  Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves.  Basil isn’t just used for its looks; it is used for extra flavor in tomato juices and pastes.

Chives are very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass.  They are much stronger than they look, however, and will grow well through a drought and a drought.  Their toughness and sturdiness makes Chives a perfect plant for herb gardening, especially if the gardener doesn’t want plants that require a lot of hassle.  Chives are good used in salads, egg dishes, and many different sauces.

Mint is also very simple to grow and is good to use in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade, and any other kind of fruity drink.  Mint is also good in herb gardening for its unique minty smell.  Two herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden are thyme and sage.  Both of these herb gardening favorites are used for flavoring soups, chicken, turkey, pork, and other sausages.  Sage is also grown sometimes for its beautiful blue spiked flowers.

Lavender is probably the best smelling herb in all of herb gardening and is often used in candles, as a perfume scent, and to improve the smell in linen chests.  The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely.

Other types of herbs often grown in herb gardening include borage (used in salads), chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet marjoram (flavors lamb, fish, salad, and soup), sesame (flavors crackers, cookies, and bread), and dill (flavors meats and used in pickles).  Herb gardening allows gardeners to use herbs from their own garden for cooking, looks, and smell.  Herb gardening will produce much fresher herbs with more flavor than store-bought herbs, and are a lot cheaper.

Organic Gardening: Grow And Eat Cleanly

September 29th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

herbs gardening

More and more people are getting into natural means of growing crops because of the benefits that organic pot gardening brings. Experts agree that the most basic premise that people—who are planning to do organic gardening—need to understand about the process of how it replenishes the use of natural resources. Meaning, when one does organic gardening, he or she should understand how important it is to use natural components such as composting plants and other fruits peels to feed the soil where the crop will be planted.

Determining how organic gardening can actually improve lives

The beauty of nature cannot always be seen outdoors by some people. Being inside the comforts of home doesn’t mean that people can no longer enjoy the feel of nature for they can always indulge and reap the benefits of organic gardening. Contrary to common perception that crops from organic gardens are not good, there are so many benefits of organic gardening. It may seem like a difficult task, but just set your mind to an enjoyable activity and only then can you begin to reap the benefits of gardening.

The following are just some of the benefits of organic gardening:

1. It leads you back to basics. Nature always provides the feeling of health and calmness. Flowers, trees, plants, and natures other elements exude an air of calmness. But, due to the dawning of modern age, most people neglect how can nature give ultimate satisfaction and tranquility. But, if you want to back to basics, you can always create your own organic garden in the comforts of your own space.

2. Healthier supply of food. The only downside to creating an organic garden is that you would have to kneel down on your knees and get dirty once in a while. Putting aside the energy spent on these tasks, you can realize that at the end of the season, you can harvest fresh produce that most people cannot find in leading stores. Not pondering much on the effort you will exert in planting seedlings would also make you realize you are investing on something that could provide you enough supply of fresh, healthy and sumptuous supply of food.

3. An amazing alternative to save money. One of the great benefits of organic gardening is that it can be a great alternative for you to save money. Aside from being an amazing alternative for a feel of great outdoors, organic gardening can also help you save by getting the best crops for free and having a healthy environment.

4. It serves as a great hobby or past time. For older people, one of the amazing benefits of organic tomato gardening is that it can buy some time off to people who want lesser stress in life. Since it has something to do with nature, organic gardening can indeed be a leisure activity not just for the elder but for the younger ones as well.

But, before going into the hobby of organic gardening, it is a must for you to know where to begin and how to begin. Organic gardening should start from a detailed planning. The first thing to consider is to determine the appropriate location for the type of garden you would want to have. If you plan to have a garden with ornamental plants, then it should be located in an area where the plants can be safe from harmful elements. Likewise, if you plan to have a vegetable garden, make sure that the location you have chosen would provide the crops enough exposure to the sun and sufficient water supply.

Having Your own Hydroponics Vegetables Greenhouse

September 29th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

There is one “friendly to the environment” growing method, which is very easy for anyone to learn, and that is hydroponics. Would starting a vegetable greenhouse using hydroponics be an option? Children learn hydroponics early on in a classroom setting, showing just how easy it can be to grow your own vegetables. 

