Bring Your Cooking To A Whole New Level With Homegrown Herbs
Tired of cooking the same old dishes for your family? Are you looking for a way to put a different twist into your cooking and take it to a whole new level? If so, then starting your very own herb garden may just be the answer you are looking for.
Planting your own herbs may seem like a daunting task at first but once you get the hang of it, you'll find that it's not only quite easy but a lot of fun as well.
The Importance of Planning
The success of your herb garden will depend mostly on how well you plan for it before you actually start. For example, you have to think of which herbs to grow. These should be the ones that you use most frequently when cooking.
If you don't have any idea of which herbs to plant, take a quick look through your favorite recipes and see which herbs are usually required. If you like Italian foods, it would be a good idea to plant a lot of basil. On the other hand, if you prefer Mexican dishes, cilantro should definitely be among your choices.
Once you've chosen your herbs, decide where to put them in your garden. Different herbs have different requirements when it comes to soil type, water and sunlight. Some like to get as much direct sunlight as they can while others thrive more in the shade. Find out what your herbs need so you can place them accordingly in your garden.
The great thing about herbs is that they are small enough to grow in pots. This makes it easy for you to move them around the garden or even to take them indoors when the weather gets too extreme outside.
Getting Started
Planting the seeds of the herbs into the soil shouldn't be too complicated. Oftentimes, there are specific instructions included in the pack of the seeds so you should read these carefully before dumping the seeds into the ground.
As soon as the seeds are planted, label your pots so you can be sure to give each plant the particular kind of care that it needs as it grows. A great way to do this is to skewer a picture of the grownup plant or its fruit onto a twig and stick this onto the soil.
It is also very important to watch out for bugs or other pests that may infest your plants as they grow. Removing the bugs manually will usually suffice, except for more serious cases of infestation, in which case you may need to use organic pesticide.
Once you have set up your herb garden, vast improvements may take place in your cooking. You would no longer have to rush to the grocery store in search of specific herbs for your special dishes because these would be easily accessible right from your own backyard. What's more, you can be sure that these herbs are freshly-picked and toxin-free, which you can never be sure of when using store-bought produce. Without a doubt, having your very own herb garden will make cooking an entirely new experience.
