10 Steps to Your New Herb Garden

There are several reasons that people begin gardening herbs. Usually it is to have fresh herbs for cooking or as a recreational activity. Whatever your reason, you can plan your garden around your own wants and needs.

Here are 10 steps to herb garden success.

1. Choose herbs based on what you like to cook and eat – not what you have always read about.
2. Cut your list to no more than 10 herbs
3. Start each plant in a peat pot
4. Buy good quality potting soil
5. Water only when the soil is dry to the touch
6. Prepare your outside bed
7. Space the plants appropriately
8. Weed and water when needed
9. Harvest only what you need
10. Cook great dishes

Starting out

Before you start, take some time, look at your recipes. Decide based upon what you like to cook and eat – which herbs to plant. It makes no sense to plant rosemary if you will never use it. You plant herbs for usefulness not for appearance; it’s not a flower garden. Treat it as an extension of your kitchen wizardry. Be creative – those recipes that you have always planned to cook up – but you didn’t have the right spices? Those are the ones you want in your garden! Keep your initial selection small. The reason for this is simple – if you try to plant a huge herb garden, you will become overwhelmed and give up soon after you start. Take the seed packets for the herbs that you know you will use and get ready to start a new form of recreation. Planting your own herb garden should be a fun, creative thing to do – not work! You can always add more when your bed is flourishing.

Peat pots can be purchased at any nursery. The most important reason to use peat pots is that some of the herbs you will grow have sensitive root systems. If you are going to transplant the herbs to an outside bed, you run no risk of damaging the roots because you simply plant the whole pot. One more important reason is that you will not over water a peat pot. You will be able to tell right away if a plant needs water or not, and you won’t accidentally soak it when it only needs a little bit of water. Saving money on potting soil is a bad place to save money. Poor quality soil will not have the nutrients that your seedlings will need to grow strong enough to transplant to your outside bed. Don’t pinch pennies here. If you really want to add some power to your soil, add some earthworm castings. Don’t water the herbs too much; they need only enough water to make the soil feel a little damp to the touch. You should not be able to press your fingers deeply into a wet soil. Your finger should be able to make just a small impression.

Transferring to an outside bed

When preparing your outside bed, first aerate the soil. A hand tilling tool will do this nicely. If you are starting out with less than a dozen plants, as suggested, preparing the bed will not be an overwhelming task. First, use the tines on the tool to twist and turn the soil, breaking up any clumps in the process. Your soil should sift through your fingers readily – when it does, your bed is ready for mulch or compost. This will add nutrients to the soil to help your plants grow well. Smooth the soil, water it and then cover with chips to help it retain the water. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the space needed for fully grown plants and mark where you intend to place them in your bed appropriately. This one step can save you the trouble of moving plants later if your layout does not accommodate the full-grown herbs you have chosen. Once you have marked where the plants are to be placed, clear the chips away to create a place to work, open the hole for your sprout and feed the hole with a root starter and water. Drop your peat pot into the opening and pull the soil over the peat pot and replace the chips around your plant. There is no need to break open the peat pot, the natural growth of the plant roots and regular watering will take care of that step for you. Take care to control weeds on a regular basis, it is sufficient to check your bed several times a week. At this time, you can water the plants and remove any weeds that have threaded their way through the chips.

Ready to cook?

Once your herbs are ready for your kitchen – only pull from your plants than you can use, unless you want to share with your friends! This goes without saying, don’t you think? Allow your spices to accent your dishes, give your spices the proper amount of simmering time in your dishes and you will find out why fresh herbs are the only way to cook.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!