Hydroponics Are Good For Your Family And Also Beneficial To The Environment

Using hydroponics not only enables you to enjoy bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables, but also saves water and benefits the environment by reducing the release of harmful pesticides and herbicides into the atmosphere. Lettuce, tomatoes, chilli peppers, bean sprouts are just some of the examples of easy crops to grow. 

When you choose a hydroponics vegetables greenhouse, you will be able to enjoy vegetables and fruits all year round.  Imagine having all the fresh herbs you want.  You can have a continuous supply of your favorite herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, chives, chervil, parsley, sorrel, mint, sage, cilantro and dill and many other herbs. 

The Advantages of Hydroponics over Field Crops

A couple of advantages that the hydroponics growing method has over conventional field crops is that the roots are always exposed to oxygen, water and nutrients in a controlled environment.  Instead of setting up a sprinkler system or hauling the hose around outside, you can conserve water by growing your plants using the hydroponics growing method. 

For a field crop, the quality of its exposure to water will determine how much oxygen the plants are getting.  Not enough water and the plant will dry up from too much air and oxygen while too much water will not let the plant gets the oxygen it needs.  A crop field can compete with a hydroponics plant for growth only if the soil and watering system is excellent.

Air Fertilization for your Greenhouse

There are some special considerations that are involved with a hydroponics vegetables greenhouse and that includes the fact that during the winter, the levels of carbon dioxide can be lower in the middle of the hydroponics vegetables greenhouse and that means those center plants will not grow as much as the others.  You can remedy this through the practice of enriching the greenhouse atmosphere with carbon dioxide, a practice known as air fertilization. 

No gardening experience is necessary to reap the full benefits of a hydroponics vegetables greenhouse. Serve your family fresh fruits and vegetables year round with a hydroponics vegetables greenhouse.

A Basic Herb Garden Can Supply Most Of Your Kitchen Needs

September 25th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

No matter where you live in the world most cultures like to use herbs in their cooking to provide the flavours and aroma that we have all come to love. With the enormous spread in popularity of Gourmet Cooking shows on television we are encouraged to expand our culinary tastes to include dishes from all over the world . As most professional chefs prefer to use fresh herbs in their cooking why should we not follow in their steps and grow our own basic herb garden at home.

It is quite easy to put in a basic herb garden to grow the ones used the most. Most of the common herbs used as spices in cooking can be successfully grown in average soil but some do request rich soil, such as oregano.

Additionally, some herbs in a basic herb garden such as parsley are biennial in nature. This means the first year they are grown they will not be useful for seasoning. It is during the second year that the crop can be used. Ideally, with parsley, , plant a new crop of seeds one year after planting your first parsley plants so that in a couple of years they will overlap, providing u sable seasoning every year.

Most of the herbs grown in a basic herb garden such as, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil are tolerant of direct sun, but will require a minimum amount of water to survive. You can harvest leaves, sprigs and twigs from any of your herbs as they are growing giving fresh organic herbs for your kitchen.

However, some plants like thyme is a very forgiving plant and if it dries out will likely come back when an appropriate amount of water is given. Since some have different soil requirements and can grow under slightly different conditions, having them separated by variety can help get them started and keep them growing throughout their life.

Plant Herbs Close To Where They Will Be Used

In most cases it is easier on the grower to plant the basic herb garden close to the kitchen for easy harvesting of the fresh crop. Remember, the entire growth does not have to be cut and used at once. With the right care, the spices will continue to grow and be usable during the entire season. Drying or freezing the extra cuttings at the end of the season can possibly supply the spice throughout the winter, often lasting until the next crop produces the following year.

If you are little short on space why not consider companion growing? When planting a basic herb garden that would take more room than available, certain herbs can be planted among other plants, especially tomatoes. Parsley can play well with other plants specifically tomatoes, asparagus and among roses. Broccoli and cauliflower also welcome rosemary in their midst. Basil also likes to grow alongside tomatoes too.

The only problem with planting herbs among other plants is that they can be mistaken and trampled on inadvertently when weeding, pruning and maintaining the other plants in your mixed garden bed. A basic herb garden is a valuable addition to your kitchen supplies and really wont take to much of your valuable time to look after.

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Credits: Work From Home | Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund