Sunday, March 25, 2012

Your Own Herb Garden Brings Plenty Of Rewards

By Kathleen Lamphere


One of the numerous rewards of growing your own herbs is the fact that you can employ them to bring out the flavor of food dishes. There is certainly only the requirement for small patches of garden or simple pots to grow a variety of herbs and most of what you need to get started can be found at your local garden center or nursery. Indeed herbs have several uses and advantages - let's explore that in some detail.

Improving the flavor and color of food must be the one use of herbs that almost all people are familiar with. They actually can be put into all sorts of food and this can include salads and soups. There may be something thrilling about using ingredients cultivated and harvested by yourself, and perhaps that helps to explain the lift they bring to the taste of many meat dishes. If you ever try out various recipes you will add variety and new tastes to your daily meals.

Over the ages a variety of illnesses and maladies have been successfully treated with herbs, many of which are credited with curative powers. A bit of research will provide you with many natural remedies to assist in various ways. Both dried and fresh herbs are utilized, either by imbibing them in the form of teas or tinctures, or even by applying them right to the affected area in the form of creams or poultices. A strong upset stomach is usually remedied with peppermint tea, though camomile is well known as the perfect bedtime relaxant and for soothing irritable skin conditions.

When your herbs have developed to maturity you can continue to reap benefits by cutting or picking and drying them. Dehydrated herbs can again be used in teas and added to cooking for additional flavor. Creating potpourri is one more use for dried herbs and flowers whereas another is purely to offer a decorative touch. The fragrant smell of dried herbs can calm and please at the same time. A handful of dried lavender connected with twine and installed from a kitchen ceiling offers an attractive countryside feel and provides the lovely lavender color and scent.

It is not important if you just have a small garden, herbs are very easily grown at home even with minimal space. Luckily herbs may be grown very successfully in pots; just take a look at mint to prove the point. Other plants grown near mint are not a good idea, since its active and lusty spreading habit will soon suffocate them. Raising mint in a plant container will constrict this growth pattern nicely. Obviously, herbs, like any other plants grown in containers, do require frequent watering.

It is possible to get kids to participate in growing herbs at home, thereby introducing them to the benefits and fun of gardening. You could just promote a fondness for cooking by letting your children to experience the different flavors extracted from adding the various herbs they have grown. As an introduction, allow your children to sow some cress seeds in a pot on a windowsill - observing the growth process will fascinate them. It's easy and quick to cultivate and can be good fun to chop and delicious to add to their food.

One can find a myriad of good arguments for starting a herb garden, and the earlier you start the sooner you will enjoy the rewards.




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