Video - The 30-Minute Herb Garden

Patti The Garden Girl's videos are always fun, fast and entertaining, and we love that she focuses on sustainable gardening, even in an urban setting. This video shows you how you can create a delicious and useful herb garden in a jiffy, using a very nifty and super-easy gardening system, designed right here in Ohio!

Check it out and see how easy it can be to have a great and growing herb garden in literally just a few minutes.

30 Minute Herb Garden
This is a promotional video with Patti Moreno the Garden Girl for Garden Soxx Organic Growing System. The no excuses method of gardening will help you have a delicious herb garden in under 30 minutes. Watch the video and visit www.gardensoxx.com for more information.

Some Tips for Successful Herb Gardening

Herbs have been around since time immemorial and served different kinds of purposes. They have been used to treat illness and flavor dishes of every kind and cuisine; during some periods in history in some cultures they were even believed to have magical powers.  They are generally also pretty easy to grow, so they are a favorite of new gardeners and experienced green thumbs alike!

Cover of Herbs (RD Home Handbooks)Here are a few ideas on how to establish a successful herb garden.

Plan Your Garden

Consider the herbs you want to plant.  Think about their types.  Would you like annuals, biennials or perennials? 

How much space will they occupy in your garden?  If you want, you can purchase an herb gardening book that can give you the right information on what specific plants you are planning to grow. 

List or draw your garden on paper first.  Separate the annuals from the perennials so when the time comes that you have to pull out the annuals, you won't be disturbing the perennials.  Perennials can be planted on the edge of your garden so when it is time to till your garden they won't be in danger of getting dug up. 

Another thing to remember is that you should plant the tall ones at the back and the shorter ones in front.  Also, provide your plants with enough space to grow. Proper positioning will help you in this area.

If you would rather keep herbs out of your garden (and some are quite invasive) you could have herb pots. These are large containers with three or more outlets for the herbs. Fill the pot up to the first outlet and plant it before continuing on with the filling and planting process. Usually, the herb that requires the most water is planted in the bottom hole, while the variety that requires the least, goes in the highest hole.

Image by cosmic_spanner via FlickrSome Design Ideas

You may consider having a square herb bed.  You can have your square bed divided into four by two paths crossing at mid point measuring 3 feet.  You can border it with stone or brick.  A wooden ladder may also do the trick.  You can lay it down on your garden and plant your herbs between its rungs.  You can also choose to have a wagon wheel bed.  Planting here is like planting with the wooden ladders.  Plant your herbs in between the wagon wheel's wedges. 

Get Your Plants Growing

Of course, different plants have different needs, but many of them require alkaline soil.  This is the reason why you have to determine the herbs you want to plant in the planning stage.  This can more or less help you find out how you should care for your plants.  If you germinate your herbs from seeds, remember to follow the directions on the packet for soil, watering and temperature during germination.

Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow. You just have to provide them with an effective drainage, sunlight, enough humidity or moisture and fertile soil.  Even with just minimally meeting these requirements in most cases they will be bound produce a good harvest. 

A Few Good Herb Gardening Books to Check Out:
   

Growing Your Own Herbs

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as significant, you’ll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your meals with - and they are much easier to grow than many other garden plants.

Image via WikipediaFirst you’ll want to choose the herbs that you’ll plant. You might have a hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your kitchen, and what you like to cook. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem for an herb bed in a wet climate is to dig a foot deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing all the soil. This will allow excess water to escape, thus saving your plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of weeks. The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant isn’t well established, it isn’t healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well established for at least a few months before taking off any leaves. This wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant will produce healthily for months or years to come.

Image via WikipediaOnce you’ve harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you’ll want to use them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours. (If you live in a dry climate, you can also dry them on a high shelf in a cool dark place with plenty of air circulations, or even on racks on top of the refrigerator.) After they’re sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it will absorb the taste of the herbs, and also allow moisture in. During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want to grow. But after these few initial steps, it’s just a matter of harvesting and drying all your favorite herbs.