How to Grow Your Own Herb Garden

herbs

Learn How to easily Grow Your Own Herb Garden so you always have fresh herbs on hand when you need them! Plant, maintain, harvest and enjoy!

How to Grow Your Own Herb Garden

If you love cooking, you know what a difference fresh herbs can make in your dish. And while you can purchase fresh herbs from the grocery store on your next shopping trip, why not just grow them yourself?

Growing your own herb garden is easier than you may think! If you’re a gardening beginner, here’s how to grow your own herb garden.

herbs

Pick a Great Location

Growing any type of plant starts with picking the perfect spot.

When growing herbs there are two essential elements for success – sunlight and well-drained soil. To find the best spot in your yard for your herb garden, start by searching for a spot that receives six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day.

Then, make sure the soil is well drained, which means it should not gather water when you get a heavy rain.

After looking for spots with those two qualities, there are other factors to consider when finding the best spot for your herb garden. If you plan to use your herbs for cooking, a location with a close proximity to your kitchen would be ideal.

Or if you want your herb garden to provide fragrance for backyard entertaining, think about where you’ll host your get-togethers and how your herb garden can fit into your existing backyard setup.

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Prepare the Soil

Now that you have the perfect spot for your herb garden, it’s time to get your garden ready for planting! That means you need to prepare the soil so your plants can grow and thrive. If you’ll be planting your herbs directly in the ground, start by removing the grass from the area and tilling the ground to loosen the soil.

Then, determine whether you need to amend the soil. If your yard’s soil is sandy or clay, it’s a good idea to mix in some compost to provide nutrients to the plants as they grow. Just be sure to avoid composted manure in your herb garden. That type of compost may make your plants grow quickly, but it will affect the flavor of your herbs.

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Pick Your Herbs

When your soil is ready for planting, take the time to plan out which herbs you’ll grow.

The type of herbs you plant in your herb garden is totally up to you! There are a few different avenues you can take when picking plants for your herb garden:

  • Cooking herbs. If you plan to use your herb garden for cooking, choose herbs like basil, oregano, rosemary, chives, mint, sage and dill.
  • Bug repellant herbs. Do you have a bug problem in your yard? Plant a bug repellant herb garden to keep bugs away with herbs like lavender, basil, lemongrass, rosemary, lemon balm, and chives.
  • Fragrant herbs. Sometimes, you just want to add some fragrance to your garden. Herbs are a great way to add some natural scent to your yard. To create a fragrant herb garden, plant lavender, mint, rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, and catnip.
  • Medicinal herbs. Many herbs have medicinal qualities, making them great for growing a medicinal garden. If you’re looking for medicinal herbs, consider planting herbs like chamomile, lavender, peppermint, sage, or thyme.
  • Flower herbs. Not all herbs are leafy plants. Add some floral elements to your herb garden by planting these flowering herbs: lavender, rosemary, bee balm, Thai basil, dill, spearmint, or Greek oregano.

Planting Herbs

After deciding what type of herb garden you’ll grow, you get to start planting. There are two avenues you can take when planting your herb garden:

  • Growing from seed
  • Planting seedlings

While growing from seed is less expensive, it does take more time and work.

Some herb seed varieties can be planted directly in the soil after the threat of frost has passed. While others should be started inside and transplanted in your herb garden when your yard is frost-free.

For faster results, visit your local garden center and purchase seedlings that can be planted directly in your garden.

Maintain and Harvest Your Herbs

After your herbs have been planted, most of the hard work is behind you!

Maintaining your herb garden is fairly simple. Start by providing your herbs with around two inches of water per week. And make sure to keep the garden free of weeds to help promote growth, especially when your plants are still young.

One of the best ways to ensure your herbs plants stay healthy is to harvest the herbs frequently. Unlike many other garden plants, frequent harvesting is essential to keep your plants healthy and producing more foliage.

Once your herb plants are established, feel free to harvest the herbs on a regular basis. Cutting your herbs will help stimulate more growth, giving you a larger and longer harvest throughout the growing season.

Since you’ll be frequently harvesting your crop, you’ll need to find a way to preserve your herbs if you can’t use them all. Fresh herbs can be hung upside down to dry and stored in an airtight container. Or they can be frozen for later use.

Growing Herbs Indoors

If you decide to grow your herbs indoors be sure to read the following:

5 Winter Herbs to Grow this Winter

7 Medicinal Herbs to Grow Indoors

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