Why Do You Need a Herb Garden
For several years I have been fond of my garden. I write a plan, grow seeds, go to a specific nursery to find my favorite heirloom tomato varieties. But other years, like this one, I get exhausted and just want something tasty with minimal effort. I plant herbs anyway.
To grow vegetables indoors, watch this video:
Herbs are the number one vegetable growing technique of focusing your energy on high-performance crops . (Are herbs vegetables? I’m not sure if I want to argue with that. But they can definitely grow in a vegetable garden.) Fresh herbs from the grocery store are an expensive luxury; dried are cheap, but blah. But stick a pot of basil (for example) on a windowsill and you can experience that fresh basil scent anytime you want, almost free.
Herbs are not only some of the easiest gardening plants to grow, but they are also the easiest to harvest. You don’t have to wait all season for the fruit to ripen, or suffer the excess that you can eat if you miscalculated. Herbs are both a constantly updated source of flavor and a way of storing it.
If you only have room for a few pots, that’s okay; Herbal plants are small and grow well in containers. If you have a real garden plot, plant it in the ground where they will grow big and happy. Here are a few of my personal favorites and how to care for them:
sage
Sage is a hardy plant that returns every year and is often still alive when it comes time to season the turkey for Thanksgiving . I literally do nothing for this. It just grows.
Garlic
I have owned many garlic plants in my life and I think I bought either one or zero of them. The green onions grow in bunches that get larger over time, and then you can dig out part of the bunch and put it in another pot or another part of the garden, or give to a friend. This is how I got my first chive bow. Leaving: no. They also make beautiful flowers.
Basil
Compared to others, this is a prima donna. Like, it helps if you really water it sometimes. And to keep it from getting bitter, you have to remove the top set of leaves so they don’t bloom. Then, worst of all, you have to eat them with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, or toss them into pasta. Tiring, really.
Mint
There are two types of gardeners in the world: those who plant their mint in containers so that it does not take over, and those who plant them in the ground so that it takes over. If you like mint, buy mint. Once.
If you are growing your herbs in pots, remember to give them plenty of sun (a balcony or window box is better than indoors) and water them with a little water from time to time. If you plant them outdoors, you don’t have to do much at all. Sage, garlic, thyme, and sometimes rosemary will survive the winter. Others may re-seed themselves. I find that mint and oregano sprout almost every spring.
My best advice for budding gardeners is: Don’t try to grow herbs from seed. They take eternity. You can buy herb pots at any garden store or grocery store, eat a few leaves when you get home, and declare yourself a successful gardener a few minutes later, because look! You have a herb garden! You are a green finger, you.