It's All About Nutrition!

Indoor Herb Gardening

My husband and I decided to try indoor herb gardening this winter by using the herbs we grew outside this past season. Most of the herbs grown in pots were too big to move inside so they were split into smaller plants and repotted with fresh potting soil. We allocated an area in one of the rooms in our home for the purpose of growing the indoor herb garden. To display the potted herbs, an old desk was converted to hold a light source–a grow light for plants–by using 2 x 3′s attached to the desk and hanging the grow light from them.

The materials needed to create our indoor herb garden were…
2 – 2x3x8′s
4 metal 90 degree corner brackets
2 eye hooks for hanging
A basic fluorescent shop lighting fixture
2 Philips 40 watt – 48 inch Plant and Aquarium bulbs
Total cost of the project was just about $60.00

Certain herbs such as parsley, rosemary, and chives can be purchased at your local supermarket in the produce section. Herb kits and grow lights can be purchased at most home and garden centers.

This is our first experience with an indoor herb garden and it is definitely worth a try. We started ours about a month ago…our herb collection includes parsley, rosemary, chives, tarragon, oregano, basil, lemon verbena, and lavender. Everything is doing fabulous accept for the Tarragon which did not take well to being moved indoors. The grow light is turned on for 16 hours and turned off for 8 hours. With constant attention, love, and care we hope to enjoy fresh herbs throughout the winter months…and so can you so give it a try. Have fun!

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Container Gardening with Herbs

Try growing an herb garden in your yard. It’s fun and easy and can really complement the landscape. We like to grow herbs in containers such as pots…this is done to keep the rabbits from eating them. In our yard, a specific area is allocated to just herbs. You can start off with a few herbs…the main ones I like to grow are basil, thyme, rosemary, and mint.

Every year I like to add one or two more herbs to the garden. This year the herb garden has been expanded to twelve different varieties…two types of basil (Italian and purple), thyme, rosemary, three types of mint (spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate), oregano, parsley, tarragon, lavender, and lemon verbena.

Herbs are great to use in recipes…there’s nothing like picking your own fresh herbs from the garden and using them in the kitchen. Two of our newest additions are chocolate mint and lemon verbena. Chocolate mint can be used in tea or added to chocolate desserts; lemon verbena can be used in tea, added to lemon desserts and fruit salads, and used to flavor chicken and fish dishes.

Have fun cooking with herbs…they are great substitutes for using salt.

Check out our other post about using containers to grow herbs

Four Herbs to Consider in Your Garden Part Three

Marjoram:
Also known as knotted marjoram or sweet marjoram, this plant has a white flower and upright habit. It is in the same genus as oregano, but grows more slowly than the Greek oregano species and is not generally hardy in very cold regions. The name knotted marjoram comes from the leaves, which unfurl from a ?knot? form.

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Mint:
Of the many available species of mint, peppermint and spearmint are the most common. Pineapple mint, applemint, chocolate mint, variegated mint, blue mints, silver mints, and many more also can be found. Most are potentially invasive perennials that should be kept in a pot, preferably away from the garden. They will spread rapidly by runners that can break to the surface many feet from the mother plant. Some also will set seed, but the seedlings are rarely good specimens. Although the pale lavender flowers are attractive, they should be removed prior to seed formation. Plants should be heavily trimmed mid-season to retain vigor and fresh leaves. Grow mints in an easterly location if possible, as they wilt and burn in hot afternoon sun. Mints, particularly spearmint, require a higher moisture level than most herbs.

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Oregano:
Common oregano and Greek oregano are both easy to grow from seed and grow sufficiently well to provide a modest harvest the first year. Common oregano has a low growing habit and white or pink flowers, while the white-flowering Greek oregano has a more upright habit (18-24 inches).

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Parsley:

This herb is a marginally hardy biennial, so it should be sown from fresh seed each year. The seed has a tough outer shell that takes up to three weeks to soften, a process that can be hastened by soaking in warm water overnight. Once germinated, transfer the seedlings to a permanent position while still small, as parsley will develop a tap root as it matures. Rarely, parsley may survive and stay green during the first winter and send up a flower stalk in midspring of the second year. However, seeds from this flower stalk are unlikely to result in quality specimens. There are two types of parsley widely available: curly and Italian.

If you found this post interesting or helpfull leaving me a comment would be much appreciated. Thanx Jeanne

Happy Spring 2009!

Today, March 20, 2009, is the first day of spring. The long awaited arrival of spring is finally here. With the arrival of spring comes warmer weather, beautiful flowers, singing birds, and planning for the growing season. In these tough economic times, growing your own vegetables may be something to try if you haven’t done so in the past. Because we live in the northeast, this is the time to start planning a garden.

If you don’t have a large area, start on a smaller scale. You can use pots for tomatoes and herbs or you can allocate an area in your yard for growing vegetable plants. Think about what you might like to plant…we start in April with cool weather plants such as peas, lettuce, carrots, and broccoli. After that, near the end of May, we grow tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, green beans, swiss chard, zucchini, herbs and whatever else we decide on while we are at the garden center.

We like to plant something different in addition to our usual plants. We grow our herbs in pots in a different section of our yard…basil, mint, parsley, rosemary, tarragon and thyme are the herbs we grow every year.

Vegetable gardening is very rewarding and offers many benefits such as healthy eating, exercise, a sense of accomplishment, saving money, and enjoying mother nature. It is very important to note to use organic gardening practices whenever possible. This will be covered in future posts. Be sure to keep visiting my blog for more information on gardening and interesting personal stories that occur during the growing season.

Hope you have a Happy Spring Day!